Richard Hofmeier
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''Cart Life'' is a
simulation A simulation is an imitative representation of a process or system that could exist in the real world. In this broad sense, simulation can often be used interchangeably with model. Sometimes a clear distinction between the two terms is made, in ...
video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
developed by Richard Hofmeier using
Adventure Game Studio Adventure Game Studio (AGS) is an open source development tool primarily used to create graphic adventure games. It is aimed at intermediate-level game designers, and combines an integrated development environment (IDE) with a scripting language ...
for
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released in 2010. The game was added to
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in March 2013 but later removed when Hofmeier released the full
source code In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer. Since a computer, at base, only ...
for free. In ''Cart Life'' the player controls one of three
street vendors A hawker is a vendor of merchandise that can be easily transported; the term is roughly synonymous with costermonger or peddler. In most places where the term is used, a hawker sells inexpensive goods, handicrafts, or food items. Whether stationa ...
, and attempts to run their shop while looking after their health, interests, and families. The game is designed on a pixel-grid in
grayscale In digital photography, computer-generated imagery, and colorimetry, a greyscale (more common in Commonwealth English) or grayscale (more common in American English) image is one in which the value of each pixel is a single sample (signal), s ...
, with minimal detail, to better allow the player to deduce the mood of each of the three vendor characters. The game was received well by critics, with particular praise for the relatable characters, though some critics criticised technical issues. In 2013 ''Cart Life'' won the
Independent Games Festival The Independent Games Festival (IGF) is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the largest annual gathering of the independent video game industry. Originally founded in 1998 to promote independent video game developers, ...
Seumas McNally Grand Prize The Seumas McNally Grand Prize is the main award given at the Independent Games Festival (IGF), an annual event that takes place during the Game Developers Conference, one of the largest gatherings of the indie video game industry. It was first aw ...
, Nuovo Award, and Excellence in Narrative award. In late 2021 Cart Life made a come back. Developed exclusively for iPad by Elliott McAllister, with a playable character, Andrus. Cart Life for iPad was approved for sale on the App Store on December 10, 2021 and has since been available to install on all iPads running iPadOS 11.0 or later. Cart Life returned to Steam on March 20, 2023, published by AdHoc Studio. It was set to be released in 2023. The game never released, and in a June 2024 forum post, Hofmeier announced that the project was dead.


Gameplay

In ''Cart Life,'' players control one of three characters, each of whom has a different street vending job; Vinny sells
bagel A bagel (; ; also spelled beigel) is a bread roll originating in the Jewish communities of Poland. Bagels are traditionally made from yeasted wheat dough that is shaped by hand into a torus or ring, briefly boiled in water, and then baked. ...
s, Andrus runs a newspaper stand, and Melanie sells coffee from a cart. While at their stalls players interact with customers by selling them items and can manage their stall by selecting stock, setting prices, and buying new equipment. Players must also look after the character's day-to-day lives, including having adequate food, drink, and sleep. Each character has unique situations to address; Melanie, for example, is a single mother of a daughter. When she's not working, she yearns to bond more with her daughter, in the midst of her difficult busy life. She struggles to have time to walk her daughter to and from school each day, as she seeks custody on limited wages.


Development

Richard Hofmeier's inspiration for the game came from aspects of his own work-life experiences, as well as from playing other games like Little Computer People and
River City Ransom , released as ''River City Ransom'' in North America and ''Street Gangs'' in PAL regions, is an Action-adventure game, action-adventure beat 'em up video game developed and published by Technōs Japan for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is ...
. He drew inspiration from Han Hoogerbrugge's ''Modern Living'', saying that he thought about it "almost every day" while developing ''Cart Life''. Hofmeier credits his partner with supporting him throughout the game development. ''Cart Life'' is Hofmeier's first game, drawing upon his experience as an illustrator. He developed the game in his spare time using
Adventure Game Studio Adventure Game Studio (AGS) is an open source development tool primarily used to create graphic adventure games. It is aimed at intermediate-level game designers, and combines an integrated development environment (IDE) with a scripting language ...
while working what he describes as a "bunch of bad jobs". He initially planned to finish the development in 30 days but he worked on development for three years. He wanted to make a game which had no high scores, points, or action, and originally envisaged it as a comedy. Of the game's pixel art design, Hofmeier said that he did not choose it to be nostalgic but rather because he wanted players to fill in the extra details with their own thoughts and experiences, saying that it took more time and effort than other possible styles. During development Hofmeier spoke to a number of
street vendors A hawker is a vendor of merchandise that can be easily transported; the term is roughly synonymous with costermonger or peddler. In most places where the term is used, a hawker sells inexpensive goods, handicrafts, or food items. Whether stationa ...
to research their work who were enthusiastic about the creation of the game. During development Richard Hofmeier experimented with many elements which were eventually removed, including a fourth character and a number of extra stores and locations. At the 2013
Independent Games Festival The Independent Games Festival (IGF) is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the largest annual gathering of the independent video game industry. Originally founded in 1998 to promote independent video game developers, ...
, Hofmeier spray-painted his own booth to instead display Porpentine's game ''
Howling Dogs ''Howling Dogs'' is a Twine game and piece of interactive fiction created by Porpentine in 2012. The game is text-based and includes occasional abstract pixel art. In 2017, the game was included in the Whitney Biennial. Gameplay ''Howling Dogs' ...
'', saying that he thought "''Cart Life'' had already overstayed its welcome... I wanted people to see this game." In March 2014, with Hofmeier saying he was finished supporting the game, the game was removed from
Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...
while
source code In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer. Since a computer, at base, only ...
and game were made available for free (
Freeware Freeware is software, often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the free ...
) on his website under the ''"CART LIFE'S FREE LICENSE"'', a public domain like license. Hofmeier's webpage later went offline due to the increased traffic but the game and source code was mirrored on
GitHub GitHub () is a Proprietary software, proprietary developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code. It uses Git to provide distributed version control and GitHub itself provides access control, bug trackin ...
.


Reception

''Cart Life'' received "generally favorable reviews" according to the
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website
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
Reviewers commented positively on ''Cart Life''s characters and
mechanics Mechanics () is the area of physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among Physical object, physical objects. Forces applied to objects may result in Displacement (vector), displacements, which are changes of ...
. Carolyn Petit of
GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
described the characters as "wonderfully expressive", particularly because of the attention to small details like eyebrow movements, and having to make tough decisions. In ''
PC Gamer UK ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games mag ...
''s review Alex Wiltshire said the game portrayed "a convincing, empathetic set of portraits." Another well received feature was the game's art style; Ben Lee of ''
Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its initial launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television pro ...
'' found the pixel art to complement the game's portrayal of the mundane aspects of life. The main criticisms of the game were due to the technical problems and bugs present in the game.
GameTrailers ''GameTrailers'' (''GT'') was an American video gaming website created by Geoffrey R. Grotz and Brandon Jones in 2002. The website specialized in multimedia content, including trailers and gameplay footage of upcoming and recently released v ...
' Ben Moore said that he experienced "more than a handful of crashes, scripting errors, and freezes" while playing the game. Petit said that the issues were common and reduced the impact of the game's story for her. In 2011, ''Cart Life'' won two AGS Awards for ''Best Programming'' and ''Best Non Adventure Game Created with AGS''. ''Cart Life'' was a finalist for the 2012 Indiecade and won the
Seumas McNally Grand Prize The Seumas McNally Grand Prize is the main award given at the Independent Games Festival (IGF), an annual event that takes place during the Game Developers Conference, one of the largest gatherings of the indie video game industry. It was first aw ...
, Nuovo Award, and Excellence in Narrative award at the 2013
Independent Games Festival The Independent Games Festival (IGF) is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the largest annual gathering of the independent video game industry. Originally founded in 1998 to promote independent video game developers, ...
.


See also

*
List of open source games This is a list of notable open-source video games. Open-source video games are assembled from and are themselves open-source software, including public domain games with public domain source code. This list also includes games in which the engine ...


References


External links

* (archived) *Official download of the free release
Cart Life 1.6
an
source code
(archived)
mirror
.
GitHub repository
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