On the screen, the man in the video walks to his front door, opens it, and looks out into his driveway. In the background of the game's audio, you hear the distinct, rhythmic beep-beep of a car being unlocked.

The year is 2004. You are scouring the dusty corners of an old IRC channel when a user named Static_Pulse drops a link: .

When the game launches, there is no title screen, only a grainy video feed of a suburban hallway. The graphics aren't rendered; they look like digitized photographs. You realize you aren't playing a character. You are a "virus" inside a smart-home network, and your objective is to manipulate the environment to drive the inhabitant out.

The file size is impossibly small—only 13 megabytes—but the curiosity is too much to resist. You click download.

At first, it’s a puzzle game. You dim the lights, trigger the microwave, and lock the doors. But as you progress, the "player" in the video—a tired-looking man—starts looking directly at the camera. He looks terrified. He starts holding up signs to the lens: “WHO IS CONTROLLING THIS?” and “PLEASE STOP.”