Sisyphus Simulator
How will you spend your suffering?
Will you let it fuel your strength, to push your boulder to new heights?
Will you load up your boulder, only to increase your suffering?
In suffering, there is meaning.
Make it to the top with any meaning left, and you will find happiness.
Can you ascend all 27 mountains, and make it to the top of Mt Olympus?
To be able to play the game while minimized, you must play the downloadable version. Currently only available for Windows. If there is interest, I can make Mac & Linux versions.
v0.0.4 Patch Notes:
- Upgrades (Meditations) now unlock upon ascending higher mountains
- More tooltips, labels in shop
v0.0.3.3 Patch Notes:
- Fixed bottom pattern covering text, disappearing
- Changed button colors
v0.0.3.2 Patch Notes:
- Balance adjustments
- New upgrade
- Better resizing for downloadable version
v0.0.3 Patch Notes:
- 2 new upgrades
- Separation between temporary and permanent upgrades in shop
- Added mountain names to sunset screen
- Timestamp after ascending Olympus, for easier speedrun screenshots
- Added scroll speed controls to shop for fun
- Added downloadable Windows version, which can be played minimized
- New struggle animation for when Sisyphus is not making progress
- Bug fixes
Known bugs features:
- You can go slightly into meaning debt. (Real)
- Exploits (find them while you can)
- Infinity
Future Updates:
- Meta Ascension system for after you reach Olympus
- Balance
- More upgrades
- Stickers
- Big Numbers, scientific notation
- Save/load
Credits:
delcarmat: "Sisyphus greek myth rolling a rock in a mountain"
Download
Install instructions
This game prototype is receiving frequent new updates. I recommend you download the latest version, currently version 0.0.4
Comments
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This game is incredibly broken as far as any sense of balance is concerned.
Increase Weight on the precipice of completion, and then hit Strength when the day is almost over, get billions of "Suffering" and "Happiness" per run within 10 reflections (I had it broken at 6). You don't even need a day longer than a minute.
No reason to do the 23 mountains when you can get every permanent upgrade on the first one. It's just rote; if you didn't climb a mountain the first time, put your billions of suffering into strength and climb it the second.
Thanks for the feedback!
This is still a very early prototype. I am currently working on structuring the upgrades into a tree to stagger progression across the whole mountain range.
I am considering doing away with the timed day mechanic, and making it so that you can buy upgrades while rolling the boulder. I am open to suggestions!
It might help to have Suffering become a different resource, like... "Resolve" or something, so as to put a limit on the growth rate. Just having Suffering lead to upgrades feels like it'll be difficult to scale, and an intermediary could be helpful in slowing the rate of upgrades in a meaningful way. It works fine at first, but when you can get billions of Suffering per frame, you need something to filter that into upgrades. Suffice to say, the Strength/Weight/Suffering relationship could also use some work itself.
Also, thematically, I'm not sure you could call Sisyphus happy on a point-based system. Perhaps it would work better as a -100 - +100 scale dependent on the difficult of the boulder against the progress rate and the height of the mountain. "The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart," after all, and happiness is momentary and fleeting.
Another thought is that the mountain itself should just be one stage. I don't think there's much to gain by having different arbitrary heights to climb to, especially when the point is the task itself, not it's completion. Maybe don't have the climb be infinite, there should be some action of the boulder rolling down the hill and all for the metaphor to work; a denouement where whatever buffs the player has accrued can be reset and the task can start once again. There is no height that Sisyphus could climb to that itself would provide a measure of meaning, after all.
And if I can be critical... I don't think this game properly conveys the philosophy behind the Myth of Sisyphus at all. It feels like surface level trappings used to explore an idea; set dressing for something meant to be infinite by it's nature. Like, there's a lot of commentary you could make, a lot of things that could be said, but this feels too on the nose to be witty and too aesthetic to be meaningful.
>> Make it to the top with any meaning left, and you will find happiness.
Why do you mislead players? This is exactly the opposite.
what did i just waste ten minutes doing??
Break the game% :P sub 3
good luck balancing ig
Nice!! How did you manage that?
Um get like 1-2 of the first 3 upgrades then autoclick between +strength and +weight
It's doable without autoclick tho
Forget about the autoclicker ig
I summited Mt Olympus in 1 hour, 47 minutes, and 46 seconds! (v0.0.2.2 world record)
Think you can beat me?