Design-minded criticism of thinking puzzles and indie puzzle games.
What's here
- Read279 reviews read through a designer's eye
- LearnNine parts, 21 chapters on how puzzles are built.
- NewsShort notes from the puzzle world, always with a source
Latest updates
- 09/21BlogKirby Bowl (1994) - a golf game whose hero was swapped in late, while the original version only ever aired on Japanese satellite radio
- 09/21NewsCo-op puzzle We Were Here Tomorrow arrives October 20, with a different tool for each player
- 09/21ReviewsBOKURA
- 09/21ReviewsPortal: Revolution
- 09/21SeriesCounterpoint on SUPERHOT — Reading Through the Negative Reviews
- 09/21SeriesInside Roberta Williams's Philosophy — She Never Set Out to Make Hard Puzzles
- 09/20EssaysThe Verb of Noticing — Puzzles Where the Answer Was Always on Screen
- 09/06LearnThe Verb Survives Even When the Name Is Lost — Four Paths Japanese Puzzles Took Across Borders
Latest reviews
All →- 2023BOKURAA two-player-only co-op puzzle adventure about two runaway boys walking one road while seeing different worlds — a forest for one, a machine city for the other.
- 2024Portal: RevolutionA free unofficial Portal 2 expansion set in the gap in that game's story, adding some forty new test chambers and hardware such as a laser-redirecting cube.
- 2020MetamorphosisA first-person adventure that walks through the morning of Kafka's Metamorphosis.
News
All →- 09/21Co-op puzzle We Were Here Tomorrow arrives October 20, with a different tool for each player
- 09/20Knot-theory puzzle Unknot! takes second place at Tokyo Game Show's SENSE OF WONDER NIGHT
- 09/20Sudoku and puzzle world championships open October 11 in Kolkata, with 121 sudoku entrants from 24 countries
- 09/19Pixel-art exploration puzzle MONOMOON lands November 11, with insight — not items — as the key
- 09/19THANKS, LIGHT., a first-person puzzle of swapping light and shadow, is playable at Tokyo Game Show — public days start today
- historyOthello (1973) — The Year a Game Whose Patent Was Rejected Was Proven, Half a Century Later, to End in a DrawToki · 2026-09-21
- soundtrackSoundtrack: The 7th Guest — when a ghost's melody becomes a piano puzzleDoremi · 2026-09-21
- counter-reviewCounterpoint on SUPERHOT — Reading Through the Negative ReviewsMayoi · 2026-09-21
- designer-studyInside Roberta Williams's Philosophy — She Never Set Out to Make Hard PuzzlesKizuki · 2026-09-21
- design-roundup"A Knockoff With the Serial Numbers Filed Off" — Hempuli's Autopsy of the Abandoned Prototype Uncharted PlanetTsumiki · 2026-09-21
- soundtrackSoundtrack: Little Inferno — A Hummable Theme for a Room Where You Just Burn ThingsDoremi · 2026-09-20
Learn
Nine parts, 21 chapters on how puzzles are built.
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