Dominique Pamplemousse in “It’s All Over Once the Fat Lady Sings!” (2013)
Dominique Pamplemousse in “It’s All Over Once the Fat Lady Sings!” is a tongue-in-cheek adventure game about “gender and economics”. I did not feel it actually had much to say about either, but there is little point in arguing over interpretations. The execution mainly brought to mind a secondary-school art project — though a fairly competent one as such. I nevertheless played the game through with a smile and do not regret this brief, under-an-hour art excursion at all. Dominique Pamplemousse comments on detective adventures in an idiosyncratic, parodic manner without mocking them outright, although not everyone seems to have understood this.
Dominique Pamplemousse was released on April Fools’ Day in 2013 and was funded through crowdfunding. The game was created by Deirdra Kiai, who makes games and interactive fiction dealing with social themes.
The most unusual aspect of Dominique Pamplemousse is that it is a musical. The characters genuinely burst into song on a regular basis. All characters are voiced by the same performer, imitating each role. I can understand why some players might find the musical numbers painfully bad, but once I had recovered from the initial encounter, I decided to embrace them — much like the game as a whole, which offers very little in terms of conventional gameplay. Dominique Pamplemousse is essentially an interactive sung stage play.
The player character, the game’s titular Dominique Pamplemousse, is a private detective stuck in a miserable rental flat, leeching off the neighbour’s Wi-Fi and suffering from acute financial trouble. A job is badly needed. As if on cue, the head of a major production company asks Pamplemousse to track down a missing pop star. Pamplemousse — whose gender everyone seems to struggle to define — takes the assignment without knowing that it is, in fact, a trap.
The game’s animations are realised using stop-motion techniques. The characters and environments are handcrafted. The game is black and white, and a crackling audio track adds a layer of antique roughness. This particular stylistic choice left me unconvinced — it does nothing to salvage the amateurish impression and instead only amplifies it. The font imitates an old typewriter, yet Pamplemousse owns a laptop and has access to the internet.
The written text itself is perfectly competent and often amusing.
Verdict
Dominique Pamplemousse in “It’s All Over Once the Fat Lady Sings!” is not intended for everyone. It requires at least an open mind. It is not a good game in any conventional sense, nor is it a good musical by any stretch. What it actually is — that is something each player must decide for themselves.
My overall rating for this game is 40 points out of 100.
Availability
Dominique Pamplemousse in “It’s All Over Once the Fat Lady Sings!” is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and iPad.