Welcome to Unemployment Simulator 2018
Unemployment Simulator 2018 is now available on Steam, marking the debut release from Finnish artist Samuel Lehikoinen. Publisher turbolento is also celebrating the launch of the game that has steadily built a reputation for its honesty, originality, and emotional bite with an extra 20% launch discount.
The game arrives after a strong showing on the indie circuit. Unemployment Simulator 2018 won the Chat’s Choice Award at the OTK Games Expo 2025, earned praise from outlets including PC Gamer, and gained significant traction on Reddit, where multiple posts climbed to 13,000, 3,800, and 3,600 upvotes across indie-focused communities. That momentum has now carried the project to its full Steam release.
At its core, Unemployment Simulator 2018 offers an autobiographical exploration of unemployment and depression. It blends survival-style mechanics with story-driven progression, all presented through carefully handcrafted pixel art. The game shifts fluidly between horror, comedy, and drama, using dark humor and uncomfortable moments to reflect lived experience rather than exaggeration. Trauma is not a background detail here; it shapes the rhythm of play.
An original soundtrack by composer Wilson Tanner Smith underscores the experience, enhancing both its unsettling atmosphere and its sharply ironic humor through experimental compositions that feel closely tied to the game’s emotional arc.
Designed as a four to six-hour experience, the game mirrors the slow grind of adulthood itself. Players manage loneliness, anxiety, boredom, and exhaustion simply to make it through each day, clinging to the hope that something might finally break the cycle. There are no grand quests here. You are the hero of your own apartment, and survival is victory enough.