PROCESSED WORKMEAT
YOU EXIST TO PRODUCE.
YOU EXIST TO TOIL.
TO BE PROCESSED.
AND CANNED.
WORKMEAT.
Game contains mentions of suicide, masturbation, and getting harassed by your asshole of a boss.
Made with LÖVE and L5. Music by Frédéric Lardon (with some modifications by me). Sound effects by FilmCow.
Download
Install instructions
Download zip for your platform. The .love contains the source code which can be accessed by changing the extension from .love to .zip
Development log
- PROCESSED WORKMEAT Released1 day ago
Comments
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Damn.
It's their personal hell, not ours.
There's a lot of art put into this game and I would actually like to see it in a physical art exhibit.
Just a few things I noticed:
1. You can change the position of everything with your mouse EXCEPT Mr. SickofSlop, EXCEPT for the times when he's at his worst, then you can move him around as much as you desire. Obviously this is a representation of the loss of agency of his boss to the point he becomes just another object, and the struggle of maintaining agency for you the dev.
2. You can move things around and make things easier to reach which can make you the player feel a bit better despite everything so that way Mr. SickofSlop can still get where he needs to go and do what he needs to do and get through the shittiest time of his life easier without needing to waste as much energy in the process.
3. The method of clicking to clear away messages is very reminiscent of popping intrusive thoughts as you struggle to get through the darkest times in your life and into brighter pastures without dying in the process. And while sure this is a very dark game with a hopeful ending, even if it doesn't actually do anything in the end, it's nice to feel like maybe somewhere along the line you can offer a little bit of energy toward helping by maintaining a clean thought space during it all.
4. Things went really off the rails, but I think it's nice. Almost seems like a Hidden Fetish was unlocked during all of it, and I wouldn't be surprised to see some of that old trauma become something in the future.
I personally am trying to figure out what's real and what's not, but this is was a sweet game and even if things never turn out well, I want to believe at the very least I can pay attention and never look away as bad things happen. I'm glad you've found your footing and more things to truly indulge in and enjoy.
Thank you for making this game. There's a lot to it. And it's short and simple enough I think it's worth being in an exhibit.
No matter where you go next, I'm rooting for you.
I expected just a spiral honestly, but I ended this game feeling... better? At peace? For that I am thankful. I'm glad you're feeling better than you were.
Danke, and yeah, I'm very happy I found a way to cap this off without giving into my despair when I started this project.
It's got that white paint and gritted teeth smell
Glad you escaped the wagey cagey. Sorry you went through all that.
Damn, as someone who's soon to be in the workforce this is a mix of terrifying and relieving at the same time, I almost went to Programming instead of Arts and seeing now the state the job market is (specially for fresh meat like myself) I'm quite relieved I changed my mind.
Although it's far from perfect when it comes to arts too of course and I also worry for my friends who did choose that path. (But it's good to know those soulless fuckers who ride AI dick and are making these decisions to shove AI onto everyone are now also getting a taste of their own slop.)
And also, very importantly, I'm glad to that this particular story has a good ending! I'm sorry you had to go through all of that but it's great to know that you're now doing well!
Thank you! And, I'm doing much better these days.
This project was a distillation of my life, my struggle trying to resolve the absurdity of making things in this upside-down world, and my feelings as my field and communities turned to slop. Also, a lot of it is projecting my trauma from my short lived software development career in 2022.
I got chewed up pretty badly by a hellish start up as my first job (a start up that would close down a few years after I left). It left me out of work for years. I struggled to find a job with a huge gap in my resume. AI was just starting to take off and make searching for work feel impossible.
My career lasted merely 11 months. I never got something long and storied to reflected on. Just fizzling out with a whimper. The hardest part of this was abandoning a years long project (Chitinous Carnival) cause I just couldn't keep pushing it forwards. I was running out of money and needed a steady job instead of something that could vanish any second.
I eventually found that new job in a new field, but it was rough. This project was started after I implode pretty badly. It was a whirl wind of just everything hitting me all at once.
The first parts of this game I wrote out was The Boss's final interaction with you. I was very much in a bad place. Just raw unfiltered anger and wanting to capture the blood thirsty mindset I saw coming from the world of AI.
The happy ending was something that came after shelving this projects for several months. It was nice coming back to it with fresh eyes (and also months of therapy). It was rather satisfying ending this whole piece with "they got what they wanted. they'll get what they get". It's been my feelings as I watch the industry cannibalize itself: they got what the wanted (cheep labor), they'll get what they get (even more broken and unmaintainable code, burn out, skill lose, etc. etc).
But, I'll still be here. Despite the best efforts of many people, I'll still be coding things for myself, for the fun of interacting with a computer, for the arts and crafts. And when it's all ashes, I'll be here to press it into a pencil for my next bit of art.