About
Abuse the game's quirks to progress through sophisticated slapstick deathtrap puzzles, uncovering the secrets of a world going through an identity crisis.
Death is your friend. As the avatar suffers, the player lives on, using the ragdoll corpse to progress through a combination of timing, precision, observation, and ingenuity.
The challenges center around the idea of game state persisting after a respawn. You can reach a new checkpoint even in death. You can clear traps by sacrificing one of your avatar's infinite lives. You can even respawn mid-ragdoll-flight to fly away from the checkpoint in the same direction. Basically, the solution to every problem is to hurl your puppet at powerful explosives.
When released, Fail to Win will include the following:
Is this my kind of game?
I hope so! I'd classify it as a metafictional puzzle-platforming comedy game. It's narrative style is similar to The Stanley Parable / The Beginner's Guide, but mechanically it is probably more similar to something like Portal because of its puzzles. I call them "puzzles", but in addition to logical reasoning, some of these challenges do require some level of timing, precision, and careful observation.
What's this about a demo?
A while back I released something called "Fail to Win: Chapter 1" for free on Itchio. This was originally designed to be a vertical slice of the full game with later chapters building off these early puzzles. As I've gotten helpful feedback from that chapter, it has undergone major revisions. When the full game releases, the first chapter will look very different from the one in the demo.
How long is it?
Play times from testers have varied quite a bit, but the target for the main campaign is to have a length comparable to Portal. In addition to this main campaign, there will also be a few bonus challenges and a stage builder.
When can I play it?
The goal is to release some time in Summer 2020, but that is subject to change. It's an ambitious project for one person, and it grew to something much larger than I had initially planned.
Death is your friend. As the avatar suffers, the player lives on, using the ragdoll corpse to progress through a combination of timing, precision, observation, and ingenuity.
The challenges center around the idea of game state persisting after a respawn. You can reach a new checkpoint even in death. You can clear traps by sacrificing one of your avatar's infinite lives. You can even respawn mid-ragdoll-flight to fly away from the checkpoint in the same direction. Basically, the solution to every problem is to hurl your puppet at powerful explosives.
When released, Fail to Win will include the following:
- A main campaign with hours of puzzles and other challenges.
- Several bonus challenges.
- A custom stage builder.
Is this my kind of game?
I hope so! I'd classify it as a metafictional puzzle-platforming comedy game. It's narrative style is similar to The Stanley Parable / The Beginner's Guide, but mechanically it is probably more similar to something like Portal because of its puzzles. I call them "puzzles", but in addition to logical reasoning, some of these challenges do require some level of timing, precision, and careful observation.
What's this about a demo?
A while back I released something called "Fail to Win: Chapter 1" for free on Itchio. This was originally designed to be a vertical slice of the full game with later chapters building off these early puzzles. As I've gotten helpful feedback from that chapter, it has undergone major revisions. When the full game releases, the first chapter will look very different from the one in the demo.
How long is it?
Play times from testers have varied quite a bit, but the target for the main campaign is to have a length comparable to Portal. In addition to this main campaign, there will also be a few bonus challenges and a stage builder.
When can I play it?
The goal is to release some time in Summer 2020, but that is subject to change. It's an ambitious project for one person, and it grew to something much larger than I had initially planned.