FACEMINER is a clicker/puzzle game where you work from your CRT monitor to analyse packets of facial surveillance data for a mysterious company. It describes itself as a ‘hardcore thriller clicker set in 1999’. As a connoisseur of unusual word combinations – as well as a believer in the satirical power of clicker games since playing Universal Paperclips – I immediately set about downloading the free Steam demo.
The first thing I noticed upon booting up my simulated desktop was a winamp-style widget you can play spacey retro tunes from. I flicked through to a d&b track then immediately turned it off, because the key it was in gave me anxiety, but I suppose that was intentional. Also on the desktop was an application called ‘Surveillance Hub’, so I ran that next.
The software barked BonziBuddy sounding gibberish at me, then offered me a tutorial, which taught me how to purchase data, answer emails, and read ‘purity scores’. I bought a pack of ‘redacted social media profiles’ (11% purity rating). The idea is to play Captcha style minigames as fast as possible. identifying new faces. It is a little simple and monotonous, but I think the drudgery is the point. What it lacks in novelty, it makes up for in sheer ominousness. Also, I’m incentivised to do it well, because the game informs me I’m in my ‘employee trial period’. I move through ‘filtered suspicious faces’ to ‘unsorted political operatives’. I click, and my money goes up, and that is how I know this is a worthwhile endeavor, despite the sinking feeling in my gut. Here’s a demo launch trailer:
It looks to evolve a great deal in the full game. “Set against a backdrop of 90s techno-optimism,” reads the description, “FACEMINER is an experimental, narrative-driven incremental management idler that tasks the player with building a planetary-scale biometric processing empire from scratch.” More of those word combinations, I see. I like it. “Make sure profits remain high and avoid bankruptcy (or worse) as you navigate oppressive electricity bills, high-maintenance cooling systems, and crooked politically-enforced carbon offsetting schemes,” it continues. And that is all the motivation I need to click some more. FACEMINER’s demo is available on both Steam and Itch.
