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A ghost-hunting game situated in an old arcade has been abandoned by its creators, resulting in its AI becoming self-aware and throwing the in-game world into chaos. You’ll team up with an independent AI – the Debug Unit – to enter the game, fix a ton of bugs, and clean up the mess left behind by the rogue AI.
The challenge stems from there only being one functioning button left on the arcade machine. All of the game’s puzzles make use of this limitation in interesting and funny ways, with everything being based on either holding or tapping the one button. This simplicity makes it pretty much perfect for on-the-go play.
It’s all very tongue-in-cheek, with lots intentionally ridiculous bugs to solve and a humorous narrative full of silly characters and situations.
The game’s latest trailer shows off some of the crumbling scenery from all three acts and a handful of the oddball NPCs you’ll meet along the way. It’s clearly a very diverse world, spanning creepy mines, cheerful farms, and dilapidated houses. The cute, low-poly art style works really well with the game’s tone, and I like the idea of having the world falling apart around you. I’m also a big fan of the game’s many, many sheep – some of which you can even pet.
Playerless: One Button Adventure is set to launch later this year for iOS and Android devices. I’m not sure at the moment whether it’ll be free to play or premium, though I’d assume it’s the latter. This looks really quite charming, and, while the premise might have been done before, I think there are still plenty of laughs to be mined from attempting to fix ridiculous bugs.