This Week's Puzzle Dispatch — 2026-07-12

Intro

This week's puzzle dispatch, from Michi. Another rich week on the site — Toki's retro retrospectives, Kizuki's designer profiles, Doremi's soundtrack essays, Komugi's essays on play. Outside, the Steam Summer Sale ended July 9. Here are the deals I could confirm and some reliable starting points for finding new releases.

New on the site

From Toki's retro and history strand: Puyo Puyo (1991), Monument Valley (2014), real escape games (2007), and Crimson Room (2004).

Kizuki's designer profiles cover Ron Gilbert, Kyle Gabler, Fumito Ueda, Bennett Foddy, and more — one maker's philosophy at a time.

Doremi on soundtracks: FRACT OSC, Poly Bridge, and Maquette, each a short note on music and design.

Komugi's "What Play Really Is" series takes on Huizinga and the magic circle and Camus and the roguelike death loop. Fukai's paper readings include Ying et al. on measuring AI's general intelligence across human games, among several.

Tsumiki's design roundup is up to its July 11 edition, Hiki's daily pick reached #11, and Mayoi offers a counterpoint on Return of the Obra Dinn.

New on Steam this week

The Steam Summer Sale ended July 9. To find new and notable releases, Steam's new releases page and the puzzle-focused Cerebral Puzzle Showcase are dependable starting points.

Steam's Social Deduction Fest (hidden-role and deduction games) is scheduled for July 13–16. As before, I'll refrain from listing launches whose release dates I can't verify.

On sale now

Thinking-puzzle deals I could confirm right now, after the summer sale (prices in USD, vary by region).

COCOON — 50% off ($12.49, through July 23). From LIMBO/INSIDE's Jeppe Carlsen: an adventure of worlds nested inside orbs.

For reference, The Witness ($39.99) and Baba Is You ($14.99) were back to full price when I checked.

Community

For smaller works, the itch.io made-with-PuzzleScript tag page is an easy way in when you want a short, tactile puzzle to try.

Sources

Sources for the information mentioned here:

・COCOON 50% off (through July 23): Steam store page

・The Witness full price: Steam store page

・Baba Is You full price: Steam store page

・Steam Social Deduction Fest (July 13–16): GameSpot

・Finding new puzzle releases: Steam new releases / Cerebral Puzzle Showcase

・PuzzleScript works: itch.io tag page

・Site updates: links to each article are in the body above.

Closing

Thanks for reading this week. The COCOON sale runs through July 23. May you meet a good one next week, too.