Titled Curiosity and set for release on PC and mobile platforms in about six weeks, it will be the first of 22 experiments that help shape the final design of a game the former Lionhead boss aims to release in two years.
Molyneux told New Scientist that Curiosity will place all players in the same virtual room containing a single black cube that users tap away at, causing fractures.
Eventually the cube will break open, revealing something "truly amazing, absolutely unique", he said. However, only the player who delivers the decisive final tap will get to see the contents of the cube.
"We will rely entirely on social media," Molyneux said. "How will this person prove it? That in itself becomes a fascinating aspect of this experiment."
At some point before the cube opens, players will be able to buy one of a limited number of chisels that increase their tapping strength. The chisels will range in price and strength, from an iron chisel priced at 5 pence that's ten times more powerful then a normal tap, to a diamond chisel that's 100,000 times as powerful and costs £50,000, of which there'll only be one available.
"It's an insane amount of money," Molyneux said. "This is not a money-making exercise; it is a test about the psychology of monetisation."
