Unemployment Quest! A Non-epic RPG Kickstarter

The economy is still troubled, and that means layoffs are still happening in almost every job field. It can hit anyone at any time, as I experienced personally when my wife was laid off last month.

Charles DeYoe has been looking for a job ever since he graduated school a year ago. But Charles decided to make the most of the experience, and turn his hunt for work into a video game, Unemployment Quest.

Many of today's youth have graduated school and been unable to find work in any substantial way. As I was playing an old RPG, I realized that there don't seem to be any games that really speak to my demographic. This game is an attempt to create something which can speak to the player's real-world experience, beyond focusing on high-fantasy. The story is minimalistic as the game is not about an epic adventure so much as trying to reach a very simple goal.

Instead of fighting typical fantasy monsters, your foes will include "Doubts," "Isolation," "Shame," and the main villain "Uncertain Future."

The aim of the game is to turn the negative experience of joblessness into something less terrible, while still having fun gameplay that will not bog down players by requiring gigantic time investments.

The game is already well along in development, and Charles is actually composing the entire score himself, using Korg DS-10+ for Nintendo DS (watch his video for examples). The game has an excellent old-school feel:

Charles is running a Kickstarter project to raise funds to finish Unemployment Quest and produce pro-quality CDs. With 16 days to go he's already over 400% of his goal. You can pledge to get a download copy of the game for as little as $5, or a CD for $10. It's great to see a proud geek make the very best use of his time unemployed.