Thinky Third Thursday
January 2024 (2023 GOTYs)

Welcome to Thinky Third Thursday, my roundup of thinky puzzle games that I think are worth your time. This month I'm going to be looking at some of my personal highlights from 2023.

2023 highlights: indie gems

The throughline here? All of these games have truly excellent puzzle design.

Can of Wormholes, by munted finger
Play as a sentient can of paint with worm legs, and power up your spaceship by pulping other worms into juice. The theme is bizarre but it's got some great mechanical surprises and the best hint system I've seen in years.

Headlong Hunt, by Toombler Games
Chase easily-spooked creatures to herd them into the perfect location. It's very approachable and does a great job of exploring its systems and all the ways they interact with each other.

Magicube, by nebu soku
You can create a magic cube - but can you get it to the altar? It's one of those "level 1 is hard, level 2 is impossible" games, but it rewards persistence.

Konkan Coast Pirate Solutions, by chapliboy (Windows)
Plan pirate raids in this weirdly abstract simulation of the high seas - it doesn't map to any understanding I have of how boats navigate, but I guess the pirates find it useful. It's all about exploring quirks of the simulator and showing you interesting scenarios that are possible.

Alephant, by Lucas Le Slo (Windows)
This is almost so abstract that it defies explanation - ostensibly it's about letters of the hebrew alphabet, but I'm not sure that knowledge will help you going in. You probably need to really love hard block-pushing puzzles to get the most out of this one, but if that's you then you should give it a go.

2023 highlights: bigger budget games

Here's a trio of games with high production values that I enjoyed and would recommend, but maybe not as much as the indie stuff above.

COCOON, by Geometric Interactive and Annapurna Interactive
(Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series X/Series S)
Whether you're activating strange machinery or going inside an orb, the vibes on this game are off the charts. The puzzles are satisfying but never overcomplicated, making it great for puzzle newbies but maybe slightly over-streamlined for some.

Chants of Sennaar, by Rundisc and Focus Entertainment
(Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One)
Ascend a mysterious tower by learning the languages of its inhabitants. It's not a flawless experience, but I'm glad I played it.

Viewfinder, by Sad Owl Studios and Thunderful Publishing (Windows, PlayStation 4/5)
Break the world with photos that overwrite reality. I'm so impressed they actually managed to ship this game - it has "promising tech demo that becomes a nightmare project" written all over it, but they managed to escape that fate.

2023 highlights: ones I didn't get around to yet

I try to keep my finger on the thinky pulse, but there's too many great games to play all of them. Here's some releases from 2023 that I heard are good, but that I haven't put time into yet.

Void Stranger, by System Erasure (Windows)
This is tremendously popular, but I'm wary that to get to the good part I might have to play 10 hours of not-so-interesting puzzles? It's got a lot of superfans though, so whatever the late-game twist is must be good.

Paquerette Down the Bunburrows, by Bunstack and Abiding Bridge (Windows, macOS)
This is maybe the opposite of Void Stranger - if the main bunny-capturing puzzles were all there was, I probably would have spent more time with this, but I'm wary that the meta-shenanigans are going to be more demanding than I want from the game.

Storyteller, by Daniel Benmergui and Annapurna Interactive (Windows, macOS)
My understanding is that this game is part puzzle, part sandbox. Apparently when it was first released a lot of people thought it was very short, but they've since added some extra content which seems to have hit the spot.

Billy Bumbum: A Cheeky Puzzler, by Frambosa and Bonus Stage Publishing (Windows)
Games where you control a rolling cube are often very fiddly, but I'm assured that this actually does an excellent job of avoiding that being the focus of the puzzles. I could have done without the theme, but some excellent puzzle designers worked on it so I want to get around to it.

The Talos Principle 2, by Croteam and Devolver Digital (Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S)
There's just so much Talos Principle - it feels like they have a maximalist approach to content. That's probably great if you want something to lose time to, but for me it makes it somewhat intimidating to start.

2023 highlights: free web games

There was no shortage of great free puzzle games in 2023, so this is by no means exhaustive. Here's just three that stuck with me.

you drove off the road!, by Ian Henderson
A great rule discovery game - drive a racecar on various courses while trying to figure out what the road signs mean.

The Roottrees are Dead, by Jeremy Johnston
Piece together a family tree, in the aftermath of a plane crash which leaves a large inheritance up for grabs.

Hermit the Crab, by Benjamin Davis
A nicely-polished PuzzleScript game about a crab exploring a series of islands, made by my frequent collaborator Benjamin Davis (A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build, Cosmic Express, A Monster's Expedition).

Thinky releases from the past month

Okay, that's enough about 2023! Here's some thinky games that have released so far in January:

• Mooselutions, by Ted Bendixson, Niall Reynolds, Christopher Wu, Hau Tran
• Last Stand Delivery, by CalypsoMini
• Portal: Revolution, by Second Face Software
• Drilbert, by Tom Mason
• Super Retro BoxBot, by Joseph Holliday

Upcoming games to watch for:

Sokobond Express, by José Hernández and Draknek & Friends (Windows, macOS, Linux)
This is coming out very soon - we should be announcing the release date in the next month! I first saw this project back in December 2020 when someone pointed out an interesting game on itch that was inspired by Sokobond and Cosmic Express; I know instantly that it was something special, and within a month we'd signed a publishing deal. José has been working hard on it for three years now, and I'm so excited that we're almost there.

Isles of Sea and Sky, by Cicada Games (Windows, macOS, Linux)
This is a finalist for the 2024 IGF Excellence in Design award, and if you've played it it's easy to see why! There's a massive world to explore, and excellent puzzles around every corner. There's currently a very generous demo available on the Steam page, but apparently it's getting taken down soon (sometime tomorrow) so act quickly if you want to try it before it comes out.

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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