LAYOFF

This note last modified March 26, 2023

Bejeweled, but instead of swapping around jewels, you swap around employees — employees with names, faces, and backstories. When you “clear” an employee, they are laid off, falling sadly into an unemployment office.

list of civics games
- LAYOFF
how to design reflective games
- One way is to foster specific aesthetics around certain topics. For example, the game LAYOFF is about, well, layoffs. The mechanics are like bejeweled, except instead of swapping jewels around, you swap employees — employees with backstories and names and faces. When you “clear out” some employees, they fall sadly into an unemployment office. These mechanics foster aesthetics of dehumanization and optimization, getting players to reflect on the dehumanization and optimization inherent in the corporate world.
Creating Critical Play-Flanagan
- Also talks about LAYOFF, a game about cutting costs and corners