This Game Made Me Miserable | "MakeThatMoney" Review
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- Опубліковано 29 чер 2024
- Welcome to Steam Sequence, a series where I attempt to play every game on Steam in alphabetical order to see if there are any hidden gems among the piles of garbage. I'm playing through all the terrible games so that you don't have to. Please enjoy my suffering.
Spoilers: It's mostly garbage.
The game for this episode is: "MakeThatMoney"
In case you're wondering, Steam organizes games starting with punctuation first, then numbers, and then the actual alphabet. It may be some time before I reach the letter "A" on my journey!
Current hidden gems total: 1
00:00 Intro
00:40 First Impressions
02:05 Overview and Gameplay
13:12 Final Thoughts and Rating
15:05 Outro
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Intro/Outro Music by Approaching Nirvana
/ approachingnirvana
Song: Steampowered
Listen to the song on Spotify: open.spotify.com/track/4OsSqY... - Ігри
UPDATE: After posting this review the game has been moved into correct alphabetical sorting in the Steam Store. It's still listed, just not in the same alphabetical position it was at the time.
I'm not sure if this was done by Valve or the Devs, but I'm glad to see the change.
The game is "unfun", but I have a gut feeling that it's by design, and it succeeded with what this title set out to do: show how miserable it is to maintain modern standards of living.
Like, it's not a "game" so much as it's an "anti-game" in the same way that "anti-humor" is specifically something not funny, and it's that way on purpose, or how an "anti-hero" is not heroic and goes against traditional virtue, with that being on purpose.
in 20 years you have to review it again
@@thetruegoldenknight yeah, i was wondering the same thing. but it also does feel badly designed if intended as a critique of capitalism, since for how impossible it is to actually win the game, money does solve all your issues and given you make the most money with "good" and legal hard labour. It's definitely on its way to being an anti-game illustrating the problems of capitalism, but it does seem more accidental than by design. also the fact being a landlord earns you barely anything and you don't get an ounce of renter/tenant interaction? idk i feel like changing points like that to be in some measure actually shown as exploitative would make it more effective as an anti-game, but maybe that's just me.
reading it as one is definitely the more interesting/charitable perspective though and I am intrigued by that premise, it just doesn't deliver on it
This game really makes you FEEL like a wage slave
This honestly seems more like a finance class exercise than a game tbh
It's will make a lot of people realize that they will never be millionaires
And the moral is that you have to cheat the system to get rich.
It's funny cause "depressing desk job simulator" describes Papers, Please to a T, and that game is great
I haven't played that one myself yet, but I've heard a lot about it. Sounds like it's depressing for very different reasons
Highly recommend you playing it in your own time. Definitely worth the time investment and goes to show how you can make repetitive tasks engaging and interesting. I've even replayed it.
I've even made challenge run on Papers, Please! it's an amazing game
Oh, good point, it’s a literally depressing desk job, and not just depressing for the normal lack of accomplishment and meaning.
Remember Stanley's job from the parable? The one where he sat at his desk all day, doing nothing but following directions on what buttons to press? This game is like that.
I find it odd how you had apartments and a house that just gave zero returns. Specifically, that you bought two of each, and it was specifically the second one of each that gave no money. This tells me that the game only has one routine or whatever for each unique type of property giving returns, so any additional properties of that type you buy are worthless. You only gain one income from owned apartments, no matter how many sets you happen to own; same with houses, and likely same with businesses if there happen to be multiples of the same store lying around.
I highly doubt this was intentional if I’m right. Just another sign, like the exploits, that maybe this game wasn’t play tested that well. Not that I blame the devs, this thing barely deserves the care that it got.
I agree, I doubt it was intentional - I think that the dev simply didn't playtest the game at all.
While I agree that hthe 2nd rental not making any money was most likely unintentional, there's also a small chance that it was intentional.
Like alot of times in real life if someone rents out 2 properties then there's a chance they'll have to spend more money repairing and maintaining the 2nd property then they'll make renting it out. It can also happen with just 1 rental property (not making any mony due to the maintenance and upkeep costs) but that wouldn't be fair to the player of this videogame.
Granted a better way to do that would've had the videogame occasioanlly take several hundred dollars out of the player's account and tell them it's needed to "repaint the walls of the rental(s)" or "change the locks on the rental(s)" or "fix the dryer(s)/washer(s) inside tr rental(s)" with the amount taken out being higher if the person has 2 rentals then if he/she just has one rental.
The morning and day drags on, but the afternoon and evening leaps to night? Gotta say, that sounds pretty accurate tbh.
True
Idk how you have the patience to play these games
A lot of determination and optimism that some of these might turn out to be good.
Plus, creating entertaining content is also a win. Who doesn't enjoy watching someone else suffer?
I play the bad games so you don't have to!
He thankfully literally gets money to do so.
3:16 I’m guessing they couldn’t figure out how to make the advance buttons only register once per press (i.e. if you press E for one box, then since E is still held when the next box shows up, it would count it as being pressed for that one too) so this was their hacky solution.
That's a pretty plausible explanation! I love learning these little bits about game design
The wait function looks awfully nice right now
@@GraeldonSo weird, because all the things I’ve used for games (unity, javascript and UE) make a clear distinction between pressing and holding a key
Or it could be intentionally "bad" game design to prevent spamming.
A $150 hospital bill? Yeah, the game certainly doesn't take place in America.
Medicaid is actually $0 but for that you have to be unemployable.
Accurate life simulator
Welcome back! I appreciate you checking out more of my content ❤️
I like the idea behind Steam Sequence & I like supporting small creators. Looking forward to future videos!
Hey there, thanks for watching! The next episode will be #10 and I've got something special planned...
Awesome
This game is legit exactly what it says.
10:02 this is the same as in Don't get Fired (a similar game but for mobile) where getting fired causes you to lose 2 promotions and collecting your severance is how you progress. Obviously each promotion pays out more severance so it's still worth having a higher promotion but it does help a lot when you get fired for literally no reason. (which happens way more often at lower ranks)
So yes, it's literally more worthwhile to become an executive (not a CEO, as retiring there starts you over from Intern) and then intentionally get yourself fired (which is a lot harder since events where you can get instantly fired become very rare) than to be CEO.
You should check it out sometime, alongside their sequel Workemon as unlike this game, the messaging is quite the opposite.
It feels so . . . Intentional ? I don't know how to even feel about it
This seems to be a shitty Stick RPG clone and old game I would play on Flash websites back in the day.
This game is a nightmare. I nearly gave up when I had to start over again, I actually nearly quit this project.
Very glad I pushed on!
@@Graeldon I am glad you pushed on too or else I would have never found you via your most recent video! glad to see the spike in subscribers since then too, I was literally watching the number rise as I went through your older vids.
This was my exact thought--this seems like an attempt at creating something very much in the vein of XGen Studios's Stick RPG. It was very influential back in its day, but it's surprising to see that a clone of it came out in 2017.
3:15 that's not a random change of buttons, it's clearly testing if you are paying attention. 10/10 feature please kill me.
This game reminds me startlingly of circa 2005 Flash life RPG sim games
Like Stick RPG?
Oh yeah. This has Newgrounds all over it.
@@user-vs4qc7yj9s It is fun. I remember it playing it b4. I don't remember if I finished it tho.
The fact that you buy college degrees 💀
Thanks for taking the bullet for us playing this game!
Being an office worker is the worst kind of fate that no one deserves, I never wish it on anyone. If all kids in this world who are about to graduate from college try this game to have a taste of what's about to come in their lives, I guarantee the unalive rate percentage would skyrocket.
Not to say it won’t anyways. Not living > living in 99% of scenarios in the current world
@@whee2390 Exactly. It's better to die than to have a "normal day job". Being employed (not self-employed) is a fate worse than being buried alive.
With respect as a warehouse worker who also did various low level blue collar jobs for a year that unintentionally entitled attitude pisses me off.
Like while I get you might be dealing with depression and that deserves some sympathy, you need to be more objective about your life.
There are FAR worse fates then just driving in a comfy car to and from work each day at a pleasant 9 to 5 office job where you sit at a comfy desk doing paperwork all day until retirement at age 65 or 70.
If yor job feels pointless then just volunteer during some of yor free time at like a soup kitchen or your kid's little league team or helping mentoring troubled teens or helping kids do their homework or a suicide prevention hotline or your place of worship (church, mosque, synagogue, temple, etc) or whatever. Most office jobs are not that tiring, you should likely easily have energy to do stuff after work.
Alternatively go do an office job that's actually meaningful like at a hospital or at a charity like the Red Cross or at a place that does meaningful work like at a company that sells and/or makes stuff needed to keep the economy and the modern world running. You knew very well going in that just doing a regular 9 to 5 white collar job at like the Dunder Mufflin Paper Company or the Pawtucket Pat brewery was never going to be particularly meaningful or important work.
Moat office workers have enough money for a car. You will most likely never have to deal with the complete BS that is having to use public transit to get to a job that starts at a BS early hour like 7:30am or 7am or 6:30am or 6am or god forbid 5:30am. Even the best run municipal public transit systems in the world still have trouble getting people to work on time and most public transit systems do NOT have enough bussess or train shuttles ro get people to work early enough without having to crowd people inside stuffed bussess or shuttles. I'm so grateful I finally got a car. Taking public transit especially during the pandemic was a GD nightmare.
Even if you had to do an office job, many if not most office jobs are centrally located and easily accessible by public transit. Most office jobs are not located in the middle of the bonnies or in a random locarion inside a giant sprawling industrial park.
Most office jobs paid people enough that they can afford retirement just by saving up enough of their earnings yet many also offer retirement plans. Many if not most blue collar jobs don't have that.
Your parents had enough money to help you out throughout your life to send you to college, even if you had to take out a loan to fully afford it. Many peoples parents were not that competent or supportive enough.
The 2 main issues with office work are apparently just that many co-workers are sacks of $#1+ that create a BS toxic work culture through their gossip and petty dramas (in which case you just got to find a better office job somewhere) and that the lack of physical activity makes people depressed (in which case people should just take some walks outside during lunch breaks, make use of the on site gym and/or take up going to the gym and/or bicycling as hobbies outside of work.)
Like many if not most people on this planet slave out in the fields or out in the streets or in a sweaty stuffy factory for just between like $2 to $10 an hour at most. They don't have enough money to do anything really. You ar least have enough money to like go to the movie theatre or the mall once every 2 or 3 weeks.
@SurprisinglyDeep yeah i agree, "not living > living in 99% of scenarios" is such an alarming and terrible thing to say. Albeit I'm still in college but i love being alive and im looking forward to what is in store for me. If you feel like that, you really need to find something to care about, or make yourself feel like you're productive and helping other people in a healthy way. You can find purpose in life outside of a boring office job. The amount of people who hate their lives because they are employed somewhere they don't like is shocking.
I guessed "crash" but I guess loop of despair works too.
Maybe this is a poignant art piece about the emptiness of the grind.
Can’t tell if this game is supposed to be a critique of capitalism and wage slavery or just shit game design, 10/10
That intro gag was fantastic. I do, in fact, like repetition! ...I feel like there would be more enjoyable repetition for me to engage in though.
This series is surprisingly enjoyable. You get some pretty entertaining videos out of these mostly not-so-entertaining games!
I'm not entirely convinced that this game is in some sort of next level satire, if not a very good game. The fact that the only win state is through a unintended exploit in the game itself, not even a clever "This is how the millionaires do it" kind of way, and that winning doesn't even actually get you anything, And with that Warren Buffett quote about being absolutely certain that she was going to be rich, that she was going to succeed, and yet the game itself being virtually unwinnable, it could just be a lazy / misguided attempt at portraying the grueling "grindset" mentality
“she”?
@@drdca8263 yes, Warren Buffet is a woman
YAY! I got absolutely nothing! :D
Also, welp. This is one of those games that might have been neat to play for completely free on those flash sites back in the days (were it not for the thing, you know, being mathematically impossible to beat without exploits), but now? Yeowch.
This is definitely one of those games you thought about making once because it'd be "like, totally deep", but then realised how awful it'd be to play and dropped it. Since the devs also made the amazon warehouse simulator™, I wonder if it's just something they're psychically compelled to make...
yo I came here from the jrpg video. I've been watching your other videos, honestly it's pretty entertaining to watch and you just got yourself a new sub
I'm glad you're enjoying the content!
This game feels oddly nostalgic because it reminds me of Stick RPG. The gameplay loop is pretty much the same, repeat the same things until you have max stats and money and then you win. Though in this game it adds a hard time limit and mechanics that doesn't guarantee returns.
Exactly what i thought
That’s what I thought too! This just looks like a less stylish and crappier version of Stick RPG! There’s arguably more content here but I think you’d be better off just playing that, you’ll have a better experience.
Holy crap, this looks a lot like StickRPG. Remember that? The old FLASH GAME? That’s genuinely what it’s like, the building layout is even similar sometimes. This is just a less polished, less fun, and less stylish StickRPG, and I’m sure it won’t have a beautiful sequel like that game. It arguably has some things over that game, but you’ll have more fun if you just play that.
the "okay" key switches between e and f so you pay attention
Love the JoshStrifeHayes rating system.
I think it can actually be more meaningful that an actual number in many cases
This is basically just Real Life, if you're not stuck in "The Void" like I am.
For those people on the other side of that coin, it's a great demonstration of how and why "the system" is broken by design. No, the game is doing just fine...it's teaching a valuable lesson that REAL LIFE is what's been designed to be unattainable.
Fr this game would give youtubers and content creators a taste of something they were fortunate enough to never have to experience.
This video series shoukd be renamed "A delve into madness"
That's pretty accurate!
I feel like ive played a flash game almost exactly like this except that game was actually fun
In fact I'm almost certain this game is ripping that one off
You might be thinking of Stick RPG?
@@Graeldon yes that's exactly what I was thinking of
That sounds spot on with the American dream
The one positive thing about this is the realism, under capitalism you really don't become wealthy from your own work, so to become rich you have take away labour value from many other people.
This game uses some textures and models from FPS Creator Classic, a very old game engine made for fps games. If the devs made this game in it, they have very interesting skills and I wonder why I haven't heard about this game before.
There is a much better game that this made me think of, from the DOS era (1990), by Sierra, called "Jones in the Fast Lane".
That game is structured more like a board game, where you traverse a loop visiting various businesses around town in an effort to increase your education, happiness, career, and wealth. Each player begins the game renting a crappy apartment on one space of the board, but an upscale apartment complex is available to move to. The game requires you to balance getting food, furnishing your home with useful items, going to University, and working your job - each turn represents a week, so, for example, if you go to the fast food restaurant to eat, that represents mostly eating fast food for a week, compared to buying actual groceries at the Market (which is cheaper if you can buy multiple weeks at a time, but requires you to purchase a Refrigerator to avoid extra weeks spoiling and being useless). Different jobs around the town pay different rates, and if you keep an eye on the Employment office, you can get a raise, or even a promotion with enough experience.
The most important thing about Jones In The Fast Lane is that it has a sense of humor that wraps the whole thing in an air of comedy in the old-school Sierra style. Being able to compete against other players (or just other computer players), and being able to set what proportion of goals you want to try and achieve adds a level of variable difficulty and replayability as well.
If the idea of a life-sim/board-game with funny voice acting sounds fun, I recommend tracking it down. It's Abandonware by this point, and there's even in-browser versions of it out there.
I enjoy these videos a lot, I really like your range of emotions over the stupidity of each game
Out of all the games I've seen you play so far, this looks like the one that I'd like to beat the least.
Hey, I decided to buy !anyway! Was and I found out that the setting don't really work but I figured out how to move forwards to move forwards I had to press 0 not o
Ah yes, the standard movement keys of WAS and 0 XD
Best of luck to you! Let me know if you have any luck selling the workshop items
@@Graeldon yep
This sounds like it's centered around the boring and depressing tedium that most normal people play games to forget about, not be reminded of.
so buying coffee doesn't make a difference to getting rich? wow. but i thought Starbucks is why people can't make it!
all those millennials, with their Starbucks and avocado toast smh
For a while I was wondering why you were playing games starting with M or D and then I realized - you’re still on quotation marks
Yep, still working through the punctuation section. I'll be at numbers before the end of the year!
This feels like stick rpg without the fighting
and weeeee're back to the godawful games
This is a game in the sense that being skinned alive is considered a "pleasure in life".
i love this series idea
Looking at this game only reminded me of that classic flash game I used to play, Stick RPG
This is basically worse "super life (rpg)" which was also either inspired by or made by the same devs of basically a same type of flash game i forgot the name of
I honestly quite like the visuals; they’re charming
Immagine if diamonds really costed only 150$ each
Depends on the diamond, doesn’t it?
Like, lots of low quality ones are used in cutting tools, right?
The strongest critiques of capitalism are capitalists being themselves.
It's the main reason why billionaires hide behind billions of dollars of PR.
this game seems utterly miserable.
This reminds me of the browser Stick RPG game.
The highest form of satire is the one that leaves you questioning whether it was even satire or not.
This is literally an old flash game i used to play called “Stick RPG”
I'll grudgingly concede this is a game, but so was that cookie-clicker thing a while back. Technically. Doesn't mean I'd ever want to "play" either of them.
Cookie Clicker is still around, and it could be argued that it's (at least partially) responsible for the flood of AFK style games available now
@@Graeldon Aware, but I no longer share an apartment with two cookie clicker addicts the way I once did. Makes it much easier to ignore developments in that genre. :)
"Cookie clicker killed my grandma, okay??😭😭"
Unironically the best critique of capitalism
Dang this ones sorta depressing 😅
14:07 I think this videogame is still a parody of the idea that a normal person could ever become a millionaire even by grinding hard, it's just that it's a hidden parody game initially disguised as a standard "grind hard and fast to get rich" sort of videogame.
Like I seriously think the dev only included that Warren Buffet comment in order to mock that sort of worldview by contrasting it with the experience by playing the game.
Given they also made 3 other games about earning money, I'm not sure that is the case. Watch the "Stonks!" video more more context if you haven't already
@@Graeldon Maybe it's just a parody of the idea that someone could make a million dollars in their life just by working a regular 8 hour a day job and doing regular side hustles?
Like I'll go check out the other video you made and I didn't know about the oher 3 games they made but the gameplae mechanics and the context the quote was placed in still seem like satire or parody
I will say it is a wonderful fact that the deadline of the game is death. It showcases how little the money, on its own merit, is actually worth. You spent 48 years fulfilling his lifelong dream of being able to afford everything he wanted, to have two years of doing so. And chances are that because he doesn't have access to the game Meta, he will likely be afraid of spending the money, thinking he doesn't want to run out of it and have to repeat... so during those two years, he likely isn't living the life that made him want to get a million dollars in the first place. And when he dies, the cycle repeats.
From that standpoint, that makes perfect sense as a design choice. I am unsure if the game is intended to be that way. although if it is an anti-game knowingly rather than by accident, it would explain why the devs didn't even bother to add even an ending screen for winning the game: They did not expect anyone to get there.
Though, honestly, if that's it, I think it may have been funnier if, while the win condition 1,000,000 was clearly stated, actually reaching that number is not recognized by the game at all. You just keep grinding and get a "Game Over, you died" message at age 70 or when running out of health or energy. Like just, befuddle the player there. but it would show that the game was never designed to be a game.
6:37 I was about to comment the same joke
Reminds me of "Jones in the Fastlane" pc game.
It's so life like!
I know you said that the game glorifies the process of earning money, but perhaps the fact that there's no ending screen is a commentary on the emptiness of the accumulation of wealth at expense to your personal life!...
...or maybe the developers were just lazy, who knows.
wait you do them alphabetically and are already at M how long is this series?
Sorry, the quotation marks are part of the name. I haven't even reached the letter A yet! I have to get through all the games that start with punctuation and numbers first 😅
I will be curious to know how much money you'll spend if this series ever finishes, and how much money you got back by beating the games in under 2 hours.
Anyone know what the music playing during the vid is (the piano one)? It’s an absolute jam
Not sure sorry! Likely something royalty free though, I doubt the dev actually composed music for this.
@@Graeldon Oh it's from the game? I thought it was added in-post. Wouldn't think a game of such "high" standards would have such a banger. Thanks anyways!
I wonder if the misery this game puts you through is intentional. Maybe the point is that the grind for personal wealth is one paved with hardships and monotony...
...or maybe the game is merely poorly made.
This reminds me of the stick figure game where you work and just live life p cool
…this is sticklife. He flash game. But worse.
How did they screw up the timer? That can’t be hard to program?
12:46 I got it!
i played this on newgrounds back in the early 2000's
Hey, just like real life. Great.
I guess this dev also abuses punctuation
What determines weather you get fired and banned or demoted?
It’s probably your promotion level, if you’re a starter employee you probably get fired.
This has to be a game made by someone who wanted to make money and designed by someone with a grudge against capitalism
The economy is not balanced in the slightest for how much time the game gives you. Did the developer not play-test this?
This game is cruelty squad but not insane or interesting
Cant believe I guessed right!!!...
I wonder how far down this list you have to go before finding a game you’ve heard of?
.hack appears to be the first game that I've heard of before, but I've never played any games in that series
I did it!
You finished this game?
@@Graeldon I guessed right.
This feels like someone played StickRPG and wanted to make their own version but they made it 500x less fun
Me irl
this feels like a fake game made for metastory like petscop
Reasonably priced at least
This game is a metaphor for capitalism.
I feel like treating this game like it's glorifying the #grindset is too harsh. It's clearly terrible as a game, but not without reason, and I certainly don't think it's accidental.
You definitely start out idealising the accumulation of wealth, but by the end of the game that illusion is gone, one way or another. It's more obvious if you just play the game trying to have fun and end up making nowhere near enough in time no matter what you try. But if you "win"? Well, you've just spent your entire adult life dedicating every possible fraction of your energy to awful, repetitive tasks, for an ultimately meaningless milestone. You've hardly lived a life at all, and yet by the time you "win", you'll barely have any left. Fuck, there's not even a little victory jingle or anything to enjoy before your last 2 years tick over... If that's what glorifying looks like, I must seriously be immune to propaganda.
So it's the opposite of Stardew Valley?
So a crappy kmock-off of stick rpg, lol
Yo
Welcome back! I hope you enjoyed this video!
@@Graeldon I did thank you
@@j-s_g2 Next episode will be something special! I'm also trying to get ahead with recording to have weekly releases =)
@@Graeldon awesome
So, you have to work yourself to death to become a millionaire? Somehow still less realistic than life, but close.
This is like a bad stick life clone
Sounds like real life only easier
It’s like Stick RPG 2 but terrible
A good alternative to this shit show is the Stick Rpg series
Talk about a realistic game