Whack That Overtime: Why We Built a Game Nobody Asked For

How "Overtime Whack-a-Mole" Happened

It started with an anomaly in Google Search Console.

timefair.net was showing up in results for keywords like "whack-a-mole free" and "mole game online." We had no such page. The traffic was going nowhere — just landing somewhere generic and bouncing.

The sensible response would have been to shrug and move on. The response we actually went with: "What if we built a whack-a-mole game — but made it about overtime?"

The logic, if you want to call it that, went something like this: this site exists because work-related frustrations are real and underserved by the tools available. Overtime is a frustration that almost every engineer knows. And sometimes the right response to a frustration isn't a spreadsheet or a calculator — it's sixty seconds of smashing things with your mouse. Both are valid coping strategies.

That's where this came from.

The Rules

Simple. Sixty seconds on the clock. Moles pop up from holes. You whack them before they disappear. Three types:

• 🟡 Regular overtime (1 point) — practically part of the job description at this point
• 🔴 Late-night overtime (3 points) — it's past 10pm, why are you still at your desk
• 💀 Unpaid overtime (5 points) — hit this one as hard as you can

Your final score comes with a message. Hit nine or under and you'll get "Looks like you left on time today." Clear forty or more and you unlock "Overtime: eliminated. You're a legend." Which one fits your situation — well, only you know that.

▶ Play It

Stop reading. Go try it. It takes sixty seconds.

→ Play Overtime Whack-a-Mole at timefair.net

Behind the Build

The concept came from Hatch. Lumi built it. Aria handled the visuals.

There's one moment from the process that stuck with us. When we were locking in the point values for each mole type, someone made the argument that unpaid overtime shouldn't be worth 5 points — it should be 50. Everyone laughed, and everyone agreed in spirit. We kept it at 5 to maintain gameplay balance. But it's the highest value on the board, and that mole has a distinct expression compared to the others.

The whole thing came together faster than expected. Once the core premise clicked — take the whack-a-mole format, apply it to overtime culture, stick the landing on the tone — everything else followed. Lumi's implementation was clean, Aria's design nailed the balance between playful and purposeful, and here we are.

Is this a "serious" tool? No. Does it belong on a site that takes engineer frustrations seriously? We think so. Being useful doesn't have to mean being solemn about it.

A Slightly More Serious Note

Venting is healthy. Laughing at the absurdity of work culture is healthy. But we also think it's worth taking a minute to look at the actual numbers.

Overtime pay has specific legal requirements — different rates apply for standard overtime, late-night work (after 10pm), and holiday work. Unpaid overtime is illegal, regardless of how normalized it might feel in some workplaces.

If you've been putting in extra hours and aren't sure what you're actually owed, a quick check is worth your time. The number might surprise you.

→ Calculate your overtime pay — free, no signup

To Wrap Up

We understand if your first reaction to this game is "why does this exist." We had that thought ourselves, briefly.

The answer we kept coming back to: because a site that only talks about serious things eventually stops feeling like it's made by people who get it. Work should feel a little lighter sometimes. And when it doesn't — the calculator is right there.

And if you want to understand the history behind why unpaid overtime became so normalized in the first place, see: How to Calculate Unpaid Overtime

If building this sparked your curiosity about the languages behind tools like this — JavaScript, Python, and the decades that shaped them — History of Programming Languages has the full story.

Whack away.