The indie game “The Gunk” establishes a new and very specific kind of game genre: cleaning.

Created by indie developer Image & Form Games, “The Gunk” follows two poverty-stricken space travellers Rani and Becks when one day, they stumble upon an unknown planet that could possibly hold new energy resources as well as other valuable materials to be used to their advantage.

Seeing this planet as a potential gold mine, the duo lands on it and encounter clumps of disgusting, black goop spread out across its terrain.

Rani, being the more adventurous and curious one, uses the vacuum function of her power glove to contain and get rid of this mysterious goop, and after eradicating all of the goop from a polluted area, the area becomes bright and clean once again.

After cleaning up an area to be suitable enough for their landing spot and headquarters, Rani decides to venture out to explore the rest of planet in hopes of clearing its overwhelming pollution while searching for a powerful energy resource and other valuable materials that would either upgrade their equipment or sell for credits.

Becks stays behind at the ship and, whenever Rani scans an unknown object or substance, she identifies whatever it is and submits it to their database, so Rani will know the name and a brief summary of the object.

Players follow Rani’s journey in a game that’s main game mechanic focuses on open-world exploration.

The game allows a multitude of opportunities in its campaign for players to take initiative and explore to their heart’s content  and possibly be rewarded for it.

The enhanced graphics and frame rate add to the game’s ambience and dazzling environment. Exclusive to Xbox and PC, “The Gunk” runs in 1080p at 30 fps (frames per second) on Xbox One, and when utilizing next-gen technology, it runs 60 fps at up to 4K resolution on Xbox Series S/X and PC.

Gameplay-wise, “The Gunk” is a relatively easy and accessible game for any kind of player to enjoy, with some simple puzzles and mild platforming sections of the game.

In contrast to the usual video game formula, Rani has no set number of lives or hearts to lose, and simply dies if she falls off a cliff or is overly damaged by either enemies or the gunk itself.

The enemy variety is pretty subliminal with a few types of aliens that pose a very minimal threat in Rani’s journey.

“The Gunk” serves as a display of what the future of indie games, and video games in general, can achieve as developers explore new art styles and genres, in an effort to revolutionize games as more of an experience instead of just a distraction.