Lethal Company's new arachnophobia mode is a marvel of modern gaming

Spiders are a popular enemy of video games and have the unfortunate side effect of causing arachnophobia, a common fear. What's a developer to do when his creative vision calls for a big scary spider, but he doesn't want to make his game unplayable for those who can't stand the eight-legged little guys? Arachnophobia modes are not unprecedented; Grounded contains a whole slider that makes spiders less and less spidery. But Deadly companyThe new arachnophobia mode offers an elegant solution that will amaze players with its ingenuity.

Instead of replacing the spiders with orbs, removing them or giving them a completely new model, developer Zeekerss found a smart alternative. Spiders are replaced by the word “spider,” which is nice, because you know precisely what you are looking at.

Incredible stuff! The new arachnophobia mode does nothing to make the moons less deadly; you'll probably still die horribly trying to collect enough scrap metal to pay the bills. But at least you can be sure that you will die with dignity. Phobias and triggers are an underappreciated accessibility problem in gaming, and it's really cool to see a developer tackling the problem with an unorthodox solution. I'm a big fan of the spider that scurries along a wall so all you can see is a menacing PIDER.

Deadly company has blown up on Twitch and other social media platforms due to the ridiculousness of the gameplay. You can die in all kinds of horrible ways, from being sucked into a giant fan and turned into mist, to being mauled by a hideous beast. Although the game is in the horror genre, it is perfect at generating hijinks, meaning even those who don't want to play it themselves might enjoy watching a stream. Now even arachnophobes can join in the fun – just keep an eye out for that menacing red text.