Design Statement
The theme track felt like the last hour of a long night shift: warm, a little tired, nearly over. So Halfway Rock is the last five nights of a fuel stop on a rock in deep space, and the track plays the whole time on the radio on the counter, unmodified, starting again from the top at each dawn.

Key choices: out there money doesn't mean much, so everyone pays with something they own, and it goes up on the shelf behind you. Anything on that shelf can be handed on as change, so over five nights strangers and regulars end up carrying bits of each other around. Nothing you give is wrong and nothing is scored. Each visit has a few things that mean something to that person, anything else still gets a warm reply, and kindness echoes when regulars come back. People talk around what matters rather than about it. The ending shows only where the things you gave ended up, so every ending is complete. I wanted players to leave feeling that a place, and the small kindnesses in it, travel on after the place itself is gone.

Game Instructions (launch steps, controls, and gameplay overview)
LAUNCH
- Browser: press "Run game" on the itch page, then "start the week". Sound on.
- Mac: unzip, then right-click "Halfway Rock" and choose Open, then Open again (it isn't notarised). On newer macOS: try to open it once, then System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. One app for Apple silicon and Intel.
- Windows: unzip the whole folder, then run "Halfway Rock.exe". If SmartScreen warns you, click "More info", then "Run anyway".

CONTROLS (mouse only)
- Hover over anything to see what it is.
- Click where an order comes from to put it on the counter: the coffee machine, the fuel switch, or the rack.
- Click something on the trades shelf to give it with their order (optional).
- Press the till to ring it up, then click what they pay with to take it.
- Click a speech bubble to move on sooner. Click the radio to turn it off and on. Click the opening to skip it.
- Desktop: F11 or Alt+Enter for full screen, Esc to leave it.

GAMEPLAY
Five nights, three or four visitors a night, about 20 minutes in all. Travellers pay with whatever they have, and it goes up on the shelf; anything there can be handed on to someone else. Regulars come back and remember what you gave them. There's no score and no way to fail. The game saves at the start of each night.

Gameplay walkthrough video
https://youtu.be/1dGZTmQ1f7U

Did your project use any AI tools or assets? If yes, please specify.
Yes. Everything below was made with Claude (Anthropic), directed and edited by harmoneer:
- The code: the whole game, and the Mac and Windows apps.
- The pixel art: the scene, the people, the items, the app icon, and the Postbox Studios logo, envelope pattern and cat, drawn by scripts written with Claude and run through Aseprite.
- The sound effects, and Sol's song: synthesised live by code.
- The page art and trailer: cover, banner, background, promo images, logo, screenshot captions and trailer, made from in-game footage by scripts written with Claude.
- The writing: the in-game text and the itch page.
Not AI-made: the music is Jason Grace's theme track, played unmodified on the in-game radio. The font is Pixelify Sans (SIL Open Font License).