Mayor May Knott Review - Indie creepy-cozy adventure time
by GamertechAUpublished on
Become the mayor of a literal ghost town while you're terrified of everything
Disclaimer: I was provided a free review key by the developers via Keymailer
When I mentioned I was diving into the Steam NextFest on Bluesky, the dev for Mayor May Knott reached out with a fun plug for the demo and I checked it out. Was it worth it? Heck yes, and the full game adds so much more.
The game smoothly blends features from a few different genres, adds some humour, a splash of horror and a ton of puns and references.
“If David Lynch and Weird AL made Animal Crossing”
I got to play the game about a month before release. The poor dev lurking in stream had to endure watching me break many, many things in their game (sorry 😅 ) They had the bugs fixed in plenty of time for next stream though, and they were great to work with.
Plot
May Knott is a shy girl who arrives in an abandoned town late at night and is forced to take shelter in the decrepit town hall. In doing so she inadvertently discovers the deed to the entire town and becomes the defacto mayor.
While trying to manage her crippling fear of, well...everything, May tasks herself with rebuilding the town, helping the previous ghostly inhabitants to move on, providing for the new citizens and overcoming her phobias.
Gameplay
The base game is similar to the Animal Crossing-style genre. A cozy game where you rebuild an existing town, move in new inhabitants etc, Mayor May Knott changes it up however with some light horror, puzzle mechanics and a fun story.
Unlike AC, the town isn't a free-build sandbox. All the structures and decor are fixed and intended to be in that position. However as you progress with repairing buildings and improving facilities, the town changes significantly, visually showing your progress and rewarding the effort you put in.
The main game mechanic is based around May's complete lack of confidence, shown by a Confidence meter in the top left. The meter starts at zero and permanently increases as the player cleans and repairs houses, meets new people and completes tasks. If May encounters something scary and the meter hits zero, she imagines a jumpscare and auto-runs back to safety in the town hall where her confidence quickly recovers.
As the meter increases, May can talk to a wider range of characters and spend longer in the dark before panicking. The people around town are actually pretty friendly, however May's fear and imagination turns them into terrifying monsters until she's brave enough to get to know them. As well as a confidence level, some NPCs require you to figure out a trick or puzzle to be able to talk to them.
As you explore, you encounter a variety of materials and ways to farm them, including of course, the ever-popular fishing. The fishing mini-game you'll find in here is pretty straightforward and a lot more accessible than we've come to expect from existing games. You aren't here for fish though, the lake is far too polluted for that. You're fishing for trash. Scrap metal, broken bottles, old boots. There's plenty of junk in there that can be recycled for quality building and crafting materials.
To obtain ore, you need to go bowling. No really. As the local train rolls over the old mineshaft, the vibrations knock down rock and ore and you need to bowl to knock them down where they're collected ready for the player to grab. There's also a variety of pre-planted crops available once you unlock them you can use for cooking or crafting. Over time, you unlock automation mechanics for obtaining materials, freeing up time to dive into the rest of the game.
The mechanic to learn how to make new things is interesting. You have to clean and repair houses to draw out their ghostly inhabitant. Once done, you can talk to them to uncover their name. Some may have forgotten it, requiring a puzzle in order to discover it. Once you have their name, you can take it to the Hall of Records, an old vinyl record store, and obtain a record with a fun, ridiculous song relating to the ghost that teaches you how to craft what you need to help them move on.
As you improve the town, you unlock more areas with additional features, challenges and new characters to meet.
Tech
The game itself ran smoothly with no stability issues. The art and audio design matched the vibe of the game well and had no problems.
As this review is based on the pre-release game, there's currently no ProtonDB or Steam Deck rating available. However the game ran perfectly on Fedora KDE, is controller-friendly and has configurable keybinds. The text was also large enough to satisfy Valve's deck requirements.
I don't see anything that would prevent it from earning both Platinum and Verified ratings respectively and should run well for everyone.
Recommendation
I don't usually vibe with cozy games. The ADHD kicks in and I need stuff to HAPPEN right meow. Mayor May Knott however has a great balance of spoopy and unique mechanics that keeps it from being 'too' peaceful. The game was engaging and both viewers and I loved exploring May's journey through the town.
It was a great time. I definitely recommend checking it out for yourself and clicking that wishlist button so you know when it releases!