THE NEXT SHIFT: A Game Where Your Starting Money Was Left by the Last Player

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THE NEXT SHIFT is an indie narrative simulation game set during a four-hour hospital night-cleaning shift, submitted for a Weekend Challenge focused on generosity. The game's central mechanic involves real money passed between players — whatever the previous player chose to leave in a locker is what you begin with, creating a live chain of generosity between strangers. Players mop corridors, manage hunger and fatigue, and encounter six characters — including an underfunded patient, a distressed intern, and a cat — none of whom directly ask for help. Every act of kindness costs the player coins, time, or resources, but the game tracks consequences, with characters returning later in the shift to reflect the impact of earlier choices. At the end of the shift, players decide how much money to leave behind for the next person, writing that decision to a chain that shapes the next stranger's experience.

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