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Move over, Diogenes; there’s room for one more weirdo to climb these impossible shapes to the skies. That’s right: there’s a new difficult game about climbing for people craving more punishment after Only Up! and Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy. What’s more, you guessed its name already: A Difficult Game About Climbing!
A Difficult Game About Climbing Has Easy Time Scaling the Twitch Charts
A Difficult Game About Climbing has ordinary Steam Chart numbers, but it has an impressive streaming presence. The game is less than a week old on Steam, with a peak of just over 1500 concurrent players as of this writing. However, at any point, that number is increased tenfold when accounting for live viewers on Twitch.
This can be attributed to several reasons. Much like Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy, A Difficult Game About Climbing has a niche appeal that’s arguably more fun as a source of vicarious entertainment. It means easy viewership at the expense of mild self-punishment. The premise is simple: you start at the bottom and in true QWOP fashion, are blessed with the world’s most awkward controls to try and nail this basic task. Big laughs for the streamers and viewers alike await, explaining why it’s peaked at nearly 200,000 viewers.
How Do You Play A Difficult Game About Climbing?
The game is simple: you must climb to the top, with dry surfaces being your surest bet along the way. You use either the left or right mouse buttons or triggers on your gamepad to grab with your hands. You can move the mouse or your thumbsticks to change the direction of your arms.
My basic advice beyond that is you can hold one hand onto an object such as dry rocky surfaces or other makeshift grips. It gets wild as you ascend further, with surfaces including cartoonish dinosaur fossils and indicator signs. The best way to play A Difficult Game About Climbing is to be able to laugh at your mistakes. The sooner you appreciate any lessons you learn along the way, the more progress you’ll make.
But Is It Fun?
As somebody who has streamed hundreds of hours on Twitch, playing “Twitch Meta” games, I consider this one worthwhile. It’s $9.99, but the engagement you can get as a streamer if you’re considering this game is priceless and instantaneous.
Dubbed a “Foddian” game, this certainly scratches the itch of similar challenges. This is especially true since most people are just looking for a new way to punish themselves. Scaling the walls can feel like an achievement with every inch gained. However, it’s still a great opportunity for laughs when you plummet into the watery abyss and awkwardly paddle back.
Will A Difficult Game About Climbing Come to PlayStation, Xbox, or Switch Consoles?
There is no current indication that the game is planned for other consoles. Getting Over It and Only Up! were similarly only on PC, although the former eventually got an Android release a year later. If you’re looking for the latest updates on the game though, check the developer’s X (formerly Twitter) account here!
However, with full gamepad support already, and minimal required specs with a GTX 970 being able to max out your experience, no current platforms would have trouble running this game.
