The Saddest Flash Game Ever

With the entire world overcoming the COVID pandemic, it reminded me of a classic Flash game called “One Chance” that many players, including I, may not have fully appreciated many years ago, given our young and immature worldview. Now, I want to return and explore this game, one for a trip down memory lane, and second, to understand why this game remains such a fantastic example of how a simple game can become an artistic masterpiece.

SOURCES:

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Contents
0:00 Intro
0:26 What is One Chance?
1:08 TUESDAY
2:02 WEDNESDAY
3:07 THURSDAY
4:20 FRIDAY
5:23 SATURDAY
6:08 FRIDAY
7:25 Meaning of One Chance
8:44 Small Details
9:32 Conclusive Thoughts

[tunasandwich]

I remember how horrified I was when I didn't know you couldn't reset the game and as I kept refreshing and restarting it always was just the shot of him "sleeping" by the bench

[quirinoguy]

The ending messed my kid brain up back then, I was so used to resetting for a better outcome... But when I couldn't, it truly gave me a sense of literal hopelessness.

[littleoni]

My biggest memory of this game is Mark finding the mc's wife in the tub and he just spent the next 10 or so seconds just screaming "no"

[partlyawesome]

I remember this game. What an amazing horrific experience

[syedomar]

I remember watching a big lets play youtuber(probably markiplier) play this game as a kid. The game made me so scared that it was hard for me to sleep for a few nights lol. The idea that everyone in the world slowly dies like this was very terrifying for me as a child.

[sponjik]

Another element I wish you would've mentioned, is the message at the start of each day. It starts with "you have one chance", but on the last day, it turns into "you had one chance". This is one of those things that just makes me feel a knot in my stomach from this game.

[reallycantthinkofausername]

I just finished the game, and my thought process through the whole thing was "Screw spending time with my family, I want to go to work!", thinking this would be the worst possible outcome and would lead to the game telling me there is no cure for the virus and that I should have valued the time I had with my friends and family because you never know when it could be stripped from you....


You can imagine how shocked I was when I found out this was the good ending

[E_the_mma]

I remember this game so vividly for years except one thing, its name! Over the years every time I tried to find it I failed and it got to the point where I just accepted that it must have been some sort of fever dream I had. Thankfully this popped up in my recommended and the second I saw the thumbnail I knew it was it. So thank you, this has provided some closure and knowledge that I haven't been insane for the past 10 years

[tinyslugcat]

*One Chance when it meets my cookie wiper:*

:0

[pixelpotato]

I feel like there were surprisingly many sad games like this made between 2010 and 2017 that made you feel alone and not in control.
I remember watching Markiplier play presentable liberty in 2016 and feeling devastated by the ending.
Recently I remembered the game and searched it up to look for secrets or an alternative ending of some kind.
Instead I found out that Robert Brock took his own life in 2018.
To me games like these feel more like a glimpse in the mind of their author rather than just sad and shocking content which is why I will always keep occasionally remembering and coming back to replay or at least rewatch them. .

[oatmealformana]

I'm so glad I wasn't the only one that remembered this during COVID. I replayed this twice in the last year, and the tears keep flowing. What a beautiful flash game, man.
When you beat the game, it locks you to the ending screen whenever you come back so you can't just play again unless you refresh your cookies. I didn't know that as a kid, so I never got to see the other side of it until recently, and I'm glad I found it again. I'm even more-so happy that everyone else found it and isn't going to soon forget this wonderful game.

[romagameplays]

Dude, when i played this as a child I tought the mom died BY THE PLAGUE while she was taking a bath, NOT KILLING HERSELF. My thinking must have been like "damn, maybe it made her shit blood or smnth". Fuck. I was stupid.

[taxidummydotjpeg]

SPOILERS:
Ahh.. this game was very well made, I remember being young and having this weird sick feeling whenever the song played where the mother took her life, and only amplified with the one ending where the co-worker kills your daughter. it made me feel so weird for a while. such a helpless situation. This one and "quiet time" are on par with the eerie/helpless feeling in horror games

[lucasthebigl]

There are two types of game/media that gives me nightmares:
-Horror obviously
-Games or other things that makes me feel like im responsible for some kind of bad thing which scares me on a existential level

[mgirl]

I’m so happy someone is talking about this, I found this game in a lets play years back as a stupid kid and it still sticks with me as a stupid teenager.

[yadfud]

This is why you test things extensively before releasing them.

[Wake_up._This_isnt_your_world]

I played this game. I was confused as to why the screen would look the same after the ending you chose, because i was probably some dumb, naive teenager, (or kid) but now i realize it.


You ONLY get one chance. Once it's done, it's done. That's it. No NG+, no load save file, not EVEN play a new game, nope, once you got the ending, it's truly game over.

And this is scary too. To think that something like this could actually happen irl.

[billyyank]

I remember being in elementary when I first saw people doing lets plays of the game. Hard to believe it's been 13 years since this game came out, almost feels like yesterday that it left such a huge impression on me as a kid. Thank you so much for making this, I almost feel emotional seeing it again.

[RandomDude]

This game is genius, not only because of the concept of you only having one chance, but also due to how well it uses the concept of a game where you can only play once

[randominternetbro]

This game was honestly my first experience with hopelessness and, what felt like to me, a young kid, actual death and loss. It was fucked. But also eye-opening and such. I think about this game fairly often, at least once every couple months or so.