Bundle of Joy, a game about the frantic monotony of early parenthood
Bundle of Joy, a game about the frantic monotony of early parenthood
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The relentless skill challenges of caring for his newborn baby reminded developer Nicholas O’Brien of his day job. He explains how turning it all into a game helped him cope. I don’t remember much from the first weeks of parenthood – a colicky baby and extreme sleep deprivation will do that to you – but I do vividly remember one night with my baby son when absolutely nothing I did seemed to help him. I walked him around: he screamed. I tried to feed him: he screamed. I put him down: more screaming. So it went for a couple of hours. I remember thinking: this is like a text adventure video game where none of the answers are right.
![[Keza MacDonald]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2022/07/26/Keza_MacDonald.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Game designer and college teacher Nicholas O’Brien had similar thoughts. His first child was born during the Covid-19 pandemic in New York City, and he and his partner were trapped at home, on the endless merry-go-round of menial baby-care tasks. It was getting to him, like it gets to all new parents. “I didn’t have a lot of social or emotional outlets besides my partner,” he tells me. “I felt like I needed to create something about how I was feeling, work my way through it by making something.”.
The result is Bundle of Joy, a quasi-ridiculous yet heartfelt game about early fatherhood. It breaks baby care down into frenetic microgames: aim your spoon to feed baby! Press a button with decent timing to burp baby! Try to get a pair of tiny socks on to baby’s feet! Fit the baby’s head through the impossibly small opening in this tiny jumper! Some of these made me laugh with recognition; my kids are in school now, so I had forgotten about the little bulb that you use to suck snot out of a tiny nose, and how much they hate it when you try. I’ve never had to fit a nebuliser over one of my children’s faces, but I have now successfully managed it with a virtual child.
