I don't know if we should feed the black hole. These are supposedly things (anti-things? I'm not a black holologist) that I want to stay away from, given what I've heard. And yet here I am, having tinkered with the demo of A Game About Feeding A Black Hole, which is a game about feeding a black hole, and been left with the feeling that not only is it something I can do, but I can find peace in it.
The thing about the Black Hole Feeding Game is that it more or less lives up to what it says on the tin. It is also a game about inaction and reaction. You have a tiny circle that deals a little damage every second or so. So you destroy the handful of asteroids you see around you, sending their remains into the nothingness that is the black hole, trying to increase its size as the clock counts down.
This then gives you money, money that you can spend on a skill tree, a skill tree that can expand your circle, or strengthen it, or increase the length of the timer, or increase the mass of certain asteroids, or make some of them shoot lightning forks, or make some of them radioactive, all of which work in tandem with each other. As your skills increase, so does your ability to destroy asteroids and feed the black hole, gradually increasing its size. This is one reaction, similar to how lightning can strike another asteroid, helping to destroy it, even more effectively on radioactive rocks.
Idleness is the fact that all you really do is move the mouse. After a while in the demo, the game does half the work for you, but oh, the sweet pleasure of seeing lots of numbers and shattered pieces of space boulders flying into the deep, dark void. It's a game you can spend about 15 minutes playing, something you can do during a smoke break during your shift at the busiest brunch spot in town, a way to distract yourself and calm down.
The Black Hole Feeding Game is also a game out today, December 15th, so for the price of a fancy baked goods you could instead, well… you know. You can pick it up directly on Steam. Here.
