Do what you’re keen on, they are saying, and also you’ll by no means work a day in your life. Within the indie recreation Ikeelya, I’m doing that by balancing my day job as a affected person, relentless murderer with my real love — crafting cozy residing rooms. Ikeelya mixes the enjoyment of searching an Ikea catalog with the strain of being a sniper. It’s nearly like two video games in a single, related by the thread of our hapless protagonist and a well mannered however nosy neighbor.
In Ikeelya, you step into the footwear of Barry, a grown-ass man who lives in an empty residence worthy of r/malelivingspaces. I’m broke as a joke, so I’ve to take an assassination contract. These contracts are fairly fast to finish. I sit and watch for the goal to emerge, take purpose, and hearth. Each time I miss, my shadowy boss yells at me and deducts a few of my pay, so it’s in my finest curiosity to make each job fast and clear.
The issue is that Barry is vocally sad about his empty residence and unhappy life. The supply on a few of Barry’s strains, mixed with the absurdity of the scenario, cracked me up. My man is mendacity inclined on some high-up perch, ready for a telephone name about his subsequent goal, then ready for hours for a man dressed like Santa Claus to become visible. And the entire time, he’s interested by how he has nowhere to retailer his shirts, which implies they’re at all times wrinkled. He doesn’t need this life anymore; he needs to arrange lamps and take into consideration the right place for a potted plant.
Enter his neighbor Betty, a mannerly woman who drops by with leftover lasagna and barely pushy recommendation. Ultimately, she admits she’s been wanting via Barry’s home windows at his more and more good residence format, which is form of bizarre — however hey, she has an inside ornament job for me. After I rearrange her front room, she praises me endlessly, and provides me extra jobs. The following factor I do know, I’m avoiding sniper contracts so I can rigorously arrange a pleasant association on my eating desk.
Between missions, I watch over Barry’s residence, the place I can flip via a catalog, customise my decor, and take photographs of my candy setup. If I hang around, Betty will stroll as much as ask some private questions and supply me a contract gig, like overhauling a teenage lady’s bed room or revitalizing a stale household room. It’s like an isometric Home Flipper, however punctuated with Barry’s main career. After I’m quick on money and want an enormous payday fast — for a cool new TV, as an example — I can choose up a sniper contract, the place I watch over a The place’s Waldo-style web page of colourful characters till I’m knowledgeable who my mark is, and line up the right shot.
Ikeelya is accessible free on itch.io as a “identify your personal worth” Home windows recreation. It was initially created for a recreation jam, however co-creators Cukia “Sugar” Kimani and Henrike Lode polished the sport after the jam, placing out a brand new model that sands down the tough edges and giving it a bit extra depth. This recreation was a pleasant method to spend a day, and the distinction between being threatened by my mob boss and painstakingly arranging my leisure heart makes every exercise sweeter.
