
Operate a telephone switchboard, meet caricatured historical figures, and avert a nuclear war in this alternate history Cold War comedy. Use tactile point-and-click controls to drag wires and install wacky gadgets as you juggle waves of calls.
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About
November, 1962: The height of the Cold War. Mere weeks after the Cuban Missile Crisis, a new international entanglement is about to go nuclear. As the new White House switchboard operator, it’s your job to make sure long-distance negotiations don’t go sour. Get ready to phone it in.
In Cold Calling, you manage a chaotic, tactile switchboard, routing high-stakes diplomatic calls between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Connect loose wires, use wacky gadgets, and juggle waves of incoming calls punctuated by hilarious exchanges between characters in a globetrotting adventure where your choices affect the outcome of the story.
Master the switchboard to keep calls on the line:
Use physics-based wires to create paths for your calls, then choose from over two dozen unique gadgets to make your job easier. Find powerful synergies by combining absurd devices like a pirate cannon, a UFO, or...a slice of cheese?
Navigate a hilarious narrative featuring dozens of caricatured real life historical figures, and utilize secret government technology to contact voices from the past (and future) in hopes of steering history away from disaster.
Follow a masked stranger through classic point-and-click segments, then prepare for some old fashioned sleuthing. Your favorite character has a unique side story to unlock, but whose conversation will you choose to listen in on? Your decisions will lead you to one of eight unique endings.
...Hectic multitasking based challenges under time pressure. (Or not! You can play with no penalties if you're mainly interested in the story.)
...Tower defense games. Cold Calling plays similarly in some ways, though with much more active interaction during each wave.
...Political satire and alternate history stories like Dr. Strangelove and In the Loop.
...Absurdist humor and a story that could fly off the rails at any moment.
Cold Calling was proudly created with no generative AI.
Stats
All-time low is the lowest price we've recorded for this game since we started tracking it.
Languages: English**languages with full audio support
Reviews
Not normally a big puzzle game guy but I've really been enjoying this! Got so engrossed I burned and ruined an entire pot of garlic I was slow roasting. Great art and story too. Can't remember a single player game I've played that was this funny. Laughed out loud several times while along in my house like a crazy person. Highly recommend!!!
[h2]Cold Calling: Fast Paced Puzzles & Historical Hilarity[/h2] What's shakin', bacon? Cold Calling is a tower defense telephone switchboard game set at the height of the Cold War, steeped in sometimes surreal, sometimes bitingly brilliant political satire and packed with familiar faces from history. Rather than go for purely gritty emotional punches, Cold Calling instead opts for an eccentrically witty, laugh-out-loud style that will appeal to fans of Blackadder, Monkey Island, Broken Sword, and Papers Please. Gameplay feels intuitive and offers a steady difficulty curve with time-management challenges to keep you on your toes. You'll also unlock a bunch of gadgets that will help you direct your calls, and can decorate your switchboard with mementos from the TV shopping channel. As well as making you laugh, the story keeps you intrigued and offers the opportunity to listen in on calls at pivotal moments in history. I'm not going to spoil it, but trust me: you're going to want to hear these super secret conversations. The perfect breakfast (and the world, I guess) depend on it! [h3]Cold Calling Foxfire Review Scores[/h3] Fun Factor: 4/5 Gameplay: 4/5 Story, Characters & Worldbuilding: 4/5 Maps & Environment: 3/5 Music: 3/5 Recommended: Yes! Want to know more about Cold Calling? Check out [url=https://tailsbythefoxfire.com/2026/01/24/cold-calling-review/]Tails by the Foxfire[/url] for the full review!
Best indie game of 2026. This game can get surprisingly tricky, the difficultly snuck up on my. I'm looking forward to 100%
Really unique premise unlike much else I've played! "Switchboard operator simulator" is a pretty untapped genre, and juggling multiple calls escalates the difficulty really quickly.
A super funny, engaging, and novel puzzle game that I can't wait to play more of! The dialogue is really funny, and I'm sure even funnier for people enjoy accurate yet satirical historical jokes. The switchboard gameplay is surprisingly intense, fast-paced, and has a lot more depth than you would initially think. Finding new ways to think about switching patch cables around more efficiently is satisfying to see work in action. Definitely would recommend picking this one up!
really good game! cant believe it took so long to actually release it.
This game's unique action-puzzle gameplay is simple at first, but before you know it, you're balancing multiple calls at once while managing side effects that try to mess up your switchboard. Absolute chaos in the best way possible. In between levels there's some funny dialogue as various historical figures participate in wacky shenanigans. Very historically accurate and real and not at all made up for the sake of humor. Good game.
Uggghhhh this game is so fun. It's big tense, big brain, big silly, and scratches the itch I've had for a new puzzle. lowkey hooked
Cold Calling is an absolute treasure of a game. The art style is endearing, the gameplay engaging, and the narrative, built through hundreds of subtle character interactions, is a tour de force. The passion and personality of the game devs is tangible in every detail and is totally contagious to a player: I was completely immersed in this wonderfully wacky world. The charmingly unpredictable nature of the game had me glued to my chair, and will continue to as I'll certainly be playing through as many alternate paths as I can find! I also appreciate how approachable the gameplay is to any level of player with optional difficulty adjustments. The replayablilty is off the charts. This game is so much more than history and politics, satire and humor. I chuckled, I chortled, I cheered, but I was also astounded by the depth of these reinvented characters and their complex reimagined stories. The world building is commendable; Cold Calling is in a league of its own. Entirely unique and hilariously niche, the Cold Calling team has hit gold. So, not only am I glued to my seat, I'm also on the edge of it...I can't wait to see what comes next!
Have you ever wanted to be a telephone operator who also goes in a submarine, time travels, and interacts with famous historical figures? No? Well you do now! Picked this up now that there's a Mac build. I usually just play Stardew Valley, so a puzzle game with a defined endpoint made for a nice change of pace. The music, art, and story converge to create something unique.
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