Thinky Third Thursday

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Thinky Third Thursday
May 2025

Welcome to Thinky Third Thursday, a roundup of games that the puzzle experts from Draknek & Friends think are worth your time.

New game from Draknek & Friends: Spooky Express!

Before we start, a reminder that last week we announced our next game: Spooky Express. Plan the train route for the world’s spookiest theme park!

It's a spooky successor to Cosmic Express, but this game will be more approachable than its predecessor, with even deeper puzzles. Spooky Express is a completely standalone game, so you should be equally excited for it whether you've previously played Cosmic Express or not.

If you're excited to find out more, we'll be releasing a demo very soon, and on the Draknek & Friends Official Podcast you can listen to our episode with level designer Lucas Le Slo where we discuss the design of this game and what we're excited about.

Recent thinky highlights

In a couple of weeks I hope you'll be opening your wallet to buy lots of new games in the Cerebral Puzzle Showcase, so this month I've decided to highlight several games you can play in your browser for the low price of free.


Mole Mole, by Adam Saltsman
Adam Saltsman has been releasing lots of small games made in PICO-8, many of them puzzly, and Mole Mole is my favourite so far. Dig through dirt, collect bombs, and then use those bombs to reach the exit... without flooding the tunnels, preferably.


Snekburd, by Werxzy
This is a demake of Snakebird, made in PICO-8 with the blessing of the Snakebird team. It features some excellent new puzzles, but later on there's also several new mechanics which all build on the original game in interesting and satisfying ways. It very much feels like it could be an official sequel, which is high praise. My one caveat is that following in the tradition of Snakebird, the puzzles quickly get very tricky - but perhaps one day someone will make a Snekburd Primer with a gentler difficulty curve?


The Boons of IIUIR, by Late Nine
Gain an exciting magical ability and use it to solve puzzles and explore more of the world. The power you receive may not be the one you were hoping for, but it will be more useful than you think! This presents as an open world puzzle game, but there's quite a lot of rule discovery DNA in there too.


Shack-o'-Lantern, by Steven Miller
A spooky-themed followup to a game from several years ago - what an original and clever idea! If you haven't played the original game Shackle, I recommend you play that first - partially because it's great, but mostly because this new game assumes you're already familiar with the mechanics from the original. This game introduces pumpkins, which emit light and keep you safe - step outside that light and you'll have to restart. As with Snekburd, the puzzles are excellent but note that the difficulty level is quite high.

Thinky releases from the past month

Free games:

Paid games:

New demos:

Upcoming games to watch for

One of the most exciting things happening later this month is the Cerebral Puzzle Showcase! This year it'll run from May 29th to June 5th, and we have something exciting planned to kick off the event - more news about that soon. We put in so much work into this every year, and we think you'll love this year's event.

There's several games releasing in the runup to Cerebral Puzzle Showcase. Here's a few of the ones I'm most looking forward to:


Pup Champs, by Afterburn (Releasing May 19)
Afterburn Games consistently release charming little puzzle games, and Pup Champs looks to be no exception. Control a team of doggos to get the ball in the net, making smart use of your limited moves while avoiding mud, moles, and eventually other animals from an opposing team.

If you're interested in hering a little more about the game and the team's history, we spoke to one of the developers, Luke Spierewka, in today's episode of the Draknek & Friends Official Podcast.


Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping, by Happy Broccoli Games (Releasing May 22)
Eugene McQuacklin is back! He's everyone's favourite divorced detective, and he also happens to be a duck. If you enjoyed the first game you should know what to expect - a new setting, new characters to meet, and a new mystery to get to the bottom of.


Gentoo Rescue, by Jagriff (Releasing May 22)
Gentoo Rescue looks unassuming - traditional sliding-block puzzles spruced up with a theme of cute penguins - but it quickly reveals some strong puzzle design and some surprising gameplay twists.


Shrink Rooms, by Mat-Rix and Pone Games (Releasing May 29)
In Shrink Rooms, you have a limited amount of moves to get to the exit before the walls crush you (or, less violently, cover the exit so there's no way out). I'm generally wary of games with a move counter, but here it works well - the encroaching walls feel more like a deterministic enemy you have to outsmart than a move limit you have to optimise.


Kiko's Apple Adventure, by PawPaw Games (Releasing May 29)
Kiko the bear is on a quest to collect apples for a pie, and he's not going to be deterred from that mission. Push apples around, ride rafts, and try to avoid being eaten by sharks. This was one of our picks for the Draknek New Voices Puzzle Grant, and we're delighted to see it release into Cerebral Puzzle Showcase!

That's it!

Did you particularly enjoy any of the games above, or do you have a recommendation for a game we should check out? Please get in touch!

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