All posts tagged in Puzzle Game
Dec 20, 2023
We’re another week closer to Christmas and I can’t wait! I love going around the neighborhood looking at people’s decorations. I think that’s part of why ACNH having lights in trees feels so satisfying to me. What else is super exciting about the Christmas season, is the new gaming systems and games you get! And with Steam Decks being fairly popular, what better way to celebrate the approach of the holiday with some gift ideas for that system?
The following list only features games that have been Steam Deck verified, to save the gamer in your life some troubles and heartache!
My Time at Sandrock
My Time at Sandrock is the long awaited sequel to My Time at Portia. And just like the prequel, this one takes place in a post-apocalyptic world 330 years after the Day of Calamity destroyed a lot of modern technology. You accept the role as a builder of Sandrock, a desert community. Gather resources to build machines, befriend locals, fight enemies, and lead the town to economic prosperity! Uncover the backstories for over 30 NPCs while you forge friendships with them. Complete side quests, play fun minigames, and even team up with a friend to play the game together!
APICO
APICO is a lovely game where you leave your boring city job and return to Port APICO, where you grew up, and return to your beekeeping roots. The APICO islands feature a set of lush, beautiful environments for you to explore. Each biome has its own breed of bees for you to discover. Gather resources to use in your studies or crafting. Make and sell Apicola (honey) and other beekeeping items you will discover. Play fun beekeeping minigames, without the stings! More importantly, breed different cross breeds of bees and discover 30 new species to help repopulate the APICO islands with. Plus, uncover the secrets of the islands while you explore.
I even have a review of APICO here, if you want more information!
Cornucopia
Cornucopia offers the same comfortable features players have grown to love from the farming game genre, but in a lovely 2.5D pixel art style. You plant 52 types of fruit trees, 15 types of berry bushes, and grow 52 different crops, including their different artisan varieties. Sell crops or cook them up in one of 200 different recipes! There’s also logging, fishing, mining, and pet breeding to occupy your days. Also enter the pets into competitive races or use them to help you fight monsters. Then, kick back and relax with some crafting and decorating. Unlock furniture and decorations to turn your farm into your favorite getaway. Make friends with Cornucopia’s NPCs, too. Who knows, maybe one of the over 47 NPCs will catch your fancy! Romance them, go on dates, and unlock their romantic cut scenes. Even marry one, start a family, and decorate their room in your house.
While the Iron’s Hot
Play as a simple journeyman blacksmith in While the Iron’s Hot. You’re looking to become a master blacksmith. This game features an exciting combat-free experience. Journey to the mystical lands of Ellian where you’ll meet a cast of quirky characters. Explore tunnels full of puzzles and resources. Master every step of the blacksmithing process. Smelt ore, turn metal into ingots, and shape them into useful items. Use your skills to repair machinery to open up new areas to explore. Craft equipment that helps you explore new regions. Even work hard to restore the defunct blacksmithing town of Stal. Revitalizing the village just might prove to Eillian’s artisans that you’re worthy of being a master blacksmith!
Loddlenaut
In Loddlenaut, you play as an interstellar custodian who has been hired by the spacefaring mega corporation GUPPI to clean up their mess. They’ve inundated GUP-14 with pollution, and want you to restore the planet. This is an open-world ocean adventure where you’ll get to explore this beautiful alien planet, along with the corporate ruins of GUPPI. You’ll find remnants of their buildings, ships, and machinery that have all sunken to the bottom of the game’s ocean. Use your bubble gun, clean up the trash, remove oil spills, and uncover clues about the past inhabitants. Unlock better gadgets to help you clean up different types of ocean pollution. Recycle the trash you collect and use it to craft items. Even befriend cute little axolotl-looking creatures called loddles!
Did you get a new Switch instead? Or perhaps you got one for someone and want some games to go with it. Either way, check out my list of 5 Farming Games for Your New Switch!
- Dec 20, 2023
Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery is an interactive narrative game that tells the tale of a young artist getting a painting ready for a gallery exhibit. Step into her shoes as she goes about her daily life cooking a simple breakfast, observing her grumpy neighbor, and finishing her masterpiece. Things aren’t all what they seem on the surface, though, as you’ll soon learn by unlocking familiar memories that relive the past.
The Story
I won’t give away the entire storyline as that takes the fun out of getting to play on your own, but it’s an incredibly beautiful one. Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery starts as this unassuming, easy-going little interactive narrative. You play as the young woman artist who’s trying to finish her grand masterpiece for a gallery submission. You cook a simple breakfast, prepare coffee, and work on an application at an easy pace. The quiet background music and the apartment that suits an artist’s spirit add to the overall relaxing nature of the game and story. Then you start experiencing some memories that flood back to the young woman. They’re comfortable, but emotional and their cutscenes look very Studio Ghibli inspired. There’s even some plot twists that keep you on your toes. Overall, it’s an engrossing story that I absolutely loved experiencing.
The Game
While it’s an interactive narrative at its heart, Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery is also a puzzle game. In order to finish the painting, you must find the woman’s missing paints. They’re locked away in different parts of the scene, and you need to solve the different puzzles to get them. None of the puzzles are super difficult, though, allowing the game to keep its relaxed tone. Plus, the controls are easy to use, and the game is only about an hour of play time. So, it’s a short and easy experience, but such a worthwhile one. You even get to physically paint the woman’s masterpiece, which was fun!
Final Thoughts
If you like the idea of visual novels, but want more of a role than just clicking through dialogue like in the Coffee Talk games (which I also recommend to people), then this game is absolutely for you. Besides, it’s gorgeously done, has a great story, and isn’t super hard. It’s perfect for a relaxing hour or so.
I give it:
You can find this game on Steam, Epic, Itch.io, Switch, PlayStation, Google Play, and Apple App Store!
- Dec 14, 2023
Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery combines the idea of an escape room with a classic interactive narrative story. Experience a vivid, emotional story about a young artist who’s on the cusp of finishing the final piece of her gallery submission. She’s missing the necessary colors to bring her painting to life, and you’ll need to search for them. There’s more than meets the eye, though, as you soon discover.
With a 360 degree panoramic view of the small apartment, you can explore the young artist’s sacred space full of art and comfort. Behind the Frame will have you painting her masterpiece by filling in the canvas. Search for the missing paints by solving mild puzzles. Even learn about the grumpy old artist neighbor in an exciting, but relaxing experience.
Release Date
Behind the Frame is available now! You can find it on Steam, Epic, Switch, PlayStation, Google Play, Apple App Store, and Itch.io.
Coffee Talk and Tavern Talk are a couple of fun visual novels I think you should check out.
- Dec 13, 2023
Step into Percy’s shoes as he embarks on an adventure to find his missing relatives in Bilkins’ Folly. With your beloved dog Drayton by your side, explore a series of odd islands while digging up buried treasures and solving puzzles. There’s something weird and foreboding going on with the disappearance of your grandfather and mother, and you’ll need to discover what it is!
The Visuals
Bilkins’ Folly awed me with its beauty and witty charm. The character designs and scenery are absolutely delightful. Colors pop without being overwhelming. Animations are done well, and move smoothly. The dog moves and feels like a real dog, and the setting transitions beautifully from one area to the next. The whole thing is visually just charming and gorgeous.
Drayton and Other Characters
Bilkins’ Folly almost immediately equips you with a trusty companion named Drayton. What I really love is that the Drayton is useful and not just an annoyance. He doesn’t simply follow you. He’s a lovely dog that will sniff out buried treasure as you walk by it. Plus, as you level up his skills, he can help out in more ways. IWhat really endears me to Drayton is that he never got in my way. Being able to walk through him helped with that, but it was refreshing to have a useful companion that wasn’t a hindrance.
And yes, you CAN pet the dog!
Characters look, and act, different from each other, too. There’s no mixing up someone with another character. Each one has their own engaging backstory. They also speak their own version of “Simlish” speech and I love it. It sounds like utter nonsense, but lends a bit of levity to the whole thing.
Puzzles
You know what else awed me? My apparent lack of puzzle solving skills. I thought I was a great puzzle solver, but Bilkins’ Folly proved me to be otherwise! There are so many different types of puzzles and riddles, though, you’re bound to have a great time. From seek and find items, riddles, maps showing where to dig, cryptograms, and so much more are in this game.
There’s not really a way to be permanently stuck, either. The game is set up so that even if you come across a puzzle now, it may just need to be solved later. Your tools or hints may not be complete until later. That leads to a lot of running around, but it’s great for sight-seeing! The running around does get exhausting, though.
Final Thoughts
If you love vast amounts of puzzles, Bilkins’ Folly is for you. The delightful visual and fun characters make for an engaging game, too. Plus, the overarching story is interesting and gives the whole thing an ultimate goal. It’s a great combination of elements!
I give this:
You can find Bilkins’ Folly on Steam, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation now!
- Dec 7, 2023
Tales from Hazelwood Post is a cozy combination of puzzles and visual novel-like gaming. Your grandmother has fallen ill, so you return to the small town of Hazelwood to care for her. You unwittingly take on the job of being the new postmaster at the post office, and today is your first day! The post office is a small, dusty little operation that ought to be an easy task to run. However, the homes of Hazelwood don’t have addresses!
You’ll experience a gentle day-to-day cycle where you open the post office each morning. Explore the ongoing story of Tales from Hazelwood Post as you get to know the residents of the town and nearby Lighthouse Point and Crow Hollows. Piece together clues and figure out who everyone is, then deliver the mail to the people you think it belongs to! Sometimes it’s the regular newspaper delivery, and sometimes it’s a special delivery. You might even come across lost love letters with no signatures, and it’s up to you to deliver every piece of mail properly.
Your choices affect the story, so choose wisely and see what happens!
Release Date
Tales from Hazelwood Post is listed on Itchi.io and Steam. There is no release date available, though!
This game reminds me a lot of Witchy Life Story, Coffee Talk, and Tavern Talk! But if you’re looking for more games that deal with mail, try Lake and Mail Time!
- Dec 6, 2023
Station to Station is a relaxing puzzle experience set in a voxel-art world. Transform the world from dull and drab, to vibrant places full of life by building railways. Build connections for commerce and passengers across the countryside. Get the necessary materials to the production plants that need them, and then the finished product to the cities that need them to create thriving landscapes. Complete the puzzle elements and solve logistical conundrums while optimizing your train routes for the best results!
The Maps
Each level of Station to Station starts as a dull, lifeless landscape. It’s uninteresting and borderline boring, and it’s certainly an uninviting place for people and animals to live. However, as you make railway connections, the maps transform into gorgeous dioramas full of flora and fauna. There are six different biomes, each with a handful of levels. Each of those levels, while set in a specific biome, and therefore have the same atmosphere, differ from each other in their layouts. This offers just enough difference to keep the game visually appealing.
The voxel art style provides a visually beautiful and intriguing element to Station to Station, too. I’ve restored the color and life to a map only to sit panning around the map watching the individual pieces. Watching the camels in the desert, or the bustling little villages in the grassy meadows is one of my favorite things to do. Observing all of the little details that were added just absolutely sucks me in.
The Puzzles
Station to Station offers quite a bit of content, plus has announced more to come in a recently posted roadmap. I’d classify the “puzzles” as more objectives than puzzles, but that might be nitpicky. You have a set amount of money to use to build your connections. There are a limited number of cards to help you with discounts and such, too. However, you’re ultimately trying to build railway connections within a specific area of each map. Sometimes that’s easy, and sometimes it takes a little more trial and error. There’s also a few extra optional objectives per level you can complete to increase the difficulty level.
Nothing is overly difficult, though. I didn’t sit stuck contemplating a problem for long stretches. Plus, Station to Station gives you a couple of options for redoing the level. There is a reset button, making returning to the absolute beginning of a level easy. Or, if you just need to redo a little bit, you can return to a checkpoint instead of wiping the whole level. They’ve both come in handy when figuring out how to play and how to complete a level.
Final Thoughts
What Station to Station boils down to, though, is you place train tracks to connect buildings, then you move on to the next level. That’s it. This is not one of your deep, story-driven or deeply puzzling games chock-full of different mechanics and facets. It’s a simple game with a gorgeous art style, and that’s ok! This is perfect for me when I’m in a puzzle mood, but don’t want to be stuck on a problem for long. It’s a great low-pressure, low-stakes experience.
So, if you’re looking for something more, this isn’t for you. If you want that low-pressure experience, though, I recommend this game! I give it:
You can Station to Station on Steam!
Want more reviews? Check out my reviews of Witchy Life Story, APICO, and Little Sim World!
- Nov 23, 2023
Embark on a heartwarming adventure about a young duck who’s tired of feeling sad. Mirth Island follows the duck as he decides enough is enough and sets out for the odd little island where happiness is said to be abundant.
Set out in a worn-out little boat in search of this island. Face some challenges along the way, but also make friends with Mirth Island’s cast of quirky islanders. Listen to their troubles and lend a helping hand while you’re at it. Engage in some joyful minigames full of dancing, singing, and music, too!
There’s different events, scenarios, and endings for you to discover in this wholesome game!
Coming Soon
You can find Mirth Island on Steam, where you can add it to you Wishlist to receive notification of its release!
Time on Frog Island is another wholesome adventure you should check out!
- Nov 9, 2023
In While the Iron’s Hot, you play as a simple journeyman blacksmith looking to become a master. And it’s your turn to join the legendary artisans who have gathered in Ellian to learn and perfect their craft. Embark on a crafting adventure full of mystery, treasures, puzzling, and, of course, blacksmithing!
While the Iron’s Hot features an exciting combat-free experience. Journey to the mystical lands of Ellian to meet a cast of quirky characters. Explore tunnels full of puzzles and resources. Master every step of the blacksmithing process. Smelt ore, turn metal into ingots, and shape them into useful items. Use your skills to repair machinery to open up new areas to explore. Craft equipment that helps you explore new regions. Even work hard to restore the defunct blacksmithing town of Stal. Revitalizing the village just might prove to Eillian’s artisans that you’re worthy of being a master blacksmith!
Coming Soon
While the Iron’s Hot releases on Steam December 5th!
Wytchwood is another great crafting game.
