Play BurnOUTrunner
BurnOUTrunner's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Innovation | #92 | 3.353 | 3.353 |
| Gameplay | #127 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Theme interpretation | #128 | 3.294 | 3.294 |
| Overall | #163 | 3.059 | 3.059 |
| Graphics | #196 | 3.059 | 3.059 |
| Audio | #472 | 1.412 | 1.412 |
Ranked from 17 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
GitHub repository URL
https://github.com/ildede/game-off-2025
Game description
It's BurnOUTrunner, the most realistic freelance simulator ever made! This one's the Translator Edition, but it adapts effortlessly to any underpaid profession at imminent risk of being replaced by AI!
Theme interpretation
WAVES reminded me of endless waves of tasks that every freelance translator needs to face to reach the top
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Comments
For a game about freelance stress, I actually found the gameplay quite relaxing and casual! It was a fun experience. My only critique would be the lack of audio/music, adding some would really elevate the vibe. Big congrats on finishing this within the month!
P.S. (Out of context): While checking your page, I discovered Mastodon and did some research—it looks really cool! Would you recommend I sign up? Is it a good platform for game devs to hang out?"
We'll try to make it more stress full then :P
For the music... I know, unluckily is not my area of expertise and I end up postponing it too much and in the end, if the time is up... you know.
Thanks for you comment!
For mastodon, I've been trying but (for me) it has a feeling of twotter/x/blusky that kind of social that has too many small comments and that you need to "always be there". It's not really my kind of platform, but there are lots of people, it's worth a try.
No, there’s no need to make it stressful—it’s totally up to you, haha.
Yes, yes, I totally understand the time constraint; I started my project just 20 days before the jam ended as well.
Alright then, I’ll check out Mastodon—it’s on my list. Thanks for taking the time!
I love the art work. It feels oddly familiar like old school flash games. Also the concept of the game was unique. A great entry to the jam.
Thanks a lot :
Really neat concept! Fairly self-explanatory and easy to play, and pretty relaxing too (despite it being stressful). I did miss some audio, but overall really good job!
Thanks a lot, we'll make sure to add the music as soon as we're allowed to edit the game, of course it's not final! Glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for taking the time to comment!
Thanks a lot ! We'll work for sure on the audio part (but not only) ;)
Nice concept , both gameplay and art wise !
I think some music would be beneficial and the tighter game loop would make it more engaging as well , it took a while to get through the first few days . Ah, and somehow my stress level didn't go up, I guess I was super chill haha
All in all ,good work!
Hi, thanks for your comment, we’re really glad you enjoyed the game!
We actually had plans for a background, background music, and of course the essential sound effects (keyboard typing, purchase sounds, and a few others I don’t even remember anymore). But in the end, the developer had to prioritize balancing, and there just wasn’t enough time to implement these little touches. He could have added them after the deadline, but that would’ve felt a bit like cheating.
Anyway, we already have all the sound assets ready, so as soon as we can update the game after the voting phase, we’ll definitely add them! As for the stress bar: it might not have gone up because you bought items that reduce it (and due to a bug, the bar can even go below zero). If you didn’t buy any, it might be because you never missed a delivery, which is currently the only way to accumulate stress. In the future, we’re planning to increase it when rent day gets close and you don’t have enough money.
Thanks a lot for your feedback, we can’t wait to republish the game with a bit more polish!
Fun concept! I love the art style and the task management vibe. Like MartyDB mentioned I think it could benefit from some music and more interactivity. Perhaps a quicker pace as it was taking a long time to complete a single day.
Hey Balestack, thanks for your feedback! Yeah, music and sound effects were planned, but the dev didn’t have time to implement them, as he had to prioritize other mechanics. We’ll also add an “end day” button in the next build, so you can skip to the next day when there’s nothing else to do. Can’t wait to release the new build!
Fun game! I enjoyed looking at it, from a graphical standpoint. This game could use some background jazz themed music if you'd ask me. I don't know if it's me, but for my whole run, the stress-bar was empty. And I didn't get enough invoices to pay my bills. Don't know if it's because I bought too many upgrades or if I slacked off too much, but I enjoyed the game!
Thanks for the comment! We’re really glad you liked the visuals - we were thinking of adding a bit of background and showing the props you can purchase, too 🙂
As for the music, as mentioned elsewhere, it was simply a matter of the time we had left to implement the final features (we had a long list, but we ended up running out of time because of some home renovation work!).
The stress bar may also be affected by a bug that allows it to go below zero, so if you buy many stress-reducing items it can take a long time before it rises again and becomes visible.
Invoices usually appear as soon as you finish a task and can be clicked from behind the desk. Unfortunately, some clients pay so little that even working for a long time isn’t enough to make ends meet - just like in a translator’s real life ^__^
Hahaa I recognise the amount of things you want in a game. We had the same issue in our game. As a composer it was hard to see (or hear) no music in your own created game. But we'll implement it after the review moment is finished. For the amount of time you had, you did a fine job!
Interesting game! I didn't really understand what I was doing besides buying stuff and letting the days pass by.
In the itch page it menitons tower defense, typing game, etc. I didn't see that play out, or maybe I was doing something wrong, but fun little game
Well, tower defense is the foundation of the game: you’re defending your office from incoming tasks and waves of clients. The typing part may or may not be implemented in the end, but it was part of the original idea, even if it eventually took a back seat.
The real game lies in managing clients and finances: the goal is to chase after the clients who pay better and faster, but of course you can only get those by surviving long days of underpaid work… just like real freelance life.
So basically, you'll be balancing income and expenses, upgrading your office to boost productivity, and cranking out more words for more clients, trying not to disappointing anyone or ending up in burnout. Easy, right? X’D
Thanks for your comment, I'm glad to hear you found it fun anyway!
Really fun aha!
Easy to play but I did feel the stress getting the best of me sometimes. Like that satirical approach as well.
Will keep an eye on this, I'm very curious about what those random events will look like once all is implemented, a few of them made me laugh!
One thing I didn't understood is what productivity is exactly, a lot of things talk about it but there is no bar for it and no description, is it just the amount of words we do in one day?
Overall, Very cool submission for the jam, well done!
Thanks @macmist for your message! I'm glad you liked it =)
About the productivity you're right, is the amount of words you can write in one day.
We choose to hide it, because... because... I don't remember T_T
In the next version I think it will be shown in some way; this same feedback arrived to me on other channels too
We hope we’ll be able to implement the events as soon as we’re allowed to: they’re the heart and soul of the game! Even more so because many of them are inside jokes meant especially for people in the industry.
As for productivity, you’re absolutely right: it needs to be shown somehow. I think we postponed dealing with it because it could go in two very different directions; either the number of words you can produce in a day - which would need a cap, since nobody can crank out 30k in a single day unless they subcontract to 20 people or rely on machine translation! - or the “hit points” each typed letter inflicts on the files.
We’ll definitely need to settle on a system and make it clear, along with deadlines and the specific clients attached to each task, so players can understand which ones to prioritise.
Thanks so much for the feedback and the enthusiasm!