Karoshi Factory

By: Derek Yu

On: August 29th, 2008

Jesse Venbrux is at it again! Karoshi Factory, his latest release, is the third installment in his popular series of “kill yourself” puzzle games. This time, however, the theme is “group suicide!” Using the spacebar to switch between characters, you have to make sure everyone dies in the end – woe be to the last guy standing with no way to expire!

(FOX News Headline: “Dutch Teen Develops Video Game to Promote Suicide Pacts: Are Your Children at Risk?”)

Karoshi Factory feels like a natural progression for the series, and I’m happy to see Jesse take it into a new direction with the group game mechanics. 18 levels in (out of 25), I noticed there’s less “mind fucking” in this one, which is fine with me, because, in my opinion, Karoshi 2 pretty much did all it could in that area. KF’s puzzles are certainly devious, and more than a few levels require quick wits and reflexes both.

And this isn’t all Jesse’s been up to of late. Between Deaths, the last of his games we covered, and Karoshi Factory, he’s released a few others, including Torque, an awesome abstract arena shoot ‘em up, and You Made It, a bizarre platform game where the graphics never refresh. They’re definitely all worth checking out.

TIGdb: Entry for Karoshi Factory

Posted in Freeware, Highly Recommended, Platformers, Puzzle, Windows | Tags: JesseVenbrux

person

1st post?
person

2nd post
Spkl

tird post.
i would seriously believe that that was an irl news article, if not for the fact that the panda is hallucinating.
First Post Getter

Fucking imitators
Fifth Poster, Damnit.

Meh. Karoshi 2 was my favorite. I don’t like some of the graphics, such as the new background in this one.
Crackerblocks

Definitely the Return of the Jedi of the Karoshi series.
shuger

Karoshi 1&2 were really good but this one.. wasn’t. It was first game in karoshi series which i completed without any help and it wasn’t much of a chalenge. In some levels i got the feeling that i am doing things int the wrong way. In other words there were some strange contraptions which i didn’t really use, because there was much simpler solution.
Pip

I loved Karoshis 1 and 2 specifically FOR their mindfuck quality. This feels like Karoshi has lost it’s uniqueness a bit, the puzzles just require a lot of working out rather than coming at them from a different direction entirely.

Also, the TIGdb link is broken, says Factory but takes me to 2.0.
Pip

You Made It is great.
Sninnyer

More Karoshi! Yay!
muku

Level 18 is absolutely insane…
muku’s yesman

Yes, yes it was.

I liked this, had some difficult puzzles (physically difficult), but I only actually found myself strained to solve one of them.
And I solved it, which means something went horribly wrong in development.
GeneralValter

Yaaaay. Karoshi is fun.
Fishy Boy

To all the people whining about how it’s not hard enough, about how it didn’t mess with you enough, it’s not really supposed to be a sequel. It’s not Karoshi 3, it’s a spin off exploring a different idea. Just because we didn’t get more of the same is no reason to complain.

The puzzles got pretty fun. The sense of satisfaction when you complete a really hard one is immense.
Nitro Crate

Brilliant!

I loved Karoshi 1 & 2 as well.
Immortality Man

I don’t even play the games, I just get people to kill themselves with me. I wonder why they don’t come back, though…
permanent

I didn’t think I was going to play this one through but I did and I’m glad.
Exoduster

Even if it’s not supposed to be a true sequel, I just couldn’t get into this one. Karoshi 2 challenged your ability to think outside the box. This just challenges your ability to quickly switch characters. More than half the time it’s obvious what you have to do, it just all comes down to having the twitch reflexes to do it.
Bas

I agree with the ‘working out’ argument; this is less mindfucking. But still it’s enjoyable. It’s just like the soundtrack: this one is cool, but the previous one was perfect.

Didn’t know that the creator was Dutch btw, it more sounded like a Dannish name or something.
Chris

It was ok. It was neither as funny, challenging, or interesting as the previous iterations though.
Sninnyer

Agreed, Karoshi 2 was the pinnacle so far! But still very enjoyable!
Sninnyer

(the new one, I mean)
Petri Purho

The download link on the TIGdb page of Karoshi Factory is “broken”. It links to Karoshi 2.0.
Cougarten

Great FUN!
Moses

It was fun, I must admit it was easier than karoshi 2. Even though some people complained here about the people complaining about the difficulty level.
Yet, it was different from karoshi2, and also harder is not always better.
robolee

I got to level 27… I thought it was odd when the level counter went past 25, but it seems like is hasn’t happened to anybody else… :0

And I’m not counting the boss or “The End” levels. Also I expected more from the boss level, I know the point is to kill yourself but it was too easy with the missiles flying everywhere.
Exoduster

@robolee

That’s not a bug. That’s just the usual Karoshi strangeness.

Pretty much the only instance of it, actually.
deadeye

I gotta say I enjoyed the first two much more as well. This one was much easier, and not nearly as entertaining. I passed almost every level on the first try, and the ones I didn’t were usually just timing issues on my part.

The wacky what-the-fuck quality of 2 was much more enjoyable.
Ezuku

Agree with all the other posters. I finished this one in under an hour, and I was never “stuck”, mostly it just came down to getting the timing right. Some of the later levels very unimpressive though in creativity, for example the “reversed control” level.

The switch in some levels to try to keep a guy alive was interesting, for example, when you needed the guy alive to kill the others.

The boss made me lol, especially considering how in any other game he would fail at life (you need to be trying to kill yourself to get hit).
robolee

I have print screens of levels 26 and 27 since Exoduster said it was the only case, don’t want anybody thinking I’m a attention seeker.

level 26:
http://filesmelt.com/Imagehosting/pics/4339ecf5e9549533daaa2143ebc22d62.JPG

level 27
http://filesmelt.com/Imagehosting/pics/d7ba3a0e79a0a266aef8a830139484b4.JPG
Fuzz

Earlier today I found a Karoshi fangame called Definitely not a Karoshi Ripoff. It’s as good as the normal Karoshi games. This is the YoYo Games page- http://www.yoyogames.com/games/show/51084
The link on that page is broken, but there was a link in the comments that works-http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zmjbi7hdlts
Fuzz

Also, 2dcube likes Definitely not a Karoshi Ripoff.
Mark

I liked this one a lot, I was never able to complete Karoshi 2 though since my laptop doesn’t have a CD drive. I can imagine that says a lot about Karoshi 2 though, what a sweet game.