A satirical crowd-management game: you are the giant. Set the fee, steer the crowd and reach one trillion dollars before the yellow people gather at your feet.
Loads the original game from dontlookup.app here. Choose Start to begin, or Tutorial for a quick walkthrough. Game: dontlookup.app
You play a giant collecting money from the crowd below. Raise the fee to earn more, but push it too far and people start looking up. Yellow people stop paying, spread the word and head for your feet.
For example, lowering the fee gives up income from people who still pay. Raising it beyond the crowd’s tolerance risks more yellow people, who stop paying and persuade others. A temporary distraction near a yellow group can turn attention away, but its effect wears off. Watch both income and the crowd approaching your feet as you work toward $1 trillion.
Game: dontlookup.app · Tutorial
Citizens pay you a share of their earnings. The red line on the fee meter marks the most the current crowd will tolerate. Keep the fee close to that line. People who look up stop paying, so a larger fee alone does not solve a growing yellow crowd.
A cat, a match or a trend can turn a cluster of yellow people back to looking down. Place the distraction near that group. These options cost less, but their effect wears off. Use them to hold back the spread of awareness, rather than as the main way to get rich.
Some options cost more and keep influencing an area. The guru and priest create believers, who stop worrying about the fee and pay the most. The politician and a planted story make people argue with each other. This buys time to deal with another part of the crowd.
Everyone starts white: still paying and still open to influence. Yellow people have noticed, stop paying, persuade others and move towards your feet. Blue people believe, pay the most and cannot be argued back. Red people argue, still pay and drift away from your feet.
Reaching $1 trillion wins the game. You lose if enough yellow people arrive at your feet at the same time. Watch their position as well as your money: a crowd that is gathering close to you needs attention, even while money is still coming in.
Tap Start, adjust the fee with + or −, choose an available distraction and tap the game area to place it. The same choices work with a mouse and keyboard on a computer.
A higher fee sends more money upward, but it also makes more people look up. They stop paying as soon as they notice what is happening. So the money you gained has to be spent again: a cat, match, screen or trend turns eyes down for a while, and the fee can keep flowing.
The loop gives every quick gain a second cost. McCombs and Shaw’s agenda-setting work names one part of that picture: what stays in view can become what people treat as important.
Red people are arguing. They still pay, but they are no longer walking as one yellow crowd toward the giant. A planted story or politician can break up a dangerous knot just long enough for you to buy time somewhere else on the map.
In their study, Brady and colleagues found that moral-emotional language was associated with more sharing in like-minded networks. Back in the game, red keeps people paying while their movement is no longer concentrated at the giant’s feet.
Blue people are believers. They are harder to wake, and the rules make them the most reliable payers. On the screen, belief changes the practical feel of the same fee: what alarms one person barely interrupts another.
Kay and colleagues examine why existing arrangements can sometimes seem desirable. In experiments, Trump and White found no evidence that inequality information intensified that response. Paying may also reflect cost, habit or a lack of options, so payment alone cannot tell you whether someone approves.
Yellow spreads when people see the giant and then see other people looking up. The danger is not one person’s notice but a cluster forming at your feet. Recognition becomes a shared scene: each new yellow person changes what nearby people can see and do.
Granovetter’s threshold model asks how other people’s participation can change the point at which someone joins. It helps frame why a crowd may move suddenly after looking scattered a moment earlier.
Your goal is one trillion. For the people below, the same round is a rising fee, diverted attention and a path toward your feet. To win, you start counting their awareness as a risk. From the giant’s position, the same scene looks different.
Bogost’s writing on games argues that rules can express ideas through the actions they make possible. It offers a way to read the gap between your goal and the crowd’s position.
“cool game. at around 8 min, i spammed with fake news and that got me from 700b -> 1t”
“what a cool game😂👌🏻”
“This was so fun.”
“this was funn”
“i love it”
“Good game”
Yes. Play in a browser without a purchase or account.
We have not measured typical completion times. The player review mentioning around 8 minutes describes one player’s run, not an average or a promised duration.
Reach $1 trillion before enough yellow people gather at your feet at the same time.
White people still pay and can be influenced. Yellow people stop paying and move toward you. Blue people pay the most; red people keep paying and move away.
Reload the page, then try dontlookup.app if you still need another way to play.