Come wash some dishes!

“Three months of washing dishes, and you can buy the place.”

Sounds reasonable to Wang. After everything it took to get to America, surely it's his turn to live the good life. Just look at this restaurant. He can practically see his name on the door.

For now, though, he'll start in the back.

Run Man: Wash the Dish is a pixel-art dishwashing game with character progression, story choices, and multiple endings. Start with a sponge, scrub away the grime, upgrade your tools, and choose your talents. Turn a pile of cold plates into the warm glow of payday. Then find out how long that glow lasts.

Scrub, scrub, scrub. Next! Move your mouse to wipe away grime and reveal the patterns underneath. Your coworker collects each clean plate, your pay lands immediately, and another dirty dish arrives. Keep washing to unlock ten plate designs with varying levels of stubborn grime. You were about to clock out. Then you checked your balance, checked the price of that spray nozzle, and decided you had a few more plates in you.

The American Dream can wait. The sponge needs an upgrade. Save up for a wide spray nozzle and explore six talent branches. Give yourself more time per shift, clean a wider area, or earn more from every plate. Add an active skill to tackle stubborn spots or finish off a batch, and find your rhythm at the sink. Better tools. Steadier hands. A healthier paycheck. As far as Wang is concerned, he's one step closer to owning the place.

Wash dishes on the clock. Do the math after. Payday should cover a bed, the commute, and the basics—provided nothing else happens. Unfortunately, old cars break down, wrists start hurting, and sometimes your wages come up short. Buy a better tool or pay for a place to sleep? Get that wrist checked or push through another shift? Make choices through a string of absurd situations, learn to track your hours, and find help when you need it. The restaurant will still be there tomorrow. Tonight's bed needs paying for.

You used to watch other people start over abroad. Now they're watching you wash dishes. When Wang's life begins to attract an audience, he has to decide what belongs on camera. Share the reality of the back kitchen, or make life look a little more impressive? Viewers want a success story. Family wants to know how he's doing. Wang has plans of his own. A clean plate is easy to judge. A happy life is harder to make out through a screen.

Eventually, Wang has a few ideas of his own. The story unfolds between dishes and shifts as he finds his feet in a new country, with different endings to discover. Help him handle the trouble in front of him and decide where he goes next. When he finally gets a chance to choose again, will he still want the dream he arrived with?

Wang has a dream. You have a sponge.

The Run Man series will follow people starting over abroad, and the lives, misadventures, and choices that follow.

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