Draft:Progressbar95

Progressbar95 is a hypercasual UI game developed by Icoeye, and published by Spooky House Studios in 2019. The game uses a Windows-styled appearance, and has been downloaded more than a million times. This game is available for Steam, Android and iOS devices.

Gameplay
The aim of the game is to catch colored segments in order to fill the progress bar. Included are blue segments, which are correct bits of data and fill 5% of the progress bar, yellow segments, which are "corrupted" data but are harmless, cyan segments, which fill more of the progress bar, pink segments, which lower your progress bar by 5%, gray segments, which do nothing, red segments, which trigger a makeshift BSOD, and green segments, which act as an instant level win.

When the in-game system crashes from collecting a red segment, the player can use ScanProgress (inspired by ScanDisk) or CHKPROGRESS (inspired by CHKDSK) to play a small minigame in order to continue with the level.

There are many game modes in game: Relax, Normal, Hardcore, Progress Sweeper (inspired by Minesweeper), Progress Defender (inspired by Space Invaders), Progresstein 3D (inspired by Wolfenstein), Progresssolitaire (inspired by Solitaire), PB XL (inspired by Microsoft Excel), ProgressTrix (inspired by Tetris), Progressball (inspired by Space Cadet Pinball), Progress Commander (inspired by Norton Commander), Color (exclusively in Bar OS) and Puzzle (exclusively in Bar OS). The player starts on Normal.

Points are given to the player after they fill the progress bar and are used for upgrading the in-game computer. After getting enough upgrades, the system can be upgraded. System upgrades are required to install new systems. There are various types of systems based on real-world operating systems: Progressbar (based on Windows), Bar OS (based on Mac), 8-bit systems (based on early computers), H@ckgresh, and B OS. You start on Progressbar 95 (based on Windows 95) when the player starts the game. Installing systems unlock more game modes and gives more points.

There is a currency called Progress Data that can be used to remove the cooldown on ScanProgress when needed, or to spend on the Hardware Store known in-game as PBAY (based on eBay) to buy upgraded components for your system.

There is a browser based on Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge, depending on which system you are on, which has a variety of sites: the aforementioned PBAY, PBook (based on Facebook), the Spooky House Studios and Icoeye websites, and those of Progressbar and Progresh.

Characters
There are characters in the game that are either good or bad. Some characters include:

Clippy: based on Office Assistant, is a paperclip that is the tutorial guide, and also appears as the main pop-up. It can sometimes hold a firecracker, triggering a BSOD.

Bin: based on Recycle Bin, is your digital pet. Bin can be taken care of by feeding it trash files or spam mail. Bin can be happy or angry; feeding it trash and cleaning it makes it happy, razzing it makes it angry.

Dog/Cathorse: Both move along the screen and give a random amount of points. The Dog only appears in Progressbar systems, while the Cathorse appears in Bar OS systems. Parallels can be drawn with Apple's Dogcow and Microsoft Bob's Rover.

Other characters appear exclusively in the Mailbox, like the Boss, which asks you to do "work" from time to time, Gary Spammer, which sends spam emails, IT, which acts like a tech support character, Prince Clippy, which has a random chance of giving points, but most of the time it reveals itself as a spam email, a mini Progressbar game inside the mailbox, and a "????" character which can give you points after you answer to it's mail 2 times in the correct pattern.

Community
Over the course of four years, the game has developed a following of its own, including its own subreddit , Twitter account , and unofficial Discord server.

Reception
Progressbar95 has generally positive reviews, having overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam out of over 2,000 reviews and 4.8 star ratings on both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.

Brendan Hesse of Lifehacker described it as "doing an excellent job of bringing that ‘90s PC style to your modern-day device".

Marc Lagace of Android Central described it as being "steeped in nostalgia for anyone who grew up using PCs in the 90s."

A reviewer known only as Tobi of Zed Games said "at whatever price point you choose, the memories that this game revives are worth the price of entry."

While there has been a lot of positive feedback, others criticize it for "being too grind-focused" and "too overly complex".