Weâve written before about student game developer Jenny Jiao Hsia and her arresting game Consume Me which tackles the difficult topic of disordered eating. Now sheâs created another short gaming experience we love. Called Morning Makeup Madness, itâs decidedly more light in terms of tone than her project Consume Me is, but it retains the same bright and cartoonish visuals that we enjoyed so much.
Morning Makeup Madness is an extremely short game which gives players just 10 seconds to apply a face of makeup. I can practically hear the ‘challenge acceptedâ going through some of your minds. The game is drawn from Jennyâs own experiences of waking up late in the morning and having next to no time to do her makeup. Itâs an experience many of us can probably relate to; even if you donât wear much makeup at all when you have next to no time to apply it the panic is intense and for some reason the mascara brush seems to develop and alarming interest in your corneas. Makeup Morning Madness just takes that situation to extremes and it is infuriatingly addictive.
Youâre given the tools of blush, eyeshadow, mascara, lipstick, and eyeliner which you must select one by one and click to apply on the avatar as best you can. The phrase ‘close enoughâ will come into your head more than once. Close enough is apparently, however, the point as the gameâs scoring system is fairly imprecise; the lipstick might go from under your nose to the bottom of your chin but it passes over your lips and thatâs what matters.
So far I havenât been able to get above a score of 40% and I can feel myself going truly mad. If you have a mouse I would advise that you use it over relying on a laptopâs touchpad - it certainly doesnât make it any easier. Iâd also advise that you set aside some time because itâs too easy to just keep smacking the space bar for a replay.
If you want to try Morning Makeup Madness for yourself you can find it here for free to play in your browser.