Department 98
This is the demo for Department 98. The full game is coming to Steam.
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Your placement is confirmed. Report to District Intake, desk seven. The previous occupant's effects have been cleared.
An idle game inside a fake 1990s office OS about paperwork, promotion and replacement.
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Play in your browser, it takes about half an hour. Mouse and keyboard only. English and German. Fullscreen for best experience.
Comments
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The steam link doesn't work :( i wanna know who V is !!!
Oh, silly me, the steam page is not live yet, the link cannot work, though the steam page should be coming very soon.
You will definitively get some answers in the full game. Glad to see it piqued your interest, thanks for playing.
I'm sorry, but this "puzzle" regarding the V has to be one of the most mind numbing and nonsensical things I've ever done here on Itch as NOTHING makes sense about it, first off it says "keep it going" which doesn't imply keep kitting the + button on the calculator, but use the code on the next program in the start menu, then comes the "see directory" which I have done multiple times and NOTHING happens, if it is a part of the demo and end right there for now, it doesn't say, if it doesn't it is very broken.
Hello, thank you for playing.
I am sorry to hear it has been a frustrating experience for you. I just looked into the problems you described and there are issues with the second puzzle in terms of discoverability and solveability.
The personal notes document should give you access to a 2-tiered hint system (first a nudge, then spelling it out) and afaik the puzzle should always be solvable, though of course you might have found a new bug.
There also is an in-game bug reporting tool (Indicident Report, e.g. on the desktop) that would provide me with additional context for figuring out what went wrong in you game.
Thank your for writing this up, it is very helpful.
Seems kind of neat so far. Looks nice, good style. But the writing massively detracts from the experience because it's that AI-written shorthand that's trying so hard to sound cool that it's always bordering on gibberish.
Almost every single piece of text sounds like it was written with the intention of maximizing the effort it will take to understand it. Instead of "You can hire assistants after manually completing five forms" it has to be "Five by hand clears the way to..." and junk like that. Or "The form names its tray. Hit it. The Grey one's not in service - most things aren't."
Garbage like this DOES NOT MAKE SENSE to a player who is just starting the game. When you omit the subject, and often the verb, and then describe whatever thing or action in the most convoluted slangy way possible, most players just think WHAT IS THIS TALKING ABOUT?
Especially when it's the 20th dialogue box in my four minutes of play. I suggest fixing it.
Hey, thank your for playing!
Sorry you were frustrated with the writing, the idea with tutorial character (Holt) was to make him distinct from the Department voice (warmer, more human, but also jaded) and get that across mostly within the tutorial of game itself. I do see how the examples to described (and more) can cause confusion and the most important role of that character (the tutorial) is diminished by that. So maybe this is a straightforward case of simpler being better. Anyways, thanks for taking the time to give feedback, it is appreciated.