Fork Parker's Crunch Out
Game Details
Description
Fork Parker's Crunch Out is a homebrew game starring Fork Parker, the fictional CFO of Devolver Digital. It was created to raise awareness about "crunch time" in game development, a practice in some companies when employees are expected to put in a large amount of (unpaid) overtime hours to get the game done in a proposed time. Devolver Digital donated 100% of their profits from sales to Take This, an organization that raises awareness and aims to combat mental health issues.
At the start of the game Fork Parker feels threatened by the rise of a new publisher, Cash Cow Games. They released Loot Box: The Game where only one in twenty downloads contains the actual game and they bought their own e-sports team. Parker decides it is time to catch up with them through crunch time. The player controls Parker in the office with mechanics typical of time management titles. He needs to bring employees caffeine to keep them awake, serve hamburgers at their desks, whip them into working, literally, using a bat, or resuscitate them using a dose of electricity when they pass out. The game takes place on a single, fixed screen and most actions are tied to moving to one of the four stations near the top of the screen, for instance to get coffee. An icon of an employee's head shows the current mood / status and Parker needs to move quickly to the correct station to remedy it. There is also a pink pet pig Pork running around and it needs to be avoided. When Parker comes in contact with it, he shakes it for a long time and B needs to be tapped repeatedly to make him let go.