Thinky Third Thursday

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Thinky Third Thursday
June 2025

Welcome to the June 2025 edition of Thinky Third Thursday - a roundup of games that the puzzle experts from Draknek & Friends think are worth your time.

A very warm hello to the new readers who've recently joined our mailing list from Cerebral Puzzle Showcase or Spooky Express! I hope you'll enjoy reading my monthly recommendations as much as I enjoy finding them.

This edition is focused on upcoming games with demos, but usually I'll cover a mix of recently released and upcoming games. If you want to know which new releases from the last month I most recommend, check out the previous Thinky Third Thursday where I covered five games that were releasing in the runup to Cerebral Puzzle Showcase.

Recent news from Draknek & Friends


Bonfire Peaks - Lost Memories parts 2 + 3 out now
At long last, the DLC for Bonfire Peaks is complete! You can play all three parts of Lost Memories, each introducing a new mechanic and comprehensively exploring it. This was a real labour of love for the entire team - all three parts combined come to about the same size as the main game!


Spooky Express - play the demo
In case you missed it, we released a demo for our next game, Spooky Express. These graveyard monsters are determined to make the theme park of their dreams, and you're going to help!


A Monster's Expedition - now on Android
It's hard to believe, but in a few short months A Monster's Expedition is going to turn 5 years old. We've finally released the game on Android, so if you like to play games on the go (but not on Switch or Steam Deck or iPhone), it's a great time to check out what might be the best game I've ever worked on.


Make A Wish Cosy Bundle
Speaking of A Monster's Expedition, we're delighted to be partnering with Make-A-Wish to support their fundraising efforts by including that game in one of their three bundles that will go on sale tomorrow. We're in excellent company, so please check it out when the bundles go live at 12pm EDT / 5pm BST on Friday.

Thinky releases from the past month

Free games:

Paid games:

New demos:

Upcoming games to watch for - puzzle platformer edition

Between Cerebral Puzzle Showcase and Steam Next Fest, there's been a deluge of great new demos released recently for upcoming games (including, of course, the aforementioned Spooky Express). In writing up this newsletter, I noticed that several of the most interesting ones were all puzzle platformers - a well-worn genre, but one that clearly still has plenty of new twists to be discovered.


Öoo, by tiny cactus studio, Tsuyomi and NamaTakahashi
From the designer of ElecHead, become a caterpillar creature whose body is made of bombs. Use their explosive force to jump or leap, explore the world, and find secrets. The demo is pretty short but did a great job of introducing the concept and getting me excited for the full game.


Compress(space), by B-Deshi Interactive
Squash the world to change reality - make a vast gap smaller, delete an inconvenient wall, or climb to a great height. This was great when we selected it as one of this year's Draknek New Voices Puzzle Grant recipients, but since then it's become even more impressive - I really love the new art style and animations.


MotionRec, by HANDSUM and PLAYISM
Record your movement and then play it back at the opportune moment to traverse otherwise impossible spaces. I was intrigued by the concept and completely sold by the demo - it covers a lot of ground very quickly, and made me suspect there's a lot of potential here for secrets where you break the "intended" path (although I didn't play enough to confirm this suspicion).


Threadbound, by Games James Games
Connect two objects with a magical thread so that moving one will move the other - use an enemy walking back and forth to power a lift, or drop a crate into the void to propel yourself across a gap. I've playtested this a little and came away very impressed with the depth of the possibilities and the creativity of where it goes.


Bulbo's Belief System, by Them Handsome Fellas and Abstract Digital
A platformer where you can forget the existence of gravity seems like a non sequitur, but that's the gimmick of this unfittingly memorable game. You can learn and forget plenty of other concepts too (like the existence of walls, or the concept of jumping), and as we all know, if you don't believe in something then it's not real and can't affect you.

That's it!

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

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