Off the AppStore: Revolt or conform the maternity ward of Diapers, Please!
- A government job sorting out babies
- Only you can find the right parents for each baby
- Your job is more important than you realize
Welcome to Off The AppStore, a weekly feature with a twist. Namely, that while these - as with all the games we cover here - are games that you can play on your phone, they're ones that operate outside of the realms of the big two ways to play: The Google Play Store and the Apple AppStore.
That means that there might be a bit of work required in downloading alternative AppStores or APKs, or that the games can simply be played in your phone browser. We'll make sure to detail that for each game though. Anyway, read on to find a new game or experience to play Off The AppStore.
You'd be amazed at what people can do in such a short amount of time. Game Jams are popular events where countless teams of strangers come together to make amazing titles in a week on par with something you'd see an AAA studio crank out in a year. This week, the spotlight shines on the ragtag team of Voltekplay, who came together at Brackeys Game Jam. This team poured all their efforts into bringing us to a dystopian alternate version of the past that we experience through the humorously named Diapers, Please!
Taking inspiration from themes and mechanics from well-known Papers, Please! this game has you working as the Custodian of Bloodlines in the 1920s. You're posted in the maternity ward, where much of the documentation was destroyed in a fire, thereby leaving many newborns unmatched by their parents. You must examine the facts closely and ensure each baby goes through their rightful home. To make the proper matches, you must consider factors such as eye/hair/skin colour, body type, freckles, and even blood type.
The longer you play, the more your situation and the state are revealed. Letters will periodically arrive to encourage, threaten, reward, and/or punish you as you continue your work. You only have so much time in the day to match as many babies as you can before your evaluation. There are also forces working behind the scenes who see your work as integral to changing the government outside and within. As you make correct and incorrect matches, you'll soon see how mismatched families can affect the country.
All the juicy stuff unfolds in the game's Story Mode, but there's an Endless mode if you want to see how sharp your deduction skills are. Diapers, Please! It is still in its prototype phase but is still a complete game with so much potential to improve and expand. We'll need to keep a close eye on this as Voltekplay continues to find their stride alongside their babies, who are just taking their first steps.
You can play and download Diapers, Please!, on its itch.io page right here!
