Slap Factory

Slap Factory is a 1-button game where you follow ridiculous rules to perform quality checks at a shape factory.

This prototype was inspired by Papers Please, and the comically nightmarish experience of trying to read parking signs here in DC.

I wanted to make something that emulated the exact feeling of trying to parse a bunch of self-contradicting rules while stopped in the middle of rush-hour traffic, desperate to park your car for less than $30.

In Slap Factory, you need to keep up with the rules behind you and mash the spacebar a few times to slap away objects that violate those rules before they get past you. If you mess up three times you lose your job.

To recreate the panicky feeling of being stopped in a busy one-way road trying to figure out if your car will be towed away, I made the game increasingly absurd and contradictory as the levels progress.

To prevent the gameplay from getting stale, I decided to think outside the box (ha) and bring in rules that had nothing to do with the factory, like "what day is it?" and "how do you spell 'monday'".

My goal was to catch people completely off-guard and create a moment where it feels like their brain is short-circuiting, at which point they will truly understand what it's like to park your car in the nation's capital.