itch.io

Tbh, I confess that I don't really understand that worldview. Sure, real life imposes boundaries and limits your choices depending on your situation, but I don't see how it invalidates 'free will' to act how you wish so. You might not 'archieve' what you want and it might actually be impossible to archieve it in the first place, but you can still 'decide to' attempt it regardless. I guess you simply have a different definition of 'free will' than I do.

But back to the game. My best guess is that you were meaning to parody the mindset of: "You can archieve anything and be anyone if you just set your mind to it! Pull yourself up by your bootstraps!", which if that was your intention, then the game really doesn't come off that way. Things like "choosing not to take damage from lava" are a promising start, but on their own they just come off as random absurdist humour rather than some commentary on the nature of free will.

IMO, it would've been better focusing the whole game on choices Harold makes and gradually taking it to an absurd conclusion.

Like, have Harold walk into a restaurant, with a choice being whether he orders pancakes or waffles and then somehow have all the other characters gather around and treat it as some super epic choice that will determine the fate of the whole world, pleading with Harold to choose one or the other. Or have Harold be given the choice to donate some money to charity and if he does so, suddenly the game says that Harold singlehandedly solved poverty and the whole town is happy and all their problems disappear. While if he keeps the money to himself, the whole town starves to death immediately and becomes a ghost town.

Or when Harold has the choice to look for a job, have there be a list of occupations that include something ridiculous like King, Famous Actor, Billionaire or a Superhero and whatever Harold chooses, he instantly becomes just that.

Then you could escalate to the more absurdist choices, like choosing not to die, choosing not to take damage, choosing what time of day it is and in the end choosing what ending you want and they are all equally shallow.

I think that would've better reflected what seems to have been your intention? Right now, the game is funny, but your intention doesn't seem to have been translated properly into it. But as you say, this was a spur-of-the-moment entry, so that's understandable.