This game invites you to smash down China's great internet firewall
China's Great Firewall blocks its people from accessing dozens of popular websites, including Facebook, Google and Twitter.
But now there's a way to rebel.
The_Wall is a game which lets you virtually take down these barriers.
The game was spotted, and greenlit, on Steam Greenlight, a user-voting based platform that allows fledgling studios to publish to Steam, if there's enough public interest.
In The_Wall, you're asked to free websites like Googlee, Wkipediaa and Twitterr -- sound familiar?
"If you were born inside the wall, will you be docile enough to accept its protection...or would you like to break the wall?" the game says in a trailer.
The game appears to be produced by Chinese game developers, under the name ZuoBuLai Game Studios, which directly translates in English to "Can't do it."
The game has received over a hundred comments by Chinese netizens, who appear to be in support of the concept.
"This looks promising, going to support you," says one Chinese user on Steam.
"You have my vote, this is incredible," another said.
"Why have we not broken this wall yet?" one added.
The game comes as China appears to be tightening its online regulations.
China on Sunday pledged to strengthen controls over search engines and news portals, just a week after it announced that online media platforms could only be managed by editorial staff who have been approved by the government.
Steam, a popular gaming platform which currently has 15 million users in China, is available in the country for now, but could be pulled at any moment if the government decides that the content on the platform is harmful.
"Steam currently operates in a grey area in China. Regulations state that PC online games need to be approved before going on sale in the country, yet games published on Steam in China do not go through this approval process," said Daniel Ahmad, an analyst at Niko Partners, a market intelligence company.
"It is worth keeping in mind that the Chinese government could very easily begin to impose these restrictions and regulations on Steam at any time, especially if they feel that the content being distributed via Steam in China is harmful to its citizens."
Needless to say, the game is heading into some pretty controversial territory -- and might soon find itself treading on pretty thin ice.
Mashable has reached out to ZuoBuLai studios for comment.
UPDATE: May 9, 2017, 10:37 a.m. SGT Updated with Niko Partners' statement.
Topics Gaming
Yvette is a Viral Content Reporter at Mashable Asia. She was previously reporting for BBC's Singapore bureau and Channel NewsAsia.
