Alchemia
This was some of the most fun I’ve had this year, and it barely even qualifies as a “game.”
My biggest problem with it is that the core puzzle relies on alphabetic substitution, which is too easy to crack unintentionally. I’ve backed into solutions without really meaning to because they were so obvious. Of course, I knew this was not the intended way to play, so I went back and spent more time massaging my notes until I figured out the intended sequence of deductions for all but one puzzle (I only partially solved the chymistry puzzle in the intended fashion). It’s a very satisfying experience, even if most of my time was spent with a pencil and paper. I’m very fond of this game, and I can’t recommend it enough… if you are the kind of person that enjoys independent research and scribbling notes to yourself.
– Real player with 26.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Difficult Puzzle Games.
Get ready for a brain masher.
Compared to even Matthew Brown’s earlier game Cypher, this is going to feel like you just got dropped in the deep end of the pool. Nothing but riddles, with very, very little to contextualize them (and the knowledge required is not something a trivia master will likely have on hand - the need for outside research begins on page 1). In fact, there’s only five key inputs I can tell work in game - A/D and left arrow/right arrow to scroll between pages, while ESC quits.
– Real player with 11.4 hrs in game
Blokker
I’m always looking for little puzzle games to pull up while waiting on other things. Its short, but this had a few good mindbenders and definitely worth the price.
– Real player with 2.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Difficult Minimalist Games.
Neat game! Each of the 24 levels takes between 1 and 5 minutes to figure out and so makes for an ideal short break from work.
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
Blokker: Orange
There was one glitched level, but you can still get by it. Fun puzzle game.
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Difficult Minimalist Games.
Same game as Blokker , with new levels and a slightly different (and slightly worse) aesthetic.
(The transparent cursor is a curse, by the way: I often have to move my mouse around to find where it is.)
– Real player with 1.9 hrs in game
Perfect Fit - Totemland
Looks very nice but kinda boring game and a bit too repeptitive. Does have some challenging levels, but all in all not enough content for the price, and too much content for this little variation.
– Real player with 4.7 hrs in game
A lot of casual & simple puzzles to solve. It becomes incredibly tedious and boring the longer you play. Maybe if your’e stuck on a plane this’d be something you’d load up to kill some time. Otherwise I don’t see the allure.
– Real player with 4.1 hrs in game
Finger Jets
This game is a lot of fun. As someone who really enjoyed playing the oldschool moonlander / jetpack games, Finger Jets brings back a lot of nostalgia in all the right ways.
The movement physics have a really good combination of being easy to understand, while at the same time being really difficult to master. The level difficulty ramps up quickly across the 3 phases, but if you are up for the challenge each completion feels very rewarding.
The level timers and global leaderboards give the game a lot of replay value. Trying to optimize your movement through each level offers surprising depth.
– Real player with 29.4 hrs in game
Great concept of a game and minimalistic layout - easy to get in to, hard to master!
I would really wish for more levels - 3x6 is a bit short, but on the other side, the price tag is very low! Hoping for more updates and content in the future!
Leaderboards adds lots of replay value!
– Real player with 8.9 hrs in game
Hexxon
Nice puzzle. Seems easy, but can be challenging)
– Real player with 6.5 hrs in game
I love this game! I am an avid puzzler, and for me this is on par with solitaire and sudoku, however I have never seen a game like this before. Engaging to play on it’s own, or while listening to books or podcasts!
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
LYNE
~ DIFFICULTY ~
🔲 My grandma could play it
🔲 Easy
🔲 Normal
✅ Hard
🔲 A challenge to be reckoned
🔲 In the heat of confrontation, treat your opponent with respect
~ GRAPHICS ~
🔲 MS Paint
🔲 Bad
🔲 Meh
✅ Graphics don’t matter for this game
🔲 Good (nothing special)
🔲 An original artistic direction
🔲 Beautiful
🔲 Masterpiece
~ STORY ~
✅ This game has no story
🔲 Basic element of the contractual requirements
🔲 It’s there for people who want it
🔲 Well written
🔲 Leading to more in-depth researches/thoughts
– Real player with 36.3 hrs in game
LYNE can best be described as a minimalist puzzle game.
Essentially it is a series of logic puzzles generated on a grid, consisting of coloured nodes and permeable gears. Each puzzle must be solved on the fly by connecting paths from one primary node to another through the same coloured nodes and transitional gears. The goal is to ensure that all nodes and all the slots on each gear are used in the eventual solution.
There are twenty-five individual puzzles grouped into twenty-six sets, which grow in depth and complexity the greater the progress made. As you can imagine the puzzles start off deliberately simple allowing players to grasp the basic elements of gameplay. Later puzzles require an ever increasing amount of convoluted paths to be drawn in order to use all the available nodes and gear slots. In addition the game also generates a set of daily time-limited puzzles which vary in complexity and must be finished each day or they disappear until they are generated sometime in the future.
– Real player with 22.5 hrs in game
Phoenix Force
If I could describe this game in one word… it’d be…
Lazy.
Look, I wanted to like this game, I love boss arena bullet hell games. One hit kill? Bring it freaking on! Taste the full color spectrum of mythical birds with unique elemental stuff? I’ll get my box of cereal ready! HELL YEAH WE’RE GONNA PECK SOME… oh.
So by boss Arena you mean have tough (high hp) enemy sway side to side with an attack gimmick. Ok…not much of a boss but ok…do they multi phase at least? Well if by multi fast you mean they throw in an additional attack and attack faster then…sure. They have a “Final” attack that if you do enough damage to them you can bypass…and that’s about it.
– Real player with 20.8 hrs in game
First of all: This is not a classic Shoot’em Up, because all you will be doing here is one bossfight after the other. There is no real story behind it, and if there was maybe a small table of text in the beginning of the game, I have totally forgotten about it, as it doesn’t matter anyway. This game is about pure action and reaction spread across 100 levels and even more challenge levels (if you dare to try them).
Although each of these levels consists of a relatively small amount of assets when it comes to background or enemy types, they are mixed up constantly so the game manages through this restriction to give the player a completely new challenge on each end every level. Where in between there are next to no loading times, wich makes the game nonstop action and because of that very enjoyable and fast paced itself.
– Real player with 17.2 hrs in game
Pill Puzzle: One Move
Fun puzzle game with a responsive developer.
Works on linux with proton.
Divertido juego puzzle. El desarrollador contesta a las preguntas rápidamente.
Funciona en linux con proton.
– Real player with 5.8 hrs in game
Pill Puzzle one move is more difficult than the first game, when I bought it I thought I wouldn’t be able to pass the first 10 stages, but I managed it calmly… After stage 21 it became more difficult, the game has the same design as the first Pill Puzzle, simple and minimalist, and I also liked the new music. In summary it is a challenging game.
– Real player with 3.0 hrs in game
KAMI
KAMI, how I deigned to love thee. Your puzzles were sweet, and your style was grand. How that sitar swooned me in the gentle february nights when I got perfects left and right. It wasn’t until the third set of puzzles that I learned of your vile transgressions against me.
10 hint credits a day, with no way to earn more. “No matter,” I said. “These puzzles will not conquer me, for I am one with the kami.” Oh, but sweet KAMI, I was wrong. So wrong. Your puzzles became devious, and your sparse, archaic mobile-style hint system with the only ability to wait for the timer to run down for my next set, in which I would use oh so sparingly. I needed my approving sitar, my golden perfect.
– Real player with 12.5 hrs in game
Occasionally you come across a game which makes you so happy that you discovered it, that you want to meet the developers and just say thank you. Well here is your chance http://www.stateofplaygames.com/about-us/
Kami is the name given to the type of paper used in Origami. Essentially in each puzzle you’re presented with a colourful board filled with different coloured squares of Kami and your objective is to fill the board into a single colour using the shortest amount of moves possible. It might sound easy and some of the puzzles are, but as you progress your brain will definitely be challenged. There are no time requirements, no penalties for using the hint system and with the help of calming visuals and sound your time spent in this game will simply be a underwhelming satisfying puzzle Zen experience.
– Real player with 7.0 hrs in game