Game

Impetus

2013 · Web browser

About this game

Released as part of LUDUM DARE #27, whose theme was "ten seconds", IMPETUS was a short-lived collaborative game in which players across the world worked together around the clock to keep a doomed astronaut alive for as long as possible. A player visiting the game's page would be presented with a picture of the unnamed unconscious woman, and a countdown indicating how long she had yet to live. Any player clicking the prominent "click to keep alive" button would result in the countdown being reset: by working together, by ensuring that the button was pressed at least once every ten seconds, players could attempt to keep her alive. The game was victim of its success: after almost 12 hours of runtime, the traffic to the site reached such levels that it became inaccessible for more than ten seconds, resulting in the death of the character. The site remains accessible, but the game is no longer playable and only displays the end screen.