Working is fine, but playing is better. Besides the classic games that everyone knows, here’s a selection on the theme of the PhD.
PhD Simulator
A minimalist text-based game, written by a PhD student who just graduated. You have to keep your hope bar afloat throughout your PhD, and finish it on time – good luck!
PhD 2048
A variant of the famous game 2048, but where you have to add up the blocks (sometimes it doesn’t work, and it makes garbage…) to advance your PhD (which is measured objectively, in hair loss). At the same time, you have to deal with relationships and potential break-ups. Fortunately, the game reminds us that the possibility of drop-out is always there.
There’s also a version translated in Chinese.
“A day at the lab”
We’re planning to develop our own game, with the help of our friends at La Distorsion. For now, it’s just an idea!
It would be based on an online simulator (like PhD simulator) of a standard PhD day, with teaching, seminar, lunch, research and e-mails. There would be some randomness and you could make choices, like in La conférence aux 100 périls.
If you’re interested, you can join in! You don’t need to know anything technical, just a little creativity.