"There is no joy in your life, only pain," reads your player status on the opening screen of Everyday Misanthrope. Created by Liz England for the recent "You Are the Monster" Ludum Dare game jam, the game simulates a day in the life of a terrible person, whose only joy derives from bringing discomfort, frustration and pain to the lives of everyone around them.
There are just so many different places where you can be an asshole: on the road, in shops, at work, in the bathroom, on social media. Really, every interaction with another human being is just another opportunity to make the people around you feel a little bit more like you do: absolutely miserable.
The miseries you mete out to others range from stealing handicapped parking spots to berating coworkers for no reason, or making inappropriate comments at work and insisting they be laughed off as jokes. Some are so small and petty as to be almost confusing; why would anyone pull the tags off all the dresses at a department store so no one can find their size? Why would you fill a grocery cart with food and then abandon it in the aisle? And of course there is the digital equivalent of this behavior, trolling strangers online.
The game tallies the number of lives your ruin over the course of the game, and once you finish you'll have to click through the personal story of each individual you've inconvenienced or harmed. The list will be long. Much as in trolling, while there's no real way to lose, there's also not really any way to win—at least as far as "winning" involves having any sort of real happiness in your life.
Everyday Misanthrope is downloadable for free on Itch.io for PC, Mac and Linux users.
