I ’ll be honest : I do n’t require to tell you a single thing aboutClickolding . The cryptic unexampled PC plot is so ineffably weird that I ’d rather you just go into it entirely unsighted . It ’s $ 3 , it ’s 40 minutes long , and it ’s the most unsettling affair you ’ll bet all year . If you ’re well-situated leave it at that , feel free to pop over to Steam and give it a purchase , no further question need .

If you ’re still here , strap in . Clickoldingis the late task from Strange Scaffold , the indie team that ’s made a name for itself in a few little geezerhood with games likeEl Paso , ElsewhereandSunshine Shuffle . The studio apartment has tilt more and more into unnerving psychological horror as it finds its phonation ( as evidence by this year’sLife Eater ) , but it takes that to a unexampled grade with its downright antagonistic new secret plan that ’s plan to drive you to the threshold of madness .

The setup is simple . You ’re in a hotel elbow room with a creepy-crawly figure in an armchair . He has a briefcase full of money for you . To get it , all you have to do is dawn the tally counterpunch in your hand 10,000 times while he watch . That ’s not a bluff . You will snap one button until it finger like your finger is about to fall off .

There is , in fact , a point to all that . A story blossom out between clicks , as players slowly get wind more about the masked man . I ’ll let you discover his motive for yourself , but what ’s come upon is the mental journey I go through off - concealment during the disturbing experience . At first , 10,000 clink sounds well-to-do . I figure I ’ll burn up through that in no time . After 2,000 , I begin to substantiate just how need that act is . “ Surely I wo n’t in reality have to get through that many times , ” I reassure myself . When it becomes clear that I may have to , I start desperately trying to chance a manner to click faster . I start rolling my finger across my Steam Deck blind to up my clicks per second . afterward , I augment that by romance the A button with my other hand .

I feel like a prisoner . Why am I doing this irksome task ? Is the money really worth it ? It all sense uncomfortably exploitative , especially as the piece in the chair gain demand of me while I click , like require me to move to other persona of the room or reverse on the TV . It ’s a weirdly effective statement about labor that might leave you interrogate your own day job .

Like some of Strange Scaffold ’s games , Clickoldingcan feel like an inside joke that player are n’t in on at time . It ’s a projection born of a pun ( one that it ’s logo makes exceedingly clear ) and its short story may allow for you feel like its not much more than that . It ’s a game built to antagonize you and make you sense like you ’ve wasted 40 minutes . That soreness is very much the point . You are n’t the player ; you ’re the biz .

Clickoldingis usable now on Steam .