In the past year, Singaporean indie studio Gearbyte Games have proven one thing about themselves — they know how to make an addictive game. Their debut title Identifile: Desktop Dungeon sucked hours of productivity from my week, and it looks like their second game is about to do the same, except perhaps a little more literally.
Recently featured at Indie Jam 2026, Growing My Manhole is a short incremental game about becoming the largest manhole and consuming the universe. You start at the size of a typical manhole, sucking up tiny pebbles and stones, but as you unlock upgrades over time, you eventually work your way up to cars, buildings, and even humans.
The developers recently released a playable demo on their Itch.io page, where you can grow your own manhole and experience the ethical consequences of becoming a universe-consuming black hole. At 40 minutes of playtime, the demo is a sizeable preview of the upgrades and power-ups in store, but not quite enough to satiate our hunger for more.
The full game is slated to release in Q3 2026, featuring 5 unique zones (Surface, Civilization, Continental, Cosmic, Universe), 25 tiers of objects to consume, an incredibly large upgrade tree, more power-ups, and additional game modes to whet your appetite.
Download the demo on their Itch.io page, and wishlist the game on Steam.
