IMPETUS by Dominik Johann

[raw]
made by Dominik Johann for LD27 (JAM)
Impetus has lost consciousness and her systems will fail in 10 seconds. Death is inevitable, but it can be delayed.
Sustain Impetus' life by pressing the button, which will reset the timer. Once it runs out, the game is over and can never be played again.

Switch on the game's sound in the upper right corner. Feel free to play one of the soundtracks provided on the site along with it.

A game by Dominik Johann (@zerstoerer), Jan Oelze (@JanOelze) and Jeremy Lonien (@Ludonaut), made in a couple of hours.

+++ UPDATE +++

After 89011 global timer resets and a lifespan of 42351 seconds, Impetus has perished and will never return.

I posted a post-mortem, check it out for details on the idea, making the game, how it became insanely successful and why it had to die. Also there's a gameplay video in there for everyone who didn't get a chance to play it.
Read it here: http://dominikjohann.tumblr.com/post/59611971605

Thanks for playing!

Ratings

Coolness 30% 1613
Overall(Jam) 3.43 152
Audio(Jam) 2.56 374
Fun(Jam) 2.18 547
Graphics(Jam) 3.52 226
Humor(Jam) 1.69 457
Innovation(Jam) 4.34 5
Mood(Jam) 3.66 60
Theme(Jam) 4.17 4

Feedback

Tork
27. Aug 2013 · 00:25 UTC
Background music: "youtube link" lol, loved the background pic and the idea of having her alive by everyone at the same time :D
BradleySmith
27. Aug 2013 · 00:30 UTC
Really unique idea... rated this very highly. :)
kristof
27. Aug 2013 · 00:32 UTC
Very innovative and cool idea. A bit hard to judge though as there isn´t much of a game...
Raiyumi
27. Aug 2013 · 00:33 UTC
This is a neat concept. Although, I think she died on me, but was reset on a refresh. Or maybe that was just me..
🎤 Dominik Johann
27. Aug 2013 · 00:39 UTC
@Raiyumi: Huh, that's weird, probably an AJAX / timestamp error. Once the timer runs out properly, it'll definitely show.
Meep
27. Aug 2013 · 00:58 UTC
Despite not really being a game, it's a really awesome concept. :) I like it a lot.
psychomonster
27. Aug 2013 · 01:22 UTC
social experiments? cool :D
Bobertmarsh
27. Aug 2013 · 01:30 UTC
I like it :3
BadgerPriest
27. Aug 2013 · 01:43 UTC
This is probably the most unique concept I've seen in this competition. Props to you.
Sestren
27. Aug 2013 · 02:34 UTC
Even if I do nothing, it seems like the counter resets after 5 seconds every time. I feel like I might understand the concept, but I'm not quite sure.
Travis Irby
27. Aug 2013 · 02:37 UTC
Love the idea! Nice job, fits the theme perfectly.
FlashDave
27. Aug 2013 · 02:45 UTC
Great idea, so simple and the concept fits with the theme so nicely. I'd like to feel like I'm playing with other people if that could worked in some how and perhaps a counter on how many times the game died could be nice but maybe that'd just spoil the fun? good job.
andrewkennedy
27. Aug 2013 · 05:11 UTC
Brilliant idea!
RealMSHB
27. Aug 2013 · 06:30 UTC
wow
your idea is fanstatic
MidCry
27. Aug 2013 · 08:45 UTC
WOW
matthias_zarzecki
27. Aug 2013 · 10:47 UTC
Well this is a great idea.

Too bad not many people will be able to actually "play" it :(
🎤 Dominik Johann
27. Aug 2013 · 10:53 UTC
Update: IMPETUS is dead. Thanks to my web hosting service, which decided to block all access to the game's location, people were not able to sustain its life. Pretty sure that, with a stronger server, we could have kept this going for a while. Either way, what a ride! Thanks for playing!
KevinZuhn
27. Aug 2013 · 18:29 UTC
Well, I got here far too late!
Sounds like it was a really cool idea, though. I'm surprised it lasted roughly 12 hours (if my math is right).
Jordo76
28. Aug 2013 · 01:17 UTC
I managed to "play" a bit before Impetus died, and it's a really fun experiment to wonder when someone is going to click on the button.
nicotuason
28. Aug 2013 · 08:57 UTC
What?! She's dead! I didn't even get to see her alive :c I feel so sad
sgehlich
28. Aug 2013 · 09:19 UTC
Amazing idea - didn't have a chance to play it, but I love the idea!
TeamAMazeThing
28. Aug 2013 · 09:31 UTC
I don't know if you are already aware of this, but the german magazine Spiegel Online postet an article about this game: http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/games/online-spiel-impetus-klicken-gegen-den-weltraum-tod-a-918790.html
🎤 Dominik Johann
28. Aug 2013 · 20:33 UTC
Sorry to all of you who have not been able to play IMPETUS. I just published a post-mortem that goes a bit further into detail about why the game died, how the idea came about, how many people played it etc. – there's also a gameplay video for all of those who missed it. Enjoy: http://dominikjohann.tumblr.com/post/59611971605
Xgor
28. Aug 2013 · 20:57 UTC
Really cool idea... Wish I had the chance to look at it when it was active...
iterative deepening
28. Aug 2013 · 21:31 UTC
It's sad, you should have done more advertising about the game because many people weren't aware to keep her alive.
Beavl
28. Aug 2013 · 21:33 UTC
Interesting concept! Made us think of Glitchhiker: http://www.glitchhiker.com/ Congrats!
OldPeculier
28. Aug 2013 · 21:57 UTC
Brilliant, of course. Read about it via Hacker News.
sP0CkEr2
28. Aug 2013 · 22:37 UTC
i wish i could have played it
ellipticaldoor
29. Aug 2013 · 00:10 UTC
Interesting but I can't play it now :(
rfgpfeiffer
29. Aug 2013 · 06:34 UTC
Was this 'the Cowpocalypse meets Curiosity'?
Zammy
29. Aug 2013 · 07:25 UTC
Hey @Dominik,
Please restart the experiment!
I know your idea was to have final death of the game, and never to be playable again. That puts precious value in it and on the "click to keep alive" button.
But consider this: the world didn't knew about your experiment! And obviously you put it on a weak server, with no preparation for huge amount of traffic!

A few suggestions what you may do now:
1. Explain the resurrection somehow: parallel universe, you found another space accident, etc.

2. Make thorough server preparation for insane amounts of traffic. Put it on a cloud, tier 1 servers, backbone. Prepare for insane results.

3. Contact the press BEFORE you launch! Set a date of the launch so everyone in the world know they should keep her alive! :)

4. Give time to the people. Tell the world like 1 month or something before you launch. Let them make communities around it :)

5. Use the power of the message for lightening people's conscience. Put some links around it with topics like Euthanasia, sustaining human life, organ donation, various medical conditions etc.

6. Make "resurrect her" website - where you'll count how many people press "resurrect" button, just to see how much is the attention to your project. I bet it'll be huge!

7. Make instances of it - depending on the people online, find other astronauts to be kept alive (or another theme more suitable for instances). So when you get in the website you may see "100 people kept alive" and you go to the "least attended one".

8. Put some numbers feedback for the keepers (players) to see how many of them are there.

Of course you may just ignore all of it and say "it was meant to be final". But I think you've find out great social phenomenon, and it would be a shame to not have larger reach.
DaanVanYperen
29. Aug 2013 · 08:32 UTC
Haven't played it directly BUT I feel we should be able to vote anyway based on all the indirect material. I'm in love with the concept. One of those games that makes you curse not thinking about it yourself. Well done!
01101101
29. Aug 2013 · 11:21 UTC
Really unique idea, I love it. Came there via your reddit post, so obviously the game had already ended but I really like the concept. Good job!
DuFF
29. Aug 2013 · 16:05 UTC
Beautiful.
tripleVisionGames
31. Aug 2013 · 09:46 UTC
R.I.P.
Christina Antoinette Neofotistou
03. Sep 2013 · 14:01 UTC
AMAZING! Such a philosophical/art project
lordjosephdeburg
15. Sep 2013 · 01:19 UTC
fantastic concept!!! Shame I didnt experiance it first hand but Im really impressed. 5 stars