Everyday Grind is a short proof of concept created in 4 days for the "I Can't Write But Want To Tell A Story" game jam, hosted by the wonderful charlmes. Without words (well, almost), and relying only on images and sounds, I attempted to tell the story of how overwhelming everyday life can be.

Build up confidence and resilience in different aspects of your life and protect yourself from the pull of the existential void by successfully completing routine tasks. But be careful not to overstretch yourself, you never know when life is about to knock you down.

Controls:

  • WASD or arrow keys for movement
  • E to grapple / drop a task

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Upcoming changes just as soon as I've recovered from the jam:

  • Maybe, you know, a player sprite that isn't literally just a circle
  • A tutorial so it makes some sort of sense to anyone who isn't me
  • More levels
  • More variety in events
  • Animated art to better tell the story
  • Completion streak affecting player movement speed
  • Special, urgent tasks
  • "Cry for help" button
  • So much bugfixes
  • Loads more!

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Music by Eric Matyas @ www.soundimage.org

StatusIn development
PlatformsWindows, HTML5
Rating
Rated 4.7 out of 5 stars
(3 total ratings)
AuthorTeaHands
GenreStrategy
Made withAdobe Photoshop, Unity
Tags2D, Abstract, Experimental, Fast-Paced, Mental Health, Non violent, Pixel Art, Short, Singleplayer, Top-Down
Average sessionA few minutes
LanguagesEnglish
InputsKeyboard
LinksYouTube

Download

Download
WIN-Everyday-Grind-v.0.0.4.zip 24 MB

Comments

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(+1)

This was really fun (and stressful)! Really cool game about balancing life stresses pretty much without any words which is pretty cool :)

Thank you! I really appreciate you taking time to play :)

(+1)

I got to the duck!

Congrats :D

(+1)

This game is really great at conveying the feeling of overwhelmed <3 Good job! I love the game and with the addition of it being a WebGL Game made it much better <3<3<3

Thank you! And also for your bug report haha :D

(+1)

It's a neat little idea of just being overwhelmed by concerns coming at you from all sides. I liked the little pop up events messing with things as well.

(+1)

Thank you! This is how I feel now the jam is over and I’m listing out all the billions of bugfixes and new features I need to add :p

(+1)

:0 this game is so cool! It took me a hot minute to realise what was going on, but once I did it was good :) The upcoming changes you mention will definitely improve the game ^-^ I also like how the background of the game page is also a grid, especially when it matches up with the games grid :) 

(+1)

Haha, yep I definitely need to do a better job of explaining everything to the player. It’s harder without words, who would’ve thought?! Thanks for playing :)

(+1)

The game mechanics are GENIUS. Love the way how the story is presented! This game was really fun to play and I'd love to see more of this in the future :)))
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Also It would be really cool if you'd add levels in this, like maps of different shapes and sizes!
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All the best~! ^^

(1 edit)

Thank you! Really appreciate you giving it a whirl. I’m hoping to add a few more levels this week with a more gradual difficulty curve, just have to catch up on sleep first!

oh right right, better rest up ^^. And thats great! I'll be looking forward to that ^^