Life Is Not A Game

Guide Holden Caulfield through his role as the Catcher in the Rye, stopping young children from running off a cliff in this video game-shaped parody of the novel by J. D. Salinger.  But beware!  The more kids you catch, the craftier they get, and the more Holden takes time for himself.

I originally created this in my Junior year of high school for a literature class; we were to make a "creative response" to Catcher, and I decided to make mine a video game because I needed practice.  After some time of just sitting on my hard drive, I decided I'd polish it up a bit and add in some of the features I scrapped for time.  I feel like Holden himself would think of me as a phony for all this.

The game itself is best described as a ludonarrative-driven high score chasing arcade game.  I know it's weird, but I don't know how else to put it.

NOTE: This game contains depictions of drug and alcohol use, and may not be suitable for everyone.  Basically, if you're fine with the book, you should be fine with the game.

You will need a keyboard to play.  Otherwise, it will probably run on any old toaster, but no guarantees.

Special thanks to VCX for testing the Mac version, and to my sister for helping me out way back when this was in school.