Clickolding masked man.
Image via Strange Scaffold

El Paso, Elsewhere devs’ Clickolding just wants to watch you click

A victory for typeface.

Strange Scaffold, the developer behind El Paso, Elsewhere and Life Eater, has announced their next game, Clickolding, which I don’t want to write out in its stylized, all-caps format around my mother. Although, I don’t think she’d get the reference.

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Clickolding bills itself as an “incremental narrative” game. You play as someone holding a tally counter. A strange person wants to see you click it. Yeah, click it. Click it harder. Just like that. I’m guessing that as you click, the story advances. Judging by the trailer, the person pulls out a pistol coercively, but some of the screenshots also suggest a cash reward if you’re able to reset the counter.

Beyond simply clicking, the press release promises that there will be “environmental puzzles and managing a tenuous and uncertain relationship with an uncanny host.”

I’m not really certain how in-depth I should go in explaining the subject matter. It’s hard to be certain how facetious Clickolding is, though it seems clear that it’s trying to plunge into the darker side of the subject matter. It will supposedly feature an “uncomfortable and shifting atmosphere.”

Approaching what could potentially be a sensitive and disturbing topic reminds me of Strange Scaffold’s Life Eater. With that game, I felt that its handling of the subject wound up blunting the message. However, in that case, it was mostly that the gameplay did not support the narrative, whereas here, the actual game part of the game is so simple that it doesn’t seem like it could even bend that way.

We won’t have to wait long to find out. Clickolding is set to release on July 16, 2024 on PC.


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Image of Zoey Handley
Zoey Handley
Staff Writer - Zoey is a gaming gadabout. She got her start blogging with the community in 2018 and hit the front page soon after. Normally found exploring indie experiments and retro libraries, she does her best to remain chronically uncool.