In it, you are no hero, or even anyone special in particular. You merely play as a worker coordinating resource extraction at a MegaCorp, and just about every day goes the same: wake up, brush your teeth and get dressed, get to work on time (or not quite on time), work on the abstract grid-building project, then go home. In between, your main companion is the smartphone and its array of apps.
Compare to the 2009 Adobe Flash game Every Day the Same Dream.
Unrelated to Stan Lee's animated film, or the early web browser
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Mosaic contains examples of the following tropes:
- Achievement Mockery: Done in-universe with BlipBlop's achievements, which are meant to further mock you for wasting time on this primitive game while already inside another game.
- Big Brother Is Watching You: One morning, you'll get an ad on your phone that calls the idea that brands are not your friends a crazy conspiracy theory, then says that they know your birthday and where you live "just like a true friend!"
- The Blank: Every character besides yourself lacks any facial features.
- Clickbait Gag: Exaggerated with one of the articles you can read on your phone:This One Thing Will Change Everything!Researchers have finally made the big breakthrough they've been waiting for, and results can be expected very soon. The impact this is expected to have on society as a whole is undeniable. They're saying that this is unlike anything we have predicted in the past 100 years, and after reading this, you'll see why. It's no surprise that online campaigns have already started both in favor and against this new change. Have you guessed what this is about yet? You probably have, but here it is anyway. [You need a subscription to keep reading.]
- Combos: Clicking continually at the single button in BlipBlop builds up its combo meter.
- Deliberately Monochrome: Limited Palette version, where there are practically no bright colors at the workplace, and nearly everything on your way to work is dominated by the cool shades of blue and gray. This is what makes bursts of color like a butterfly flying through a construction site so much more precious, and why the player may seriously consider arriving late at work just so that they can take an opportunity to observe one of these moments.
- Gainax Ending: Did the protagonist die trying to break the system and end up in the after life? Or is this an allegory of one man quitting his miserable job and finally following his passion?
- Pac Man Fever: Played for drama: even though the protagonist has a pretty much modern smartphone, the only game on it is BlipBlop, a primitive black-and-white clicker with a simplistic core loop and only a few flashing lights to make it even remotely appealing, which serves to further undermine the emptiness and pointlessness of the genre as anything but a distraction.
- Sanity Slippage: The monotony of work eventually results in the player character seeing ever-more disturbing nightmares at night.
- This Loser Is You: The protagonist is a corporate drone who lives a dull, boring life where actively seeking out anything interesting puts him at risk of arriving late or otherwise interfering with his job. His bank account only ever seems to go down no matter what he tries. People avert their eyes and don't want to talk to him at work; his phone often receives messages from old friends, who are frustrated he never replies; he can also try using the dating app, but it is just as fruitless.
- Timed Mission: After you wake up at the start of every day, you need to get to work, and that is timed; arriving late is entirely possible if you spend too much time doing secondary activities. Whether or not arriving on time is actually worth it is the question for the player to decide.
