As everyone knows, game development is hard, but for Shovelworks Studios, the world's worst video game studio, it's damn near impossible, having never gotten a decent score. But with the help of a new animator, will Shovelworks finally get above 3 out of 10?
3 out of 10 is an episodic, animated game series created by Terrible Posture Games and Epic Store Exclusive about the adventures of developers at the world's worst video game studio as they endure antics both absurd and topical in various mini-games. The first episode was released on August 6, with every episode being released a week after.
- Season One:
- Episode One: Welcome To Shovelworks; While releasing Surfing With Sharks, intern Midge Potter joins Shovelworks Studios as it's new animator, due to the old one exploding. Unfortunately, a mob of angry fans start protesting outside for the shark of the game to be fixed or cancel the game entirely. Midge must help quell the protestors while dealing with the bizarre secrets of the studio.
- Episode Two: Foundation 101; Sick of the countless "interns" being shipped to them, Midge decides to head to the school where they're coming from and return them, only to learn of a dark secret festering in the school.
- Episode Three: Pivot Like A Champion; The team are unable to agree on what additional game elements should Surfing With Sharks have, so they settle this the only way they know how: an office-wide Battle Royale.
- Episode Four: Thank You For Being An Asset To Our Company; With investors coming over for a meeting, Jeb assigns Francine to redecorate the office in two days. Meanwhile, someone has replaced the game's shark designs with high-end 3D models, leaving Midge, Kevin, and Pylon to investigate who was responsible.
- Episode Five: The Rig Is Up!; Pylon and Kevin go on an adventure to fix Pylon's...missing face.
- Season 2:
- Episode 1 The Kevin Effect: Kevin's computer was stolen, leaving him unable to perform any work. Pylon and Midge head out to investigate the loss of the computer
- Episode 2 Green Screen and Hammers: Pylon converts the meeting room into a motion capture room and have one of the others perform a flip. Meanwhile, the hammering in the office is causing Kevin to suffering from a hammer headache.
- Episode 3 Welcome to the Club: There is a long lineup for a game club. Viper is able to enter, but Mitch, Pylon and Kevin are turned away because they aren't into realistic violent games.
- Episode 4 Catapults and Conspiracies: The team is unable to work because the servers are out, but it turns out that the modem was sabotaged, and there was a listening device with a green parasol symbol on it. Jeb thinks his old companion, Bruce, is trying to steal content. He sends Ben, Kevin, Joan and the intern to Blood Diamond Studios to deliver a message, "Jeb remembers everything".
- Episode 5 It's Fun O'Clock Somewhere
Tropes that this game includes:
- Back-Alley Doctor: In The Rig Is Up!, he offers his services soon after Pylon is told his "elective" treatment isn't covered by his insurance.
- Blood Knight: Viper shows shades of this.
- Casual Video Game:
- 3 out of 10 would qualify itself as a casual game, being easily approachable and having options to skip possibly harder games, but leans towards being an interactive visual novel instead.
- In Welcome to the Club, the game Cow Catcher was claimed to be a family-friendly casual mobile game by the person guarding the entrance to the gamer club. Subverted during the gamer duel where it instead uses video-realistic gore if the cow gets hit by the train.
- Chroma Key: Used in-work. The rooms used for motion capture are painted with "Motion Capture Emerald". Later in the episode, the motion capture software is unable to see Midge's legs, because they're a similar color to the green background.
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: Pylon, as the pilot episode shows. His idea of feeding the rioting fans is making them a Ketchup Granola Stew, consisting of ketchup, granola, and salsa...which looks disgusting as it sounds once it's finished. Apparently it was also poisonous.
- A Day in the Limelight: Episode Four is this for Francine and Ben.
- Difficulty by Acceleration: The endless MIT32-C games accelerate as the score increases.
- Down the Drain: The artist expresses disgust when their game switches over to a sewer level, because of the number of games that are including sewer levels.
- Endless Running Game: The fictional game being worked on is a runner where a surfer needs to collect coins and avoid a shark, which approaches from behind. Subverted because there's a brick wall that whacks the player soon after evading the shark.
- Entitled Bastard: Frank in Catapults and Conspiracies has the others hold down the buttons for the Two-Keyed Lock, then ditches them in a quick escape. He runs right into a mine.
- Episodic Game: This game is divided into multiple standalone episodes - and also subdivided into scenes as if it were a regular cartoon.
- Fictional Video Game: Shovelworks makes fictional games. Surfing with Sharks is playable on the TV in the lobby, with a change appearing in each episode. There is also an MIT32-C machine in the office that also has a game shown in a grid-like interface.
- Gilligan Cut: Kevin asserts that Jeb would never sign to the game college's terms regarding the interns. Cut to Jeb dancing naked in his office while signing a bunch of papers, and Kevin admits he would sign it.
- Grandma's Recipe: Pylon's Mom's Norwegian Cookies, found in The Rig is Up. It's a legitimate recipe that seems to create Brune Pinner cookies, but has some markups (e.g. Cayenne is not a good substitute to cinnamon)
- Headache of Doom: Kevin's hammer headache is about as powerful as a migraine, and also causes him to become delusional enough to return the hammer headache back to whomever gave it to him.
- Hypocrite: Midge is disgusted by everything that happens within the studio, deciding to leave upon finding out that the engineers do the interns. It turns outs that Midge has her own dark secrets, albeit more sympathetic ones, as revealed by Mr. Umbrella.
- Kill It with Fire: How Viper saves the office from stock template game developers near the end of episode four.
- Klotski: A stock puzzle to retrieve an intern from the supply closet, with stars awarded for fewest moves.
- Land Mine Goes "Click!": Landmines in S2 Episode 4 follow are highly visible, pulse a bit before detonating, and only do minor damage to the vehicle.
- Lethal Chef: Again, Pylon. The resulting Ketchup Granola Stew was so bad that their game review score tracker got lowered to 2 because the stew was poisonous.Kevin: Does anyone know how to cook?Pylon: Oh! I do!Kevin: Does anyone except Pylon know how to cook?
- Mini-Game: Minigames are often used to depict advancing the plot - and may also be skipped. There's also optional minigames found attached to some things around the office (including the endless runner they're working on.)
- Must Have Caffeine: After the sacrifice of interns were stopped, the alternate offering was to bring chai lattes. Midge must avoid the wandering engineers that would grab one of the cups, in order to properly make the head offering to the lead engineer.
- Ominous Multiple Screens: The Lead Engineer, who is surrounded by monitors. They're used to get a closer look, or even display emotional states.
- Only Sane Man: Midge. Ben also qualifies.
- Resignations Not Accepted: Blood Diamond Studios has a campus that's fortified, designed to keep people inside.
- Reverse Whodunnit:
- The season 1 ending and S2 Episode 1 shows the silhouette of the computer thief, making no attempt at masking the identity, as Midge was already shown as being blackmailed into sabotaging the company's game.
- S2 Episode 2 shows the silhouette of Midge's hair at the computer, leading to Pylon thanking Midge for helping out late. The intern is using that as a disguise.
- Rhythm Game: This is a mini-game, a bait and switch from playing Cow Catcher during the duel in Welcome to the Club.
- Sarcastic Confession: Midge tells Pylon what happened, about the thief being locked in the room because the walk-in fridge was 150 years old and had no internal unlocking mechanism, and thus the thief built a butter castle while waiting for the morning crew to arrive so that she could walk out. Pylon claims that this deduction is incorrect, because they're dealing with a true mastermind, where the butter castle was a Calling Card left by the villain.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Francine doesn't even bother to participate in the office battle royale in episode three, leaving the office and spending her time at the coffee shop.
- Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom: In Catapults and Conspiracies, chompy walls are claimed to be essential part of any large building. There's a shutdown switch on the other side, but Kevin accidently turns off the lights instead.
- Spontaneous Human Combustion: Javier, the previous game animator, blew up out of stress. The rest of the studio doesn't seem disturbed by this, as it's been a week before the game started.
- Story Overwrite: The Mini-Games between the cutscenes have no impact on the story, and are just meant to collect stars. Thus Pylon punching out five waves of stock game developers is followed by a scene where they overpower him. It also works in favor of the player, where a loss is instead converted to a win.
- Take a Number: Pylon and Kevin take a number at the Canadian health care center that's triple digit. They look for someone with the lowest number, but get identified as Americans when they do so.
- Trademark Favorite Condiment: Ketchup, for Pylon. He even has a "secret" stash of ketchup bottles on top of a shelf near the office's television.
- Two-Keyed Lock: One exit to the Blood Diamond studios has three buttons to be held down.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Midge seems to be the only one worried about Javier's blood-soaked desk, or the tentacle monster in the fridge.
- Wham Line:
- Episode Four:
Midge:"Checkin 4702, 12:15am..." So around midnight last night..."Submission Notes: Added revised Shark model with fancy shaders. Contributor, Midge P..." This can't be right. That's...me. - Wham Shot:
- At the end of the first episode, it's revealed that Midge has been involved with illegal activities, and is blackmailed into staying by mysterious contacts. Her mission is also simple; to make sure they never make a good game, or it will be The End of the World as We Know It.
- In episode four, the game review score tracker rises up to 4 for the first time ever.
