Utility for the Soul

Alright. [i]Utility for the Soul[/i] is done and dusted. I think it took me 15 minutes to complete? And apparently, I was a good little worker. IDK man. This was a weird one. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3415939640 It's a minor puzzle game where I guess your goal is to find a better personal balance between you and the world around you so you can be a better employee. But instead of focusing on balance between work life and personal life, I guess it wants you to better understand your place in the world as a worker. By coming to terms with yourself as it pertains to your role at whatever company you are slaving for. By going to a retreat where you interact with the Earth, Fire, Water, and Air. The abstract nature of this is somewhat lost on me, but the social engineering aspect of this is kind of offensive, lol. But hey, maybe I'm reading too much into this. Or maybe I am spot on and my lack of willingness to further line some oligarch's pockets is the real problem. Why are your employees working so you can buy a second car, a second home, a second yacht while your employees are living paycheck to paycheck? Is my own philosophy. In properly completing…

A minimalist game, with line drawn-style graphics, based on the environmental artist Aleksandra Kasuba's proposed "retreat house" for the rest and re-invigoration of corporate employees in 1970. The game implements a short series of rooms in which a visitor experiences the elements Earth, Fire, Wind and Air in different ways; the player has to make each room behave in a way which matches Kosuba's original textual description of them. There are achievements are for starting and finishing the overall game, for specific additional actions in four rooms, for four different "visitor reports" which reflect the mix of rooms undertaken or skipped (getting these represents much of my play time), and for examining Kasuba's drawing plans of the proposed retreat house. I can't say that I gained much enthusiasm or empathy for the "retreat house" concept itself, but I felt that the game was well and cleverly implemented, and I was happy to play and complete it.

Very calming puzzles and pleasant graphics. Definitely worth checking out.

Water. Earth. Fire. Air.

Short minimalist game based on an artists vision in the 1970's. Interesting, felt like an art gallery piece.

boring af