My Compo-game, “Open-plan Office Distractions”, is about a team of developers, and the numerous distractions they face by working in a one room open-plan office.

Pre-project Boss-briefing

In my original brainstorm, the game was supposed to be a management-game. You would actively control the workers, by assigning tasks, optimizing development processes, etc.

However, as I implemented the office, and the various “distractions”, I realized that I actually found it much more entertaining, to just watch the poor workers be hindered by the various distractions.

In the end, I therefore opted to remove most of the player interactions, leaving only the concept of spending “golden marks” (a reward triggered by finishing projects on time) on a few upgrades and on removing “failure”-marks (thereby prolonging the game/simulation).

I think this decision worked out rather well – in a way, I feel that the various mishaps which happens to the team during the projects are more entertaining, since you cannot prevent them directly.

I hope that you will try out my game, and leave a comment. Does the lack of “traditional” player interactions benefit my game?

Boss, please let me get back to work!