Something is Wrong with the Library

Something is Wrong with the Library is a narrative organization game by Strange Scaffold that combines sorting and shelving real books with horror. It is set in the Alex Dieter Public Library and Center for Reflection in the small town of Sweet Elm, which is haunted by supernatural occurrences after the crimes of its namesake.

Over the course of a single tense night, you clear out the library together with its former head Phillip Shed and reconstruct what happened in the building and the town.

Something is Wrong with the Library is set to release in Q4 2026. An exact release date has not yet been announced.

Strange Scaffold and Frosty Pop unveiled the game on Sep 28, 2026.

So far, only a PC version via Steam has been announced. Strange Scaffold has not confirmed any other platforms.

The core is returning toppled and misplaced books to their proper place. You orient yourself using the Dewey Decimal System, author names and book titles. According to the developer, the library contains thousands of real book titles.

The Modular Chaos System changes which books need to be sorted on each run. In this way, Strange Scaffold combines precise organizational work with a repeatable structure, while the fully voiced story and varying appearances form the horror framework.

Sweet Elm was turned into a technologically upgraded small town by billionaire Alex Dieter. Behind this public facade, however, are crimes that the game only addresses in hindsight and that have shaped the central library building.

The plot explicitly revolves around shared social responsibility and the question of how a place deals with its past. The locations highlighted by Strange Scaffold also include the cryptically named Drowning Room.

The Modular Chaos System ensures that not every run puts the same selection of books on the same shelves. The actual sorting task therefore stays variable, even though the story takes place within a single night.