đź”´ 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
Read More: Best Minimalist Relaxing Games.
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
Hadr
Hadr
An unusual light-weight puzzler with interesting mechanics and a chilled vibe.
First Impressions🤔
This isn’t a particularly difficult puzzler but it’s original and it is fun to play.
– Real player with 8.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Minimalist Relaxing Games.
It is always nice to see something visually or conceptually different.
This game, coming up from a small Czech studio fulfills that desire. Noone would ever think about what it’s like to be a piece of magicans cloth, flying all over the world and hiding things. This masterpiece allows you to do that. For 4 euros! And what is the point of that all? A story about one magician and his rabbit. A story fitted in visually mindblowing environments with mindf*cking tasks you need to accomplish. And talking about mind-something impressions, the music and graphic design just confirms the quality of the game.
– Real player with 6.2 hrs in game
A Forgetful Loop
Pros:
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Simple mechanics that form some surprisingly complex levels
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Writing is better than it has any right to be for a puzzle game
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Music is top notch and rather catchy
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Honestly peak gameflow
Cons:
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Lost track of time during play, which is ironic really
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Existential dread about the nature of quantum mechanics
Disclosure: Was a beta tester for this, but purchased my own copy on release
– Real player with 14.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Minimalist Indie Games.
This is a great, fast-paced worker assignment puzzle. it’s a lot of fun! As someone who likes time management/cooking games where you have to frantically cook multiple meals at once, I took to A Forgetful Loop immediately. It has a few bugs, which can generally be solved by closing and reopening. The story sections (which are text only) are sad and stressful and sometimes kind of horrifying, but you can skip them if you want to. I reported a bug and the developers were very responsive and nice. I would definitely recommend this game if you like fast paced time-management worker assignment games.
– Real player with 10.3 hrs in game
Girabox
it’s a really fun game, nice community, can be played in a casual way or in a more competitive way with minimum moves and speedrun leaderboards, overall really fun!
– Real player with 69.8 hrs in game
I really like this game, I have been there through the whole development journey and I’m so glad to see the results. The gameplay is so simplistic and that’s what I really like about it. It’s just a box in a room. That’s the whole gameplay premise, but sometimes it goes as far to put you in a box inside another box inside a box inside yet another box which is absolutely mindblowing. From what I’ve played of the first day of release, there isn’t anything I dislike about the game, just some bugs which are hopefully going to be fixed soon. Something I would really like is a level editor, being able to make your own Girabox levels and share them with the world sounds really fun. I really enjoy puzzle games and also speedrunning so if you like either of those things, this is the perfect game for you. With interesting mechanics and plot twists inside the levels, there will be a lot of fun held inside this game for people who are dedicated enough to get the special S-Ranks. Overall, this game is amazing for casual players and speedrunners alike. I would recommend you try this game, it doesn’t cost that much, it’s on sale for the first week of release, so why not give it a go?
– Real player with 15.7 hrs in game
reYal
Absolutely worth playing, and worth the money. Like people have said, mindbending, difficult but in a way that guarantees you’ll never be stuck. It’s not that you don’t know the solution, for the most part you’ll know the solution but it will be very mentally taxing to carry it out. Simple, elegant, with appreciated randomization so you could play it again while keeping quite a bit of the challenge.
I’ll admit I’m kind of sour about
! adding a new gameplay mechanic during the most laborious part, when the visuals aren’t even good enough to be sure what it is you’re looking at or what rules might have changed.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
Oh wow! Great puzzle game! Really had me thinking differently.
I had to take it one step at a time til completion!
I love the little characters and different styles.
The tunes were great and had a very peculiar sense of things getting… odd.
I can’t wait to see more by the developer.
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
Understand
Understand feels like dealing with real problems in science: develop a hypothesis, test the hypothesis, see that it works in several instances, and then you find your hypothesis is invalidated in a new situation.
Your hypothesis may have been only half true and requires an additional condition, or it’s completely false and just happened to work due to the small possibility space of the earliest puzzles. As you move from puzzle group to puzzle group, you have to do the same thing - unlearn some things but keep some of your past experience. The game feels fresh and exciting because each of the hundreds of sets of puzzles are genuinely different.
– Real player with 87.9 hrs in game
Understand is one of three games to take the core concept of The Witness and push it in the same directions. And no I don’t mean drawing lines. Rather I mean discovering a series of rules from sequences of puzzles. (The other two are Jack Lance’s From Muddle to Clean and TheGreatEscaper’s Witless.) And it is pretty much on that merit alone that I would recommend it because, in all honesty, the execution is lacking.
Understand is undercooked. The puzzle design is mediocre, many rule ideas are similar, some levels become procedurally difficult seemingly at random, there’s tons of padding due to arbitrary world size constraints, etc. Overall, I tend to dislike puzzle games that are mere route the entire way through. You just go to puzzle to puzzle learning and gaining nothing. Understand is not that. It is inventive on the micro level (puzzle-to-puzzle) which is something.
– Real player with 37.4 hrs in game
10mg :)
:) brought back the spirit of mid-’00s freeware games that I’ve missed so much. A fun, weird concept, modest in scope, and playable from start to finish in a few non-committal moments. I was reminded of that time, and while enjoying what :) itself has to offer (which, incidentally, is a bag of delightful surprises and laughs), I also took a trip down memory lane. Rousing so many thoughts and memories, :) proves what a short game experience can do.
Those games you downloaded on a whim and played one afternoon and never again… They stay with you, don’t they? I’m sure I’ll be reminded :) some ten years down the line – and I’m looking forward to that moment.
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
10mg: Ten Ten-Minute Games!
This 10mg minigame consists of a series of microgames, all of which are unique takes on nostalgic classics such as Atari’s Breakout and the OG mobile game Snake! Each game contains a twist, such as a golf hole that chases you back, allowing the game to feel fresh despite the plethora of retro influences. Although the prospect of so many separate activities within such a short game may feel chaotic, each section is connected and leads seamlessly into the next making for a smooth and enjoyable experience.
– Real player with 0.7 hrs in game
Fake Illusions
Amazing game to train your eyes. Some of the illusions gave me a really hard time.
– Real player with 3.3 hrs in game
are those illusion books actually lying to you
– Real player with 3.1 hrs in game
Jack’s Labyrinth
Since childhood I love games about Pac Man and I also really liked this game 3 Everything is the same but with some changes with its own features. Had a good time
– Real player with 3.1 hrs in game
Pretty cool parody puzzle, very similar to Pac-Man. The game is very interesting, has a good graphic design and pleasant musical accompaniment.
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
n-body
Fun short relaxing game
– Real player with 2.3 hrs in game
Great little fun puzzle game with gravity. Absolutely pick it up if you’re into that!
– Real player with 0.6 hrs in game