Sludge Life is a 2020 first-person video game developed by Terri Vellmann, scored by Doseone, and published by Devolver Digital.
After the employees at the Glug energy drink company go on strike, a graffiti artist named Ghost decides to use this opportunity to tag as much of the factory as they can.
A sequel, Sludge Life 2, was released in June 2023.
Sludge Life contains examples of the following tropes:
- Bathroom Stall Graffiti: Some of the places Ghost can tag with their graffiti are public bathrooms.
- Bird People: The in-universe news outlet Newsbeak is run by "pigeon men" (that is, people with life-size pigeon heads).
- Creative Closing Credits: The end credits take the form of computer pop-ups that can be moved around and closed.
- Cyclops: Cyclopes serve as Glug's security guards, or "clops"note as they're called in-game. If you get too close to them, they'll occasionally call you "two-eyes".
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Dying simply spawns you in a hospital good as new.
- Debug Room: A debug menu can be accessed by pressing the fart button three times in a row while on the main menu screen.
- Frog Men: Some of the NPCs, such as Big Mud, are humanoid frogs.
- Furry Confusion: There are pigeon people on the island, but also normal, non-anthropomorphic pigeons. One human NPC is even seen attacking the latter kind of pigeon because of his dislike of the former kind.
- Game Within a Game: Crypt Creeper, a tile-based game where you venture into a crypt, defeating monsters along the way. You unlock it by finding a copy of it in the game world.
- In-Universe Camera: You acquire a camera early in the game, which you can use to track potential tagging spots or just to take pictures.
- Major Injury Underreaction: One of the chefs at Glug Tower has a knife stuck in her hand and is bleeding profusely, but all she can feel is a stinging sensation.
- MegaCorp: The Glug energy drink company owns almost everything on the island, including a burger shop, a cigarette company, another energy drink maker, a chemical company, the hospitals, and an apartment complex.
- Multiple Endings: The game has three possible endings.
- Good Ending: Ghost climbs to the top of Glug Tower, gets inside the CEO's escape pod, and flees the island.
- Bad Ending: Ghost gets inside an underground base, activates a nuke, and blows up the island. This also closes the game and causes your save file to get "corrupted", requiring a "recovery" the next time you boot up the game.
- Weird Ending: Ghost tags every possible spot on the island, then goes to seek the approval of King, only to find a blindfold floating towards their face. What follows is a sequence of spinning eyes, mushrooms, cigarettes, energy drinks, and spray cans. A crown then falls onto the floor, and Ghost picks it up. Then the credits roll.
- Mushroom Samba: It's possible to consume hallucinogenic blue mushrooms called "Zoom Shrooms". Doing so causes Ghost to temporarily float in the air with a saturation filter, before waking up where they were before.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In the good ending, Ghost gets in an escape pod meant for the Glug company's CEO and flees the island.
- Speaking Simlish: The characters speak through grunts and other assorted sounds, though there are English subtitles. According to a comment by Big Mud, this is actually a language called Sludge, which is only spoken on the island.
- Spiteful Spit: It's possible for Ghost to spit in the Glug CEO's food to show their disdain for him. He doesn't notice.
- Spy Satellites: If you manage to get inside the island's communications center, you can get access to a satellite that gives you a bird's-eye view of the island. Using it is required to get one particular tagging spot.
- Toilet Humour: Whenever Ghost stands close enough to a toilet, they will start to pee continuously until they move away. In addition, the game has a dedicated button for farting.
- A Winner Is You: If you beat the Crypt Creeper minigame, all you get is a picture of the hero holding up the boss's severed head and spine.
