There’s something interesting going on here but I’m not exactly sure what. There’s an obvious surface level (as there should be with any game) and then there’s something else going on. I noticed that some things would make my happiness go up…and it may have been related to the speed at which I purchased things? I’m not sure but I’m intrigued.
When I first opened the page and saw the game I was like, “OH NO! My weakness! Shopping online!” haha (I love small business shopping on Etsy. It’s a thing…)
But your game play was simple and still effective. And again…not so simple. For instance, it’s clear that at work you’re just futzing about and I had no idea as the player what I was doing there - which I feel is the point of the mini-game. You’re kind of just not doing meaningful work. I liked that bit of detail.
The things that popped up at home were alarming at first and then less impactful as time went on since I realized they were flavor-text. I think that could be frustrating for those not into game design but it still speaks to the point of the game. You become really desensitized after a point as in life under capitalism. It wants you to crave sensation. The items for shopping could fulfill that and I bet you each person that played this immediately went for things they’d actually buy in real life.
The tongue-in-cheek nature of the writing helped keep things from getting too depressing because this kind of set-up could get nihilisitic pretty fast without a mechanism to find joy. But a major theme of the game is that you CAN’T find joy in such a cycle of Earn-Consume/Spend, at least nothing impactful.
I think you did a great job!