Title: Have You Tried Turning It Off
Release: May 2020
Development Period: 2 Days
Development Status: Released
Availability: HTML5
Tagline: N/A
Release: May 2020
Development Period: 2 Days
Development Status: Released
Availability: HTML5
Tagline: N/A
Inspired by a flash game on Kongregate called "Connections" created by MindfulXP, Have You Tried Turning It Off? asks you the titular question. I was first introduced to this game by RockLeeSmile in his Youtube video covering the game and fell in love with the theme and how interwoven the mechanics were to that theme.
Game Spoilers Below
Simply put, the way you “win” Have You Tried Turning It Off? is to turn off the game. If a player manages to make it all the way through the game’s main 10 checks it crashes forcing the player to stop playing, however making it through to the end is unlikely (thought specifically not impossible).
At times the game is outright unfair and it would have been easy to balance this but instead I chose to make it even more unfair with random blocks that also get in the way. This decision was purposely meant to frustrate the player robbing them of rightful wins because I wanted to try to tie this game into a larger metaphor that progressing through it is meant to mirror going through life.
Each circle is an activity or a relationship and connecting it with enough things fulfills that activity or relationship. So ultimately the message is you can’t do everything but we do the best we can to satisfy all the things we want to while life gets in the way.
Was this done in the best possible way? I’m not entirely sure, given the very short development period I wasn’t able to get much playtesting in and even after the fact (given the current [as of this post] quarantine) I’ve chosen to show people some of the other projects I’ve been working on. For now though, I’m tucking this away with an admittedly unsatisfying conclusion for most likely both you the read and even myself who wants to know if I got the message across to anyone. But maybe it’s meant to be that way.
Game Spoilers Below
Simply put, the way you “win” Have You Tried Turning It Off? is to turn off the game. If a player manages to make it all the way through the game’s main 10 checks it crashes forcing the player to stop playing, however making it through to the end is unlikely (thought specifically not impossible).
At times the game is outright unfair and it would have been easy to balance this but instead I chose to make it even more unfair with random blocks that also get in the way. This decision was purposely meant to frustrate the player robbing them of rightful wins because I wanted to try to tie this game into a larger metaphor that progressing through it is meant to mirror going through life.
Each circle is an activity or a relationship and connecting it with enough things fulfills that activity or relationship. So ultimately the message is you can’t do everything but we do the best we can to satisfy all the things we want to while life gets in the way.
Was this done in the best possible way? I’m not entirely sure, given the very short development period I wasn’t able to get much playtesting in and even after the fact (given the current [as of this post] quarantine) I’ve chosen to show people some of the other projects I’ve been working on. For now though, I’m tucking this away with an admittedly unsatisfying conclusion for most likely both you the read and even myself who wants to know if I got the message across to anyone. But maybe it’s meant to be that way.
Last Update: 05/17/2020