I am honestly surprised how undying this game is, it was suppossed to be a silly 6 week jam game, yet it seems to resonate so well with people. I have been tinkering with a design doc for something more fleshed out and do dream of getting to it at some point. The truth is im also working full time as a developer these days, so not a lot of time for side projects sadly.
Thank you for the comment, I really appreciate the love this game has garnered.
Understandable. You have a lot on your plate, and getting bills paid comes first. But I'd wager you have bigger dreams, of going into business for yourself as a game developer. Consider the critical reception to this demo to be an invitation to do just that, if you can stomach the risk. There is no reward without risk, as ever.
I would like to offer my services, as a publisher horror author who has written a similar story about a world overtaken with self-replicating automated slaughter houses operated by a privileged class, raising human cattle who have been intentionally brain damaged with lead contaminated water. It explores the ethics of meat consumption, the cognitive tricks we use to rationalize it, and comments on the moral and environmental cost of our appetites.
The games which endure in the public imagination for decades after release all tend to have compelling themes which provoke feeling (Undertale being one well known example). The inherent horror of meat, which we at the same time are helplessly in love with, is a rich source of conflicting feelings. Guilt, pleasure, fear. This is fertile ground from which to grow an emotionally resonant story. Though I confess, I fear you will have no need of my services as a story of this kind is not best told through exposition dumps but through the wordless actions and experiences of the player. (perhaps in optional monitor logs, once the player has learned to read?)
I believe we spoke about this game's future prospects in the past, and you voiced the desire to allow the player to pick up and use the pig butcher's saw, as a very limited fuel disposable item. This is a good idea in my estimation, and can be prevented from unbalancing the game if they don't all have saws, some have butcher knives, which are melee weapons no more effective than the pipe. Also if the saw takes up a large portion of the inventory, so that you cannot carry spares.
I would also like to repeat my suggestion that the game explore the entire logistical process of meat production, starting the player off not in the slaughter house but as an infant being raised in a pasture, enjoying the verdant fields, oblivious to what the future holds.
The game as-is can comprise the middle act, with the final act taking place post-escape as you and the other humans reach "civilization", infiltrating a fast food restaurant or deli, discovering what ultimately becomes of humans in this world. That we are only a popular edible product, in the final analysis. This would afford the opportunity for some cathartic retribution, as you sabotage and burn down these meat purveyors, even if such a small act of defiance does not stop the larger meat industry.
I consider this to be such a self-evident direction to take the game in that it basically writes itself, following the "meat" from cradle to grave. But then, that's my vision, it may not be yours. I trust that the author of a game I enjoyed so greatly already will have more surprises in store for me, and that I'll enjoy whatever you came up with just as much as I enjoy the game in its present form.
