As one of our first (official) releases of what we've been tirelessly working on behind the scenes, we have a quick clip of some gameplay from our most recent build of the game. Look at our little miners go, collecting all those beautiful microplastics for the good of the corporation! :)
Glorgo's Microplastics Mine is all student designed and developed from start to finish. We have an incredibly talented team making leaps and bounds of progress towards a fully realized system of microplastic extraction -- all for our glorious Glorgo. Let us know below in the comments what you think looks cool in our beloved incremental mine simulator!
And don't forget to join us at USC Games Expo 2026 on May 12th for our full release of the game Glorgo's Microplastics Mine!
Included In: Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality
Genre: Visual Novel
Pitch: Walk through town finding and petting funny animals. A short, bilingual picture book.
My expectations: Looks super cute. I don't see a single written word in any of the screenshots, and its style is completely unlike any other visual novel I've reviewed so far. I'm feeling good about this.
Review:
If you have a very young child and an iPad, download Arigatou, Ningen-san! right away. Itâs going to be a huge hit in your house.
For those of us who arenât churning through a stack of picture books every night, the appeal will be limited.
A bird named Tori-san (âtoriâ is Japanese for bird) lands on your house and explains that animals around town need love and attention, setting off a linear journey to find five animals across three screens.
A snake named Hebi-san (go ahead and guess the Japanese word for snake) is hiding behind a not-at-all-subtly rustling plant. The other four animals arenât hiding at all, which feels like a missed opportunity.
Once an animal is found, it must be squashed and stretched, with animations that are guaranteed to send any toddler into paroxysms of giggles.
And thatâs all there is to it.
The two-finger controls are built for a touchscreen. On a PC, this is emulated by holding Ctrl while clicking. It works, but itâs inelegant.
The writing is cute enough, but itâs not the star of the show. The music and sound effects are fitting, but again, theyâre not spectacular. Itâs all about funny, squishy animals.
+ Cuuuute.
+ Funny!
+ Perfect for tiny kids who are just starting to take an interest that flat, glowing thing you always have in your hand.
+ Maybe 5-10 minutes from start to finish.
â The animal-squishing scenes take a little too long for my liking. You squish and squish and squish, and at some pointâI could never quite figure out the triggerâthe animal says, "Cool, that's enough," and the scene ends.
â Little variety. How about some more hide and seek? What if all the animals didn't have the exact same request?
â Unintuitive mouse and keyboard controls. The game refers to two-finger touchscreen operations as "zoom and pinch"âwouldn't it make more sense to map these actions to the mouse wheel or the right mouse button? Take it easy on the toddlers.
â All text is displayed in both English and Japanese at all times. I love that it's bilingual; I'm confused by the execution. As an English speaker who is trying to learn Japanese, it's too complex for me. Most text boxes contain multiple sentences, so I have a hard time comparing the two languages. A furigana option would be helpful, as early readers like myself will likely find the some of the kanji impenetrable. Since there's no recorded speech, I must assume everything's meant to be read by mommy or daddy. If said parent is already fluent in two languagesâthese specific languagesâthey're probably capable of translating the writing on their own, leaving me to wonder why all text is displayed in both English and Japanese at all times.
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Bottom Line: Arigatou, Ningen-san is free, it's cute, and the picture book crowd will flip for its funny animal squishing.
By the way, have to looked up "ningen" yet? That one will catch you off guard.
#JakeReviewsItch is a series of daily game reviews. You can learn more here. You can also browse past reviews...
Felicia is a Computer Science Games student at USC. She oversees all the art aspects of Glorgoâs Microplastics Mine.
Glorgoâs Microplastics Mine is an absurd incremental game being developed by students at USC for the Advanced Games Project program 2025-26 cohort. Visit us at Expo in May 2026!
Glorgo's Microplastics Mine is an Advanced Games Project game being developed by USC students for the 2025-26 school year. We are a brilliant Y2k-themed, eccentric incremental resource manager that rattles the senses while youâre tasked with overseeing the small but mighty workforce under you who are sent into the alien mines to retrieve the precious microplastics your scheming boss desires.Â
Hire more of your delightfully expendable miners to harvest more microplastics, increase your operation with upgrades that help you meet your quarterly goals, and defeat the horrors that threaten to ruin your workflow. Watch as your miners grow, change and mutate before your very eyes during their exposure to the microplastics theyâre surrounded by in both humorous and uniquely grotesque ways that make one ask the question of when is enough enough?
Glorgo's Microplastics Mine will be released for free in May 2026 for everyone to play on Windows and Mac!
Follow us for more updates on the game on our Instagram, Tiktok and Twitter.
Keep an eye out for our official Steam page launch, also coming soon!
