Steam: This strange game can only be played by 1 person worldwide at a time
A Finnish developer has created a very special game with “Jono”. Although it is a multiplayer title, only one person in the world can play the free Steam title at a time.
A hero for the whole world
The 2D platformer Jono, released in October, turns the classic multiplayer principle on its head. Instead of competing against each other or with each other at the same time, only one user worldwide controls the pixel art hero of the title, who has to find his way through dangerous rooms. The active player has exactly 60 seconds in which to control the figure.
The next person in line then takes over and continues the journey exactly where the previous person left off. While one player is in control, the remaining participants watch. The events are calculated locally on the players’ PCs using the Godot engine based on the transmitted control commands, so there is no video stream. If the character dies, the current room starts over and a tombstone marks the place of failure.
If you want to play yourself, you often have to be patient for more than an hour and are then allowed to actively intervene for a single minute. Nevertheless, the unusual game enjoys some popularity. On some days almost 100 people are waiting to be deployed. Over a period of two and a half days, the project collected over 3,300 hours of pure viewer time.
A common goal
As from the description on the Jono’s Steam page emerges, the community is pursuing a long-term goal. A total of a million different levels are to be completed. Most of the rooms are generated by a procedural generator. However, users also have the option of designing their own sections using an editor. The developer reviews submissions before integrating them into regular gameplay or the separate and particularly difficult “Meat Grinder” mode.
With progress of around 5,000 rooms per day, the developer estimates that the final goal of one million levels could be reached around April 2027. The project is backed by the Part Time Monkey studio of Finnish developer Tuomas Erikoinen, who previously worked as a graphic designer on the original Angry Birds. The first version for Jono was created in around a month.
The mechanics of a globally shared character initially only functioned as a kind of protective mechanism. Since small games are now often copied within hours of their release using AI-powered tools, Erikoinen was looking for a format that wasn’t as easy to recreate. At least so far it seems to be working. By the way, if you just want to watch without having to install the game, you can log on to the Jono’s YouTube channel Watch a live stream of the game and get excited.
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