It’s rare that a mobile game actually surprises us with its control scheme. Usually we’re busy tapping glass, tilting the screen, or perhaps folding the device if you have the budget for it. But a new web-based experiment called Charchery has thrown all that out the window. It turns your physical charging cable into the controller.
The concept is as simple as it is destructive: you plug your charger into your phone to cock an arrow, and you physically pull it out to fire. It’s undeniably clever, bizarre, and almost certainly a terrible idea for the longevity of your hardware.
The “Plug and Pray” gameplay loop.
The game is the brainchild of developer @rebane2001, who has played around with phone hardware in strange ways in the past (previously they made Foldy Bird, which you played by bending a folding screen). Charchery seems to be a nod to the old-school Flash games we used to play in browser windows, like Defend Your Castle or Bowmaster Prelude.
In the demo shared on X (formerly Twitter), the gameplay looks pretty simple. You play as an archer facing off against waves of stick figure enemies slowly marching towards you. To fight them off, you have to plug and unplug your phone in a frantic rhythm. There even seems to be a combo system that rewards you for quickly stringing together shots, which probably encourages you to treat your charging port even less respectfully than usual.
A graveyard for lightning cables
Let’s face it: this game is going to break some cables. In the developer’s own demo video, the white cable used already looks like it has seen better days, as the outer casing is peeling off near the connector. Most charging cables — especially the cheap ones you buy at the gas station — are designed to sit quietly on a bedside table and not have to be plugged and unplugged dozens of times a minute.
If you’re actually planning on trying this for more than five minutes, you might want to use a heavy-duty nylon-sheathed cable that can take a beating. And then there’s the phone itself. Charging ports (whether USB-C or Lightning) are durable but have a limited lifespan. Converting your primary charging method to a heavy-duty game controller is a bold move, especially since replacing a port is much more expensive than buying a new cable.
Despite the obvious hardware risks, Charchery is cool because it reminds us that smartphones are full of sensors and inputs that we rarely use for gaming. We’ve gotten so used to the touchscreen that we forget the physical nature of the device. Developers experimenting with these “forbidden” inputs – such as using charge level as a trigger – are pushing the boundaries of what mobile gaming can physically feel like.
You can now play Charchery via your mobile browser (of course it won’t work on a desktop since your PC doesn’t know when it’s unplugged). It probably won’t be the next Candy Crush, but it’s a hilarious, creative and slightly dangerous piece of interactive art. Maybe don’t play it with your only working charger.
