I am working
A short personal story about the abuse of the workers' labor in the game industry and its destructive effects on their lives. Follow a team of game developers who try desperately to finish their project before the poorly estimated deadline. It all ends horribly, as it always does.
Content warnings: swearing, racism, relationships breakdown, mental instability, depression, death, alcoholism, bodily mutilation.
Controls:
- use arrows to move character, change screens and initiate dialog
- to restart the game, refresh the page
- that's all!
Made by Vale
Special thanks to:
- Adam Le Doux for creating amazing Bitsy, in which this game was made
- Dahuanna, for cool ideas and some characters' lines
- Lilya and Vlad for playtesting and profound feedback
- Maya, for friendship and support in hard times
Download
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Comments
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I finished my job last year after experiencing burnout, today I would like to communicate what I felt with a video game, and what you did was very strong. Thank you. I hope to one day make something as beautiful as I Am Working.
Thank you for playing my game. I am both happy to hear that your experience resonated with it, and very sad that you had to go through this. I wish you well and hope your mental health will recover. Take care of yourself and your loved ones!
This is an essential story and an incredible use of medium. I love how you force the player into a routine, then subvert that routine. Some stuff was a bit on the nose but this game is incredible.
Thank you!
I'm glad you've found the routine subversion part compelling, it was intentional.
What parts of the game have you found too straightforward and on the nose? I have my ideas, of course, but I'm genuinely curious about what you have to say.
I barely remember what I meant by that(I had gotten like no sleep), but I think it was the coworkers dialogue. Although, of course I don't know how many of those stories were real. Also, great game!
Bro the wife took everything including the doors this was awesome but the fact that the cleaner had to dispose of corpses freaked me out for a second and then the bass was holding everyone, hostage. I totally recommend this game to anyone who likes stuff like this.
Glad you've liked the thing! It totally takes several dark turns, hope didn't find it too disturbing. Thanks for playing and recommending my game!
jees
Jees indeed, my friend
the big cimputer idea is sooo goood!!!
Thanks! Drawing it in Bitsy was a blast too
Hello, here is Unreal (in another account lol). I LOVED this game, sorry for the short comment before, but this game is soooo good, seriously. Is amazing as a simple old school game like atari games can seem so dark I definitely included this game as one of my inspirations as gamedev, and I'm happy to have been one of the (if not the first) people to play the game for the first time (lol I was bored browsing the site when I found this pearl of the games)
Wow, thank you for you kind words, davileo! I'm glad you've liked our little game and I'm glad that you've found it first!
This was so interesting and cathartic to play through as someone who's been in similar situations in the industry before. Thanks for making it! I also really love the art. Great stuff!!
Thanks for playing!
I'm glad that it felt cathartic to you! Initially, I hesitated to make it so dark in the end, but I felt like doing otherwise just wouldn't convey the kind of shit so many people in the industry are going through and how it feels like work literally eats you alive sometimes.
are you ok my guy
I am quite ok, thanks for asking!
The keyboard room is awesome and the dialogue is really nice! I love Dan <3
Thanks for playing! I'm glad you liked it.
P.S.: everybody loves Dan
This is nice. I also really like the typing mechanism, especially as it decays
Thanks! This game actually started as a Twine prototype where you had to type the phrase over and over again and the keyboard would deteriorate with time. But then I met Bitsy and it opened a whole lot more opportunities
you portrayed the drudgery and feeling of futility very well!
Thanks! I'm really glad it came up at you this way since it was my intention
Thank you, Unreal!
I'm glad you've liked our game!
If you're interested in reaching its true ending, please try playing it again, since I've only just added a newer version.