Clockwise from center: Meredith, Robert, Lori, Kay, and Angie
Lake is a 2021 adventure game developed by Gamious and published by Whitethorn Games on September 1, 2021.
On the last day of August 1986, Meredith Weiss takes a break from her big city programmer job to return to her hometown of Providence Oaks, Oregon to fill in for her father delivering mail for two weeks.
Lake contains examples of:
- Anachronistic Soundtrack: Despite taking place in September 1986, all of the music that plays on the radio was made and released in the twenty-first century, specifically 2015-2020.
- Bisexual Love Triangle: Downplayed but present with Meredith's two potential love interests, Angie and Robert. Robert is a manly but sweet lumberjack and small town lifer who multiple townsfolk encourage Meredith to pursue romantically and whose happy romance ending involves Meredith settling down in her hometown. Angie, on the other hand, is an LA native and free spirit ahead of her time who is never acknowledged as a potential romantic partner for Meredith by anyone in town and whose happy romance ending involves Meredith setting out with her in an RV for parts unknown.
- Captain Ersatz: There are things around town obviously meant to evoke something specific from the 80's, like a a knockoff of Mr. T cereal (yes, that really happned). Plus all of the movies on the rental store shelves are parodies of real movies of the era (although all the movies mentioned in Angie's sidequest route are real, oddly enough)
- Childhood Friends: Meredith and Kay were best friends as kids, but became estranged when Meredith moved away and Kay stayed in their hometown. They can reconnect over the course of the game.
- Crazy Cat Lady: Mildred Jenkins is the resident one of Providence Oaks. Meredith is dismayed to discover that Mildred has only accumulated more cats in the two decades since she left home.
- Everytown, America: Providence Oaks is a small, lakeside town in Oregon with a Close-Knit Community of quirky but friendly characters where Nothing Exciting Ever Happens.
- Family Versus Career: Kay gave up her dreams of being an artist or musician in favour of starting a family and taking care of her sick uncle. She rediscovers her musical aspirations during the course of the game, now that her kids are a bit older and her uncle has been dead for a while.
- The Gambling Addict: The postmaster, Frank, is revealed to have a problem with betting on baseball games.
- Game Within a Game: The Ghostblasters game in the diner, which is a Smash TV-type omnidirectional shooter.
- Gay Option: Meredith can choose to date Angie if the player wishes.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Meredith can become friends with Lori, the local mechanic's daughter, who's almost sixteen.
- Mighty Lumberjack: Robert is the local lumberjack, and definitely looks the part with his bushy beard and plaid flannel shirts.
- The Movie Buff: Angie is the proprietor of the local movie rental store and a huge movie buff. She prides herself on being able to figure out what movies people would like, and is shown to be pretty accurate at that during the game.
- Multiple Endings: There are three possible endings:
- Meredith can choose to return to her job in the big city, now as a partner with a 20% stake in the company.
- Meredith can choose to stay in Providence Oaks and take over as the mail carrier full-time. This ending allows her to stay with Robert if she romanced him.
- If she kept June and Mickey's RV and then gave it to Angie, Meredith can choose to leave in the RV with her. This ending allows her to stay with Angie if she romanced her.
- Nephewism: Kay mentions that she was raised by her Uncle Stan and Aunt Maureen. It's never specified what happened to her parents.
- Nerd Glasses: Angie wears a pair of enormous, round glasses and is a major film nerd.
- Obvious Object Could Be Anything: Meredith makes comments such as "What on Earth did these folks order?" when delivering packages. Combine that with a package that looks obviously like a chainsaw and you get this trope.
- Romance Sidequest: Meredith can develop a romance with either Angie or Robert over the course of the game, but it's completely optional.
- Run for the Border: Mickey and June, a freewheeling pair of RV dwelling hippies, are headed for Canada to dodge the law.
- Shipper on Deck: Maureen tries to push Meredith and Robert together almost to the point of rudeness.
- Show Within a Show: Bon Appetit, a sitcom set in a restaurant.
- Shout-Out: Meredith can encounter an Englishman with a metal detector in the forest.
- Sidequest: Meredith can help various townsfolk out with problems or projects, but the player always has the option to decline.
- Shown Their Work: Throughout the game Frank mentions some bets he made on baseball games. The teams and results he mentions match the real world MLB's 1986 schedule. In particular is the break down of the White Sox and Angels series that took place Sept 12-16th
- Small Town Boredom: Lori finds Providence Oaks boring, though she loves her mechanic work, because she doesn't have any friends since there aren't a lot of kids in town much less ones her age, and she tells Meredith that she can't wait to be old enough to get out of town.
- Played straight or averted for Maureen, depending on whether the player chooses to stay or leave in the end.
- Teen Genius: Lori is just fifteen but acts as the town's primary mechanic.
- Tomboyish Name: Maureen is often called "Mo" and that nickname is even used in the name of her diner.
- The Unintelligible: Ashley, the cook at Mo's Diner. Whenever he speaks the subtitles just say some variation on [muffled yelling].
- Unstoppable Mailman: Downplayed overall, but on one notable occasion Meredith still keeps delivering mail even when there's a thunderstorm so bad that she has to turn her headlights on in the middle of the morning.
- Wrench Wench: Lori is the local mechanic's daughter and already a bit of a mechanical prodigy herself despite being only fifteen.
