Background

Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy, released in 2017, is the game that defined the entire physics-climbing genre it belongs to — designer Bennett Foddy built it around a single tool, a hammer, as the player's only means of movement, climbing a mountain of discarded junk with brutally unforgiving physics where one careless swing can send you sliding back down minutes or even hours of progress. It became a massive streaming phenomenon, largely because watching skilled players lose enormous amounts of progress to a single mistake — and hearing Foddy's own philosophical narration reacting to those failures — made for compelling, almost theatrical viewing.

Foddy has spoken about designing the game specifically around frustration and failure as core themes rather than obstacles to be removed, drawing inspiration from a much older, more obscure 2002 game called Sexy Hiking. That philosophy—treating your relationship with failure as the actual subject of the game—is part of why it remains so influential and frequently referenced years after release.

How to Play

• Mouse — control your hammer's swing and placement, your only means of movement.
• Use careful, precise hammer swings to hook onto terrain and pull yourself upward.
• Avoid careless swings, which can send you sliding back down substantial progress.
• Climb the full mountain of junk to reach the top.

Goal & Purpose

The objective is to reach the top of the mountain, but the deeper point of the game — as Foddy's own narration makes clear — is learning to stay calm and keep going after devastating, sometimes near-total setbacks.

Why Play Getting Over It

It's the genre-defining original that inspired an entire wave of punishing climbing games. GBK Games also has Climb Over It for more of this legendarily difficult climbing challenge.