This Deeply Messed Up Video Game Lets You Play As A Doomed Baby; Is Weirdly Addictive

Video games have had a rough couple of years, image-wise. Games like the Grand Theft Auto franchise are frequently criticised for high levels of violence, misogyny and homophobia, and Anita Sarkeesian’s ‘Feminist Frequency’ webseries has exhaustively unpicked the myriad sexist tropes that have dominated video games for decades.

That controversy has been rumbling along for a while, so it’s refreshing to come across a video game in development that everyone can agree is both incredibly wrong and kind of excellent-looking. Some developers on Steam Greenlight have just released an alpha version of Who’s Your Daddy, a game that is exactly what it sounds like: in its own words, “a casual one-on-one video game featuring a clueless father attempting to prevent his infant son from certain death.”

Launched through a crowdfunding campaign back in September, it’s a two-player game set in a fairly typical-looking house. One person takes the role of the parent, tasked with keeping their baby safe from the house’s various hazards. The other plays the baby, whose sole job is to kill themselves as quickly, efficiently and creatively as possible.

Eat the batteries! Put yourself in the oven! Drink the bleach! Stick a fork in the electrical socket! Fall through the glass coffee table! The world is your death-trap. It’s deeply, chronically fucked up, and I kinda wanna play it.

Here’s footage of people experiencing it for the first time, horrified/delighted reactions intact.