IMPETUS

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.43
Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.18
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★4.34
Theme★★★★★★★★★★4.17
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.52
Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.56
Humor★★★★★★★★★★1.69
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.66
Coolness★★★★★★★★★★30%
Impetus has lost consciousness and her systems will fail in 10 seconds. Death is inevitable, but it can be delayed.
Sustain Impetus' life by pressing the button, which will reset the timer. Once it runs out, the game is over and can never be played again.

Switch on the game's sound in the upper right corner. Feel free to play one of the soundtracks provided on the site along with it.

A game by Dominik Johann (@zerstoerer), Jan Oelze (@JanOelze) and Jeremy Lonien (@Ludonaut), made in a couple of hours.

+++ UPDATE +++

After 89011 global timer resets and a lifespan of 42351 seconds, Impetus has perished and will never return.

I posted a post-mortem, check it out for details on the idea, making the game, how it became insanely successful and why it had to die. Also there's a gameplay video in there for everyone who didn't get a chance to play it.
Read it here: http://dominikjohann.tumblr.com/post/59611971605

Thanks for playing!

screenshot

Comments37

Tork27 Aug 2013, 00:30
Background music: "youtube link" lol, loved the background pic and the idea of having her alive by everyone at the same time :D
BradleySmith
BradleySmith27 Aug 2013, 00:35
Really unique idea... rated this very highly. :)
kristof27 Aug 2013, 00:37
Very innovative and cool idea. A bit hard to judge though as there isn´t much of a game...
Raiyumi
Raiyumi27 Aug 2013, 00:38
This is a neat concept. Although, I think she died on me, but was reset on a refresh. Or maybe that was just me..
Dominik Johannauthor27 Aug 2013, 00:44
@Raiyumi: Huh, that's weird, probably an AJAX / timestamp error. Once the timer runs out properly, it'll definitely show.
Meep27 Aug 2013, 01:03
Despite not really being a game, it's a really awesome concept. :) I like it a lot.
BadgerPriest
BadgerPriest27 Aug 2013, 01:48
This is probably the most unique concept I've seen in this competition. Props to you.
Sestren27 Aug 2013, 02:39
Even if I do nothing, it seems like the counter resets after 5 seconds every time. I feel like I might understand the concept, but I'm not quite sure.
Travis Irby27 Aug 2013, 02:42
Love the idea! Nice job, fits the theme perfectly.
FlashDave
FlashDave27 Aug 2013, 02:50
Great idea, so simple and the concept fits with the theme so nicely. I'd like to feel like I'm playing with other people if that could worked in some how and perhaps a counter on how many times the game died could be nice but maybe that'd just spoil the fun? good job.
RealMSHB27 Aug 2013, 06:35
wow
your idea is fanstatic
matthias_zarzecki27 Aug 2013, 10:52
Well this is a great idea.

Too bad not many people will be able to actually "play" it :(
Dominik Johannauthor27 Aug 2013, 10:58
Update: IMPETUS is dead. Thanks to my web hosting service, which decided to block all access to the game's location, people were not able to sustain its life. Pretty sure that, with a stronger server, we could have kept this going for a while. Either way, what a ride! Thanks for playing!
KevinZuhn
KevinZuhn27 Aug 2013, 18:34
Well, I got here far too late!
Sounds like it was a really cool idea, though. I'm surprised it lasted roughly 12 hours (if my math is right).
Jordo7628 Aug 2013, 01:22
I managed to "play" a bit before Impetus died, and it's a really fun experiment to wonder when someone is going to click on the button.
nicotuason28 Aug 2013, 09:02
What?! She's dead! I didn't even get to see her alive :c I feel so sad
sgehlich28 Aug 2013, 09:24
Amazing idea - didn't have a chance to play it, but I love the idea!
Dominik Johannauthor28 Aug 2013, 20:38
Sorry to all of you who have not been able to play IMPETUS. I just published a post-mortem that goes a bit further into detail about why the game died, how the idea came about, how many people played it etc. – there's also a gameplay video for all of those who missed it. Enjoy: http://dominikjohann.tumblr.com/post/59611971605
Xgor
Xgor28 Aug 2013, 21:02
Really cool idea... Wish I had the chance to look at it when it was active...
iterative deepening
iterative deepening28 Aug 2013, 21:36
It's sad, you should have done more advertising about the game because many people weren't aware to keep her alive.
OldPeculier
OldPeculier28 Aug 2013, 22:02
Brilliant, of course. Read about it via Hacker News.
sP0CkEr228 Aug 2013, 22:42
i wish i could have played it
ellipticaldoor
ellipticaldoor29 Aug 2013, 00:15
Interesting but I can't play it now :(
rfgpfeiffer29 Aug 2013, 06:39
Was this 'the Cowpocalypse meets Curiosity'?
Zammy
Zammy29 Aug 2013, 07:30
Hey @Dominik,
Please restart the experiment!
I know your idea was to have final death of the game, and never to be playable again. That puts precious value in it and on the "click to keep alive" button.
But consider this: the world didn't knew about your experiment! And obviously you put it on a weak server, with no preparation for huge amount of traffic!

A few suggestions what you may do now:
1. Explain the resurrection somehow: parallel universe, you found another space accident, etc.

2. Make thorough server preparation for insane amounts of traffic. Put it on a cloud, tier 1 servers, backbone. Prepare for insane results.

3. Contact the press BEFORE you launch! Set a date of the launch so everyone in the world know they should keep her alive! :)

4. Give time to the people. Tell the world like 1 month or something before you launch. Let them make communities around it :)

5. Use the power of the message for lightening people's conscience. Put some links around it with topics like Euthanasia, sustaining human life, organ donation, various medical conditions etc.

6. Make "resurrect her" website - where you'll count how many people press "resurrect" button, just to see how much is the attention to your project. I bet it'll be huge!

7. Make instances of it - depending on the people online, find other astronauts to be kept alive (or another theme more suitable for instances). So when you get in the website you may see "100 people kept alive" and you go to the "least attended one".

8. Put some numbers feedback for the keepers (players) to see how many of them are there.

Of course you may just ignore all of it and say "it was meant to be final". But I think you've find out great social phenomenon, and it would be a shame to not have larger reach.
DaanVanYperen
DaanVanYperen29 Aug 2013, 08:37
Haven't played it directly BUT I feel we should be able to vote anyway based on all the indirect material. I'm in love with the concept. One of those games that makes you curse not thinking about it yourself. Well done!
0110110129 Aug 2013, 11:26
Really unique idea, I love it. Came there via your reddit post, so obviously the game had already ended but I really like the concept. Good job!
DuFF29 Aug 2013, 16:10
Beautiful.
lordjosephdeburg
lordjosephdeburg15 Sep 2013, 01:24
fantastic concept!!! Shame I didnt experiance it first hand but Im really impressed. 5 stars
Found a bug?
Tell us on Discord