sfäre
The brain doesn’t come with an Off switch, and most of the time this isn’t a problem. For when that is an issue there’s sfäre, the audiovisual rest stop for a mind forever wandering. Like all the best toys there’s no wrong way to play with sfäre, and its simple controls allow for a near-endless stream of entrancing new patterns that gently twist and pulse in a relaxing yet fascinating display.
A series of lines emanates from the center of the screen, and four crystal orbs sit in the corners. Each one controls an aspect of the pattern. Playing with them instantly reveals the lines are made of endless small dots that can be twisted into new and complex arrangements.
sfäre isn’t so much a creation tool as it is a voyage of discovery, seeing what beautiful new imagery can fall out of its tools. Even an off-center pattern can become lovely, simply by tapping either the horizontal or vertical mirror buttons. Receive the full-on kaleidoscope effect by using both at once.
The entrancing visuals are backed up by an equally chill soundtrack, with different tunes available and a changeable color palette to go with each one. While sfäre isn’t meant as a music visualizer the sounds and patterns fit together perfectly, and you can either try to build a pattern that matches or simply play, knowing that there’s no wrong way to synchronize its sights and sounds.
When the real world calls again you can rise up from sfäre, with the benefits of a moment of peaceful play having made everything just a little better and more manageable than it had been before.
How to play
Sfäre is an experimental visual and musical experience. It’s a bit like watching clouds fused with a Rorschach test.
There is no goal in sfäre, there are no points, no achievements. Sfäre is a toy to sooth your mind.
Take your time and relax. There is no reason to rush. Let your imagination wander.
For total relaxation turn on the show mode and watch how particles create beautiful images on their own.
Rotate spheres to change patterns and music. Experiment with the buttons.
You can mirror half of the screen for symmetrical effects, this makes it more likely to find relatable figures and shapes.
Invert the visuals for a fresh musical experience while maintaining your creation.
Features
Sfäre currently contains 3 different musical compilations. Due to a high amount of randomization the experience will be different every time you play.
Read More: Best Abstract Casual Games.
Visitations
Here’s the long and short of it:
The Good:
Fantastic visuals, not too taxing on resources so you can really pump up the resolution. Pure VR eye candy.
The Middle:
Guided experiences (vocal) are… adequate. The guy is tolerable, the woman is just nails on a chalkboard.
The fun comes in the solo/choose your own experience mode.
If you don’t like the ingame music, mute the volume on that app and play whatever you want on VLC. There SHOULD be an ingame option for this.
The Bad:
The entire thing uses a gaze based centering system in order to keep you looking head on.
– Real player with 7.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Abstract Casual Games.
5 minutes of this feels like waking from a restful nights sleep.
Excellent blend of relaxing binaural sound and pulsed light visuals.
The visuals aren’t going to blow your socks off but they aren’t meant to being more abstract and calming.
If you have VR and just need to chill out a bit for 10 minutes you really cant go wrong.
The guided meditation intro shouldn’t be skipped
– Real player with 4.5 hrs in game
Simply Parkour
Simply Parkour is as simple as it gets. You can jump, run, and hold onto zip lines.
This game has some bugs. I can’t load saves at the moment. It gets stuck loading. Luckily, the game is short and you’ll be back to where you were quickly.
If you enjoy simple games, then this game is for you.
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Abstract Parkour Games.
Simply Parkour is being developed by one developer, Matt Sowards. So far, the game looks good, with a pretty landscape, buildings, funny billboards. The premise is that you shouldn’t fall (obviously), and you need to traverse through puzzles to beat the game. It sounds like a lot of fun, and I know with some work, Simply Parkour can be a cool game to play, specially for the ones who enjoy parkour games such as Mirror’s Edge and want to see more of that.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
Cardinal Chains
This is a fantastic little puzzle game that offers a simple premise but a lot of depth. Your goal is simple, make chains of integers that only ascend. While this is simple at first, the more complex the board and the more starting points you get make for an increasingly difficult challenge, and with over 500 puzzles you will be at this game for a while. It’s the sort of game you get suck on for hours and then come back to a few days later and solve in a few minutes, and then get stuck all over again.
– Real player with 25.1 hrs in game
Suitable challenging puzzles, super fluid UI.
– Real player with 18.4 hrs in game
Whispers of Ancient Stone
This short puzzle game gradually reveals the story of a crumbling ruin through block placement and letter substitution stages. Rebuild the structure to decipher the whispers of ancient stone!
CANNON
Don’t waste your dollar. This game has been broken since the last update 8 weeks ago. Even if they do patch it, it is still not worth 1 dollar.
– Real player with 3.1 hrs in game
After the awesome “destroy” series, this one is just boring… ‘Only’ 10 levels in, so things may change, but currently, I am pretty much disappointed. Cannons just refill, so you can’t do anything wrong. Only being able to fire a single cannon at a time, when several paths are clear just makes it feel slow an tedious.
I don’t really want to turn people off of this game, so I won’t make the review a negative one, (Valve please add some sort of neutral option please!) just be aware that this is (imho) not a puzzler, you can ‘solve’ the levels by brute-force clicking…
– Real player with 2.4 hrs in game
Hook
Introduction
Hook is a calm and short puzzle game that was developed by Maciej Targoni , Wojciech Wasiak and published by Rainbow Train. With it’s simplistic art style, and easy to grip mechanics, Hook really is such a insightful puzzle game that most other puzzle games seem to miss.
Gameplay
Hook is one of them insightful and peaceful puzzle games that is relaxing to play and doesn’t frustrate you throughout. This is what a puzzle game is meant to be like, the game itself challenges you in the way of cause and effect which brings you a different level of challenge as you play through the levels. Through the levels you play, you will need to prepare for the unexpected movement that may occur that you hadn’t thought about or planned on that one thing moving. There are 50 levels in total, taking about an hour to and an hour and a half complete them all, I myself felt satisfied within completing each of the puzzles as I progressed through the game. The game does get more complex as you progress, as to be expected in almost every game, but it’s difficulty curve is rather slow and steady.
– Real player with 4.7 hrs in game
Hook is a very, very relaxing puzzle game. Minimalist in its design, with only a white background and black lines and buttons for presentation, you’re thrown straight into the puzzle without so much as a tutorial. And that’s okay, you don’t really need a tutorial. Every time a new item is added to the puzzles, you’re given a very simple version to solve that teaches you what the new symbols do. The basic idea is that you will remove the items in order, taking care none will hook or get stuck with another.
– Real player with 3.9 hrs in game
🔴 Circles
Circles has an interesting concept with a minimalistic lookout.
The player controls a small circle that has to meet another, a bit bigger circle, of the same color. On the promotional video it looks a bit messy what is going on the screen, but it is easy to figure it out while playing.
Every level has a slightly different mechanics - some are very easy while some require patience or precision. There are 4 extra modes to unlock - they add extra mechanics to the regular levels.
There is no counter or failures nor “no death” achievements. The player can fail as many times as needed and is not being punished in any way, which is great.
– Real player with 5.8 hrs in game
You are a circle and need to go from circle A to circle B by moving your mouse.
That’s the only input you need.
There are circular obstacles in your way which you mustn’t touch.
Their diameter increases or decreases depending on your movement or they move depending on your movement.
There are different types of circle obstacles:
Popper: linear to your moved mouse way increasing diameter to a specific value and then decreasing it to zero and then endlessly repeating the loop
Mover: this circle moves along a circle way when you move.
– Real player with 3.9 hrs in game
Aurora Hex - Pattern Puzzles
aurora hex is similar to the developer’s previous game, aurorabound deluxe . you’re trying to recreate colorful patterns in both, but in this game you’re bothering hexagons instead of squares. it is also somewhat similar to loop .
– Real player with 29.7 hrs in game
Visually pleasing minimalist puzzler.
Almost same genre as jigsaw puzzles, but feels different.
UI & Visuals seem a bit more refined than the first title, while retaining a similar feel to play. :)
(Currently up to late World 1, out of 20 worlds, at time of review.
Also has Daily puzzles to unlock & Infinity mode to unlock)
– Real player with 0.7 hrs in game
Stars SLIDE
A great casual game with challenging levels. The soundtrack is relaxing!
– Real player with 3.3 hrs in game
Great casual puzzle game.
– Real player with 1.6 hrs in game