Playtesting revealed an important problem with the original timing system: every task was given roughly the same 45-second deadline. While this seemed simple at first, it quickly became clear that different tasks required very different amounts of time. A task like “Put your phone face down” could easily be completed within that window, while something like “Eat something that isn’t beige” could require much more time. When the timing became impossible rather than challenging, the humor started to feel frustrating instead of funny. The duck could be demanding, but he still needed to give the player a reasonable chance to succeed. To fix this, I changed tasks from simple strings into individual definitions with their own lifetimes. Quick obedience tasks receive around 30-45 seconds, desk-sized tasks receive around 60-75 seconds, tasks that require leaving the desk get around 90 seconds, and tasks that require actually going somewhere or doing something more involved can receive up to three minutes. When a task is issued, its deadline is now calculated using its specific lifetime rather than relying on one universal timer. I also updated the progress bar so that it uses each task’s total duration, making the level of urgency accurate regardless of how long the task has to be completed. This ended up being one of the most important design improvements in the project. The underlying pressure system stayed exactly the same, but the pacing became much more natural. The player can still feel the constant pressure of having a demanding boss without feeling like they are being set up to fail. It was a good reminder that even a deliberately unfair character needs fair rules underneath the joke, the duck can be unreasonable, but the game itself shouldn’t be.