Developer Nas has created the final boss of sorting games

We know by now that I'm an absolute sucker for sorting and organizing games, even if I have a love/hate relationship with them. I go into them full of hope, quickly begin questioning my life choices, and then just… keep going, because sunk cost fallacy exists. 

Now, in what's either a stroke of genius or the ultimate display of malicious compliance with a trend, indie dev Nas Nakarus is working on a game currently called a Needle in a Haystack Game in his bio, and it is absolutely blowing up on X after seemingly taking the trend a step too far. It might end up being the straw that breaks the camel's back, if you will. 

A needle in a hay… pile? 

Yes, you read that right. Nas is constructing a game in which you have to find a single, lonesome needle within five million pieces of hay, apparently removed individually from the ball, at least initially. According to comments on the X post, Nas has a progression system planned that will make the job easier as time goes on. There are no confirmed tools yet, but there are plenty of suggestions within the comments, from metal detectors to my personal favorite idea of running around in circles until you get poked.

Interestingly, even Nas himself hasn't managed to find the needle yet, and that's either impressive or worrying, depending on how you look at it. 

Like I said in the intro, this is either an absolutely genius idea or an incredible display of malicious compliance with a trend. I've seen many people talking about “sort slop” games negatively, but there's no sign of this recent trend slowing down any time soon. With that said, this needle might be the final boss of sorting games, depending on those all-important upgrades. 

How did this happen 

The original post has reached over 20 million people, and my entire For You feed is full of hay. When I saw it on X an hour after it was posted, it immediately caught my interest, and I shared the above comment.  It has since received over 16,000 likes, and my notifications have been on fire for hours. 

It's hard to tell which part of my comment people are agreeing with; will they also be weeping while desperately hunting for the elusive needle when the game gets released? Or are they saying that this is taking the genre a few steps too far? Nas replied, stating that was his intention all along, and even the biggest “sort slop” hater would have to agree he nailed the landing here.

Of course, as you’d expect on X, the negativity found me through replies to my comment, but my personal favorite was someone stating that I’m contributing to the death of gaming. The irony is palpable, given where you are right now.

The game, which Nas is currently calling Needle In a Haystack Game in his bio, doesn't even have a Steam page yet, but it is “coming soon,” according to Nas’ replies. He's also hinted at multiplayer, but we'll just have to wait and see how this one evolves.