Sunshine Shuffle developer Strange Scaffold and newly-formed Innersloth indie game fund Outersloth have partnered up for story-driven game Clickolding, launching for PC in a few weeks. The title is very clearly a pun, especially stylized as CLICKHOLDING, but as of now that fact just raises more questions than anything; and no, I'm not writing the word it's based on, I don't want to know what kind of people would appear in the comments! Strange Scaffold has an incredibly diverse portfolio of developed games – also including Teenage Demon Slayer Society, El Paso: Elsewhere, Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator, and Witch Strandings – and it's really exciting to see where its eclectic gameplay and narrative style takes it next. It's also great to see Outersloth working with so many great developers so quickly!
Clickolding is described as a dark, first-person incremental narrative game. The bulk of the gameplay revolves around clicking a tally counter, as it seems to be the only thing calming the distressed man in the corner of your hotel room. Why is there a distressed man in the corner of your hotel room, you ask? Finding out is half the gun – sorry, fun! Finding out is half the fun! There's no gun here…
The developer compares the self-contained mystery to games like Inscryption, and promises an emphasis on bringing an uncomfortable and shifting atmosphere to life. Aside from clicking, you'll have to solve simple environmental puzzles and manage the tenuous relationship with Mr. Pigeon Deadpool over in the corner there. The title Clickolding is more than just a pun, so I expect he's a bit miffed at his wife.
Clickolding features "polished, mature" storytelling, a "surreal encounter with the Original Clickold in a land beyond space and thought," "weird" jazz music by composer RJ Lake, and a locked bathroom door. That bathroom door, that's the thing to look out for. Why is it locked?! Such mystery!
"We exist in a time where it's hard for a game to be allowed to exist if it doesn't fit into a clear genre or audience demographic," says Strange Scaffold studio head Xalavier Nelson Jr. via a press release. "With the support of Outersloth, and a track record for delivering games that don't take the easy joke but instead use any topic as an opportunity to deliver a deeper experience, I want to make another project that challenges this environment. Another project that says video games should still step into new, uncomfortable, and undeniably compelling spaces."
Developed by Strange Scaffold and published in partnership with Outersloth, Clickolding will be released for PC via Steam on July 16.
