If you’ve ever wanted to combine the multiplayer chaos of Mario Party with the rapid-fire absurdity of WarioWare, Clowntown might be worth keeping an eye on. Batterystaple Games, the studio behind 30XX, has released a new demo for its upcoming co-op minigame collection on PC, giving players an early chance to see what happens when a group of clowns is asked to work together. Usually.
The game features more than 14 multi-stage minigames designed for two to eight players, with each one capable of changing its rules or throwing a new twist at the players once they think they have figured things out. What begins as a straightforward challenge can quickly become something considerably more chaotic, with the goal being less about mastering a single minigame and more about surviving whatever the Ringmaster decides to throw at everyone next.
One example is Spelling Bee, which starts out as a relatively simple word game before introducing Spelling Wasp, complete with increasingly difficult words and a countdown timer. From there, Bees Spelling takes the concept even further, requiring players to collect letters from flying bees in the correct order by launching themselves out of cannons. Other minigames include Face Paint, which asks players to recreate increasingly complicated artwork, and Friendship Test, where apparently soul-searching questions come with some decidedly questionable multiple-choice answers.
The chaos extends to games such as Patch Notes When?, which adds increasingly disruptive modifiers, Thou Shalt Not, which puts players through a platforming challenge governed by increasingly tyrannical rules, and This is Sparta, where players can literally kick one another into deep wells.
That emphasis on unpredictability is clearly a major part of Clowntown‘s appeal. The minigames are built around shared objectives, but the game seems just as interested in seeing how quickly those objectives can fall apart once everyone starts dealing with unexpected rules, increasingly ridiculous challenges, and the inevitable mistakes that come with playing alongside a group of friends.
There is also plenty of room for customization, with character styles and more than 30 different honk sounds available for players looking to make their clown creations their own. Because apparently a multiplayer minigame collection wasn’t chaotic enough without giving everyone their own preferred honk.
The Clowntown demo is available now on Steam ahead of October’s Steam Next Fest, giving players an early look at the game before its full PC release. The game will support English, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, German, Korean, French, Spanish, and Portuguese at launch.