The Password Game

About

The Password Game is a puzzle game released by developer Neal Agarwal that parodies the process of generating a password, with password restrictions getting increasingly outlandish as the game goes on. Released in June 2023, the game achieved virality on social media and with streamers as it spread online.

History

On June 27th, 2023, developer and game designer Neal Agarwal released the puzzle game The Password Game on his website Neal.fun.^[1][2] On that day, Neal Agarwal tweeted a 15-second teaser of the game, with the tweet gaining over 11,500 retweets and 70,100 likes in one month (shown below).

The password game is out now! Good luck 👹

> https://t.co/kXhmbHqYTK pic.twitter.com/d6lbnfHrbx

— Neal Agarwal (@nealagarwal) June 27, 2023

Gameplay and Features

The Password Game is a puzzle-based browser game that parodies the process of generating a password. The objective of the game is to generate a password that fits all 35 of the increasingly outlandish requirements, which are added one after another as soon as the user fulfills all the previous ones. Some of the password restrictions in the game include:

• Including the answer to this day's Wordle puzzle
• Including Roman numerals which multiply to 35
• Including an answer to a chess puzzle in algebraic chess notation
• Taking care of a chicken named Paul by adding 3 caterpillar emojis every minute

Fandom

The game immediately drew attention from users on social media, most notably on TikTok. For example, on June 30th, 2023, TikToker^[3] robodesser posted a gameplay video that gained over 8.1 million views and 1.1 million likes in one month (shown below, left). On July 2nd, TikToker^[4] kennyhaller posted a video that gained over 4 million views and 360,000 likes in one month (shown below, right).

In early July 2023, speedrun videos of the game started appearing on YouTube. For example, on July 10th, 2023, YouTuber^[5] Bleach posted a video of himself beating the game in 59 seconds (shown below, right), which accumulated over 247,000 views in three weeks.

Starting in mid-July 2023, the game attracted more streamer attention. For example, on July 17th, 2023, Ludwig streamed himself playing the game, with a YouTube^[6] upload of the broadcast gaining over 767,000 views in two weeks (shown below, left). On July 19th, YouTuber^[7] Kubz Scouts posted a gameplay video that received over 456,000 views in two weeks (shown below, right).

On July 20th, streamer Kitboga tricked phone scammers into playing the game,^[8] with one person spending three hours trying to pick a password (video shown below).

I collabed with @Kitboga to trick phone scammers into playing the password game!

one guy spent 3 HOURS trying to pick a password 😭 pic.twitter.com/dC8I71UnGO

— Neal Agarwal (@nealagarwal) July 20, 2023

Search Interest

External References