talked to the homeless man, visited the cow, gone to work in my underwear, and jumped off the top of my work building.

You need to get the leaf on the tree in front of your work. Wait for it to fall and press space when it goes past you.

Whatever your other one is, I seem to have mysteriously got it on a day when I didn't do very much out of the ordinary. I was delaying a lot, so I turned the TV on and off a bunch, and explored out where the homeless man used to be.

Probably the cow: I haven't found a cow.

pick up the leave from the tree

I guess the one I mysteriously got credit for was the cow: interacting with the leaf cleared it.

a man jumps off the building all the way to the right

catch the leaf

When you jump off the building and go back to the house, everyone is missing. No wife, no boss, no other cars or workers etc etc. Then you go to where you jump off and you're watching yourself jump. Then it ends

After you jump, it goes back to the house but there is nobody else around. No wife, no boss, no other cars on the street etc etc. Then if you go back to where you jumped you can watch yourself jumping again. Then the game ends.

I think I may have misread it, I thought that, the person jumping was the last person from the office after everyone else had jumped.

You are now a ghost, because the wife is gone, presumably to her husbands funeral. Just a small thought to explain her abscence

Get to the cow

get out your car, so I never found the cow ending. I'll go back and find that.

I only had "one more step," and I'd done all four other steps, but when I was trying to find the last branch, I ended up going to work naked again, got fired again, and apparently that counted.

Get out of your car by pressing space while on the road and then walk to the end of the screen.

Maybe in the end you were just a ghost watching life go on?

just after the man jump you return to your cubicle with your life destroyed and start again to work, lonely and uselessy.

open ending is a right choice

Everyone else had killed themselves but because I escaped the monotony I survived.

Since the Elevator Lady said blank more steps to become a new person, after you do all the steps you take the place of a man who has no wife and witnessed the death of another man. In this case the other man was the one that you played as the first couple times.

I was also thinking that a possible message was 'it could be worse', but even that feels pessimistic to me.

I'm trying to wrap my mind around, but it's really open to interpretation, so I don't mind that I can't find a definite opinion about it. It's interesting that way.

talking to the homeless guy.

I thought that the protagonist believed that he had broken out of the system by being unique and special. At the end, when he sees another drone jumping off the building and repeating his actions, he realises that everyone else has been doing the same thing as him under the illusion that they're "special" and "different", and he hasn't really broken out of the system at all...

(moving left instead of right, getting out of the car, not stopping at the man's cubicle)

jumping off the building

jumping off

I saw it as another dream because it seemed that everything else was. I noticed that once you interacted with something it changed, except for the elevator lady. When you interacted with the leaf it disappeared, when you interacted with the homeless man, he disappeared. So before you interacted with the building it was empty and you were seeing the change for yourself.

Don't get dressed. Go to work, and when you enter the building, turn back as fast as you can. If it works, your boss shouldn't fire you. Pick up the leaf. Then go back to your job. Your boss should let you pass. Then when you sit down at your cubicle, you'll be clothed again.

It might also happen with suicide, but I haven't tried yet

You're about to jump off the building, when all of a sudden some random guy walks out in his boxers with a dazed look on his face. You recoil in surprise, losing your balance and falling off.

what i thought about the ending is, you know how the lady sais _ more steps and you will be a NEW MAN, maybe when you finally do that you are a new man. with no wife, or sotial life in general. you go to work, realising your company has gone bankrupt. you continue on seeing no employees, you see no point in entering your cubicle, so you continue on. you than see your former player jumping off the balcony. probably after every other employee had done the same. i, as many others believe this game represents "it could be worse"

I jumped last, so I think the man tried to escape his life by comitting suicide only to find that the afterlife is the same monotonous routine.

jumping and seeing myself jump

seeing the man jump

You WERE the same man, despite what the lift lady said. I thought that it represented the silent horror of an average life. He puts a brave face on, but on the inside he is in endless torture. He woke up that morning, went into the kitchen expecting to see his wife, but she was gone. Did he stop to wonder where she was? No. He went on, in the same way he had every day. He went into the lift, expecting to see a friendly face, curious to find out about this "you will become a new man" thing, only to find that she was gone. One of his only friends had forgotten him, as had his own wife. Again, did he stop, shout in rage at the unfairness of it all? No. He went on, in the same way he had every day. He looked for signs of life, but the homeless man had gone. He got in his car, expecting the usual mundane busy roads, yet there was nobody. Did he wonder then, at the terrifying possibilities that lay before him? No. He went on, in the same way he had every day. He left the car, seeking signs of life; that cow would have been a welcome sight, but no, it was gone. Sighing, he got back into his car - did he drive away, did he try to find the people in his life he had loved? No. He went on, in the same way he had every day. He got to work, but the boss was gone - even the man he had disliked, he missed. But the boss had forgotten him, as all the others had. Now, surely, was the time to go insane with loneliness? No. He went on, in the same way he had every day. He glanced at the profits board: the business was bankrupt. Why had nobody bothered to tell him? It became apparent, as he walked past the silent, empty cubicles towards his own, that everyone else had been told. Thay had forgotten him. Yet still he went on, in the same way he had every day. Wait - no! He had had enough. He decided he would end it. Heading out to the balcony, he saw a shocking sight: one of his coworkers was jumping. Then, at last, it dawned on this man. It wasn't just this one coworker who had jumped. They all had. His coworkers, his boss, the lift lady - even his own wife. But he hadn't been told. They had grown tired of their own repetitive lives, and ended them. But they hadn't told him. They had forgotten him. He was completely alone in the world. And yet still he went on, in the same way he had every day.

it was almost like an alternate reality. The world was exactly the same visually, but he was completely alone in his rebellion. I felt like he was glimpsing his past life through whatever veil separated the worlds because it was, after all, him and the two versions of the man were connected.

Dream 1: The normal day. (This is only to set the scene. Not necessary to complete the game.)

Dream 2: The day he went to a cemetery.

Dream 3: The day he pets the cow.

Dream 4: The day he caught a leaf

Dream 5: The day he went to work nude.

Dream 6: The day he decided to die.

Dream 7: The day he was a new person.

It was about a schoolgirl who noticed that everyone in her school was always in lines and had to line up for everything. So one day, she steps out of the line, and then starts to fade away. She gets frightened and steps back into the line, only to find that everyone has forgotten that she existed and doesn't know who she is.
Maybe this was sort of similar in concept? The man rebels and then finds that everyone has forgotten him and left him or committed suicide, kind of like what Zurrikan said.

the wife was suddenly not there

there was no other traffic

You're about to jump off the building, when all of a sudden some random guy walks out in his boxers with a dazed look on his face. You recoil in surprise, losing your balance and falling off.

Wife: She left because I lost my job.
Elevator lady: Fine. Leave me alone.
Hobo: He's been gone for a while.
Traffic: Haha! No one's here!
Cow: Must've gotten eaten.
Boss: What?! I can't even go into your office?
Workers: Hm...I guess you all got fired since the compamy went bankrupt
Suicidal man: I just caught the last one killing themselves.
Me: Sucks, everyone left me.

he was in hell for commiting suidide, and the entire game was like his hell- having to life through the last few days of his life again and again. I thought it was ironic because he commited suicide to get away from that life, hoping for something better, and in the end, he ended up dooming himself to a repetious cycle that would never end, never even a chance of something better happening.

I like the idea that everyone else commited suicide and he was the last one observing it all. Very eerie.

I didn't even notice my wife was gone! But I was completely relieved not to have to deal with the traffic (too much like my real life!)

that because of all the little things the man took time to do and appreciate and try, he was less... I dunno... invested? in the business, so when it went bankrupt, everyone killed themselves except for you.

Though I also think it could be that, like you, all the other people where trying to "become a new man" and you are not special. You thought you where surrounded by coworkers, but they where really doing/thinking the same. Maybe on the last day you "wake up" and see through the illusion to the other people on the same quest as you. That's why no one is at work, and the place is bankrupt. Everyones been off "dreaming"

The elevator lady was my favorite character because she clued me in on how many things I'd need to do differently. It took me a while to realize I could go left out of my building, and for the last item, I had to read the walkthrough to learn that I could actually get out of the car.

Re: the ending, I liked that everything was different and I felt liberated (though I was sad that the elevator lady was gone). I was glad the wife was gone and there was no traffic.

I thought that I could save the other man but didn't know how. I want to go back and see if there is some way to keep him from jumping ...

I'm the disturbed soul who found the ending to be a positive one, in some weird cynical way.
You're a new man. You've freed yourself from the empty monotony of modern life. Good job. You've also, somehow, freed everyone else. They all realized it and they've all jumped too. Everyone is free. You're also alone, now. Good job.

I thought it would have been beautiful irony if the last thing you were supposed to do was sit down and get to work all by yourself. And then when I saw the other man about to jump I thought your final task was to commit one act of true human compassion and dissuade him. (And as lovely and powerful and image as that is--everyone else has jumped except for two men, when one steps in and stops the other, and then they go on living as the only two people who actually feel anything--there really isn't left for them. Even the cow and the leaf are gone.)

Despite the name, it actually never occurred to me to literally take it as each previous day just being a dream. I guess I took it more metaphorically--that his life was a dream because it never actually held any meaning, just unconsciously going through the motions--and so I found it very haunting that no matter what happened, whether you killed yourself or got fired, the next morning you still had to come in to work. No matter what you did, it never actually made a difference, not until the very end, when finally everything added up together had enough force to cause a universal catharsis.

The last one is where everyone is gone, go to the end of that line of cubicles, and see another man like u do suicide.

The old woman in the elevator said that you will be a new person. So when you've done all the steps you wake up as a new person, without a wife, an old lady to talk to and a job at some office that has just gone bankrupt. Then you walk to the roof and you see your previous self jump off the building. That's where the game ends. So now you're not dreaming anymore, but everything you had was taken from you. But it could've been worse. It could've been you who jumped off that building.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

so yeah... not necessarily 6 or 7 times needed to complete the whole game

From the advice of the elevator lady, he wakes up ready for his 'new' life, however it is. Anything would be better than the life he had, right? A new life would be much better.
But apparently not. The small things of every day are gone, leaving nothing but an empty feeling. Now more than ever, he is well and truly alone. And now he's stuck there.
Now he'd do anything to go back. If he could go back and kiss his wife, go back and work hard enough to get a promotion.
About the final suicide part though, I'm not sure what to think. It is possible that the man he saw was the last of all the people of his life to leave him behind, alone. It was chilling, though, that scene: for the only time in the whole game, the music cuts off to give way to an eerie emptyness as we watch the final, inevitable happening. Everything is gone now; the business, his wife, his friends, his work. His life.
I guess this game is just trying to convey, very powerfully, that life is very precious. Don't take anything for granted; before it all disappears, take hold of it and do the best you can. Even the most monotonous of lives are precious and should be valued, before it's all gone and you don't have the chance anymore.

David Lynch. Specifically, it reminds me of Mulhulland Drive. The man has already committed suicide because he lost his job because his company ent under. The last day you see is actually the day he killed himself. The other days he is given the chance to see the opportunities he missed on the last day of his life; but in the end he dies anyway.

The entire "dream" might actually be the last moment of his life... what happens just before he falls over the edge.

missed the cow (as I stopped in traffic, but didn't press space) and

The final scene might of had a bit more impact if I didn't have to jump through all the hoops first (ie, picking what I wanted to see during a set number of days and having some sort of impact) and if I hadn't killed myself so many times only to be reincarnated.

put off the alarm; get dressed; turned off the tv; talked to wife; pressed button for elevator; talked to the old lady in elevator (to see how's your progress); talked to homeless man; drove the car, talked to boss; sat at your cubicle; jumped from the building; got off from your car; patted the cow; caught the leave; wore without a working attire"....and the story will be ended soon.

At first, I was disappointed when everything was empty and there was nothing to interact with. Even the mundane small effects like the leaf and the cow kept me engaged before everything disappeared. I was upset when I walked into the office and nothing was there to interact with (or yell at me for not being dressed again). The final frame seemed like my only hope to free myself from the empty gameworld and when I arrived I was thrilled to see anything different, even if it was a clone committing suicide, I was grateful that the developer ended the game there and did not leave me stuck in a souless, empty world in which I would've wandered around for hours trying to solve a puzzle with no solution (I originally thought that is the kind of statement they were going to make). I guess I am thankful for the end whatever it might be.

It's probably trying to show that if you followed that same routine over and over, you...might have killed yourself like everyone else did? The moral is nice, but the way it conveys it is a little extreme.

the cow, the leaf, etc. disappearing.

that being limited to interacting with four people, a leaf, a cow, and little more, is a plot device. Didn't you all look eagerly for more things to interact with? My take is: that's the new man. He saw it all in the micro-world he live in, and luckily for him, it did contain some beautiful things to look for. The game ends because there is no more to do in this world; outside it, the possibilities are endless.

that he had dreamed himself a better life but he eventually woke up to himself to find that his old life was back his wife left him 2 days ago the elevator lady wasn't real his friends and co-workers had been fired because they had gone bankrupt so they killed themselves and he got there just in time to see the last of his co-workers kill themselves.

If you try to "break the laws of the universe", like if you try to make a better life by being different, 2 things happen:
1-Everything gets messed up because of the choice to be rebellious & try to be different.
2-You realize everyone is trying to do the same thing, & that actually, it's more different NOT to be rebellious, rather than to try to break the mold.
Moral: Things are meant to be. Trying to make it better WILL make it worse. It can ALWAYS get worse.

The beginning and middle parts of the game WERE sort of depressing. The stereotypical monotonous/soulless life of a businessman. When the "jump" option appeared, it felt appropriate to question whether this grey life was one worth living.

However, when I woke up after killing myself and there was nobody around anymore, I felt lonely. I missed my wife even though she barely spoke to me, I missed the creepy elevator lady, the leaf, and most of all the cow! When I got up to the roof and saw (what I interpret as) myself, I wanted to tell myself to stop. Because the life I had, miserable as it seemed, was not nearly as bad as the loneliness/nothingness of death.

Remember when you heard the elevator
lady say you will be a new person? Well,
think about it - everyone was gone, your wife,
the traffic, and your workers. And so, you have
literally become a new person, and you are standing looking at yourself - your old life,
jumping off the building, killing itself, so you
may begin your new life as a new person, all from the beginning.
There you go.

a happy ending. I think that in itself says something; we've all been conditioned to expect a happy ending from games. After all, why do we play them? I think even more than other media, we want our games to deliver a rush of joy. When they don't, we feel a little empty. The cold ending here is employed in much the same way it was in Goodbye Solo, if you've seen that film. Like that film, this game can be seen as both an affirmation that the human condition is cruel and that it is awe-inspiring.

The meeting with the cow, made me feel warm inside. The only other living thing in the whole game he has a real connection with isn't a human! I thought it was ingenious. Showed how lonely the guy felt.

And then the visit to the graveyard with the homeless man, I don't know if was supposed to make me feel good about myself, but it managed to do it. Gave me a "Hey, it could be worse than this." kind of feel. Although this and all the other interactions had another meaning to me, I will mention this later.

When he jumps off the building. Didn't see it coming. I had to hold my jaw up, it dealt with it in such a casual way.

And the catching of the leaf. The "inevitable death" scene, as I like to see it.

The suicide moment is an obvious one. I feel this is his inevitable demise, or it has already occured.

The catching of the leaf tells me "No matter how hard you try to stay on the brach, you will eventually wither and drift off on a breeze."

The visit to th graveyard I feel was aimed at giving him (or ourselves) a little bit of peace with the thought of death. The mans line of "Would you like to see a quiet place?", or something along those lines, really said to me "This place isn't so bad, at least it's quiet and there are no distractions". (Would people disagree if this scene was the moment he passed to the after life?)

The cow moment was a final farewell to even the most inane things. He saw a cow and thought "I'm never going to see a cow again once I die/pass on". Also, I think that in a certain religion the cow symbolises the after life? Anyone able to verify this?

And finally, the naked day. This is the day he breaks free of the routine of life. No longer does he have to take part in waking/dressing/eating/drinking/working/sleeping.

And the final day, he witnesses the birth of not just a new person, but a new world for him to shape to how he wanted it to be. The man jumping at the end I feel does not literally happen, but there aren't many was to say "There is nobody else here." without looking too ambiguous.

I think you can actually find a positive in the ending, everyones gone because they too were bored with their monotonous lives, you showed them how to be free, whether they jumped or simply left they followed your example and freed themselves and have awoken from the dream. Or you could have just been playing different workers each time.

I viewed all the content like the cow and the hobo and the leaf. i also got fired. but the creepy thing is that every one is gone at the end

I did the suicide before the leaf, so it was pretty clear to me that he was dreaming and didn't go to hell...At least, I don't think that hell would have the leaf to catch. But I kind of wish I'd done the suicide last because I like that idea :)

The other days he is given the chance to see the opportunities he missed on the last day of his life; but in the end he dies anyway.

new video?

I'm thoroughly surprised that so many people report jumping last. From a game design perspective, jumping is probably the most likely outcome other than the normal routine. You just have to keep going right until you run out of space, then interact.

The other two obvious ones are the homeless man (it shouldn't take the average player too long to realize "hey, I can go LEFT here and break out of the normal routine!") and getting fired, which is the only outcome that competes with jumping in its obviousness.

So the outcomes players will likely encounter first will be jumping and getting fired, with the odds slightly favoring it being in that order, but not significantly so. The next thing discovered will almost certainly be the homeless man. The last two will probably be the leaf and the cow. The cow will almost certainly come last because there's no indication you can get out of your car while driving, while the leaf (being the only colored object in the game) draws enough attention that a bored player might stop and stare at it for the few seconds necessary for it to break free.

So the most likely order of outcomes for any given player from a game design viewpoint is:

Jumping-->Fired-->Graveyard-->Leaf-->Cow

You may notice that these basically go in order from most depressing to least depressing. At the start, you're driven insane by the monotony of routine and choose to end it all. Then you try to break the routine and lose everything for it. After that you leave entirely to go to a quiet place where you contemplate death, but do not embrace it. Then you stop to examine a leaf on the way to work, finding fascination in such a small thing. Finally, in an act of spontaneity that breaks up the routine of many other commuters (who probably appreciate it less than you), you reach out and connect with another living thing.

Every step of the way, you have an old woman in the elevator, there to tell you just how close you are to "being a new man." Because of the way video game reward systems work, you're set up to expect that after completing the five steps, you'll be rewarded with a difference in the world. There will be more color, more hope, SOMETHING.

But when you wake up as a "new man," you find the world entirely empty. You can explore, but there's nothing left to see. And at the very end, you see yourself, as you were on the first day you tried to break the routine. Jumping.

There's no way to know for sure what a player will think when they get to that last screen until the game is already finished, they've already played it, and you can ask them. There's no design decision that pushes players in one direction or another. But my first thought was "Oh, I bet I can walk over and stop him from jumping." And I'll bet most players had a similar thought (though perhaps there's was the more ambiguous "I wonder if I can stop him from jumping?" or the pessimistic "I bet I can't stop him from jumping," but probably not something along the lines of "I wonder what'll happen when he jumps"). So, really, you are a new man on that last day. You've gone from a man who sought to break the monotonous cycle of life by acting self-destructively or irresponsibly to one who can be both patient and spontaneous in their pursuit of some new thing, something worth living for.

Of course, in real life, you can't jump off the building and then wake up the next day and look for some other way to break the routine.

I think that the ending is brilliant, there's no-one home. the woman in the elevator is gone and your usually busy commute to work is calm. when you reach work your boss is no longer there to fire you for not wearing clothes and no-one sits at the cubicles. And as you get to the edge where you jump off, you see a man jump. it's like everyone else already had and i felt at the end of the game there would be a choice for you to jump aswell. it was quite an emotional game and great artwork aswell. I loved the message aswell although i havent quite decided what exactly it is yet.. anyway 10/10 loved it

But also I don't think he kills himself in the end. He watches the last of his co-workers jump to their deaths

I think the message is that everyone he knows is having the same problem, so in the end, he sees someone jumping off a building...

The music is strangely depressing though.

Your watching yourself jump off the building.

pat cows and go to work hardly dressed

you can go back and do each of the "bad" endings (suicide, getting fired) more than once but you can only have the "good" experiences (graveyard, leaf, cow) once per game.

Do you really believe that (as I take it) nothing you can do will make your life better? Though you will find minor beauty/comedy in that which is conspicuously different (going to work in underwear, or taking advice from a homeless man, or petting a cow), or liberating (suicide, recklessly stopping a car in traffic), is it ultimately the case that everything is pointless, so pointless in fact that, as far as the game's allegory is concerned, it can disappear?

I do not. Everything matters. In life, everything worth doing is hard (no sense of this in the game, breaking the routine is mindlessly easy, and if not for UI design glitches, like not telling the player that he/she can exit the car, every path is both easy and obvious), and conversely, everything hard is worth doing. Breaking the routine just 'cause, is not going to change things, but neither is accepting it because "it could be worse".

So, it doesn't matter if the last guy jumping is the original player character or not. The world, after several attempts to break out of the routine, is still not good, better, or at least ok (- an empty world might have been ok for some players, so the suicide at the end dispels any doubt). Over 10,000 years ago, the human race was supposed to go extinct - there was a drought, they had no water. But we are problem-solvers par excellence; if we do anything well, whether as individuals or as a species, it is the constant resolution of problematic factors in our world to render it closer, though never perfectly equal nor constantly closer, to what we believe to be Good. Homo sapiens survived due to this solution-seeking approach, and would have been wiped out if the alternative and converse attitude as suggested by this game ("it could be worse than not having water, we should be content with life as it is") were adopted.

And so, the game *is* horrible AND pretentious.

I didn't think of the days as a literal dream, like many people here did. I just thought that it didn't matter what you did-you could get fired, stop traffic for miles, or even commit suicide- nothing would change.

I found the ending to mean how much we take for granted. We get up and hear our wife to tell us to hurry up because we are late. The traffic always moves at a certain speed at a certain time. Our boss tells us what we do wrong and what to do now. Our friends at work sit at their desks all day. But when you get up and no one is there you realize what you had after it is already gone. Then you see the man jump. you stand there and just watch it all unfold beneath your eyes. You have to decide the rest for yourself. Do you jump? Do you go home and sit there with no one else to talk to for the rest of your life? Or do you go out and find your wife, find the elevator lady, and find your true happy ending?

The man was having dreams concerning the company and his mundane life, and as such was trying to figure out how to change his life. Comitting suicide distanced himself from the company in that death was preferrable to the monotony. Getting fired for doing something fun broke the monotony, and broke his fear of losing his job. Contemplating death with the homeless man in a quiet place rather than going to work showed him that there was more to life, and he shouldn't take it for granted. Touching the cow was, again, a break from the normal world as a whole in that he's enjoying something no one else thinks to stop and enjoy. Finally catching the leaf shows how he's learned to love nature and not so much the overall artificial world. Then, at the end, the company has collapsed (as evidenced by the stock-market line on the chart) and everyone panicks, many committing suicide, like his co-worker at the end. He does not, however, because he's no longer so hooked into his routine that he can't break free of it. He's fine without the company, fine without the routine, and thus the dreams saved his life.

The person jumping off the roof is also getting free, like you had to in the game. I was personally shocked when the guy you moved around the screen woke up the next day as if he hadn't jumped off the roof. But it made me assume that maybe there was a big swimming pool or something and he just fell in and swam out (also it might be only like a two story building so it's not TOO high?). So then in the end you're just watching all the other players who are playing the game do the "jump off the roof" step... and that made the game seem much lighter.

jumped off the roof

it's too late. He's already dead.

He tells your character "i can take you to a quiet place" and then you arrive, standing by the homeless man in the middle of a graveyard. To me, this seems to say "the world is a noisy and annoying place. The only people that get rest are those who are dead in their graves." yes, its a depressing message, but if anybody found any aspect of the game cheery and warm, i would be suprised

Everyone is gone. I didn't understand that part. But the man jumping at the end...I got a feeling that the man wasn't a co-worker or anything. I got the feeling that the man was the player's "old self". The old self was dead and he could become a new person. It would make sense of the elevator lady saying "X more steps until you become a new person".

Suddenly there she was in, a field. "Moo" she thought, realising she was a cow. She was confused, she'd never been a cow before. She'd never been anything before. There was the drone of a nearby road and a man walking towards her in his underpants. "Moo" she thought again. The man drew closer and laid his hand gently on her fuzzy head. There was just time for one last confused "Moo" thought before she simply stopped being.

I believe that the game wishes to remind people to break the daily routine. To do something different from time to time. For example walking to work instead of always taking the car. In the end, when you have taken 5 steps and become a new man, you witness what should have happened to the old you if you hadn't changed. Your wife would have left you, your company would go bankrupt. And you would have jumped. Or it's just a symbol that your older self has died.

It's interesting that the companys chart is showing a clear downfall. I do not know why it is that way. Does the company loose when its workers begin to realise they do not have to live that life? or perhaps its just a detail to ensure us something is different.

By the end of the steps, he should live better, as a better man. Instead, he kills himself, like there's no hope of good living...

after I watched the movie Stranger than Fiction.

first he is a man that wishes to stop the simplicity of his life and he commits suicide and than like the old lady said after he's dead he is a new person that is why no-one is there because he isn't married and the company is bankrupt and no-one works there anymore. he sees the man he used to be jump off the building.

When I first played this game, I had no idea what to do. I went through the first day, walked through my office and onto the balcony and saw that there was an option to jump. The website I had found the link on said "Then he cracks, and rebels against this insidious routine" so I figured jumping off the building was what they meant and that it was the end of the game. I didn't jump, instead I went back to my cubicle and went to work.

The game started over. I wondered to myself 'are the only two choices I have to work or to jump?' The woman in the elevator told me "5 steps and you'll be a new man." I wonder if this was a way to encourage me to commit suicide.. five steps off the building and I would die and become 'a new man.' When I got off the elevator, I wondered on a whim if you could go left instead of right, and I did. There was a hobo who told me he could show me to a quiet place. A graveyard. This seemed to be encouraging me to commit suicide as well, so I could have peace. The next day started and I went to work. When I got out of my car, I noticed one of the few colored things in the game..a leaf falling off a tree. I caught it and wondered if it was supposed to be some sort of metaphor, that I was supposed to let go and jump to my death, like the final leaf on a tree. So I went and I jumped. I was surprised to see that the game didn't end. The game wasn't leading me to suicide, like I thought, because nothing significant happened afterwards. Was that it then?

I finally looked up this walkthrough and saw that I was supposed to be looking for 5 different things. It made sense after that, and I went on to pet the cow and go to work with no clothes. But for most of my gameplay time, I thought the goal of the game was to commit suicide.

Anyone else noticed the the companies profit started going down the minute you started slaking off and not going to work? The creator might be trying to say that every one is significant in their own way and that the man may be vital to the process.

I also don't fully get why it is called every day the same dream. Is all of what you do right up until the end (when you watch someone else die) a dream and the reality is that you are very VERY alone?

And what about the old lady, she said you would become a new man. the final step (i.e) killing your self, did that make you a new man. Is that why you see yourself die? are you in fact not yourself but a new person that is now one of the other employees? And who knows who you actually watch die.

I have so many questions about this game, I can't stand not knowing the reality of this game.

if he stopped and changed it, his company crashes, his wife is alone, the old lady has no one to talk to, and the either the employee jumped because he lost his job, or that was you jumping that changed it all.

Playing the game, I thought it would tell me that a job wasn't everything. Even though you go through a dreadful routine every day, and even though you hate your job and have no relationship to other people (not even your wife), life can still be beautiful. Life is what you make it, and if you choose to do something every day that makes you happy, the routine of lie doesn't bother you that much. In the beginning of the game I felt that it was very monotonous and depressing, but as I advanced I found that I was beginning to care less and less about the stuff that was similar and focusing on the new experiences; catching the leaf, touching the cow - basically beginning to see all the stuff that life is beside a job. But then, as I thought I had learned to appreciate the beauty of life, I woke up to all the stuff I appreciated gone. Every living thing had disappeared, even the cow and the leaf had left me, and the world felt more dead than ever. As I wander past the places that meant something in my life, desperate for someone or something to interact with, I see a guy just like me about to commit suicide. My heart hopefully skips a beat as I think this is what I was supposed to do; save the man, who is just like me before I became a new person, and show him all the wonderfulness I have found in life, but before I can get to him, he jumps. It didn't make any difference at all, and even though I tried so hard to change my life, none of it made a difference.

Maybe it's because I don't agree with that conclusion, but I feel that it's wrong. I loved the game, but the ending made me feel empty and depressed. I think I would have liked it better if the ending had showed us how the small things make life beautiful, and how you are able to change your life to the better, but I saw nothing of that. I saw an ending that told me that no matter how hard I try, the world will always be monotonous and dull - in fact, it can only get worse. And I refuse to believe that. Sure, much of my life is the same, but I feel happy anyway, because I am able to do all the things the man learned - go another way, catch a falling leaf - and appreciate the beauty of that. I truly believe that the small things in life makes all a difference, and no matter your current situation there will always be a road to happiness. You just have to find it. This game told me that the small things make no difference and life will always be gray and dull - and if you try to change that, it only gets grayer and duller.

"But the man jumping at the end... I got the feeling that the man was the player's "old self". The old self was dead and now he could become a new person. It would make sense of the elevator lady saying "X more steps until you become a new person"."

the wife was gone."

Yes, I agree with all that have been said, but I think it also sort of touches on 'you don't know how much you love something until it's gone.' The wife, around the 5th dream, it must have been boring to say hi to her. Same with the boss, the cubicles. But when they're all gone, you start to panic. One of those monotone co-workers never meant much, until they were jumping off the building...

consequence for breaking his routine and now he has to keep going on with life with no-one

I think the ending says to the player not to be a person who jumps, rather be a person who pets a cow.

Did you notice that nearly every single person in the game was exactly the same? Same job, same clothes, same look. Who's to say that they don't all have exactly the same life you do? And if you decided to jump... Wouldn't it stand to reason that they would too?
That's why everyone is gone. They all took the same path you did. At the end you have become a new person as promised, but the grass isn't always greener on the other side. Perhaps you are a ghost, or maybe it really was a dream after all. Either way, the way I interpreted it was that you are looking at the last person left, who inevitably makes the same choice you did.
I wasn't expecting a happy ending, if only because early on the game seemed to be pointing toward a story line that attempted to echo real life. And in real life, the unfortunate truth is that not everyone gets a happy ending.

The man on the final day is now walking through a world in which he has found deviation from the standards of his past lives. Everything that chained him down, as well as everything that redefined his outlook on life, is gone. He is walking through an empty vision, one in which he is finally the centerpiece that transcends the world he once knew. The story ends with the man seeing a doppelganger jump off of the building. This is a representation of the character's growth: the death of his confinement in the world of uniformity and the beginning of the man's life as a distinct entity.

He changes his life, correct? I believe that to change you have to leave people behind, hence the empty world. I am still thinking about the jump, but I think its about how pointless it all can feel