Pipes.exe is a co-op horror game about the world's favourite screensaver

It is the year 2026, and the setting is a return to the jagged operating systems of old. Pipes.exe, a co-op horror climbing game that dresses itself as an OS, had its world premiere at the PC Gaming Show.

The setup places you in the '90s as a QA tester at a software firm working on its own operating system. Up to three players hunt for bugs by clambering around environments that look very much like the classic Windows screensaver — you can climb pipes, climb your friends, or climb just about anything.

After collecting the needed data, players must rush back to the exit or risk being killed by one of the OS's enemies. The conceit is that a band of freethinking '90s devs built an OS that defies physics and whose UX is so realistic that dying in QA could kill you in real life; the presentation even quips that it is partly a biography of Linus Torvalds.

The game is due on Steam in Q3 of this year.

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