The Black Mirror series 7 episode Plaything has its own free to play mobile game – the fluffily disturbing Thronglets, from the developers of Oxenfree.
Series creator Charlie Brooker is back this week with more Black Mirror, and among its sextet of tech noir episodes you’ll find Plaything. A quasi-sequel to the 2018 interactive episode, Bandersnatch, it’s another twisty sci-fi tale filled with references to the British games industry. And continuing the interactivity of Bandersnatch, Plaything now has its own free-to-play mobile game.
Called Thronglets, it’s almost identical to the game seen in the episode itself – a mash-up of mechanics seen in such pioneering games as Little Computer People, Populous and Civilization. You start by hatching out a single Thronglet – a cute little critter that recalls the hapless mammals in Lemmings. Unable to fend for itself, the Thronglet must be regularly fed and washed – and then it begins to multiply, meaning you soon have an entire community of the things to look after.
Read more: Black Mirror series 7 episode 4 review | Plaything
As Thronglets morphs from Tamagotchi-like life sim to strategy and management, the game takes on an increasingly sinister tone; the creatures begin to interact with the player directly through a command window, and there are hints of inter-dimensional weirdness straight out of the 2012 indie darling, Fez.
Anyone who’s seen the episode will know that Plaything goes to some pretty dark places, and while we won’t spoil anything here, it’s fair to say Thronglets follows suit. Given that it’s essentially a bit of tie-in marketing commissioned by Netflix, it’s an impressively lengthy, full-featured experience, though.
There’s a good reason for this as well: it’s the work of Night School Studio, an American developer acquired by Netflix in 2021. It’s perhaps best known for the wonderfully atmospheric adventure games Oxenfree (2016) and its 2023 sequel, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals.
You can download Thronglets for Android or iOS now via Netflix’s handy link. There’s also a trailer if you fancy watching one:
