Ever heard of the Immortal Snail thought experiment? Coined over 10 years ago by an anonymous Reddit user, the premise of the Immortal Snail is simple: “You and a super intelligent snail both get 1 million dollars. You both become immortal, but you will die if the snail touches you. It always knows where you are, and is slowly crawling toward you. What’s your plan?”
Inspired by that same idea, indie developer Plastic Bag Hand Man and publisher Both Good have created Don’t Touch the Snail, a desktop overlay game where a snail slowly crawls toward your mouse cursor. Your only job is to avoid it, as if it ever reaches you, the game ends permanently.
That’s right: if the Immortal Snail touches your cursor, your final score will be locked in and submitted to an online leaderboard, while the game will remain on your desktop, unable to be played again. Your snail can also be customised with an array of over 50 skins; after death, a friendly snail will stick around so you can keep showing them off.
Aspiring challengers can now wishlist Don’t Touch the Snail on Steam ahead of its May 2026 release.
