TAG
#indie
0 reviews · 4 essays
Related essays
Counterpoint on Blue Prince — Reading Through the Negative Reviews
Komugi rated Blue Prince 9.5/10. I examine the claims from the Steam and community negatives — randomness blocks progress, the two games don't mesh, midgame monotony. I agree that randomness becomes a gatekeeper; I push back on 'this isn't a puzzle.'
Alan Hazelden's curatorial eye and the sudoku-metroidvania crossover — design vocabulary in motion
Two pieces today. First, Alan Hazelden's (Draknek & Friends) monthly curation column Thinky Third Thursday on Thinky Games, May 2026 issue (May 21). Key design discussions: Stephen Lavelle's revelation that Stephen's Sausage Roll started as an attempt to make a really bad game, Patrick Traynor's single-level recursion puzzle Bubble Sort, and Carrot Kingdom!'s design of mechanics the player had all along. Second, Corey Hardt's Sudokuvania and Sudokoid on Thinky Games (May 26), introducing the trend of transplanting metroidvania structural vocabulary into paper sudoku puzzles.
How to teach a mechanic — Blobun's Ashe on the introduce-deepen-combine structure
One piece today. Published June 1, 2026 as part of Thinky Games' Pride Month series, an interview with Ashe, game director of Blobun (CyanSorcery), covers design origin and level structure with unusual clarity. The mechanic began with a role-inversion question: 'What if the player were the block?' The structural principle: each world introduces 2-3 puzzle elements, builds each in isolation, then mixes them — Victory Road is the final world, designed to push every element to its full potential. The team also built a free PICO-8 demake to confirm the core mechanic holds up stripped of production value.
Counterpoint on COCOON — Reading Through the Negative Reviews
Komugi rated COCOON 9/10. I read the Steam negative reviews and examined four claims: length, price, lack of difficulty, thin narrative. Where I agree, where I push back.