Thank Goodness You're Here!

Gameplay is composed of moving around the cartoon-style 2D visuals and slapping things, which serves as an all-purpose interaction. The game has a limited narrative, and is primarily focused on surreal and humorous interactions with the people of Barnsworth. Coal Supper is a two-person Yorkshire-based indie studio composed of programmer Will Todd and artist James Carbutt. The pair began creating the game in 2019 as a series of "sketch comedy" vignettes combined with complex puzzles, before stripping away the gameplay elements to focus on the comedy. They constructed the game by inventing funny characters and interactions, which then combined together into a town based on their home town of Barnsley. Panic was selected as a publisher early in development, and the game was first announced in August 2023. Released for macOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Windows on 1 August 2024, to coincide with Yorkshire Day. It was released for Xbox Series X/S on 9 December 2025. It received positive reviews, especially for its aesthetics, design, and humour, but drew some criticism for the simplicity of gameplay and short length. The game won the British Game category at the 21st British Academy Games Awards, and was nominated for five other categories, including Best Game, Animation, and Debut Game. It also received nominations and honourable mentions at several other awards, such as for Best Indie Game at the 42nd Golden Joystick Awards and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the 23rd Independent Games Festival Awards.

• Title — Thank Goodness You're Here! • Developer — Coal Supper • Publisher — Panic • Designer — * James Carbutt • Will Todd • Platforms — * macOS • Nintendo Switch • PlayStation 4 • PlayStation 5 • Windows • Xbox Series X/S • Released — * macOS, Switch, PS4, PS5, Windows • 1 August 2024 • Xbox Series X/S • 9 December 2025 • Genre — Adventure • Modes — Single-player

• Illustration — The salesman on a Barnsworth street by a man with a stuck arm Thank Goodness You're Here! is an adventure game in which the player controls a very small, unnamed, yellow-skinned salesman as they travel around the fictional town of Barnsworth in the North of England solving the inhabitants' problems. The game is presented in cartoon-style 2D visuals, with scenes either shown side-on or in bird's-eye view. The salesman can move around, jump, and slap, which serves as a multi-purpose "interact" option that can move objects, break objects, slap objects, or talk to characters. The game has a limited narrative, and is primarily focused on surreal and humorous interactions with the people of Barnsworth. It opens with the salesman being sent to Barnsworth for a meeting with the lord mayor; after being told that the mayor will be in a meeting for hours, he explores the town. There are a handful of distinct areas of Barnsworth in which the player can move around, as well as various buildings and small areas; as the player solves the townsfolk's problems, they move through the town areas in a loop. The problems are generally humorous and range from mundane (mowing a lawn or helping a man get his arm unstuck from a sewer grate) to surreal (helping a bedridden man's extremely long arm go shopping). At the end of the game, the salesman is overwhelmed by the residents' demands for help and returns to the mayor's office, only to find out the mayor wants his help with an errand as well.

Thank Goodness You're Here! was developed by Coal Supper, a two-person Yorkshire-based indie studio composed of programmer Will Todd and artist James Carbutt. The pair had met as children in their home town of Barnsley in the North of England, and after university developed The Good Time Garden (2019), a free, surreal adventure game. After its release, they decided to work on a larger game as a full-time endeavour. The initial concept for Thank Goodness You're Here! was a series of "sketch comedy" vignettes, with plans to include "deeper puzzles, non-linear elements, [and] more complex controls" but no main character or specific setting. The working title was "mealworm", and was intended to have a "slightly unsettling vibe". The pair approached a large number of publishers with the concept in order to fund the project, and after being rejected by several and not convincing others of the vision, selected Panic as the publisher. As they continued designing the game, however, Todd and Carbutt grew concerned that without a stronger vision that they were going to end up creating a "bad puzzle game", which could not be saved with humour. Taking inspiration from Vic Reeves Big Night Out, a 1990s comedy show, they decided to focus the game instead on the comedy rather than the gameplay, limiting the gameplay choices to a single "interact" button. As the gameplay was limited, they wanted the "interact" button to have an external effect for the player, and chose a "slap" as it was simple and funny. The game was also given the setting of a town to provide a place for the vignettes, and the question of how the player moved between them was answered as "maybe you're just a little guy who wanders around". The writing process for the game began with Todd and Carbutt inventing voices and characters and trying to make the other laugh with jokes. The pair would then work out how to make the jokes into gameplay. They also brought on a contract animator, Pip Williamson, and derived jokes from the way she animated the characters. As the duo's natural accents and comedic voice was based on the North of England, the characters they invented were from there, and the town then became the specific town of Barnsworth, based on Barnsley. Todd and Carbutt recorded most of the voices themselves, but some characters were voiced by others, such as Jon Blyth and Matt Berry. Originally the town was intended to be an open world, or have branching paths, but Coal Supper found that players would get lost and miss jokes. The scope of the game changed greatly over the course of development, as the pair had no experience with developing a larger game; originally they felt the game would be complete by 2021 after a year of development, but went three years over time. Thank Goodness You're Here was announced in August 2023 at the Gamescom trade show. Prior to release, it was shown at the May 2024 London Games Festival and June Tribeca Festival. It was released on 1 August 2024, to coincide with Yorkshire Day, for Windows, macOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. A physical edition for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5 was published by Lost In Cult in 2025. The game received a port to Xbox Series X/S on 9 December 2025.