To Do List

"Sometimes I dream of amazing things. A world full of people and houses. I do not remember what these people and their homes are doing, but it doesn't seem very interesting." —Young Man, To Do List

To Do List is an Adventure Horror Video Game that was released in April 2017. It was developed and published by Four Quarters team for the PC. It was also one among 2,980 submissions to Ludum Dare 38.

A young man lives all alone on a small island drifting through outer space. Every day, he wakes up, does chores according to his to-do list, and goes back to bed. The days start at seven and are counting down to zero. What happens when the countdown reaches zero?

If you would like to see playthroughs of To Do List on YouTube, please see the following videos:

• A playthrough of the game by Alpha Beta Gamer.
• A playthrough (with commentary) of the game by ManlyBadassHero.

Tropes used in To Do List include:

• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: The giant caterpillar on Day 2 speaks a language that is clearly gibberish. The young man, threatened by its presence and unable to understand a word that it says, grabs the ax and kills it.
• Ax Crazy: The young man. On Day 2, he grabs an ax and kills a giant caterpillar because he thinks that it needs to be "tickled" with the ax. He stabs Thomas the scarecrow with a knife because he feels that Thomas had failed to scare away the giant caterpillar. He also digs up the bones of his "best friend" Mike, who may have been his victim, to chat with him. Not only is he psychologically unstable, but he also presents a clear danger to others.
• Black Comedy: On Day 4, when the young man cuts some logs with the ax, he says, "Defendant is a log. Verdict is guilty." He also laughs at his own joke.
• Cryptic Background Reference: On Day 5, a voice on the radio talks about how they remember that day and how it ended. It also mentions if there was something they could have done to prevent it. It also questions if they should have done so. It brings up the existence of people who want to punish the guilty and people who want to find a solution to the problem. The broadcast ends by asking which person that they would rather be. Very little context, if any, is provided for this broadcast.
• Dramatic Stutter: On Day 5, the young hears someone say "…Hello…." He is so shocked by this that he can only respond, "H-hello?"
• Foreshadowing: When the young man picks up the ax on Day 4, he will say, "It can cut logs. Or caterpillars. But mostly logs." He uses the ax to kill a giant caterpillar on Day 2.
• Go Mad From the Isolation: As the game goes on, it becomes clear that the young man is experiencing this.
• I'm a Humanitarian: The young man creates piles of flesh from the giant caterpillar and possibly Mike in his garden, Mike's grave and the compost heap. He gathers them up at the end seemingly intent on eating them.
• Musicalis Interruptus: Day 5 starts with the music completely interrupted by radio noise. It is only when the young man destroys the radio with a hammer that the music resumes.
• Nightmare Face: From the end of Day 3 on, the young man begins to make many different faces of this kind.
• Precision F-Strike: When the young man grabs the ax and kills the giant caterpillar on Day 2, he says, "I will not wake you up. Sleep for a while…then f*** off." That is the only instance of swearing in this game.
• Riddle for the Ages: What is the young man doing on a small island drifting in outer space? What sort of event was the radio broadcast referring to on Day 5? Where did the giant caterpillar come from? Did it have hostile or friendly intentions? Was Mike ever really a friend to the young man? Did the young man kill Mike? Did the isolation turn the young man into what he is? Alternatively, was he always like that and the isolation simply bring it out? Does he intend to eat the piles of flesh or create a friend from them? None of these questions get an answer, and it is clear that the developers want the players to come up with their own interpretations.
• Slasher Smile: When the young man successfully kills the giant caterpillar, this sort of expression appears on his face.
• Small Secluded World: The young man lives alone on a small island drifting through outer space. There are hints of the existence of a larger world, but nothing is confirmed.
• Surrogate Soliloquy: The young man digs up the bones of a man named Mike, picks up his skull and starts talking to it. The resulting conversation indicates that nobody liked the young man and that Mike only loves him now that he is dead. Of course, the young man, through Mike's skull, calls himself a moron. This seems to indicate that the young man hates himself.
• Through the Eyes of Madness: It becomes clear that the young man is disconnected from reality. Then again, the fact that he makes bizarre comments on a number of things is a big hint.
• Wham! Episode: Day 3 is when the player gets to see that the young man is so disconnected from reality that he paints parts of the roof red instead of blue and that he fertilizes the garden with pieces of a dead giant caterpillar. He goes to bed with a big nightmarish face. Day 2 shows the young killing said giant caterpillar with the ax, stabbing Thomas the scarecrow and digging up the bones of his "best friend" to have a conversation with his skull. Finally, on an unspecified day, he gathers up piles of flesh from the garden, from Mike's grave and from the compost heap in order to "harvest the crops."
• Why Won't You Die?: When the young man uses the ax on the giant caterpillar, he asks why it keeps coming.
• You Have Failed Me: The young man stabs Thomas the scarecrow for failing to scare away the giant caterpillar.

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Again and again, without an end.