Performance issues can be a frequent concern for PC gamers, often leading to a search for solutions that can feel unnecessarily complex. While it's tempting to attribute technical problems to poor game optimization, one player's experience in the automation sandbox game Project P.I.T.T. suggests that user-driven chaos might be the more likely culprit.

The game, a parody of the automation genre developed by Froke, tasks players with feeding a colossal entity known as the Maw. This is achieved by creating increasingly elaborate systems to deliver various products, including rubber duckies, cash registers, and piñatas, into its insatiable gullet. The core gameplay loop encourages players to leverage physics, utilizing elements like magnetized slides and fan-powered hallways to automate product delivery and, ideally, make themselves obsolete.

However, the pursuit of efficiency through Project P.I.T.T.'s combo multiplier system led one player down a different path. By strategically blocking the Maw and creating a holding area for products, the player managed to accumulate thousands of rubber duckies. While this method bypassed the need for constant active input, it ultimately proved to be the game's undoing for their system.

The player, utilizing a high-end PC with a Ryzen 7 7700X CPU, an RTX 4080 graphics card, and 64GB of RAM, reported that Project P.I.T.T. ran perfectly for most of their playthrough, largely due to its PSX-style graphics. The issues began to manifest subtly as the rubber ducky count approached 3,000, with PC fans spinning at extreme speeds and minor framerate dips appearing. As the hoard grew beyond 5,000 ducks, the performance plummeted to as low as 10 frames per second.

This severe framerate degradation reportedly induced motion sickness and a tense stomach feeling, a first for the player despite decades of gaming experience. Attempts to resolve the issue by clearing the accumulated ducks only exacerbated the problem, causing a further drop in performance as the cascade of rubber ducks entered the Maw.

The player reflected on the situation, questioning whether developer Froke should be expected to account for such extreme scenarios. They drew a parallel to a video of someone crashing Skyrim by launching 5,000 cabbages, suggesting that developers should not be obligated to optimize for