The release of Black Mirror: Bandersnatch in 2018 was Netflix’s first step into interactive films — which some people consider video games. The streaming service then pushed into gaming in 2021, and since then it’s turned some of its most popular series, like Squid Game, into mobile games.
On Thursday, Netflix released the game Thronglets alongside the seventh season of Black Mirror. What makes this game different from other Netflix games, like Too Hot to Handle, is that Thronglets is a game within the Black Mirror universe, and it’s featured in the episode called Plaything from the latest season.
Having characters in a series play a game, and then allowing subscribers to play that same game, opens up new ways for people to interact with the stories Netflix is telling. After watching the episode and playing the game before the release of both, I thought, “Is this a joke? Where are the cameras?”
The whole experience made me feel uneasy, and surely that’s the point, because I can see myself getting lost in Thronglets. Not to the extent that the main character in Plaything does, but enough to make me heed the push alerts the game sends to my iPhone when the Thronglets ask for help.
Thronglets is a game within Black Mirror that you can actually play
Black Mirror’s episode Plaything is a tragedy and follows the yearslong downward spiral of game journalist Cameron Walker (played by Lewis Gribben and Peter Capaldi). In his younger years, he becomes engrossed with an in-universe, yet-to-be-released game called — you guessed it — Thronglets. We meet Walker years later when he’s recounting to the police how he’s dedicated his life to the game.
One of the alerts Thronglets sends to your phone if you enable alerts.
The in-episode game was developed by the fictitious game developer Colin Ritman (Will Poulter) and the company Tuckersoft, from the interactive Bandersnatch movie.
Ritman describes the Thronglets as the first creatures in history whose biology is entirely digital, and these creatures are capable of learning and expanding. This leads to devastating consequences for Walker and those around him.
Netflix’s game mimics that experience, letting you play it and raise a single Thronglet to a vast and expanding society. Thus, you can become engrossed with the digital creatures like Walker does in the show. And the game and episode work together to deliver a deeper storytelling experience.
Here’s how to get started with Thronglets on Netflix Games, and what you should know about the game.
What are Thronglets?
In the game, they’re yellow creatures with a single antenna and large ears who reproduce by mitosis — they split into two whole and complete Thronglets. However, the very first Thronglet is hatched from an egg, and in the game, you have to tap the egg to get it to hatch.
Can you control the Thronglets?
You can’t. As Ritman says in the show, “They’re not some obscene puppets like Sonic the Hedgehog.” The Thronglets wander around and interact with things on their own, but you aren’t just watching them in the game.
Thronglets are kind of like Tamagotchis in that they require food, amusement and cleanliness. You provide these things to the Thronglets by dropping digital apples and beach balls onto the screen or scrubbing a Thronglet with virtual soap and sponge.
You have to provide your Thronglets with what they need to grow and thrive.
You can tap on individual Thronglets to see if they need food, amusement or a bath, as represented by three bars labeled Fed, Amused and Clean. If each of these bars is full, the Throng is happy. But if Fed is low, for instance, you can give the Thronglet an apple by dropping one near it, and it’ll eat the apple. Similarly, if Amused is low, drop a beach ball near the Thronglet and watch it kick the ball across the screen for fun.
Sometimes a Thronglet will display a speech bubble with an apple or a beach ball to tell you what it wants. Other times, the Thronglet will appear visibly dirty and in need of a bath. Occasionally, a Thronglet will squat down and seem to cry — which is sad to see, and I just want to give it a hug.
If you don’t meet a Thronglet’s needs, it’ll die, eventually decomposing till there’s nothing left but bones.
The Thronglets can also talk to you. They’ll ask you questions and suggest how you should proceed, such as using Thronglet bones to construct a bridge to another landmass.
Wait… what?
Yeah, it’s a pretty gruesome suggestion. But this leads into another aspect of the game. You’re not only caring for the Thronglets’ basic needs, you’re also teaching them how to behave toward one another.
The Thronglets will ask you questions like, What is power? and, What is love? and you’ll be presented with two responses to choose from. Later in the game, when the Thronglets are beginning to industrialize, they’ll ask you whether they should sleep in their homes as much, or work more. You can respond however you want, but it’s important to remember the Thronglets see you as an all-powerful entity and will do whatever you say.
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Spider-Man taught me about power, and now I pass that knowledge to you, Thronglet.
So when I told the Thronglets not to work so hard and to sleep as much as they needed, they took my advice to heart, resulting in slower resource growth. But they appeared happier.
And that seems to be the result involved with many of the choices the Thronglets present you with — whether you accumulate resources more, or less, quickly. Most of the options I chose were more peaceful, like not using bones to construct a bridge, and thus resulted in slower production. But those choices never stopped or stalled the game. It’s unclear from my time playing just what the in-game advantage is to choosing the less violent options over the malicious options, and vice versa. But still, I tried to pick the kinder approach — I can’t bring myself to do an evil run of any game.
Your actions also influence how the Thronglets see you. Once, I accidentally killed a Thronglet with a chain saw when I was cutting down some trees. From that action, a box appeared on the screen to let me know this taught the Thronglets that tools can be dangerous. It’s unclear whether these instances have any effect on the game other than some comic relief, but I still tried to minimize future accidental deaths or workplace mishaps.
After each stage, you’ll see a screen with different stats, like how many Thronglets died. You’ll also see observations the Thronglets made about you during the stage. Once, the Thronglets noted that I taught them Shakespeare — which made my English-major heart very proud.
I also let some Thronglets die from sickness. Sorry, Thronglets.
What’s the goal of Thronglets?
That’s a great question. For me, my goal was to help the Thronglets in whatever way I could. Sometimes that meant building them a theater for entertainment or cleaning up toxic waste and pollution to keep them healthy. Other times, it meant shooting them into the abyss of space or nuking their land so they could progress — I swear, they insisted these were the right things to do.
But since it’s unclear how my choices affected the game and the upbringing of the Thronglets, it’s possible the goal is to get the Thronglets to progress as fast as possible. That would potentially mean making far more Thronglet sacrifices for the greater good.
But like Ritman asks in Plaything, “Why do you need a goal?”
Well, then I guess my answer is yes.
Anything else interesting about the game?
The most interesting thing about this game for me doesn’t have anything to do with Thronglets itself, but with how Netflix is using different forms of media to tell intertwining stories. Thronglets represents another step in Netflix’s creation of more-immersive storytelling through games and other media, not just films and TV series.
When I started playing Thronglets after watching the Black Mirror episode Plaything, I felt weirded out. Interacting with this piece of media that has dire consequences in the show tricked me into thinking I was playing with fire. I know the game is just a game, but it felt like playing was in some way dangerous — I know how irrational that sounds.
I also couldn’t help but feel that while I was playing this game, I was isolating myself from others, like Walker does in the show. Walker begins to neglect the world around him to care for the Thronglets, and I’d spend time playing the game and ignoring the world around me, too. Granted, I didn’t get arrested for the little yellow guys — but I also didn’t take drugs to communicate with them.
The game didn’t make me more sympathetic toward Walker. I understand Walker was scared of the world, like Ritman points out early in the episode, and therefore Walker retreats into this digital world to help these creatures.
Walker says early on in the episode that games are a kind of escapism, and maybe the game and episode are working in tandem to refute that. Maybe they’re trying to say that even if we find solace in games like Thronglets because the outside world is scary, we still might encounter something just as grisly in games, like a bridge made of bones.
I can see Netflix making more game tie-ins like this in the future to deepen the level of storytelling the service offers. And I’m looking forward to whatever the next tie-in is — maybe one of the arcade games from Stranger Things?
Here’s how to access this game, and more
Accessing Netflix Games on iOS and Android devices is a little different. But you have to subscribe to Netflix ($7 a month) for each.
Here’s how to access games on iOS if you’re a subscriber.
1. Download the Netflix app onto your iPhone or iPad.
2. Open the Netflix app.
3. Tap your profile and sign in to your account.
4. Tap Home at the bottom of your screen.
5. Scroll down your homepage until you see the Mobile Games carousel.
6. Tap into a game to learn more about it.
7. Tap Get Game to download a game you’re interested in.
Here’s how to access Netflix Games on Android if you’re a subscriber.
1. Download the Netflix app onto your Android device.
2. Open the Netflix app.
3. Tap your profile and sign in to your account.
4. Tap Games at the bottom of your screen.
5. Tap into a game to learn more about it.
6. Tap Get Game to download a game you’re interested in.
You can also search for games in the Netflix app by tapping the magnifying glass in the top right corner of the app and entering the game’s name.
After you tap Get Game, a pop-up from either Apple’s App Store or the Google Play Store will open, asking if you want to download the game. After you confirm that action, the game will download on your device, like other apps.
For more on Netflix Games, here’s what to know about the first MMO coming to the service, and what to know about playing Hades and the Grand Theft Auto series on Netflix.
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