You’re in a sleazy hotel. Outside, it’s raining heavily. You are sitting on the bed. All that lights the room is a sparse few lamps. Sitting across from you in a chair is a man with a gun. He stares at you and watches you. You must click the clicking device within your hand 10,000 times. You do only exactly this, as the coyly named Clickolding suggests. By the end of it, you’re feeling exactly like the man in the chair; always wanting something more. The next higher thrill. Bummer. Maybe we were the cuckold all along.
Clickolding is the latest joint from the indie studio Strange Scaffold. Releasing the fantastic shooter El Paso, Elsewhere last year and in 2024 taking the approach of releasing a series of smaller games, including kidnapping-sim Life Eater in April and I Am Your Beast next month, this incremental horror game is the second in that run, proving with each release they’re managing to up the weird even more. I preface with all of this because I am a huge fan of Strange Scaffold’s design ethos and though Clickolding feels like more of that excellence on paper, its execution leaves quite a bit to be desired.
The game takes place entirely in this hotel room. You can walk around a little bit and interact with various objects in the room. In fact, you’ll be asked to. From the chair, the man will bark orders at you, requesting you adjust the thermostat, unlock the bathroom door or stand in x exact spot before you can continue clicking. This will go on for about thirty to forty minutes and will very well cramp up your hand in the process.
As alluded to previously, there’s a textbook moody setting found here. The image of this broad-shouldered guy whose facial proportions are off and who is staring at you with these great big eyes with two single black dots for pupils is unnerving. As you left-click on your mouse to make the clicker go up, the man regales you, talking about how you’ll get the $14,000 needed for surgery as promised. He tells you of his wife and kids that he has at home. What is a man with the whole world doing in a seedy motel like this with someone like you? Before you can answer these questions or learn if Clickolding has a real point, it ends abruptly and dissatisfyingly.
There’s an epilogue that the game offers once you roll credits and click a subsequent 1000 times. I didn’t get to experience this because the game bugged and I was just stuck sitting on the bed, not able to click or do anything. No matter the short length, I wasn’t going to go through the methods of another 10,000 clicks to see if it would decide to work on a second try. It wasn’t until some time later that I was able to check it out on YouTube. I don’t think it makes the experience all that more exciting. It’s a bit of a bland, unoriginal ‘twist’ if you’ve played enough games of its ilk. You see it play out and it’s just like “Oh, okay. That’s it.” There is no exciting final shoe drop, no one thing to make it all worth it, just ending with a bit of a whimper.
If you were to ask me my favourite part of Clickolding, I’d have to point to the wonderful soundtrack work provided by RJ Lake, the returning composer from El Paso Elsewhere. That prior album was essentially a rap album that amps up the player, perfect for the game’s mood. Clickolding’s musical offerings are now fitting to that hotel setting, playing beautiful but simple backing music that feels ripped from a hotel lobby. It’s an intriguing dichotomy to the eery tones set in your private room. Topping it all off is the final credits song is a jazz number where the enchanting dulcet tones of studio head Xalavier Nelson return once more for vocals. I will never grow tired of that man’s voice.
It’s no secret that Clickolding is targeting the upper echelon of games like Inscryption. Inscryption’s creator Daniel Mullins even heralded it as another entry in the “guy-with-big-glowing-eyes-sitting-across-from-you genre.” Fitting this growing recent niche are other 2024 titles such as Buckshot Roulette and FLATHEAD. Sadly, I’d put Strange Scaffold’s stab at this at the bottom of that list. I kept waiting for the brilliant, eloquent language and writing found in the studio’s other games. I was granted an admission ticket for one into Clickolding but the ride never really took off.
Regardless, maybe this is just simply a game that was always destined to fail to meet my expectations. On most metrics, it’s well received. It’s currently sitting at ‘Very Positive’ on Steam, just days after release. It’s also an incredibly cheap game, coming in at just over $4AU. Cheaper than a coffee! With that, it’s hard to stay mad for long. Keep being weird and keep being you, Strange Scaffold.
About the Author
Charlie Kelly
She/Her, They/Them
Charlie loves her video games as much as she loves dumb, charming JRPG protagonists: probably way too much. You can often catch her spending too much time being emotional over LGBT stories in games. She also thinks Yakuza 6 is the best one.
