The much-anticipated Black Mirror Season 7 has hit Netflix, and true to form, it’s already blurring the lines between fiction and our tech-infused reality. Here at Digital Tech Explorer, your author TechTalesLeo is particularly intrigued by one episode, “Plaything,” which centers on a nostalgic 1990s sim game about caring for digital critters. The truly exciting part? This fictional game, Thronglets, has jumped off the screen! Netflix has made Thronglets available on Android and iOS for subscribers to experience firsthand.
The Premise of ‘Plaything’ and Creator’s Vision
For those yet to dive into Black Mirror Season 7, the “Plaything” episode revisits a character from Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, the pioneering interactive movie Netflix launched in 2018. While “Plaything” itself isn’t interactive, it brings back the enigmatic game developer Colin Ritman (Will Poulter). In the episode, Ritman invites a game journalist to preview his latest creation, Thronglets.
However, Ritman presents Thronglets as something far beyond a mere game. Though it appears to be a sim where you nurture small creatures—feeding them, bathing them, and providing toys—Ritman fervently insists these beings are genuinely alive. He describes them as biological entities created with code, “living individuals” rather than “obscene puppets like Sonic the Hedgehog.”
First Look: Playing the Thronglets Game
Having spent some time with Thronglets, I can confirm it mirrors the game depicted in the episode. You can offer your Thronglets apples, clean them with a cloth, and entertain them with beachballs. Over time, they learn to fend for themselves and, under the right conditions, they begin to multiply… and multiply… and multiply.
Without spoiling the episode’s narrative arc, or the game’s ultimate trajectory, Thronglets starts off as a rather cute experience. One can only hope it doesn’t take a dark, ominous, or typically Black Mirror-esque twisted turn.
Potential Inspiration: The 1996 Sim ‘Creatures’
The concept behind Thronglets strongly echoes Creatures, a landmark sim game from 1996. In Creatures, players cared for peculiar little animals called Norns, teaching them to survive through feeding, play, and interaction.
What made Creatures revolutionary for its era was its use of machine learning and neural networks, enabling the Norns to genuinely learn. The game’s AI was so groundbreaking it even influenced actual AI research. For tech enthusiasts interested in exploring this piece of gaming history after their Thronglets adventure, Creatures is available on Steam.