Woim is the earth-devouring, self-bisecting sokoban pick-me-up I needed after a week of game industry disasters

Background: A Heavy Week and a Rescinded Worm Joke

This week’s sequence began with city-builders being ladled into the Maw’s feeding trough. The remark had been made that being a worm must really suck. Then came the closure of BioWare, layoffs across other Electronic Arts studios, further depressing generative artificial intelligence revelations, allegations of antisemitism at indie gaming events, a big Capcom data breach, and yet more worrying tidings about Arkane.

After that run of news, the earlier observation was rescinded. The writer wanted to be a happy little worm, tunnelling after golden apples in the moist and forgiving earth, where there are no emails or press releases at all. The only remaining worries would be a butt growing so large that the worm gets stuck behind it, and getting chopped in half by sliding doors. It turns out that the sliding-door problem may actually help with the first one.

Development: WOIM - Official Trailer Turns the Joke Into a Game

The video is titled WOIM - Official Trailer, is presented as something to see for yourself, and is available to watch on YouTube. Woim is a soil-dwelling invertebrate puzzle game with a touch of the sokobans. It consists of 50 levels and an unspecified quantity of secrets, scattered across four subterranean worlds.

In each level, the idea is to crawl around a grid layout to reach a golden apple, opening the exit.

Mechanics: Eating Earth, Red Apples, Switches, Rocks, and Water Jets

As with non-videogame worms, Woim involves a certain amount of ingesting earth and pooping it out behind you. You cannot just devour the whole layout. You need to guzzle red apples that make you longer, so you can, for example, keep pressing a switch with your body as you slither toward a door.

Other solutions involve placing objects rather than stretching yourself. You might have to shove a rock onto that switch. Or you might shove that rock onto a water jet to propel it somewhere you cannot reach.

Later Twists: Eggs, Daisies, Scissors, Hats, and Undo

Later on, there are breakable eggs that must be carried to nests, daisies that push back outward when you take your weight off them, scissors with which to snip yourself into separately functioning halves, and hats. The note adds that this is not an entirely accurate worm simulator.

As in sokoban, the major problem is trapping yourself. You can undo moves without penalty by tapping Z.

Current Stage: 50 Levels, Four Worlds, and Secrets Still Unspecified

At the stage described, Woim is introduced as a 50-level puzzle game set across four subterranean worlds, with an official trailer on YouTube. Its known progression moves from basic earth-eating movement to apple-powered lengthening, switch-and-rock solutions, water-jet propulsion, carried eggs, daisies, self-splitting, hats, and a no-penalty undo action.

The only platform named is YouTube, where the official trailer can be watched. No release date, developer, or publisher is named alongside the 50-level puzzle premise. The quantity of secrets remains unspecified.