Thank You for Your Application from developer Ice Lemon Tea Studio
Grammarly does not like the fact that there isn’t a comma in that name. Oh, well. Grammarly will have to live.
Thank You for Your Application from developer Ice Lemon Tea Studio hit Steam this past Friday. It’s a logical deduction game that is led by a dystopian backdrop and a funny set of rules. If you have ever played a Carmen Sandiego game or the Phoenix Wright series, then you will understand how the gameplay works. Putting together the clues given could either lead to the right or wrong decision. The devil is all in the details.
Now, the setup for Thank You for Your Application puts you in the role of a failed candidate with a monitor for a head. Your monitor-head (write that one down, Konami) has to either be reassigned or ‘dealt’ with if they can’t work out the last offer of a job. There is no other choice but to take on the role of an interviewer and try to weed out those who just don’t fit the corporation you’re working for and its requirements. It’s a simple task by definition, but far more complex underneath it all.
The gameplay revolves around the interviewer (the player) receiving applications and conducting interviews. For every interview round given, the corporation that is hiring sets a unique list of guidelines for the candidate qualifications they are seeking. The player has to read the qualifications carefully, translate them into rules and logical deductions, and then meet with the candidates and go through their paperwork to see if they fit the qualifications given. It’s so easy to see how the gameplay works out, yet the difficult part of the process is simply translating what was given. And, yes, it is difficult.
The first round of interviews that the player goes through has two qualification requirements. The first is that the interviewee must have graduated from school and present their graduation certificate as proof. The second is that the interviewee must be an applicant who graduated from a local university. If an interviewee doesn’t have a certificate or didn’t graduate locally, then their application is to be put in the ‘do not hire’ red folder. If they did meet the requirements, then their application goes in the ‘moving on’ green folder. Should the player put an applicant’s information in the wrong folder, then the interviewer loses points, which means they aren’t paid as much at the end of the day. It also means their daily grade (A-F) falls on the bad side, which could mean their unemployment. If they do it wrong enough, then they lose the game.
It’s a rather simple game on the surface, clearly not made for someone with ADHD, like yours truly, and all it wants the player to do is pay attention. The gorgeous part of Thank You for Your Application is that the construct of what the player should be doing is simple. It’s easy to pick up and play without having to commit too much time or cognitive effort to understanding the gameplay. To boot, the game is fun when it comes to deciphering what qualifications an applicant has because the devs were hellbent on making those qualifications complicated enough. For example, in one round of interviews, the player must pay attention to the name on the graduation certificate. If it doesn’t match the applicant’s on their application, then that is not their certificate. That failing point in the logical deduction process is not detailed in the list of qualification requirements. It’s just a common-sense detail. It’s so simple to get things like the certificate name wrong, and again, paying attention to the details is most of the challenge.
Now, having said that, the game doesn’t hold back with adding more and more complicated requirements on top of those common-sense details. As the player continues to successfully get through rounds of interviewees, the game keeps building more complicated qualifications to pay attention to during interviews. At one time, the game threw in mental health test score requirements, which added to the applicant’s already extensive paperwork. The same round also threw in the requirement for any certificate and the need for internship hours. The game gets down to the details and forces the player to read, read, read, and read more. It’s crazy how complicated the mental flowchart can become in the game, but it’s also fun trying to translate it into a flowchart to use quickly. And that last word is important.
To make matters more intense in Thank You for Your Application, the game throws a timer into the gameplay mix. Players have X amount of time to get through their assigned interviews or risk not getting paid as much as they could have been. This adds a sprinkle of complexity to the process, as well as unnecessary but hilarious intensity. In addition to the timer, the game will also punish the player with visual disruptions when they are doing a poor job, which makes it tougher to read applications, thus creating a ripple effect with timing and accuracy. Oh, and this intense fun doesn’t stop there.
At the end of each interview round, the player’s character will go back to their assigned apartment for rest. While in their apartment, the player can heal their emotionally devastated character and buy them trinkets, which are buffs, to help with the next day of interviews. The catch with this safe space is that the player must pay bills to stay in it. This includes things like paying rent and utilities, which only adds to the complexity, intensity, and drama of getting things right during interviews and earning the most possible coin in the process.
The devs cleverly put this game together and made it simple to understand, but also complex in its execution. They did it in such a way that it will challenge the player on so many levels, while requiring every decision to be made using the best logical deduction possible. It will certainly raise your blood pressure a notch.
With all that combined, Thank You for Your Application is a wonderfully intense game that delivers on a simple concept, while also being one of the most complex gameplay experiences that seems easy on the surface, but is far from such as the game progresses. I had a strangely good and stressful time with Thank You for Your Application. It delivered more than I thought it might, and did so effortlessly at times.
Overall, I highly recommend this game for those who want a more cognitive and Sherlock-esque experience. It’s a smartly designed game that delivers on its promises, even if at times it can frustrate you in the process to the point where you might want to quit it.
On that sweet note, let’s wrap up this review.
Conclusion
Thank You for Your Application, from developer Ice Lemon Tea Studio, is a cognitively engaging 2D logical deduction gameplay experience that is simple on the surface but complicated underneath.
