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Don't Touch the Snail is an anti-cozy game that takes permadeath to the next level
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Don't Touch the Snail is an anti-cozy game that takes permadeath to the next level

Engadget · May 14, 2026, 2:00 PM

Key takeaways

  • Both Good There's permadeath, and then there's whatever this upcoming indie game is cooking up.
  • It's being described as an "anti-cozy" game and that seems fairly apt.
  • You can open it, but the snail will now be friendly and won't follow the cursor around.

Both Good There's permadeath, and then there's whatever this upcoming indie game is cooking up. Don't Touch the Snail is an idle clicker, of a sort, with a dark twist. If the titular snail ever catches up to you, it's game over forever.

It's being described as an "anti-cozy" game and that seems fairly apt. The gameplay takes place on your desktop as a persistent snail chases the mouse cursor. You can only remain idle for so long before the snail catches up, so the game involves moving the cursor whenever that ornery gastropod gets close. If it ever succeeds in its grim mission, you can never play the game again.

You can open it, but the snail will now be friendly and won't follow the cursor around. You'll also be able to decorate it when the skins you've acquired. The game also has achievements, so really make sure you don't blow it right off the bat or those will be locked. The fail state is recorded locally on the computer and also via the company's backend, just in case some people try to get around things by clearing out local data.

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