Elevator Pitch

Game: Elevator Pitch
Developer(s): Hugimugi7 and Amerigo Gazaway

Platform: PC/Mac/Linux/Flash

Download Link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/elevator-pitch

What's this? Another update in a little over a week? I guess I really am trying to bring this behemoth back to life. Just about everyone has heard the phrase "time is money" to the point where it has become a cliched phrase. But what if you took the phrase and warped into life being literal currency? That's the idea of the current (as of writing this) game jam hosted on Ludum Dare this half of the year, where the goal is to make a game centered around the theme of life being a literal currency. Some of the games that are a part of the jam made their way to the itch.io website and I got a chance to play some of them. I did enjoy some of the games, like "Death Alley", but that game just mentioned loosely ties in with the theme of the game jam. Elevator Pitch, on the other hand, takes a literal and thematic approach to the idea of life being a currency.

Elevator Pitch has you working in the office of a AAA game studio, where you are fed up with your life being a corporate hell, where you're working during seemingly endless crunch time. Fed up with your job and your lack of relaxation and family time, it's time that you rise up and overthrow your evil corporate overlord and seek sweet freedom. You do this by trashing the office around you and defeating your boss in a fight to the death... and that's about it really.

Yeah, the game is incredibly short in its current state, as it was made in 72 hours for the game jam. As far as I'm concerned, the devs are looking to expand upon the game, but given that is still the reviewing session of the game jam, they can't update the game yet, so this what you get really: a short game with a whopping total of two levels! Pretty underwhelming, but there is potential to be had here.

Honestly, this game reminds me of some of those early iOS mobile games where you beat-up/torture a personification of your work boss, where you take your digital frustration out on him, or just play to pass the time. The games were entertaining when I was younger, but not enough to hold my attention for long periods of time. Then again, that wasn't entirely the goal of the game.

If anything, this game does provide some commentary on the AAA game development scene, where workers are forced into crunch time to work on a product when projected release date looms over their heads, and if the game doesn't sell well, they get laid off anyway, like what Electronic Arts does with their business practices and are consistently labeled as one of, if not the worst, American company to work for.

As far as the game jam's theme of "life is currency" goes, it takes a more thematic approach to it, where you are tired of being a slave to your corporate overlord and want to rise up like the gamer you are and free yourself from your chains of corporate enslavement. This kind of screams the "We Live in a Society" meme that was popular online in 2018, just without the multiple layers of irony, and more to provide commentary of an industry's business practices and to blow off some steam.

It's a very short game, so short, it's almost insubstantial, but there is definite potential to be had with this concept. I'll be keeping an eye on it if it gets an update on the itch.io platform and see where the devs take it. Also, the game has a soundtrack on Bandcamp that you can download for free : ) I'd embed it here, but I forgot that the embedding code is kind of wonky for Bandcamp releases, so here's a link to it. The game does ironically live up to its name of "Elevator Pitch" where it only borrows a few moments of your time. Give it a whirl if you'd like.