Making That Slap Possible Required More Sophistication Than the Joke Suggests

My Arms Are Longer Now, a comedy stealth game from Australian studio Toot Games, lets players control a single misbehaving limb that slithers across floors, winds around furniture, steals objects and slaps anyone within reach. The game is in development for PC, with a release planned for 2027. Toot Games co-founder Matthew Jackson describes the concept simply: "You are the bad thing that happens to the people. The idea began as a prototype made during a weekend game jam themed around lost and found.

Jackson and fellow co-founder Millie Holten, who met through Melbourne's improv and sketch comedy community, wanted a concept that could be understood and raise a laugh in a single still image — a grotesquely extended arm proved to be just that. The game features more than 40 speaking characters voiced by Australian comedians who perform written dialogue before improvising alternative takes. "It's a vessel for jokes, Jackson says.

For almost a year, development largely involved trying to "cram jokes into the game"; only later did the team realize the physics of the increasingly sophisticated arm had become fun in their own right. Players can personalize its skin tone, hair and accessories. The stealth gameplay owes something to Untitled Goose Game: characters react to your crimes, but, Jackson says, "There are no fail states in the game.

A museum guard might smack the arm or beg it to stop before being fired. Anyone can be slapped, including an infant. While searching for a publisher, Jackson repeatedly asked: "Is someone going to come and tell us you can't slap the baby?

Jackbox Games, thankfully, did not. Making that slap possible required more sophistication than the joke suggests. The original game was flat and 2D, but Holten's concept art showed the arm looping over tables, under chairs and around objects.

Six months into development, the studio took the risky decision to rebuild in 3D. Working with developer Cherie Davidson, Jackson created a procedural, tube-like limb and a system using forced perspective to preserve the illustrated style while allowing physical collisions. Comedy is finite, Jackson notes: "You can hit a joke, and that joke's done. Some publishers suggested adding more puzzles, but Toot feared they would obstruct the punchlines.

Jackbox understood it was meant to be "a good time, not a long time, with players who explore every corner rewarded with optional interactions and voice lines. Jackson's ultimate ambition: "I hope players say it was funny. That's truly it.

After three years in development, 48 speaking characters and one non-negotiable baby slap, the game is set to reach gaming's funny bone in 2027. The developers met through Australia's improv scene, and the game is published by Jackbox Games, known for comedic party games. The team calls another session tinkering with the troublesome appendage "going into the armpit.