The most honest game on Steam right now tells you exactly what it is. A Completely Fictional Story About a City Inside a Whale is precisely that — a wind-up boat, a town called Whaleville, and a whale that serves as both setting and real estate.

It sounds like a joke title that accidentally became a real game, but that’s underselling it. Developers ln404 and akinat0 have built something with genuine craft. The art direction has drawn consistent praise — one Steam player called the visuals “neat, tasteful, and easy on the eyes” — and the humor lands enough that an early reviewer went full caps-lock: “VERY FUNNY GAME!!!!! 🐋 love it!”

Right now it’s sitting at #12 on Steam’s New Releases chart with a perfect 100% positive rating across 4 user reviews. Small sample size, sure, but the itch.io prototype carries a 4.8 out of 5 from 20 ratings, which suggests this isn’t just launch-day goodwill. A playtester who logged 32.8 hours on a game designed for 30-to-40-minute playthroughs wrote that watching it evolve from the original demo was “really amazing” — that’s the kind of commitment you don’t fake.

The gameplay loop is straightforward: sail a wind-up boat around Whaleville, meet strange characters, complete quests, find your way out. Mouse-only controls. No timers. Inspired by A Short Hike, according to the itch.io page. IGN featured the announcement trailer, giving it more visibility than most indie launches at this price point ever see.

It’s $6.79 right now with a 15% launch discount, down from $7.99. For under seven bucks, you get a polished, cozy adventure that knows exactly what it wants to be.

In a market flooded with early access grift and $70 open-world bloat, a game this confident in its own absurdity deserves your attention.

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