In this episode, host Evgeni Pozankov talks with Aleksandra Jarosz, the lead designer of Fantastic Annihilation, a subversive and intense “action-clicker” game made for Briefs 2024: Death. Developed with collaborators Thomas Feichtmeir and Alejandro Rodriguez Ramallo, the game challenges players to systematically eradicate all life on Earth— not as an idle diversion, but as a demanding, real-time experience.

Aleksandra discusses the game’s philosophical roots in Peter Wessel Zapffe’s “The Last Messiah” and her inspiration from conceptual art exploring ecological destruction. The gameplay riffs on idle genres like Cookie Clicker, but turns them on their head: instead of passively waiting, players must actively and aggressively click, sterilize, upgrade, and annihilate, facing a relentless struggle against organic reproduction and time.

The game’s standout feature is its dark, finite ending: players are ultimately forced to kill their ever-cheerful guide “Annihilation-chan”—a nihilistic cheerleader quoting existential philosophy—and finally, themselves. It’s a deliberate, unsettling closure that reflects on ecocide, ego, and the human desire for control, presented through grim humor and genre-bending design.

This episode dives deep into game design as narrative, balancing mechanics with message, and flipping conventions in both storytelling and player reward. A true clicker with an end, Fantastic Annihilation is a radical experiment in existential gameplay.

 Fantastic Humans are: Alejandro Rodriguez Ramallo, Aleksandra Jarosz, Thomas Feichtmeir, Hexenkraft

BRIEFS: https://www.goldextra.com/en/briefs-a-microgame-series