Smells Like Chlorine by TheGreenWorm
A menial job. Unfriendly co-workers. What does it take to get some respect as a janitor around here? Things take an interesting turn, however, after your boss tells you some devastating news. Those detergent fumes aren't helping either...
Take part in this first-person adventure game complete with a twisted story, puzzles, and a whole bunch of atmosphere. Make them see what you're truly capable of!
Arrow Keys/WASD/Left joystick : Move around
Left Mouse Button / A button : Interact
Playthrough (SPOILER ALERT) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6MKETIienw

| Youtube | https://the-green-worm.itch.io/smells-like-chlorine |
| Youtube | https://the-green-worm.itch.io/smells-like-chlorine |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/smells-like-chlorine |
Ratings
| Overall | 3th | 4.534⭐ | 75🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 55th | 4.158⭐ | 75🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 62th | 4.171⭐ | 75🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 59th | 4.358⭐ | 76🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 31th | 4.384⭐ | 75🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 3th | 4.682⭐ | 76🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 84🗳️ | 68🗨️ |
I thought it was kind of heartbreaking at first, seeing this old man getting ignored and people being so ungrateful to him... And then it took a turn I wasn't expecting at all!
From beginning to end I was so hooked, congrats on this awesome game!!
Everything is great in it. The storytelling, the pacing, the art, the intuitive gameplay with enough variety of gameplay, the sound design...
How can this be done in three days? Did you reuse most of the assets from other projects?
Thanks a lot for the game and keep up the good work 💕
A masterpiece.
I absolutely loved the audio, on top of all the other very good aspects of your game, the audio finished me and triggered goosebumps.
The dialogs, the arts, the little details, so good.
Just enough fuckery in the "loop solvings" to make you feel the character's struggle but not enough to turn into an annoying gaming experience.
Again, bravo.
Good job!
My only critique would be that this is a game that would benefit from a slower walk speed, I felt like the Janitor was running all over the place which towards the end makes sense, but in the beginning feels very opposed to the character y'all wrote.
Excellent submission!
If you’d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/767497194?t=4h28m02s
Good luck on your ratings, see you next LD! :D
💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady
https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin
(At the end after cleaning those people, I went through a door and stood in an infinite space of eternal darkness and the game didn't close it self or anything, did I break the game somehow or was it intended?)
(Edit: found the ending, it was a nice closure, idk why I didn't find the exit the first time.)
The VOD is [available here](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/778373320) if you want to watch it again. Great job!
That trippy vibe pretty similar to our game, please check it if you'll have a minute :)
Anyways, here's the vod if you'd like to rewatch; https://www.twitch.tv/videos/780254814
Thanks for submitting your game!

I've seen a lot of narrative experiences in this jam, and a lot of "repeat the same task over and over", but this one takes the prize for adding "loop" as a means to drive the narrative forward. And what a narrative it was, with a well written scenario, human fears, and a subtle yet sudden descent into madness.
I really can't praise this game enough. I'm a sucker for experiences like Stanley Parable, and this one did a lot in the short time it had going for it. Extremely well done! :whale:
I pretty much loved everything about this one. Super impressed with y'all's engineering skills here, and even if you didn't make the assets, I'd say you made excellent use of them. All-in-all this is truly an underrated gem!
The parts that didn't quite work for me (and these are nitpicks) was the fairly linear nature of the narrative. While I don't think the game needed more exploration bits -- what's there actually helps keep the story going at a nice pace -- I would have liked to see more dialogue bits and evolution in characters changing over the course of the day. There were a few characters that appeared to have some sort of background or story potential behind them, so it was a shame a large number of theme only had 2 or so unique lines to speak of, even when taking the insanity phase into account. I personally would have liked to see more interactive bits in the game, as well as any way to scroll back to certain dialogues I may have accidentally skipped.
Overall, highly enjoyable experience.
https://youtu.be/vvR6P6ZVvL4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzklvE5HZP0
Thanks for submitting! 😊
I'll give you the small details I feel could have been improved :
- At the very beginning, the text says "go to the right" to go to the receptionnist. I find it could have been skipped if the level design was changed just a bit. I personnally skipped too fast that text, and ended up going left...
- having to specify that the accountant office is next to the administrators one has the same kind of problem, maybe just putting a sign would have allowed to remove it. But maybe you did not want to make the door different, because later they are reused and must not have any sign ?
- The puzzle with the employees of the month is a bit too long to solve, I think it needs too much backtracking to be solved, and the colors (especially the blues) used are too close. I had to check a few times (meaning walking all the way to the other side of the corridor) a few times to check which blue I was supposed to find. It made me get out of the experience for a while.
Overall, this is one of the most interesting games I have seen in this jam. Well done !
I mentioned most of what I'm about to say on stream when I played it but I thought it was a brilliant piece of interactive storytelling. I would almost have opted out of the 'fun' category were it possible, as this was a story and an experience more than an enjoyable piece of gameplay. That you managed to construct a complete and cohesive narrative, this small story that makes you feel like such a worthless cog that many of us have had to be, is very impressive for the LD.
Though you made use of the art pack, the original GFX and VFX you did do are not to be discredited. The environment was lovely, the use of shaders excellent. And of course, I can't forget the non-euclidean geometry, not only is it combining another interpretation of the theme into the already lovely one of being stuck in a dead-end job, it really helped serve htis narrative of chemical poisoning affecting our character's perception and mental stability. Completely seamless. Really enjoyed my time with this game, much as it left me sad. :(
As far as any improvements I can think of, I think perhaps adding something a little more compelling gameplay-wise could have been nice, like making cleaning more satisfying with a nice shine and sound affect with punchier effects, even if it would have had an adverse effect with the narrative. That and a minor niggle of changing the font and/or colour on the Quest UI. It was a little hard to read.
Very well done.
I got stuck on the first puzzle, so I had to watch the walkthrough. It looks as if a lot of work for such small time was put onto this, so great job!
I enjoyed the visual-audio aspect as well as very clever way of implementing 'looping' into the game. Stanley Parable makers would be proud to see it! And this felt even more humane and real!
It's also the perfect example of why you should treat all of your empolyees with dignity, otherwise you can get mopped-up (get it? haha, I'll leave now).
Great game! Good job. :)