New Game Ready to Add Meat and Blood to Steam’s Tidying-Up Craze
The tidying simulation genre on Steam, which has seen explosive growth with games focused on organizing libraries, shops, and other spaces, is about to take a darker turn. Strange Scaffold, the developer behind “I Am Your Beast” and “Clickolding,” has announced “Something is Wrong with the Library,” a horror-tinged organizing simulator set to launch on Steam this fall.
The game follows the familiar tidying game formula but with significant horror elements. Players manage a library where they must reshelve scattered books using a functional Dewey Decimal System while contending with disturbing supernatural phenomena. The library harbors a dark secret: a wealthy patron has entombed corpses in the building’s walls, creating “psychic manifestations” of flesh that haunt the space. Despite these grotesque surroundings, players must perform their mundane organizational tasks.
Unlike most games in the organizing simulator trend, “Something is Wrong with the Library” emphasizes narrative alongside its core mechanics. Players take on the role of the library’s former administrator, giving purpose to the chores beyond simple puzzle-solving.
The game employs a “Modular Chaos System” designed to ensure variety across playthroughs, procedurally generating different sets of books that require organization with each run. Additional mysterious elements, including “a terrifying, inscrutable obelisk,” suggest the game will lean heavily into unsettling atmosphere and surreal horror.
The announcement represents a notable tonal shift for the increasingly popular organizing simulator genre, which has largely focused on satisfying, wholesome gameplay loops. “Something is Wrong with the Library” aims to deliver the same satisfaction while wrapping it in body horror and cosmic dread.