Overspin

Overspin is a darkly comic active idle game with roguelite progression. In the middle of an open-air prison, convicts push a giant millstone to make electricity for the Company. You are not a guard. You are the unseen hand above the yard, and your mouse cursor is the tip of a whip.

Every midnight the Company raises the quota. Crack the whip, meet the quota, keep your prisoners alive or wait for the next one. And one day, through a tunnel dug under a bed, get them all out.

PUSH THE STONE.

Prisoners lean into the arms of the mill, and every turn of the stone ends up on the Company's meter. Thirty convicts, each with a crime, a temper and a body that gives out at its own pace. Hire them at dawn, put them on an arm or a machine, and watch them grind.

CRACK THE WHIP.

Click near a prisoner and he pushes harder. Every lash costs a little health. Whip a man past his limit and he limps off to the infirmary, or doesn't get up at all. Motivation is a resource. So is the workforce.

DON'T OVERSPIN.

Drive the mill too hard and the pressure needle climbs into the red. Let it burst and the whole crew is thrown off their feet. Ride the edge for the biggest numbers, or buy a pressure valve and some peace of mind.

KEEP THEM ALIVE.

Energy, hunger, thirst and health. Prisoners walk to the food and water you build, sleep in the beds you buy (or on the sand if you didn't), and spend their evenings resting, working overtime, rolling cigarettes or digging. A well-fed convict pushes harder. A dead one pushes nothing.

UPGRADE EVERYTHING.

Order from the Company Catalog and place every structure on the yard grid yourself: gearbox, dynamo, beds, infirmary, wind vanes, batteries, hamster wheels, pedal dynamos, rowing machines and steam pistons. Every line climbs through hand-built model tiers, from scrap wood and rope to gold-plated prestige machinery. Earn promotions and the Catalog opens new pages.

SMUGGLE CONTRABAND.

Bleed power off through the smuggling valve and the black market pays you in cigarettes. Spend them on contraband, stolen gear and a game of dice at night. Orders arrive by pipe. The Company does not need to know.

DIG YOUR WAY OUT.

Under the beds, a tunnel. Buy a rusty spoon, a bent fork, a gas lamp, powder kegs and finally a steam drill, then send your prisoners to dig after the shift. Every metre brings the wall closer. The run is won the moment they get past it.

WEATHER THE STORM.

Every morning brings a directive from management, a weather report and a fresh batch of applicants. Storms hurl lightning at your machinery, parts wear down and need oil or repair, and the Company's towers watch it all from beyond the wall.

MISS THE QUOTA...

...and you're let go. Miss it once and tomorrow becomes a penalty day. Miss that too and the Company's executioner walks in through the main gate. Win or lose, every run earns commendations for the Company Archive: a radial tree of 156 permanent upgrades that leads, eventually, to the Great Escape.

FEATURES

• Active idle at its core: the mill turns on its own, the whip makes it turn faster.
  
• 30 prisoners with their own crimes, traits, perks and equipment.
  
• Dozens of upgrade lines with hand-built model tiers, placed freely on the yard grid.
  
• Generator stations, wind vanes, batteries, cables and a pressure valve to keep in check.
  
• Morning directives, storms, wear, injuries and a black market.
  
• Dig a tunnel to win the run, then spend commendations in the 156-node Company Archive.
  
• Corporate politeness, crude language and very dark humour, in 10 languages.