Stick RPG
You fall into a two-dimensional city with nothing. Work, study, lift, gamble or commit crimes until you can afford the way out.
XGen Studios released Stick RPG in 2003 and it is a surprisingly complete life sim for a stick figure game. You arrive in a flat city with no money and four stats, and every building does something: the office pays wages, the college raises intelligence, the gym raises strength, the bar lowers everything and the casino can do either.
Time passes in days, and each day is a budget you spend on exactly one or two activities, so the game is really about compounding. Intelligence unlocks better paying jobs, which fund more training, which unlocks more. There is a win condition involving buying your way home, but most people remember it for the drift of just living there.
Controls
Arrow keys to walk, up arrow or Space to enter a building
Tips
- Raise intelligence before anything else. Better jobs pay for every other stat several times over.
- Sleep when the day ends rather than pushing on tired. Stat gains are worse and you lose the next day too.
- The casino is a trap early and a tool late, once you can absorb a losing streak without it ending the run.