Edited game because of bug on mobile devices making it hard to start a new game. 4-26-21
Edited game for some glaring typos and to fix a reported looping bug. 4-28-21

Very creative and fun - lots of jokes hidden in there. Fits the theme well, and I really liked the humor. Nice work!

There's a lot of work put into this story, well done!
I came across a couple of minor typos, but other than that this was very interesting and the meta narration was hilarious!

"Attempted loan fraud" - haha! This is fun, and I liked when the text had some pauses on it. Gave the text a whole different dimension.

An uncommon entry! Loved the meta tangent, and before i knew it it became part of the story. Still went across a bug of some sort where i was loop-backed from an acess level 5 to an access level 2 through the end of first day interaction.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll check that bug out.

Thanks @dob, @iman, and @valid for your feedback.

I didn't expect a game made directy for the browser (not being Webgl) and that separated this game from others. I really like it!

This is a really cool change to the other experiences. I haven't played a text adventure in ages and it feels really refreshing to put my mind into the story and visualize the complex. Well done!

Very nice game. I really liked the story. It felt really well written. You could have put a bigger focus on the actual mining game part and upgrades (you cant really earn money i guess?). The Interface creates a really nice atmosphere.

Nice entry! nothing like soul-crushing levels of debt! :D

I love text based games, and the ending i got was amazing! actually putting a [spoiler warning] I sang to the canary and then accessed the forbidden level! It was hilarious. The bot was great the whole time. Awesome entry!

Loved this meta comment:

> Now this really suprises you. "48 hours, that's a really long time to work non-stop!"
The Admin Robot only chuckles. "That's what you are saying now, but the time will fly by, I guarantee it."

I was so ticked when I got charged for loan fraud haha.

I really enjoyed the humor and the overall game loop. I had a suspicion from the intro text that it would be impossible to actually get out of debt. Is there a way to "win", or is it just continually depressing? I got up to Level 5 before I had to clock out.

Great work!

Thanks for the feedback and kind words. I really had fun writing this game.

@owinmowe The game was made with Twine 2 and Sugarcube. Glad you liked it.

@heidelbert I love those old text adventures, too. Planetfall was my favorite. I'm glad you enjoyed the game.


@eggland-games Thanks. I agree the mining part of the game needs more work. I had some ideas planned for ways to eke out a profit but I ran out of time.


@miej Thank you! "Soul-crushing" was exactly what I was shooting for. :)


@arthur-mairs Thanks for the very clever spoiler warning in your comment. It was really fun writing for the robot. I had a few more plans for the ending but I ran out of time. I'm glad you liked it!


@andrewkennedy Thanks for the feedback! I had a lot of fun slipping in meta comments since this is such a historic jam. There is a way to win, but it involves something more than your "paycheck". I'm glad you made it to level 5, but you were so close to seeing a new opportunity at a slightly higher level.

nice jokes

@alexascher Thank you for your feedback. I had a lot of fun writing it.

Really enjoyed it. Text adventures are right up my alley. Great work writing so much content on a short timeline!

This is the first time I have played a text adventure, even though I like to read and to write kids books) It is well written, nice jokes, fits the theme well.

I killed a canary sob. I should've known. I should've known ...
The humor is strong with this game. There wasn't much content (I'm guessing you ran out of time to implement), but what writing there was was hilarious. I played all the way to Level 11, at which point the game crashed, so I guess I'll never know a) what the corporation was hiding and b) why they would be willing to grant access to their secrets to their employees.

I guess I'll keep saving up for that ticket home.

Very nice! Soylent Green :rofl: great reference. I liked the story and the writing, and I am always happy when I find Twine entries in the Jam. Took a while to figure out how to proceed to level 11 because the option for the canary was scrolled out of the screen window (laptop screen). Good work! :thumbsup:

@j-kyle Thank you for the feedback. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

@natalia-dushkina Thank you for your feedback.

@carraka I'm sorry to hear about your canary. You are correct that I ran out of time. I had a more lengthy ending planned as well as a nearby village you could visit and discover a sympathetic Robot who might help you. Too bad I wasn't able to implement all that in time. Thanks for your feedback!

@zondarg I'm glad you like the story. Sorry you had trouble finding the canary option, but I'm glad you discovered it. Thanks for your feedback.

I had fun. The text adventure is a great media to tell stories. The company town grind was just that little bit of gnawing at your soul.

Really interesting game concept, I would love to see this be developed more with alternate branches and more complex interactions. Paired with sound effects or dynamic music it could really be an excellent game. For Ludum Dare however you've done an amazing job, well done!

As promise, I finally had time to play your game on stream :) Here is a link to the correct place in the video: https://www.youtube.be/watch?v=Sx1MQ445u7k&t=5906s

I may have missed some major gameplay as I didn't go deeper than level 7. But overall, this is a very interesting and different entry. I think I will give it another try out of stream to be able to take my time, and find more interesting lore and jokes.

It's really cool to have managed so much in 48h, I just wish my in-game decision felt more impact-full. Maybe they are later in the game.

@hijomo Thanks for the feedback. I had a lot of fun writing it.

@roka-josh Thanks for your feedback. I had so much planned that I had to condense down to submit on time, including multiple ways to win. I actually recorded some sound effects but was unable to implement and test in time. Thanks for playing.

@togis Thanks for your feedback and for posting the video. That was really helpful to see your response to portions of the game, and to see you uncover a bug. I should have made it much more clear that the player had to clock out to advance the day, and prevent you from going back into the elevator again and again for no reason.
If you do revisit the game, after your first shift there are some conversation chains that you might enjoy that give more background and provide some hints as to the way to the end. You were so very close to discovering something that would lead to the end, but multiple players have commented that it was really hard to see at the bottom of the screen. (You might take a look at your video at 2:03:13 near the very bottom of the screen.)
Watching you play was great to see what you liked and what typos I missed and how players can try things in different ways than I anticipated. I learned a lot from watching you. Thanks again for posting it. (edit - fixed a typo in the sentence talking about typos. How ironic is that?)

Pros: This was an interesting take on the theme, and I very much liked the text adventure experience. I don't typically play games like these but it was fun nonetheless.

Cons: I think condensing the dialogue into smaller bite sized pieces would help keep the player engaged rather than sitting and reading a lot of paragraphs.

Overall, the game was fun, humorous, and interesting overall. Nice entry!

@thinh Thanks for the feedback! I can think of several spots where I could break up the dialog into smaller chunks. I'm glad you had fun with the game. I sure had fun writing it.

I'm a big fan of the original song (16 Tons), so when I saw this I was genuinely surprised when this seemed to be a parody of that.

The writing was quite hilarious. My favorite was the 100 dollar fee when you try to purchase something you can't afford :laughing:

At one point I seem to have gotten stuck in a bit of a loop when I went back to a lower level and got the same story about it being my first day and kept getting a "TimeClockLast" option here and there. I'm not sure if that bugged out my game, but I didn't seem to see anything about poison gasses when I was past Level 5.

The ending with the Canary was quite hilarious.

@aurel Thanks for your feedback! I was definitely inspired by that great song! I'm sorry you went through a loop and lost progress. I'm glad you enjoyed the canary ending but personally I've been having trouble sleeping at night since writing it.