HELLO, WORLD. WELCOME TO HELL.

Ticket #404: User cannot find their soul.
Ticket #500: The printer is breathing again.
Ticket #237: URGENT - Floor 3.5 won't stop existing.

I.T. NEVER ENDS is graduating to Steam.
Adding to your Wishlist helps the algorithm (and my sanity) more than you know.



[ CLICK HERE TO WISHLIST ON STEAM ]

ABOUT THE GAME

In I.T. NEVER ENDS, you are the newly hired Systems Administrator at Nexus Systems Inc.—a company that was definitely founded in 2015, regardless of what the USB drive buried in the wall says.

Your job? Process tickets. Keep the lights on. Don't let the coffee machine's prophecies ruin anyone's morning.

The pay is bad. The hours are worse. If any of your metrics hit zero, you're not fired—you're gone. And something tells you the Bahamas aren't in your future.


⚠️ LATEST UPDATE: THE DEMO & THE VOICE

Development has shifted! As I focus entirely on polishing the game for its full Steam release, the Itch.io version has now transitioned from an Open Alpha to a focused Demo Build.

This means the game loop is now capped to provide a tighter "vertical slice" of the experience. But we aren't scaling back without adding something massive...

🎙️ Introducing: The Archive

We are proud to announce that the talented Collin Fiol has joined the team to voice archive_7 and its internal subprocesses.

A love letter to the narrative depth of Disco Elysium and Slay the Princess, the system is no longer just text on a screen. It is a fractured consciousness that you are privy to. In this demo, you will meet:

  • archive_7_core: The main process. The anchor.
  • Preservation: The overbearing, nurturing process trying to keep you "safe."
  • Communication: The entity tasked with establishing a connection.



TECHNICAL NOTES

Since this runs in the browser, if you encounter a fatal error or want to restart from scratch, you can reset your game state by clearing your session storage/cookies for this site.

Thank you for playing and supporting indie horror.
- Stefan (dev guy)

Updated 5 days ago
StatusIn development
PlatformsHTML5
Rating
Rated 4.7 out of 5 stars
(11 total ratings)
AuthorDadbod Games
GenreVisual Novel, Card Game
Tags2D, Horror, Indie, Psychological Horror, Relaxing, Singleplayer
Average sessionAbout a half-hour
LanguagesEnglish
LinksSteam

Development log

Comments

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(+1)

I'm interested in trying out the alpha build!

Hi Evolart! You can dive into the full alpha build right here on Itch immediately - it should be playable directly in the browser.

I am currently working my tail off on a polished Steam Demo featuring new music and professional voice acting. If you enjoy the alpha, please wishlist the game on Steam.

It helps me immensely with the algorithm and lets Steam know there is an audience for this.

I will post an update here as soon as the new version is ready!

And remember - hallucinating on the job is frowned upon.

Image

(+1)

Awesome, thank you for all of the deets.

(1 edit) (+1)

As a full-time software developer who worked IT in college, this is incredible! I wishlisted the game on Steam and can’t wait for the full version! Take my money!

This really reminds me of Reddit’s r/talesfromtechsupport (and especially their Rules of Tech Support - https://github.com/morriscox/Rules-of-Tech-Support ). Those two are incredible resources I share around often with people working in support positions!

I do wish there was a way to see the two options without needing to hover the mouse. I get that’s the whole aesthetic, but I wish I could see the action at the top, and the two results at the bottom. I also wish I could control this with the keyboard - right arrow to swipe right, and left arrow for left.

I also saw the tutorial about packet loss, then looked and there was nothing to do. Then, later I got a message about packet loss being 80% and realized I had forgotten about it. Maybe make that tutorial wait to show up until there’s packet loss, or immediately make the message trigger packet loss?

While the game’s in early access, maybe you could add a Card Feedback button that can be enabled in options. I feel like there was a few times when my budget was randomly affected and it shouldn’t have been based on the outcome (I forget the examples), so having a way in-game to report “The last card was wrong, it should do XYZ instead”. Or you could embrace the entropy.

I really love the humor and the situation-based events, like when everyone gets burnout because they’re too productive and I can tell them to double down. I’ll play more later and give you more feedback on the feel of the game’s balance (if I get around to it).

I love this game so much! I can’t wait for the full game to release!

(+1)

Hey!

Thanks so much for the kind words and the wishlist and for taking the time to type it all out! As a solo dev, hearing that the game hits home for someone with real-world IT experience is the best compliment I could get.

  • Keyboard Controls: Adding keyboard support (Left/Right arrows) is a great idea for a smoother workflow. I’ll look into implementing that!
  • Tutorial Timing: Great catch on the packet loss tutorial. I’ll look into triggering an actual event right when that message pops up so the context isn't lost.

Glad you're enjoying the humor, and thanks for playing!

(5 edits) (+2)

Just some quick feedback: when clicking the top right "x" to close the window, the options "abandon" and "continue" are maybe a little ambiguous: me being me I just saw "continue" and thought: oh that means continue with the abandoning, I'll click the other option. But that's the wrong way around.

So maybe "abandon" could be in red text, and the other option could be "continue shift" or some in context words that clearly mean "this is NOT the option for abandoning". Also the "continue" being bordered and the abandon not being bordered or having some hover-over highlighting feels a little off to me (e.g. if you're deleting a repo on github, the red "delete repo" etc options are all bordered and emphasised just as much as other buttons). So it feels like that UI choice doesn't really align with / is the opposite to what I've learnt from other UIs.

anyway this is the most nitpicks of nitpicks and really doesn't matter much - the game looks great!

(+1)

No you're completely right and it's a secret little pain point for me - along with the fact that there's both a "retire" button and a "close" button that do... different things. It's on the list!

(+1)

Oh my god how charming. I love my IT job and this just makes me smile hard playing it.

(+1)

I'm so happy you like it - reactions like this is basically the only reason I'm making games :) Thank you again!

(8 edits) (+1)

game is, amazing. I am loving it. 

Few questions and bits of feedback

Questions

  1. Who made the soundtrack? It's a vibe and I want to be able to download it officially if possible rather then via inspect element.
  2. Was there any inspiration from the "Find Us Alive" podcast or "Pantheon" (the TV Series)? This game has been reminding me of these bits media from time to time. (also since I found this via your post on r/SCP)
  3. Is that your own cat from the picture Riley sends us? Shes adorable even from the small little picture.

Feedback

  1. The non-ending(the "normal" tickets) aren't really varied enough, I see a lot of repeats and sometimes a whole loop will only be ones iv seen before only for the next loop to have a lot of new ones. Would weighting the chance of the different ones appearing based on how long its been since they last showed up be a possibility? (EDIT: I am starting to see more variety now, I think i was just unlucky)
  2. the foreground of the background is a bit, bland,  some small animations might help make it a bit more interesting? Have the computer flicker a bit? Steam from the coffee?
  3. The chat notifications are easy to miss sometimes. 

I am for sure picking this up on Steam as soon as it releases, this is epic.

Might also be worth to add a note that this won't run well in Firefox, it does run in it, but at a VERY slow speed.

I tested this in Firefox Nightly with the only active extension behind TamperMonkey and uBlock.

Hi LakesideMiners!

Thank you so much for the incredibly detailed feedback and kind words. It is awesome to hear that you are digging the vibe. Seeing someone "get" the atmosphere is exactly why I am building this.

To answer your questions:

  • The Soundtrack: That is actually just me messing around on my mini synth at home! I do not have official plans for a release right now, but since you mentioned it, if enough people enjoy the "vibe," I will definitely look into putting it together for a proper download down the road.
  • Inspirations: I actually have not seen Pantheon or heard Find Us Alive, but I will have to check them out now! My personal DNA for the game's weirdness comes more from being a massive Welcome to Night Vale and Dungeons and Daddies (Season 3 especially) aficionado.
  • The Cat: I wish! That adorable girl actually belongs to a friend of a friend, but she definitely deserved a cameo in the I.T. world.

Regarding your feedback:

  • Ticket Variety: Glad to hear the RNG finally balanced out for you! I am looking into ways to tweak the "weighting" so the repeats do not clump together quite as much in early loops. But game balancing is harrddd - its ony my list though I swear.
  • Background Visuals: Totally agree. Adding some life like coffee steam or screen flickers is on the to do list to make the office feel less static. Probably won't happen in the immediate fuiture but I really do want a largish overhaul of the look of the game before Steam launch in 2026.
  • Chat Notifications: I have heard this from a few players. I am looking into making the pings a bit harder to miss so Riley does not get ignored!
  • Performance: Thanks for the heads up on Firefox Nightly. Browser engines can be finicky; I will add a note to the page recommending Chromium based browsers for the best performance. The Steam release luckily/hopefully won't struggle with this at all, but for ITCH purposes I get what you're saying.
(+1)

Thank you for your reply! 

Yeah, they do get pretty boring sometimes, Riley stopped sending messages and the special events seem much more rare now. Still am enjoying trying to see if I can get everything to 50%

Still trying to figure out what makes me and Riley different even when the others realize they are in a loop. Like are they "NPCs"? they have their own iteration files sometimes? Digging into all this lore is a blast.


I really hope you will enjoy Pantheon,it's, a wild ride that just keeps punching you in the gut. 

(+1)

I would like to play.

Then play, my friend. Play as if your life depended on it!

(1 edit) (+1)(-1)

Played this after seeing some posts on Reddit that made me curious, as a current IT employee and having done 3 years of IT phone support this is bringing back memories of all that I had to deal with.

Love the concept, and the minigames really do add some much needed variety to the tickets. One suggestion, maybe add a counter to them to show what the minimum goal is? Sometimes I forgot what I needed to reach and succeeded just by luck.

Really suggest that you look up PirateSoftware on Twitch and YouTube and see if you can get him to try this out on stream, he's former IT and a Game Dev and could give some feedback as well!

(+2)

Interesting game with potential.
Couple of suggestions, not demands, just things to consider, maybe add your own spin to them.

  • It would be nice to add feedback to status showing the result of the last action.  So for example if Productivity went down due to my last action, it should have a down arrow, preferably with the % drop, if it went up, then an up arrow with % gain. Perhaps this status doesn't need to stay forever, just a few seconds before fading out, but I feel its important as i'm not always able to catch which status changed due to an action.
  • Taking this further it might be nice to present a history of last events that affected a status upon rolling over the status box? Additionally maybe include recap of what raises/lowers each status so a new player doesn't have to remember from the tutorial.
  • Needs more frequent variations. Fixing too many tickets in a row is a bit bland. The mini-games are good (though all should be able to use WASD - maybe they do and help is wrong?), but it feels like there needs to be more things to do. Think of Papers Pleasse, where as the game progresses you get more and more tasks/instructions/actions to do, forcing you to concentrate more.

Regardless it will be interesting to see how you develop this. 

BTW for reference found via your reddit post.

(+1)

Hey - thanks for playing and for the suggestions! I like the up/down arrow glyphs showing the meter changes - I will definitely look into adding those.

I also agree on the variations - I have a few more minigames just about ready to go, but I am currently trying to come up with a fun, thematically sound way to implement them (I don't want them to be just plopped on  the player in the form of additional server maintenance games) - so if you have any thoughts or suggestions, for activities/events that would make sense in the game' universe, I'd love to hear them!

(3 edits) (+1)

The demo stutters & lags a lot for me. The audio logs don't even play anymore. :(

EDIT: All bugs that I've encountered:
- The audio logs don't play at all now, they just get stuck at the beginning & play no audio & make no progress. Previously they lagged & stuttered.

- If I play the snake game until the timer runs out, it doesn't allocate resources, or allow me to allocate at all. I am forced to take a fail.

 

- The blocks in the stacking minigame will jitter violently and sometimes will not allow me to successfully stack said blocks.

(+1)

Hey - thanks a bunch for playing and reporting back! This web build is rough and I'm working to smooth it out. Can I ask what audio log you made it to? To be 100% truthful, I haven't edited and implemented anything after, I think, audio log six yet. The voice actor did a really good job and I really want to make sure I get the editing down right for every clip.. But they're coming I promise.  
Regarding the snake game, you're not the only person experiencing this bug and I'm working to fix it right now! Same with the block game; both of these are issues with the web build for itch, but I would like to get it sorted none the less!

Again, thanks a bunch for playing and taking time out of your day to type up feedback, I appreciate it!!

(+1)

> Can I ask what audio log you made it to? To be 100% truthful, I haven't edited and implemented anything after, I think, audio log six yet.
...Then I'm pretty sure that I did all of the audio logs.

Even if that's the case, I can't view the full transcript text for the log & can only see the beginning parts of it. For now, being able to see the audio log's entire text would be enough.

(+1)

 There's 10 or so audio tapes in the game right now - but you're right that after I think 5 or 6, they simply don't work (the audio hasn't been edited and thus won't play, and you can't see the transcript either since the transcript doesn't start tracking unless the audio plays - I promise I'm working on it right now :) 

(+1)

Hey I'm loving the game! One minor suggestion, the performance review results disappear way to fast. Keep up the good work and the game is added to my Steam Wishlist!

Thanks! It means a ton.  You're not the first person to mention performance reviews disappearing too fast - I'll get that taken care of! 

(+1)

Hi! My internet connection very bad. Game not loading. Can u pls create download link ?

Hey - cool that you want to play.  The game is not at a place right now were I'm ready to package it for download, but it will be coming to Steam  as a demo pretty soon : ) you can keep an eye on it here I.T Never Ends on Steam 

(+1)

WISHLIST ✔

(+1)
Oh, and if you need help translating the game into Russian, you can write to me. I'll be happy to help!
(+1)

Wishlisted, as someone who works in IT and loves the whole horror aspect, yes. Loved a little play through.

You're the best - thank you!

(+1)

What a cool concept, wishlisting immediately!

Thank you a bunch, it helps more than you'd imagine!

(+1)

I really love the concept, this is just my right kind of humor!

What is a problem I have seen though is that the outcome message disappear WAY too fast, like only able to read half of it before it's gone.

Otherwise, it is a great game!

Thanks for playing! You're not the first person to feel the outcomes disappear too quickly - I'll be pushing a fix for that really soon. No point in having all that text go unread :)

Update -  the default outcome text duration has been doubled to 6 seconds and I added a settings slider and checkbox that lets you decide whether to auto-complete outcomes at all. Thanks again!!