A Grim Game

I’ve had a rather grim and brutal week at work, so I’m going to share a rather grim and brutal, but oddly engaging game with you all today.

The game, called Drowning In Problems, is just a little too true to life to be “fun” exactly.  But, it is oddly compelling.  And, it only takes about ten or fifteen minutes to play a round, so it’s not too, too depressing.  It is, however, simple, text-based and created by Minecraft creator Markus Persson.  He created it for something called the Ludlum Dare, which, according to their website is “… a regular accelerated game development Event.  Participants develop games from scratch in a weekend, based on a theme suggested by community.”  The event was founded by Geoff Howland in April of 2002 and has since run more than 22 regular Events, resulting in the creation of thousands of games.

Drowning In Problems starts with a simple sentence; “There is nothing.”  Click on the hyperlink text “Solve.” next to that and the game progresses to “You are not.”  When you “solve” that problem, you are rewarded with “Hope”.  And, with each problem to be solved, you gain something else, like a “Body” or “Life”.  Eventually, some problems cost things to “Solve” and, over the course of the game, you live a life, growing up and older, gaining and losing.
I won’t spoil the ending, but it is an interesting game to play.

Hey, it’s Friday, so why not go play the game?  What can you possibly lose but a couple of minutes of your day?