Do you go with the crowd or push back against it? That’s the central question of Kids, an interactive work of art about group psychology.

Divided into vignettes with titles like ‘Birth’, ‘Growth’ and ‘Goodbye’, Kids invites you to guide small, faceless people through scenarios rich with symbolism.

Kids is the brainchild of Swiss film director Michael Frei and game designer Mario von Rickenbach – the duo responsible for the similarly innovative Plug & Play – and is part of a project that includes a 2018 museum installation (shown in Zurich) and a nine-minute animated film.

Published by Double Fine (the folks behind adventure greats like Grim Fandango and Day of the Tentacle), Kids is at once weird, mesmerising and contemplative. With simple, fluid animations and haunting music by Latvia’s Riga Cathedral Boys Choir, the game’s minimalist delivery lets you focus on discovering different ways to interact with the crowds.

Swipe across kids to make them clap in unison, for instance, or tap and hold to guide a loner through the mob. Each vignette encourages experimentation.

Playing through Kids takes less than 30 minutes, but you’ll likely return to it again and again, unpacking its messages and meanings. Is it a game? Is it art? No doubt, it’s both.