Its a cool concept, although I didnt see the point in playing until you've grinded all the power ups. Maybe if you earned something while playing too? I love the game though. Good job

First time play an asymmetrical autorun shooter. Make more of this pls :)

Pretty cool , but I don't see the point of going to work (maybe I'm too young :) ). Anyway graphics are nice and i love this energic music. Great job! Make more games like this

This is a great concept! The shift in mood between playing and working was really well executed, and your impression of a pay-to-win app was spot-on. The storyline was also really nicely implemented - the ending is just amazing. There's definitely room for more variety in enemy types and spell upgrades to keep the gameplay from getting repetitive, but for a Compo entry this is really polished!

Holy moly.... This hit me big time... And sadly there are people who are literally living this kind of life.

They are working just to keep on playing a game which is just an addictive nothing, without any content, fun, creativity, or anything... Ruining their lives.
And also if you've managed to upgrade your mage... (of course) your enemies will be stronger as well. Just to keep you playing for ever for ever for ever.

What a great satire. 10/10. I hope this wins #1 in Mood and Theme at least, so this topic will gain more attention.

And aesthetics are nice as well, switching between a grey, monotone (well it could be otherwise, as the texts tell the player, but he chooses to play instead) real life, and the upbeat, sweet world of the game... Nicely put together game!

Again: how horrifyingly great satire.

@tudvari Wow, thanks for the kind words! Wasn't sure how many people would play all the way through.

Originally wanted to make actual choices in the real world (e.g. sell car or refinance house), but I ran out of time in the jam so just had things get slowly darker.

Interesting game. Really like the artstyle and music.

Really well-made game; the pixel art was amazing, the music was great, the execution and concept of the cycle of working to make money to play a game was spot-on! Great work.

Audiovisuals are top-notch! Great job there. The theme is also well-respected and I though the work part was hilarious.
However... what's the point of playing the game? You eventually die anyway and there's seemingly no reward playing it. Maybe if it had checkpoints, a scoring system and/or enemy waves it would've been great. Also, the isometric perspective, while cool, makes for a few missed shots. It would've easily been a 5/5 if the gameplay was more polished

Excellent execution of the narrative and top notch pixel art. The great music really makes the shift in tone from game to work that more extreme. Great job!

Artwork's amazing! Song's great too. The work part made me laugh and cry at the same time.

That was a very polished experience. The pixel art was incredible, the soundtrack was catchy, the work/play dichotomy was really good for the mood and theme. Bit of a sad ending. I even wrote a letter to Sarah at work to apologize for not being the man she deserved, and that I would try to spend more time with her and the kids. She still left me. :(

Well my digital marriage may be ruined, but this game sure isn't. Good job!

I like concept and pixel art, very nice!

great game! the music and the sfx were really nice, also the sprites! nice work!

Fun game. I nearly almost quit when I didn't have enough money to revive myself.. then I saw the go to work option. Nice clicker / lane defense genre mashup.

Holding space to shoot felt a bit superfluous / unnecessary. Could just enable autoshoot.

This was a wonderful submission! Proud of what you've put out by yourself in the two days of the compo— Your spritework and design is wonderful all around, and the dichotomy here was really entertaining. Good job, man!

The game is very well polished and you can understand the mechanics and how they correlate.
But my problem with this game is that i can't see a lot of purpose in it, you have to work but even you you ONLY work (i did this in one run) you start getting negative messages and i think you get fired at the end the same way. And about the game that the character plays, i think it doesn't have a purpose either, i think it would be more fun if you could buy new permanent power-ups and skills to make your mage more powerful, I think it would have a nice feeling to overpower all the enemies.
But i have an interpretation about this game that is more artistic than entertaining, the game inside the game is like a critic to the addicting games that, when you see, are just trying to take your money and have no content.
Liked the game a lot (and some of my friends liked a lot more than me).

Cool concept and some great art in there! Would have liked a bit more variety and perhaps turning "working" into a more entertaining mini-game. As it stands, the working part is (intentionally) pretty unnecessary, more like some humorous stab at society, but not viable for the long run.

That was a really nice experience! After dying the first time, the game reveilt more and more from its complexity. The story elements really got me. There was laughter when I noticed that I can actually work in order to buy upgrades and sadness, when the story reveilt more and more from its core.
A really nice designed smooth curve in the story and the gameplay.
The art and music are awesome too!
All in all, very nice entry, especially for compo!

Good game! Being compo was surprising and I liked the art style so much, welldone congratulations!

Thank you for submitting your game to be played on my stream!

Once the stream is finished you can find the video here: https://www.twitch.tv/ursagames/videos
If you want to know when it was played you can find your game in the queue here: https://tinyurl.com/y5rdokvp

@ursagames Thanks for playing!

Sorry I wasn't on when you got to my game, but I looked back and watched the video. Glad to hear you liked the art and music!