Painful.
I normally avoid games like this. The push and pull of what is bureaucratic and what is humane. There are certainly some who want to take advantage but in small things it doesn’t matter. And I’ve been on the other end of waiting and hoping myself. Being unsure in a result. So this one really hit home.
The setup and presentation of the game is good. The progression of difficulty and revelation is very well done and the UI was wonderfully simple to get used to. Even the Warning serves as a bit of foreshadowing depending on how you play. Towards the end I wasn’t sure if I was experiencing a glitch or not, forms just waved by so fast that I thought it may have been because they were just preapproved? But then the one I was able to read it and it let me know…yeah. What the lay of the land was.
It’s odd because in other games I’d want to be defiant right away. In this one I kept taking small chances at first as if I was saving up to REALLY help someone. The kind of behaviors this game coaxes from a player has to be interesting. Especially when you provide to the results of the loans that didn’t get approved and the player has to continue with that knowledge.
I think the other layer here is that there really isn’t a measure of perfection as a worker. The company doesn’t trust you but will use you to make something look official. A well-crafted game for this jam.