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Comment by tokenizer | Hacker News Reader

I'd play it. If for at least an hour. Looks like you can play it here:

http://pope.jeffsys.net/play.php?g=ppl

I finished the beta over the weekend, it's very playable (both Mac and PC) despite an unbalanced Oregon Trail-like mechanic that's ancillary to the job-mode (keeping your family alive).

It's incredibly well-polished for a one-man side project, apparently he did all the music, graphics, and writing himself. I think it's a telling sign of how effective he was at making bureaucracy "fun" that gamers are chiming in with how to make the game even more of a video game...though I think that's probably not the author's main intent. Definitely a work of political art, though.

> gamers are chiming in with how to make the game even more of a video game...though I think that's probably not the author's main intent.

Sadly, the Steam GreenLight community does not seem very open to these art-games, and there is at least a subset of people who are actively hostile. It's too bad, as I don't think these games are misrepresenting themselves. I'd rather those people just no buy them and quit imposing their taste on the rest of us.

Well Kentucky Route Zero got through and that is one of the strangest most abstract things I've ever played, but it also had a very successful Kickstarter. The Greenlight experiment honestly does not work very well but Valve and Gabe Newell are totally aware of this. Gabe spoke at UT and addressed the very issue of how inefficient Greenlight is. It was kind of a first try at community sourcing games and it will be massively overhauled soon. For instance, right now Mutant Mudds which is well regarded as one of the better platformers of recent days is finding itself hovering around 50% approval which is insane. This is a proven game already that can't get approved because of the system.

I see no reason why Valve needs to ask every 12 year old that only is on Steam to play COD whether or not they like some strategic art game.

My guess is they come to some sort of Kickstarter-esque model where people will pledge to prebuy a game and when it gets to a certain threshold, the game will be Greenlit. Makes a lot more sense that polling every user on Steam, let the people who are willing to spend money make the decisions happen.

Kentucky Route Zero only got through because Valve made an exception to the system where you automatically get a Steam slot if you are an IGF finalist. The IGF is a curated games competition that isn't subject to the will of the people who normally vote in systems like Greenlight, typically judged on aesthetic/design merit.

I think the "family" part is meant to be unbalanced. You are meant to be poor; it was pretty heartbreaking (!) choosing between food for my hungry son, or medicine for my wife.

I think the "unbalanced" part of it is that you can let your family go a turn of "Cold" and "Hungry", feed them the next turn, then they'll be back to OK. That's what I did my second playthrough at least; I ended it with a savings of $80 =P

I let them die and hoarded the money. They don't have faces anyway.

While that is surely efficient, I suspect that choosing to do that avoids much of the point of the game -- like using an infinite ammo cheat in Resident Evil, or patching Oregon Trail so that you don't run out of food and can't get dysentery.

Thanks for the link, I love the idea behind this game.

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