The Joy

"The Joy" is a play-to-earn, endure runner featuring 1977 book "Armed Joy" ("La gioia armata") by Alfredo Maria Bonanno, a book illegal to be sold and published in Italy which costed the author an 18-months jail sentence.

Help the protagonist survive while running around a greek island! The entirety of the book content is scrolling in the background while you jump the pits: labelled by most as an "insurrectionary anarchist" book, it is also an ode to the joys of playing.

If you "complete" the entire book, which should take around 60 mins, the game will end and 10$ will be sent to the paypal account of your choice (victory is recorded server side, check your internet connection when at the end).

In short, the game is both a way to preserve the book digitally (the text is fully embedded in the executable) and a way to question what it really means to play, work and earn in our time.

Controls

• SPACEBAR to jump, restart

FAQ

Q: Will I really get 10 bucks?

A: Yes, but only up to once every 365 days, as stated in the intro screen.

Q: Are you serious?

A: Yes we are serious.

Q: How can I be paid?

A: The game asks an email address linked to Paypal account and stores it, then records the victory if it happens, and 10 USD will be transferred to that email. The game does not check the Paypal account provided exists, so double check yourself.

Credits

• Kaleidoscope Labs: idea, code, sprites, some sfx
• Background music is track 4 ("Flautofonie ed altro") from "Cantare la voce" by Demetrio Stratos (1978). I don't own any copyright on the song and I doubt anybody does - or knows he/she does, but I will immediately remove it from the game if approached by relevant authorities
• Game background picture is courtesy of Stable Diffusion v2.1 model, as pre-trained and offered by Hugging Face
• Additional sprites from here and here and kenney.nl. Additional sfx from here