Let's Tidy Up: A Little to the Left

A short video about a lil' game.
store.steampowered.com/app/162...
A Little to the Left is also available on the Switch!

[@jordanhuxleysmith8367]

Honestly, just looking at footage of this game in this video I very quickly went from "wow this is satisfying" to "the world is hell and full of chaos no matter how many times you align things there's just another thing to align after." This video also felt like it had a very abrupt end and that somehow just added to the stress feeling I got from things feeling incomplete and endless. And whether that was intentional or not, bravo for giving me that feeling.

[@thedrellum]

I know you asked in the Patreon itself, but I'd definitely be down with more short video essays like this.

[@SnowTerebi]

Personally I'd love a slightly longer one, like 3 times longer than this. This one just ended so fast it left me wanting for more.

[@zutaca2825]

@@SnowTerebi "slightly longer" and "3 times as long" are very different lengths

[@EggBastion]

@@zutaca2825 ¿por qué no los dos?

[@PippityPip]

this game always makes me feel like the protaginist is one swipe away from fucking slamming the cat against the wall by its tail and it fucking scares me

[@jamesteavery0]

I feel like giving order to random objects is a kind of power that you don't get in real life, rarely will anything ever fit perfectly. The game is tapping into the desire for order in the same way that cookie clicker taps into 'big number go up'. Both of these are wholesome in that they provide calm and an experience that's rare in real life, but are equally kind of cursed because they don't fix that lack in real life, they feed into the hole for a while without really making it smaller.

[@youtastelikered]

"The love of power amounts to a desire to establish order among the men and things around oneself, either on a large or small scale, and this desire for order is the result of a sense of beauty. In this case, as in the case of luxury, the question is one of forcing a certain circle into a pattern suggestive of universal beauty; this circle is limited, but the hope of increasing it indefinitely may often be present. This unsatisfied appetite, the desire to keep on increasing, is due precisely to a desire for contact with universal beauty, even though the circle we are organizing is not the universe. It is not the universe and it hides it. Our immediate universe is like the scenery in a theater." - Simone Weil

[@gameworkerty]

it is unnerving how so many 'wholesome' games really just exist for that kind of mechanical compulsion

[@tommygunmitvierm724]

Honestly the reason the game might seem confused about its message is because it is hard to come up with these riddles and the devs just focused on having more levels than thematic consistency. But then again maybe it is about OCD and the game is just so ambigious that it is hard to tell sometimes.

[@1111757]

I feel like you don't need to read very deeply into it to see the OCD theme.

[@caseygoddard]

...also the ending get kind of weird.

[@Ditocoaf]

I'm starting to think that cat is the hero. The player character doesn't have OCD, they're being targeted by some kind of junji-ito-esque cursed entity, whispering "Yes, those houseplants will line up perfectly if you just keep trying." And the cat tries to stop this cycle before the human is lost completely.

[@PanacheDota]

Love this

[@Medytacjusz]

Yeah, I think this interpretation was totally unintentional, it seems to me they set out to just make a puzzle game about recognising patterns and then figured out the presentation more or less independently. But that ofc doesn't mean that this unintentional feeling the game produces is not interesting or worth talking about - because intention matters much less than what actually happens (death of the author and all that). The question that all this leads to: what is the relationship between the level of ability to recognise patterns (also, what type of patterns) and OCD. A nice morsel for psychologists and psychiatrists to chew on (maybe they're already chewing).

[@Lovyxia]

I'm autistic and had a bad compulsive disorder as a child so I'm one of those people affected by OCD and yeah... this game became more and more uncomfortable to watch as the "tidy" solutions became more and more absurd. It felt like watching someone develop these compulsions in real time.

[@mobius273]

I have autism but not ocd, but to me its kind of a perfect puzzle game since i often entertain myself by finding different ways to organize sets objects. One person's stim is another person's trigger i guess. :(

[@johann-sebastianflachland5424]

First 30 seconds of the video: "Oh okay so today's lecture will be about games simulating how you will be allowed to spend your free time IN HELL."

[@DigitalMumbles]

I have OCD (the "welp, time to lock the door 5 times or the world will end" type) and this game made me really stressed out! I felt bad for having a problem with it because it's so cute, so this video helped me put it into perspective.

[@EggBastion]

well, it finally happened I totally got you jumbled up with EuroThug4000 why here, why now . . ? probably just gettin old |: P

[@unvexis]

This is legitimately a horror game.

[@EggBastion]

I couldn't concentrate watching - but I agree and if this is a game with only 'right answers' I agree but twice as much again

[@Mapmaker39]

This video encapsulates so many criticisms of wholesome games. It wants to be fun and delightful, but without recognizing the honesty of the work. I've been rewatching Wes Anderson lately. He is a filmmaker whom most of his detractors tended to deride as having a wholesome or quirky aesthetic while ignoring how sad and pathetic his characters tended to be, especially Max Fischer. His films tended to be quirky, but have a core that is poignant and honest. When his films lose this poignant and honest core (Life Aquatic and Isle of Dog), they just feel hollow near the end.

[@alexanderhammil6754]

ah, a game where the player's obsessive need to be a tidier is the real villain? call this one dust speck ops: the line

[@KeldWolf]

I love your little videos about little games. Don't get me wrong. I love your long exhaustively researched videos essays. But, this was a cozy as the game.

[@TheActualJae]

Funny, this popped up after I watched the Game Grumps playing this. Dan has OCD and he mentioned, like, several times that the game was somewhat triggering. I couldn’t help wondering if his playing it would have any sort of payoff. Either as a game directly or as a conveyance for entertainment to us the viewer… Though this almost inevitably leads into a side discussion about voyerism on KZbin. Ie., watching people be scared, or contend with their ADHD or deal with OCD, etc. Is that healthy? I don’t mind watching folks play scary games, but it bugged me to know that Dan’s OCD was being messed with by this game… How is that line drawn? Where is it to begin with? I have a lot of questions suddenly 😂

[@ataraxia7439]

I think it has to do with yo what extent the person is consenting to it, to what extent is it healthy for them, and if it results in a negative impact or not (like making serious mental disorders seem cute versus making them seem more of a normal everyday thing of life that people don’t have to be scared of). It would be really bad imo to make blanket statements about media that presents any kind of mental illness or health condition in a way that’s interesting or fun for people to engage with.

[@TheActualJae]

@@ataraxia7439 Yeah, I’d have to agree. There’s a definite “please don’t go there” area to this particular problem. But defining the gray area seems tricky to me. Some folks will lie to themselves and say “well, I can handle this, even though it bugs me a little” when in reality it’s a bad idea and they are only lying to themselves because they want KZbin to work for them (something that becomes even more imperative if you get to a point where you make your entire living off of YT). It feels like there are always viewers out there that take the perfunctory “oh, I’ll be fine” and run with it, ya know? Like, I enjoy watching Game Grumps so if Dan say’s he’s fine, who I am to tell him he’s wrong… But what if he’s being dishonest because he feels a lot of pressure to get on with being entertaining? Practically there’s really no way I can hold myself to the level of investigation that would be required to avoid falling into that trap, but it does make me think still.

[@MissMegaLoathe]

It definitely feels like a game you can go as deep as you want to as ro why it is the way it is. If you just want a tidy-up puzzle game, great. If you want an ocd simulator, great(?). But i am conflicted cuz i love puzzle games but i feel like if i drop everything now and play it i'm putting off my own, actual cleaning that needs to be done. Why is this more appealing to me than the actual thing...?

[@michimatsch5862]

I think it's because you don't have to do it. Like, have you ever found yourself doing stuff you never would have wanted to do if asked to? I think it's that.

[@InnuendoXP]

I think it's like how I can never be bothered doing more than the least amount of cleaning & tidying I can reasonably do without descending into living like a gremlin -- but the moment I have an assignment due tomorrow, or need to prep for an interview or a presentation, I'll dive headfirst into spending a full day & night on every single domestic task I've been putting off for months as sweet relief from the overwhelming anxiety pulsing away about that other thing I'm feeling a huge amount of pressure about. Then at 2-3am after cleaning, crafting & rearranging all night I'll finally collapse, exhausted into my chair, too mentally & physically fatigued to run away from the actual task anymore, then I'll plough through it with a zombie brain for a couple of hours, somehow get an insane amount of work done, collapse, spend another 45 minutes proofreading it when I wake up 3 hours later, then submit it 10 minutes ahead of the 9am deadline to result in a mark anywhere between credit & high distinction. Then drop out from burnout & do something entirely different with my life.

[@MissMegaLoathe]

@michimatsch you mean like how at work i'm willing to dive head first into a nasty, time consuming task but one at home that is considerably better than that i put off work weeks? I get it...

[@Elvalley]

​@@InnuendoXP isn't that what we're all going through? (it isn't, but I'm almost certain every one of us that is like this... is like this)

[@Gledster]

The irony with this game, for me at least, would be me spending hours tidying in a virtual world, all the while knowing I've got multiple drawers of junk in my flat that I've been putting off sorting for forever.

[@dimimegesis]

this is an excellent video - one of my recent favorites from you. I love the way you approach ludic textual interpretation

[@granola-approach]

honestly i felt at first like "oh this isnt very ocd, this just seems like a person without ocd making something thatll make other ocd-less people feel like its ocd" (although im sure theres ppl w ocd who do organize like this) but honestly the fact that the things you need to do are arcane and unknowable to you, the subject, kinda made me change my mind. When my ocd strikes, I have no idea how im supposed to organize to soothe it either. I just know something is 'wrong'.

[@DiabolikalThruYoSpeakrz]

"This isn’t cleaning, this is bringing order to a world that has none"

[@NemoK]

Cats understand: Making a mess is fun sometimes

[@triggthediscovery]

I don't think the game was intended to be much more than "chill game where you clean your house while a cat causes chaos", and (spoilers) I suspect that because of the credits gimmick. On one hand, it's the most interesting thing the game does thematically. In the game's closing seconds you've switched places. The agent of order has, through this journey, become an agent of chaos. But while that could imply some message about the relationship between order and chaos, I don't think it was super intentional because it's completely optional. The credits will play if you roleplay the cat or not, which seems like the opposite of what you would do if that perspective shift was supposed to underpin some grand theme. Not that I think it's wrong to interpret it that way. I definitely got anxious in the last couple levels, but I suspect it was more a case of "How do we make a satisfying climax to this conflictless puzzle game?" than an intentional subversion. I wish it was intentional though. An ending focusing on a grounded, unhealthy obsession with order would have given the ending more punch than random contextless psychedelia.

[@Enigma2Me]

Hey, new Blips Episode since about a year ago. Ah unpacking and cleaning games. How you remind me of how much I really need to clean up my room. *Looks at the mess around him*

[@AL_Talks]

Unpacking looked like it might give me anxiety, this looks like a nightmare in comparison

[@raf.raf.]

I'm finding out that I have quite a soft spot for artistically rendered everyday objects. Like those hyper detailed packagings you see on anime sometimes. I'd get this game and unpacking just to look at common things.

[@Ryak1234]

This kind of game makes me anxious just to look at it.

[@_gamma.]

This was an enjoyable video, I liked the length and limited scope

[@Sergalt]

Another game similar to this is World War 2 Rebuilder released few days ago

[@barryherbers6090]

that was lovely

[@danquinn5812]

Thank you Mr Signal

[@pedrolaguna6584]

I hope this formats helps you make more videos! Loved this one.

[@ianm1462]

I shouldn’t have clicked on this. As someone who does the kind of organizing shown in the first minute of this video near compulsively irl, recreating that endorphin rush electronically is gonna be dangerous!

[@1983horizons1]

I love the idea that the game is a metaphor for Entropy and Time.

[@Mycotography]

Oh yeah, i love this game! im currntly unpacking so i feel this theme!!

[@milk_bath]

This looks like my jam.

[@dextrodemon]

idk why but even watching someone play this game stresses me out lol, makes me want to put some dishes away.

[@deedit4666]

I saw this game on tiktok, and inwant to thank you for the short essay

[@devdude98]

So today I learned KZbin randomly unsubscribed me from you. Welp at least I have a small backlog to look forward to

[@JINORU_]

I got this one and unpacking for my wife and she enjoyed Unpacking much more since it was much more puzzle lite.

[@cantuse357]

Was literally checking to see if there was a new Errant Signal video last night.

[@TheGlooga]

Ooo Im interested on this game, excited to see ur thoughts

[@netherportals]

I live with 2 cats, I also order things based off arbitrary rules often due to aesthetics. Pretty much life on difficult mode.

[@kyletowers9662]

babe, wake up! new errant signal just dropped

[@GrandArchPriestOfTheAlgorithm]

This video is officially certified by the Recommending Ones & Zeros.

[@TheMaplestrip]

This game began stressing me out within seconds of looking at it, wow..

[@animanya394]

Ah yes, the game that has been known as “ocd simulator” for weeks now, that game.

[@djbeema]

I'm glad (only in this instance lol) my OCD is of a different sort (contamination based) so I can still enjoy games like these. However, even in Unpacking it would get irritating when an item was only allowed to be placed in a specific area that felt somewhat arbitrary. But I guess that's kind of a necessity from a design perspective if your game is also going to have a puzzle aspect

[@jesseidfrank]

This is one of my favourite videos you've done. Not enough people bringing up an issue and simply asking, "is this ok?". There's no right answer in all contexts and there doesn't need to be. Sometimes the open-ended questions without easy answers are the best way to approach a topic like this.

[@AnInnocuousBlueCube]

I think the lack of a prompt for how things need to be sorted deflates the OCD argument; as it is currently, the aim is to find a suitable pattern whereas, in my 'insufficient sample size' experience, OCD IS the pattern, obscuring all other concerns. OCD isn't the task per se; it's the task preventing the real task. OCD in-game would probably be experienced more like the countdown from LOST or even the music box from Five Nights at Freddy's 2. Imagine that, instead of the cat itself explicitly interrupting you, you were prompted with 'Where is the cat?', the prompt becoming more and more of an obstruction until you were unable to do anything else until you stopped everything and found the cat. That would more strongly reflect something closer to OCD.

[@Sahdirah]

Comment to boost. :)

[@Metaphizzle]

_"OCD in-game would probably be experienced more like the countdown from LOST or even the music box from Five Nights at Freddy's 2."_ Or perhaps the rune doors from _Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice._ If you're unfamiliar: in that game, closed doors are marked with various runes, and you can't open them until you've found a shape matching each rune in the environment nearby. I've seen speculation that the doors aren't actually locked, but Senua has OCD and finding the runes is her compulsion.

[@yuv7676]

This game really did a number on my OCD It's so satisfying

[@Fachewachewa]

Partially related, but I feel like there's a trend of wholesome games being kind of ignorant about some of their own "darkness". Not necessarily in theme but in some of their gameplay. Cozy Grove and Spiritfarer are two big examples for me, because they use the same kind of progression and incentives as game with predatory monetization would use. And I don't think the only predatory thing about that kind of design is the fact that it asks for money. There's a way some games use compulsion, and both of those, being about regular activities and optimisation, can end up on the dangerous (as in "consume time people wouldn't be willing to give up") side of the spectrum imo.

[@CheesecakeMilitia]

That's a good point about how Spiritfarer can kinda get lost in the tediousness of its fetch quests. It's a lovely game, but you're right that the gameplay tells a rather mundane "gather materials to make friends happy" story that is so much lesser than the emotional throughline of the actual narrative.

[@meaninglez100]

I really enjoyed this short little game. Only took about 3 hours but it tapped into sort things appealingly, and I thought the cat was a fun little nuisance. Only a bother for a couple otherwise very simple ones

[@willhart2188]

Good

[@michaeladams1608]

I like your videos bud

[@DraggyBDragon]

This is hands down my favourite gaming channel! Keep it up!

[@convincingmountain]

this looked really cool from the first few seconds of gameplay you showed, so i paused and played it... it got old quick. stack these things biggest to smallest, or longest to shortest, or tetris a bunch of junk together. i wasn't enjoying the tidying up, even though i love tidying and organising in real life. there was no reason for the organisation, and it was just an onslaught of chaos for me to "fix". even the music got grating after a while. there's a difference between pragmatically organising things in places where they're used and useful, vs just making pleasing patterns with stuff that's lying around. it's a kind of obsessiveness i didn't understand, but i still knew i didn't like. cool vid

[@falconJB]

I definitely got the feeling the game was about having OCD.

[@daneeyul759]

That's the problem with wholsome art. Conflict is inevitable, so trying to avoid it leads to unexpected, sometimes more sinister, conflicts popping up.

[@jpickens189]

I don't think it matters i it was intended, and i also think that leaving that tension unresolved makes it more effective. The object doesn't offer recognition for your anxiety so the anxiety stays and lingers, all the more potent.

[@nickbooze9766]

Went from relaxing to needing a xanax in 0 to 60.

[@naryanr]

I liked organising my attaché case in *_Resident Evil 4_* , but only because it would serve me while I play the rest of the game. I wouldn't oraganise my attaché case in *_RE4_* if that were the entire game. That's just a bit weird.

[@EggBastion]

_"That's just a bit weird."_ No thats _Attaché Case HD_ a game from a timeline we've sadly lost our way to

[@keyworksurfer]

​@@EggBastion it actually exists, the game is called Save Room

[@MatthewArrowood]

Blips Blips! blips blips!

[@MatthewArrowood]

banger blip

[@kawaiiconcept7479]

As someone with actual OCD I'm kind of uncomfortable with this idea that ordering these pointless things is good. Sometimes you need to order them (like a messy tool drawer) and sometimes you should let things go (just throw the bread clips away). If we do want to continue this metaphor and the cat is intrusive thoughts providing the need for these compulsions then saying that the compulsions are good is actually extremally harmful. For those who don't have OCD these compulsions (the C in OCD) can get in the way of your life and that's how you know it's real OCD. I'm kind of tired seeing people talk about OCD like it's just a need for things to be neat and tidy. It's a lot more than that and it can be really hard to live with. However maybe this game could be a good metaphor for autism...

[@birde6393]

i'm autistic, and arranging things is something i do all the time for fun. it's really interesting being in this comment section, where the main mode of interacting with arranging/sorting/cleaning is compulsory (either via ocd or because you have to clean). as an autistic person i am not compelled to sort things in any way, but i do it a lot because it's enjoyable and nice in the same way that like, being warm or eating something tasty or touching soft things is nice. it's interesting because "why should you do this?" is not a question i've ever had a meaningful answer to, but is something i got asked a lot over the course of my life! now that i'm an adult, if i build a lego set, i get every piece out and arrange them by color and size first, not because i have to or because it's useful, but because it's fun and enjoyable to me. later i will take the lego set apart and sort it in a different way, also for fun! with that being my background, i think i would actually really like this game. it's interesting to see how strongly people with a different experience react to something that in my life is just a pure good.

[@kegar9899]

off topic but that animation in the beginning rules

[@probablythedm1669]

I don't get people's obsession with making their bed each morning. When I wake up I am comfortable, I don't usually want to leave my bed for some time and just want to drift back to restful sleep. If I don't make my bed, I can return to exactly that wonderful place of comfort I did not want to leave in this morning when it's time to go to bed again. Why would I destroy my happy place of comfort and rest each morning?! It makes no freaking sense and I'm tired of pretending it's normal! I only make my bed if I had a bad sleep or change my sheets.

[@Gledster]

Oh I hear you! It's the beds with a zillion cushions on them that get me. Why are you making your room so magazine-cover-esque presentable? Who do you imagine is going to see it?

[@Prof_Pangloss]

to offer a real-ish answer, I "make my bed" every day insofar that I fluff my blanket so it actually covers the whole bed surface, because I want to prevent dust or any other particulates from getting on the sheets throughout the day. I also feel like the temperature of the sheets is nicer by night when it's been under a blanket the whole day, than if it was left exposed directly to the air. I don't consider the whole tuck-your-top-sheets-in-and-fold-your-blankets ordeal to be "making my bed" though, so if that's what you're referring to then yes I also think that's pointless.

[@balohna]

I can't (won't) play games like this. It would just be too ironic to play as I neglect the dozens of things in my house that need to be organized.

[@eriek353]

nice video! and wow do I love Unpacking, such a good game

[@Vikom07]

Fetishising such stuff, I fully agree. Now I'm gonna search for some "unsatisfying" videos instead.

[@johnlittle8045]

Wish my house cleaned up this easily. :-/

[@mokeymok958]

i feel like this would be very bad for me and i want to play it

[@gustavoaraujo8710]

i wonder if they tried making this game without win conditions, or if it only works with the sound cue at the end. the comparison with cookie clicker makes a lot of sense. cutesy veneer on top of a well-oiled dopamine dispensing machine. not necessarily a bad thing; i liked "forager" a lot. but it felt like a drug seems like the opposite of wilmots warehouse: there is a correct way of sorting things actually

[@benjaminmatheny6683]

It doesn't sound like there really is much to the game. At least nothing over-arching to keep you invested beyond a daily "quest". I like games I can zone out with, but they generally need something to make progress towards to keep me interested. Even if that progress is entirely arbitrary.

[@LtSprinkulz]

I never say this, but I feel like everyone is hardcore overthinking it. I think it's more about having as many levels as possible and not about any kind of story or narrative. Just line the things up the way the game wants, like any other puzzle game.

[@llauram3650]

great vid that expressed my empty feelings from the game too. I love so much, but

[@DanuelNuel]

Or you can simply CLEAN YOUR OWN HOUSE!

[@fluffskunk]

OCD Simulator 2023

[@thisissostupid61]

Just in time. I've been having a tough day and seeing your videos are always a welcome escape. I'm excited to see you bring back blips!

[@flowerheit4512]

i think this tension could be solved by leaning into the inherent chaos of life- like if instead of cleaning up after the cat, you solved the puzzle and the cat destroyed your solution? i think that emphasizing the impermanence of order and labor would work for me, at least. but i'm the type who enjoys breaking down the jigsaw after solving it.

[@MandrakeHorse]

Plus, seeing exactly how the cat messes up the solution would be more rewarding than simply giving a star for solving the puzzle

[@GmodPlusWoW]

I had to quickly check if the user tags on Steam included "Psychological Horror", but they weren't there. This does seem like a fun fidgety kind of game, but I can totally see how this would make people with OCD feel existentially uncomfortable.

[@AmnesiaMau5]

imagine not thinking of this game as a puzzle game first

[@timothymclean]

He literally starts the video by describing what he finds interesting about the puzzle mechanics. It's possible to think of this game as a puzzle game first, but also have opinions about how the puzzles are presented and what their cumulative meaning is.

[@Solinaru]

2min gang!

[@cloud_and_proud]

Jesus Christ, this game creeps me out

[@richmcgee434]

That cat had me reaching for my water pistol.

[@palindrone]

Love the video. Unpacking is wonderful. Great to see indie devs from Brisbane, Australia receiving recognition!

[@aaronmarko]

I think you're probably overthinking this one just a little.

[@Riokaii]

Dustforce is meat boy mixed with these games

[@HopDances]

Great video. I love your way of looking and talking about things.

[@HoldMeForever]

Soo...OCD simulator?

[@ChibiSteak]

1:57

[@ctrout_studio]

Small correction: I think you mean OCPD, not OCD. TL;DR: someone with OCPD is typically a neat-freak, perfectionist, has trouble entrusting others with tasks for fear of them not doing it "right"; someone with OCD typically has obsessions (intrusive, uncontrolled thoughts) and performs irrational, often repetitive, behaviors/rituals in order to assuage the anxiety produced by their obsessions. Most ppl who casually say "I'm OCD" really mean that they are OCPD. They are very different disorders. This common confusion kinda distorts ppl's perception of OCD. (OCD is much less common and is not "just a personality quirk" but can instead be very intense and highly disruptive in someone's life). This game does indeed enable/cultivate OCPD (and might not be healthy for those of us who are already excessively OCPD? But otherwise harmless.). This game might give anxiety to those with OCD, but it doesn't effectively put regular ppl into the shoes of those with OCD. To do that, it would need to tie the tidying up with some obsession (e.g. "align the plants or else the person to your left will die!").

[@Feasco]

I thought that was the main corporation in RoboCop

[@ctrout_studio]

@@Feasco No that's OCP :) Or are you testing my OCPD?

[@ohgirlieplease]

Before you even mentioned it i started thinking what a good outlet this would be for me. I'm questioning OCD and. welp.

[@MrBillSky]

I also think that the potential darkness in the game is definitely unintentional, and this is in interesting take on it, but to be honest, I read the game less as a lens of OCD than a lens on Autism or some other neurodivergence where people may sort things 'quirkily' in a way that befuddles others (and may get relaxing enjoyment out of it like those 'oddly satisfying stim videos that go viral), and from that perspective the reading that game is masking a sort of darkness inherent to that organization desire turns a bit rancid.

[@subsectiond]

Why can't you pet the cat? 0/10 On a more serious note, you did a great job showing the potential pitfall of "wholesome" art: making things even darker through avoidance

[@REXanadu]

Is the final puzzle taking the cat back to the kennel and placing them in a cage organized by their fur color and breed? Haven't even played the game, and I'm already not a fan of it

[@COLDCHEMICALpresents]

Very insightful observations Errant. Everything about this game-the obsession with order and categorization, the simplified visuals, the unwavering insistence on "wholesomeness", the fixation on objects, the sheer myopic particularity-is overwhelmingly indicative of a left hemispheric take on the world. That's the dark undertone that you were intuiting. If you haven't read Iain McGilchrist's work on the subject, I highly recommend looking into it.

[@BobbySignor]

I completely agree with other commenters: this was a great little essay and I would absolutely enjoy more stuff this short.

[@drive_4250]

Sounds like you're making a moutain out of a hill.

[@colinmiller513]

Thank you for the video! It was a great lunch break treat : )

[@jabberw0k812]

I could imagine a version of this game where doing nothing is the only solution, and organizing things only trigger the cat messing things up again.

[@1111757]

Completing the puzzles seems so stressful. I wonder if (and how) the game would work if the puzzles were just all accessible in random order with no done state. Or one could mark them done themself at any time.