Moldwasher preview: A fresh cleaner | PAX East 2026

Over the past couple years I’ve discovered one of my favorite gaming genres, that would be the chore genre. Games that have tasks I would never look forward to doing in real life, yet if designed well will have me looking forward to going back to again and again. So when the fall Six One Indie Showcase showed off this little isometric game called Moldwasher I knew I had to play this game, then I was lucky enough to be invited to Anshar Publishing’s booth at PAX to try it out.

 Moldwasher is an isometric cleaning game, where I’m a little sushi set out to clean up the house I’m in. I started with a fridge that appears not to have been cleaned or even opened for quite some time. Right away I appreciated the pacing of the game, unlike other cleaning games I didn’t load in and get instantly overwhelmed about where to start. Only a few things are covered in mold, creating an easy to approach level design, instead of feeling like I needed to dedicate an hour or more to one location. 

I think what makes this game stand out to me the most is just the sense of scale, the level design works so well making me feel like a bite size snack running around the kitchen. At one point there was a fly bigger than me I had to deal with, showing that I may be small but I have a big goal in mind. From the way levels can change based on the items you clean to finding little secrets to collect, I’m excited to sink several hours into the full game. I can definitely see this game holding a permanent spot on my Steamdeck when it releases, hopefully this year.