My Exercise

My Exercise (2020) is a narrative game where you progress by doing sit-ups, but it’s the bizarre animal encounters that make the experience memorable. Play involves pressing a single button to perform sit-ups and attract a growing cast of strange creatures, then experimenting to uncover adjacent interactions and surreal surprises. It stands out for turning repetition into intrigue, as the increasingly absurd behaviours of its ever-expanding animal ensemble keep the loop playful, tender, and unpredictable.

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You start your sit-up journey accompanied only by a dog, whom you faceplant into with each repetition. At nine reps, a friend appears to cheer you on periodically; at twenty reps, a seal arrives to bob its head as you exercise, and so on. Gradually, a whole host of supportive creatures join your workout, pushing you on to discover what’s next.

Upon eventually beating the game, you unlock new characters to play as in subsequent runs. There’s an incentive here, too: secret interactions are littered throughout, only discoverable via experimentation. For example, press your face against the dog too long, and you begin to merge into a single, mutated organism.

The result is an intentionally strange experience that unfolds more like a visual novel than it does a game, and despite its narrative seeming utterly nonsensical, it’s inexplicably compelling nonetheless.

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Our examiner, Jake Kendall, first checked My Exercise 2 weeks ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 4 days ago.