Fun resource management game! I wish I had the option to keep my previous selection when starting a new day so I don't waste time lazing about each morning while I click the next thing. Also, how do you get one of those fancy suits?

I think you shall get this a lot, but, I really liked the artwork! and the music really kept give the feeling regardless of what your doing the city moves on. Biggest issue I had was a lack of feedback when pressing a new task, obviously I knew I did it but what it did and what it was doing was not immediately obvious. So I very rapidly nearly starved started working and eating only to exhaust myself. Not sure what you can do. Maybe a different sound or something depending on what your doing. Otherwise this was quite the experience, it almost became more entertaining when I went from "ooh I wonder what this increases" too "Oh good lord I need money, wait no, now I need food AHGH I'm becoming exhausted!". Given the art its a shame that in the end, all you end up doing is looking between the buttons and the bars. Regardless really good game!

@rein Maybe that's a feature. Maybe there's some metaphor there, that you have to take time in the morning to get ready before you can put your nose to the grind. JK, you are right of course, it would be better that way.

@mcnuttys Totally agree. Given more time, I would have implemented better feedback throughout the game overall -- sound, animation, etc. to show what actions and consequences are taking place. That was the original intention with the art but the scope was probably too big for me to finish in compo. Thanks for playing. :)

I had so much fun playing this game. From the start, the pixel art was beautiful and the gameplay super clear. I don't know if it's possible to beat this game or I just suck but I didn't even come close to paying the rent :D
Amazing submission - great job!

Nice game, a game about the lives of most of us :)
Really liked the artwork and the music is repetitive but nice to hear!
Thanks for this submission, very intense life simulator :D

Graphics and audio were epic! I wish there was more feedback after clicking on the various buttons as it was a bit hard to see how the bars reacted. Also enjoyed how realistically difficult it was to balance health, money, and energy

The graphics are great, cool entry! Had to restart a few times to figure how to win! It's not easy but it's well balanced. Congrats.

God even the start screen is so cool! The tiny RGJ logo T_T

The memory it has of how you died is really cool. I figured out the trick in the 2nd run - was kinda easy since you can get max education before needing to sleep/eat. But was fun to do the plate spinning to get to the end anyway! I never figured out how to buy a suit or play the lotto though.

Also where's that damn taxi??

I really liked the art. The tightest life sim game ever!
The most important improvement I can suggest is the game could've felt a lot better if each action gave you clear feedback.

Dude this is so cuuuute - albeit makes me a little sad cause I'm not very good at keeping myself alive and healthy. A great little life sim with so many nice details and personal touches. If you expand on this, I think the selections could do with a little more juice to help emphasize your choices. It took me a second to even notice the meters up top because my eyes are pulled to the bottom buttons. A nice flash and maybe a particle effect on the bars as they raise could help draw the eye upwards some. This is so dang cute <3

Like everybody, the lack of feedback and the way information is spread across the screen made it a bit hard for me. Looks nice.

The game starts really fast so you have to find your bearings while the clock is already feverishly ticking down. This didn't matter tho, if something the abrupt start feeds into the tone the game is conveying. The user interface is easy to read and quickly I found myself trying to balance my life and survive.

Surviving ended up being quite hard! I'm not enough of a mathematician to understand the balancing just by observing so I ended up testing various methods of combining the available activities. I found education to be the key to "victory" - it opens up the level 2 job which nets you more money per second.

Graphic and audio wise the game is gorgeous! The mood of an autumn spend in the city is beautifully rendered and having to stress about your stats makes it even more bittersweet.

Life in the city moves fast and even if you pay your rent this month the grind never ends. Maybe the sequel will be set in the countryside with a big emphasis on pressing the "do nothing" button.

Misc. bug I found:
I died of hunger and with the HTML5 build on itch the restart button didn't work.

I....

Succeeded?

Nice entry! Charming art, cheerfully presented sinister theme, and the mid-tempo music did a good job of setting the mood without overstaying its welcome.

I never did find my bootstraps though.

really enjoyed grinding at work to pay my rent on time while procrastinating and playing this game, starved before I paid the landlord but I think you used the theme really well

I love I can play in browser as I am a mac user

Wow this was tough! It took a few tries, but I made it to rent with exactly a thousand dollars, on the brink of starvation.
I liked the music, but I wish there were some sound effects. Like a little munch when you eat salad, or a snore when you sleep. All around, nicely done.

(in a rush to test many, don’t mind the cursory style)

[testing navigator version]

0. description: concept is interesting, BUT I am afraid 10 seconds will be super fast… We shall see
1. music and art seem top notch
2. on the field: yes, it *does* go fast! :o XD
3. is ‘Do nothing’ really useful or not? Seems to only increase hunger!
4. this seems super hard!! :o $1,000, really?! I am fighting to merely keep alive not dying out of hunger and lack of sleep! XD
5. as Mcnuttys (and you ;)), I think animations matching the actions would have been great to better understand, especially seeing how the buildings match the various activites
6. checking what happens when reaching zero for some bar: yes, you DO die! Out of exhaustion here, and the text mentions pizza, so does it really change depending on the player’s choices? (I DID often choose pizza X) By the way, I just realize the gigantic coincidence with having played [*Pizza Ninja*](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/pizza-ninja) right before!)
7. no key to restart?
8. tried a run to see what happens when filling the education bar, but now dying out of hunger before XD Oh, a "Restart" button! I may have missed it for the exhaustion defeat :S Oh, but it does not work! Ah, weirdly, only detects the mouse for a brief moment, sometimes; this may be a navigator issue. (does not work either in windowed mode nor fullscreen) (later: happened to Tatu Heinämäki too) (later: checking, no button for exhaustion defeat)
9. tried education again, closer, but failed; this is HARD!
10. **[spoiler]** third attempt at education: only choosing this activity right from the start: oh, I did not notive work level 2; unlocked by this! And then, everything gets easier! Working my way up to more than a grand even before there are three days left! I feel like this is almost a puzzle game where the solution to the riddle is ‘First go to school, kids!’; sounds like a cheesy punchline XD
11. how do the lotto and suit options unlock??
12. Won! I like the irony of the end, I get the same vibe as in [*10 Seconds To Avoid Death*](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/10-seconds-to-avoid-death). X)
13. agreed with Rein (and you again!) on possibly keeping previous activity ongoing
14. testing ‘Health’ defeat: same as ‘Energy’, apparently (message + missing button!)

**Takeaway:** a rather abstract (because of time reasons :p) but cute time management game, that makes me think of a real-time version of *Gods Will Be Watching*. At first overwhelming, but when getting the hang of it, way simpler if you get the trick! The take on the theme is interesting story-wise, but only now do I realize that it is not so useful mechanically, since days only serve as a global countdown, not as anything else except resetting your current action (unless I am mistaken!). Despite its sobriety, the game had me immersed in the context; also liked the funny (yet tragic!) ending messages for losing (and winning…). Too bad for the missing sounds, but music and ambient sounds already do quite a lot! (By the way, are the crowd sounds made from samples, or personal?)

I had a charming time solving the quasi-riddle, thank you! :)

---

@arachnid56

> I don’t know if it’s possible to beat this game

See the spoiler above. ;)

---

@kosmosael

> a game about the lives of most of us :)

Glad not to be a big city slave, then. XD Closer to what Tatu Heinämäki describes, but with ‘Do work and activities you love’ instead of ‘Do nothing’. ;)

My time flies too fast and I don't have time to do anything. Usually at university, I try to prioritize tasks, and writing an essay often ends up at the bottom of the list, and I don’t have the strength to do this anymore. I found [essayhelp review](https://chromatopia.org/essayhelp-review/) on chromatopia. This is a great service where experts write high-quality essays for you quickly and inexpensively.