Energy Retention is a 2D platformer game developed by new media artist and programmer Jasmine Law. Law proposes that society often overlooks a system’s limitations and maximum capacity. Under the guise of betterment, we perpetually exhaust our limited supply of energy. Through a playable digital environment, Energy Retention highlights the constant calls for optimization of the body, despite the overworking we do.
Law’s programmed piece criticizes a capitalist ideal, optimization, by staging an inverse casual relationship between labor and reward. The 2D game represents the loop of never-ending work with a mass of collectible books, symbolizing assignments and tasks. Humans are mechanized through consistently completing and taking on tasks. Optimization may leave no choice but to opt-out. By recommending quality over quantity, Law suggests that sometimes less is more.