Nestled beneath the streets of London and many other cities around the world lies the Underground, a hellish subterranean domain inhabited by two major species. The first is the impatient office worker, a suited drone who knows exactly where they are going at all times yet is nevertheless inexplicably ever-so-slightly late for a meeting. The second is the permanently confused tourist, a lifeform who is expected to translate incomprehensible glyphs in seconds to navigate their way through a confusing maze to their next train. The two species hate each other utterly but are forced to co-exist, jammed together as one on the great social equaliser known as public transport.

Created as an entry to LudumDare 42 under the theme of “Running Out of Space”, Stuck  simulates the cramped and tortuous nightmare of travelling the Tube during rush hour. Crushed amidst a throng of anonymous and tie-wearing office workers, you must force your way to the doors at your stop and escape in the agonisingly short space of time before they close. Stopping you is nothing more than sheer population. They don’t attack you – even complaints at your movements are drowned out by your impressively large red headphones, but your fellow commuters quite simply have nowhere to go. There’s just too many people, stuck in the same day to day routine of travel and work, travel and work. It’s not their fault, they just want to make a living like everyone else in a city running out of room for them.

I don’t know, maybe Thanos had the right idea. If I could snap my fingers and just make half of my fellow passengers dissolve into dust, maybe I would.

At least then I might be able to get a seat.

Stuck is available to play online free of charge now on Itch.Io