92% positive: Free multiplayer game tries something entirely new – and it works

At first glance, Jono looks like a fairly ordinary 2D platformer with minimalist pixel graphics. Players guide a small character through increasingly tricky obstacle courses, jumping over spikes, dodging traps and occasionally solving puzzles. The twist? There's only one playable character in the entire world – and everyone has to share it. Anyone who wants to take control of Jono must join a queue. When their turn finally comes, they have exactly 60 seconds to get the little hero as far as possible. After that, the next player takes over, picking up exactly where the previous person left off.

The shared objective is certainly ambitious: The community has to complete a total of one million levels. Whenever someone successfully clears a room, it's permanently completed for everyone. If Jono dies, only the current section resets. And players seem to be making good progress. As the developers announced on Steam, the community has already completed an impressive 100,000 levels. Anyone who doesn't feel like playing can simply watch the action unfold. At peak times, 185 players were waiting in the queue while another 232 people were watching.

Jono was released on October 5 and took a few weeks to gain momentum. Since last Friday, however, the free-to-play title has repeatedly surpassed 100 concurrent players, according to SteamDB. At the time of writing, the game had received 99 Steam reviews, with an impressive 99% of them being positive. Players appreciate the original concept and the sense of community that comes with it. Many reviews praise the friendly, helpful community, where players cheer each other on and offer encouragement. However, there's a catch: Players reportedly have to wait anywhere from 10 to 60 minutes for their turn – only to get 60 seconds of actual gameplay. Whether the community can stay motivated long enough to complete all one million levels remains to be seen.

A short introduction to Jono can be found in the trailer:

As a child in the 90s, my Gameboy was my steady companion. After school, the PlayStation was fired up. When I finally got my first PC, I was completely hooked. My passion for gaming has never waned since. For me, writing for Notebookcheck means reporting on topics that are really close to my heart - in addition to gaming, I also like to write about e-mobility, photovoltaics and innovative gadgets. When I'm not sitting at my computer, I'm probably on water rescue duty on the Baltic coast or trying to counteract the downsides of my geek life - namely sitting for long periods - at the local swimming pool.