Thinky Third Thursday

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Thinky Third Thursday
December 2025

Welcome to the last edition of Thinky Third Thursday for 2025. As usual, this is a roundup of games that the puzzle experts from Draknek & Friends think are worth your time.

Several of the things below involve Thinky Games, so I wanted to include another clarification up top that despite us both using the word "thinky" we're not the same team! I (Alan) curate Thinky Third Thursday as well as running Draknek & Friends, while Thinky Games is run by Joseph Mansfield of Joe Plays Puzzle Games with a lot of other people involved in various ways. We often collaborate and cover each other's work, contributing to the confusion, but that's just because we all thrive in the shared thinky ecosystem.

From the Draknek & Friends Official Podcast

  • A chat with Luis Diaz Peralta "Ludipe", the developer of Sushi for Robots and the organiser of the new "Thinky Dailies" on Thinky Games.
  • A conversation with Pip Warr, the writer and narrative director of A Monster's Expedition, chatting about game development, worldbuilding, localisation, and lots of discussion of specific exhibits from the game.
  • Next episode, early next year, will be a Games of the Year podcast covering some of our favourites from 2025.

It's awards season!

This month saw the return of the third annual Thinky Awards by Thinky Games. These awards celebrate the very best thinky games of each year across 12 award categories. This year two of our games have been nominated: LOK Digital for Game of the Year, Best Puzzle Design, and Best Art Direction, and Spooky Express for Game of the Year, Best Approachable Game, Best Puzzle Design, and Best Art Direction. Our podcast has also been nominated for best content creator! Thank you to everyone who nominated us, and don't forget you can now vote for your favourites in the community choice awards!

The end of 2025 also brings with it the rest of the award season. We're delighted to announce that we've been nominated for Best Mobile Game at the New York Game Awards for Spooky Express, and for Best Puzzle Game at the Pocket Gamer Awards for both LOK Digital and Spooky Express. Additionally, both Polygon and GameSpot called out our titles this year as notable snubs for Best Mobile Game at The Game Awards. We're honoured at all of the attention our games are receiving and hope that many new people can discover the joy of great puzzle games through the additional visibility these bring.

LOK Digital is now available on Nintendo Switch!


Speaking of LOK Digital, did you hear that it's now available on Nintendo Switch? The PC version released about a year ago, and the mobile version at the start of 2025, and now you have another option to play on the go. It also plays great on Nintendo Switch 2, of course. This game is really something special, and we've been so delighted to publish it and go on this journey with Blaz and Ferran.

Recent thinky highlights

Consider this an early gift: this month's edition features a roundup of entirely free games to tide you over the festive break. Better yet, some of these are ongoing collections like Thinky Dailies and the Confounding Calendar, giving you fresh puzzles every day. The only thing better than a new thinky puzzle game is a new thinky puzzle game every day!


Thinky Dailies
New this month from our good friends at Thinky Games is a series of daily puzzles titled "Thinky Dailies". Each day brings a brand new puzzle ranging from logic puzzles, to slitherlinks, to sudoku-likes and many more. Each puzzle is connected by a delightful story of a monster on an adventure. If you missed any so far, you can catch up at any time.


Confounding Calendar 2025
...And that's not all for daily puzzles. The Confounding Calendar returns for it's 5th year. This is a free online advent calendar of tiny puzzle games that runs each December. It's worth checking them all out, but here's a few we've particularly enjoyed so far:


Lil Kobold's Big Stew, by Adam Saltsman

This game actually came out October 31st, but I missed it at the time. In this free game by Adam Saltsman, you play a little kobold carrying one item at a time through an open sokoban-like world. That simple limitation quickly becomes the entire puzzle, with no single solution to each challenge but you, the open world, and whatever you're hauling along behind you.

See also the recent CorgiSpace ($4.99), a collection of Adam's small games from the last year (though not including Lil Kobold's Big Stew - maybe there'll be a CorgiSpace volume 2). Great puzzle games included in CorgiSpace include Sebastian's Quest, Skeleton Gelatin, Mole Mole, and more.


nuworm, by noa
nuworm is a brain-bendingly clever take on Snake as a puzzle game, where at any time you can eject your eye/brain to switch to controlling a different body. It's an interesting mix of familiarity and novelty at the same time, and once it clicks the mechanics reveal surprising depth beneath the simple palette pixel art. This game goes to places you wouldn't expect, wrapped up in a neat (and free) package.

Thinky releases from the past month

Free games:

Paid games:

New demos:

Upcoming games to watch for


Nonolith, by Justcamh
Nonolith promises to be a proper metroidbrainia, with minimal hand holding and maximum head-scratching. There are no unlocks or profession gates, and everything is possible through experimentation. Your tools? 3x3 grids you can grab and move in order to manipulate the surreal, pixel art world. The new demo teases a little of what the full game will be and I for one can't wait to move, rotate, and destroy my way out of the NONOLITH itself on release.


Colorbound, by Panpipe Studio and Whitethorn Games
An adorably puzzley demo about picking up a brush and painting the world around you, that teases a greater thinkiness than may first appear. In Colorbound, the approachable levels ease you into painting various objects in order to make them vanish and reappear against different colour palettes. Clear a path, or build a new one, but different colours will have different effects. It's a promising demo, making the full game well worth looking out for in the new year.

That's it!

The next issue of Thinky Third Thursday will be released in January, and it'll be an extra special edition in which we'll look back at some of the very best thinky game releases of 2025. What were your favourites? Please get in touch and let me know! I'd love to include a small selection of games highlighted by readers.

Until then, have a very happy new year!

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