The player controls the main character, P.B. Winterbottom, to attempt to gather pies. The player may record an action and a clone will constantly repeat that action, serving as a platform, pie-fetcher, or other puzzle-solving device. The game is visually presented like a silent film, reminiscent of art nouveau or films from the late 1800's/early 1900's. As such, there is no spoken dialogue, as all speech is instead shown through title cards inbetween stages. The game is also (mostly) in black-and-white, and the score is primarily composed of piano arrangements, much like those of silent-era films that had a musician play the soundtrack while the film was being played.