Productivity Simulator (not.)

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  :)..?

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  :D

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  :(

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  D:

Preface

Productivity is a word that plagues the lives of many workers and students. It is a motivator and it is a target state for many. Being productive is generally agreed upon as a good thing. But sometimes it really isn’t, and it makes us burn out. And some people don’t realise the dangers of falling into the burnout trap.

So what is this?

Productivity Simulator (not) is a relatively avant-garde take on a very traditional; and typically very dopamine-inducing clicker game. Clicker games such as Cookie Clicker and “touch grass” on Discord have the main gameplay loop revolve around slowly achieving exponential growth, first by manual clicking, then by purchasing several enhancements and automation processes to progress, the point being that the game rewards you for dedication.

Superficially, it seems the same can be said for being productive. Productivity, especially throughout a committed period of time, sounds like the key to success. This game showcases what could happen if it all goes wrong.

Gameplay

Productivity Simulator (not) works through subversion of expectation. The gameplay mirrors that of a normal clicker initially, till the player reaches that gratifying exponential explosion of (currency) per second. The game then slows, obfuscating parts of itself, and the environment of the clicker changes, eventually reaching the harrowing ending that we hope sends a warning to the player.

How did we make this?

Every single asset, animation etc. in this game is hand drawn by me :)!, the author of this DevPost. And all the programming logic was done by my wonderful teammate. The art drew lots of inspiration from the game “OMORI”, as I really wanted to capture the oddly ominous and bleak look of the pencil-sketch-esque design of the game. It certainly was a step into new territory for me, as I’d never touched animation or this particular art style before, so it was great fun learning all of that. Unfortunately I severely underestimated the effort it would take to draw everything out, so the game, as of now, is not fully animated throughout. All the interactable elements - buttons, phase changes, displaying work / second was all made by my teammate, who is definitely a lot more code-adept than I am :D

Challenges?

Me? I said “I’ll get all the art deliverables done by 3am tonight, promise” twice, at 8pm and 12am respectively. At 6am the next day my teammate got a very discouraged “I overestimated (yes, with the typo, I was that sleep deprived) the time it would take :(( ”… so, yeah… This was our first time doing game development as well, so my teammate was bombarded with the world of statefulness and managing that. Very fun.

Built With

• css3
• react