I like the way you've imagined the theme. Having said that, I felt like there was no correct answer, and lots of them led to the same outcome. Is that intentional?

I lost my children :(
The situation and the results of our choices are sometime a little random but this is a clever use of the theme in a narrative game !
The retro design and sound are good but the text a little hard to read.

Funny game! I may suck at it but I really enjoyed it :D

My wife is a self-centered cow and were it not for the kids I would leave her.

Cute little thing. I liked the music and the aesthetic. I didn't really feel like it was a game so much as a deeply sadistic choose-your-own-adventure book. There is no strategy to it, nothing to figure out. I "Won" because I decided to watch the news.

Maybe the moral is that life is a series of random crap and that no matter what you do the worst possible outcome will occur? Of course, you never mention the positive long-term outcomes which are important. Your kids learn that they can rely on you, your spouse knows that you are honest with them etcetera. Those are the things that I make decisions based on, and they don't seem to factor in here.

Further, where do you get off telling me how much I like myself. I know that I went out and got my kids their supplies, and even if they screwed up I will know that I did the compassionate thing and that doesn't affect the "self" vale. And does my wife not care?

@nintendoeats you get it. I couldn't have put it better myself. My inspiration for the game was that my wife was having a really, really, really bad day and somehow that got translated into code. Fortunately for me, she likes the game (self - 1, spouse - 1).

The answers and stories seem to lead to the same outcomes every time i play. A bit strange and nihilist but yeah xD

Simple but effective. I kind of like how whatever you do your life spirals into misery. It's dark.

It's funny that all outcomes of my decisions are negative in some way. I managed to lose my children and my wife. At least I became a cat person...

not my kind of game but could find it's public

That's a hard knock life, and that has a ring of truth about it ^^
Nice half empty glass theme.

My kids hate me. Their meter depleted so quickly that I thinkI should never be a parent now. My spouse hates me. She stayed with me a while longer, but ultimately she left as well. At least I got myself... oh, never mind.

This was a pretty cool experience. It's depressing if you think too much about it, but I enjoyed it.

The graphics are really simple, but they don't have to be anything more. The music isn't bad at all and the texts where really funny at times.

Really unique game, good work.

Great take on the theme! Simple and effective little game.

Really creative take on the theme. I made it to the 9th question and my "self" power ran out. It's a dark game in an entertaining way. I want to abandon my ungrateful wife and kids in the game. I genuinely had fun playing. Great work!

Haha, ok this one's just a little depressing -- no matter what I do I'm always wrong! Fun idea, would be interesting if previous decisions could effect future decisions, or even effect the kinds of decisions you have to make later on down the line. Nice job. Thanks for sharing!

Lesson I learned by playing this game: life is random so do random things. I tried about 5 times to win and finally went with purely random answers and won. Oh you surely made me fear family life!

Great game. You managed to squeeze a lot of content into it, although the consequences were a bit too random for my liking. I enjoyed the simple music as well.

I do not find this kind of humor funny, the writing is very odd and just does not make sense a lot of times. I know you try to turn things around with the reactions to my answers but they are so constructed, it seems so random most of the time.

The music is nice, though ;-)

I love Pico-8 aesthetics. For future improvements it will be nice that the questions follow a storyline based on the choises made.

Nice job!

Very distinctive and very deep. The constrast between music and colors one side and writing on another works. Reminds me of [Nebraska](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1821549/), especially the way how it depicts casualty of the life.

I loved your game! The font is great, the audio is cool and I loved the choices to make! Furthermore you're totally in the theme, good job!


Question X:

Your wife and kids are again playing with your nerves, do you:

- Kill yourself?
- High kick them in face?

Hopefully I'm not married ;)

After severals bad tries, I was wondering if it was another "Emily is away" concept, where winning is impossible (mainly because of lot of questions are giving almost the same bad result, and none seems to *give* points, nor just, at least, don't lose any), and then, I decided to try for one last time, and I win. :D Don't mistake my comment, I found it fun to play, and a good idea to relativise common life. :)

Nice game, great questions, too bad you just can't win :smiley:

I might as well just go get a cat right away.

Even though it's a text-based game, I love that you used Pico-8 for it, great job

I won :D.

Very funny and somewhat relaxing game - every answer is not obvious ;) .

This family brings new meaning to the word "dysfunctional". Woooow.
I kept playing until I found all four endings. Clever little game with resource management, and I'm even more grateful I have the partner I do.

I won in my first try. Then I randomed a few runs and it turned out it hadn't been such an easy feat. It seems to be about balancing minus points around the three "resources" until the tv event comes up. I enjoyed it a lot and had plenty of inner misanthropic laugh. Retro music was suitably atmospheric.

You're right Pico-8 was not the best idea. Text was barely readable and you probably wasted a lot of time on these pixels. You could have made a text terminal game and spent the saved time on an even bigger set of questions. Nevertheless, it's definitely turned out nice as it is, and better than one can expect from a mere 128x128 canvas.

I liked the idea. It reminded me of a game called Reign. I tried being a nice person and it failed so now I'm going to be a piece of shit with the kids hahaha. Humor tone is really good. Congrats!

Thanks @gris. Reigns was a big inspiration for this game. When my wife was having a bad day she basically said that some days no matter what you do, you're screwed (although she may have expressed this been a little less politely) so I decided to run with the idea and make a Reigns-like where you just can't win. For what it's worth, she likes the game and it made her laugh.

I love the humor of this game. And it was really fun to play too :)

(Is it possible to win the game? :') I've tried 4 times and I lost.. )

@orcdraco thanks. Yes, there are 3 lose conditions and a single win condition. Try watching tv.

I like the Reigns like style :) I had a hard time reading the game, but I have bad eyes :P Overall, well done!

So family is just about sharing the misery equally, bit depressing but ok. Didn't manage to find the win condition until i read the comments. For all the other questions i tried multiple options but for some reason i just never wanted to watch the news. Anyway had fun, enjoyed the humour. Nice entry

Dude. Call me if you need someone to talk to. :smile:

You've done a lot of solid writing for this. I "enjoyed" it and the music was nice too.

Music was nice. Game was pretty depressing, but I think that was the point. The winning outcome (news) wasn't a very happy ending either. 'The world is way worse than your little problems, but your life is still pretty awful' seems to have been the message =P. Great job with the writing.

OH GOD FAMILY I AM SUCH A DISAPPOINTMENT. One life your spouse hates you for disageeing with you and the next they hate you for being sarcastic for agreeing. Truly loved this game, as hilarious as perpetually making people hate you can be.

Remarkable game, it really is a bit depressive to think that this is only a game and then to realize that real life is just like this. No matter what you do in some situation the outcome will always be negative and even replaying the game and choosing the other answer has the same negative outcome.

The game tells a story that is really powerful (no pun intended :p). Even though the aesthetics were simple the content was really good and a very good interpretation of the theme.

Having some pictures added to the dialogs could certainly amplify the effect of the game even more but the game is a solid entry as is.

Great job!

Yeah, you had some true-to-life situations in the game, haha!
But I couldn't relate to most choices and outcomes. That kills the mood a little for me. Pulls me out of the narrative.
Of course, it's satire, and seen in that light, the text and endings are actually funny! I like cats but not that much...
Original take on the theme!

Good, I am not the only who made a narrative binary game with bip sounds during this jam ! And I thought I would be original :p
Anyway,your game is really good, I enjoy playing it even if I loose every time :) Music was good too. If you want to share experience about narrative games, don't hesitate !

Very creative take on the theme.
Glad to see a narrative game but it was a bit depressing that every outcome was bad in one way or another. Great commentary on life, and how decisions that you think may be the best for everyone could eventually be the worst.
Great job!

Hey, great game and cool concept! But what a hell of a life this one was xD Every single choice led to failure. But great job!

Clever use of the theme. The music complimented the style of the game perfectly. Well done!

Music was great. Mood, humor, writing were all fun. That said, seems like whatever the player does lowers some power meter. This is an effective way to communicate an idea or feeling, but it does remove some sense of agancy/play/game to the experience. All depends on what your goal is of course. Thanks!

clever use of theme! took me a few tries to win, haha. somewhat depressing, but true to life i suppose. good job! :^)

As you said, the Pico-8 is probably not the best format for this, but I enjoyed it very much anyway! Interesting concept that *all* choices are bad in a way. I lost due to low self-esteem. :/ Nice writing! I found the music a bit annoying and turned it down very quickly. Thanks for making this, I could see this becoming a larger game!

Nice and funny game! So, does every choice have a benefit and a cost? Your concept really stands out.

So, uh, @badly-drawn-rod... everything ok, bud?

pico8 love, btw.

@theaspiringhacker it's really a case of choosing the better option, or the one that's going to screw you up the least.

@pbg agreed! There are certain things about pico8 that make it perfect for LD:

1. it places massive limitations on what you can do
2. it's self-contained (although admittedly I use Notepad++ for editing)
3. publishing for the web is quick and simple

And, yes, everything is ok. Mrs Columbo (aka my wife) loves the game.

Really love this take on the theme, and how people may not have the power to control all the aspects of their lives as they would like. Very intuitive to play, and the layout was quite nice. The font was a little hard to read, for me, and the music a little repetitive. One of the funniest/cleverest games I've seen in LD39.

This is a game that I definitely wanted to go back to and play again right after finishing. Well done!

The music was very repetitive and the text hard to read for me. Otherwise nice interpretation of the theme and good idea! :-)

Really fun idea and creative approach to the theme as said in the comments. Good Job!

Oh man now I'm having an existential crisis!

Interesting game, I tried to play with the decisions I would make irl and there were certainly a lot of unexpected consequences, but luckily I pulled through in the end. Good writing, I really liked some of them like the kids + feet in kitchen. TBH when reading the description of the game, I thought there were going to be butterfly effects where decisions you make early on bubble up and show up later in a crazier form. Perhaps something to consider as an alternative way to tackle this path and make consequences even more unexpected.

@peachtreeoath thanks. I think if there had been more time then the questions would have had effects like you suggested. It's funny: the more I reflect on this game, the more I find myself wondering if I should develop it further. It's very different from anything else that I ever did. I guess we'll all find out next week when we find out what people really think!

It's an interesting idea, but it felt like no matter what I chose I would be punished for it. I know that's kind of the idea behind the game, but typically you want to be rewarding your players, not punishing them. The music is a bit repetitive, but it's a neat game. Nice job.

Oh wow, life is the hardest game >_<
Loved the idea and how well it fits the theme. Probably the most creative take on the theme I've seen so far, congrats!

Very nice game! I got all the endings and had great fun doing so! The music is nice, but the font used could be a little more clear, as I often mixed M with other letters...

Overall, I had a great time playing! This is a very well made cat I mean game! Yea, game... Well done! :smile:

@peculiarcarrot Interesting that you say that, because most games end in killing the player - in mine you just get a cat. :smile:

I become a homeless cat person. :D

The graphics and audio kept me focusing on choices.
Sometimes I felt like there's no choice that increases parameters, however.
Hope it's not like that.

You made really nice commentary on losing power. Thanks!

My kids hates me, My wife hates me... I hate me xD But at least I have a cat?
Nice game, simple and easy to play, but there is no way to win (as in the real life?)

Everyone hates me **TM**

Fun little entry. I got all the 3 endings LOL or is there any win case?

@Freedom-is-slavery there is _one_ win condition.

there are no good answers to this aren't there? ;)

to be honest, in the beginning I thought it was just a complete random set of caricatural life choices where none of them were good until I got to the 4th ending. And at this moment my game's perception changed radically. It's powerful and minimalistic. Congrat's for this narrative turn! I really enjoyed it. :)

A wonderfully pessimistic view of family life, although perhaps a half-decent commentary on the pressures put on men in modern society. Very enjoyable, and I liked seeing how each of my decisions went horrendously wrong! ;)

Interesting concept! I included it in my Ludum Dare 39 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztP-p00QMyo