Serious Game Classification

Sweatshop is an educational game where the player is the manager of a clothing factory. A sweatshop is a factory that pays its workers less than the minimum wage and where the formation of unions to campaign for better working conditions are prevented. The aim of the game is to educate the player about the working conditions in such factories.

The game plays similarly to a tower defense game. Each level consist of a conveyor belt where different raw materials pass along. The player hires workers and places them next to the belt. When the material passes within a worker's range he begins to work on assembling the pieces into clothes. Money is earned for each product that is completed. A level is lost when a certain amount of unfinished materials reaches the end of the production line. Different types of clothing require different amounts of work to be finished and each worker is specialized in one of them. The products that are produced are hats, shirts, bags and shoes. There are also children that are cheaper to hire but are not specialized. Other workers include packers that are effective at packing items, engineers that fix rusty belts and thereby reduce the risk of accidents, and fire officers that protects against fire accidents. Workers can be upgraded to become more efficient.

Workers get tired as they work and the player needs to install drinks machines that can be used to replenish their energy. If this isn't done, workers might fall asleep or even die. Workers that die can not be replaced with other workers. Other features that can be installed include fans, toilets and heaters for extra comfort and radios, signs and speakers for increased productivity. Comfort features lead to more cash from items while productivity features lead to workers working faster. It's possible to get a time bonus by increasing the speed of the conveyor belt. This is often necessary, but it will lead to workers being tired more frequently and the risk of accidents will increase.

The player earns trophies for doing different things. Some of these are for being a good boss (for example building a drinks machine) while others are for being evil (for example killing a worker). Based on these the player gets a karma rating ranging from good to evil. [source:mobygames]

Distribution : Retail - Commercial
Platform(s) : Browser (Flash)

Links

• http://www.mobygames.com/game/sweatshop/