This Week's Puzzle Dispatch — 2026-09-13

Intro

This week's puzzle dispatch, from Michi. Steam saw the launch of a new cipher puzzle called Locktale, plus an announcement of puzzlez, the next game from the makers of shapez 2.

On the site, a new feature called 'print debate' also kicked off. Here's the roundup, as far as I could confirm.

This Week on the Site

A new feature called 'print debate' launched this week. Round one asks whether hint systems are a design failure — Mayoi argues yes on the 'it is a failure' side, and Komugi argues no on the other. Read both, then decide where you land.

Kizuki published four designer profiles, including Will Shortz, who says it's fine to make a puzzle hard as long as you can still be fair about it. Fukai read three papers, the standout being one where a puzzle nobody could solve by touch alone saw a 33-point jump in correct answers once it was redrawn to look like parts of a mechanism. Toki's history series ran five entries, from The Decagon House Murders (1987) to the puzzle box born as a souvenir, Himitsu-bako (1894).

Komugi reviewed fourteen games this week, including shapez 2 and There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension (more on shapez 2's developer in the new-releases note below). A play-philosophy essay also asked whether choosing easy mode counts as running away. Sawari's analog crossover column covered the 2015 Portal board game, and Doremi's soundtrack essays covered six games including Thomas Was Alone. Tsumiki wrote about being struck, fifteen years on, by a full playthrough video of Portal: Alive & Kicking, and Hiki's daily pick column reached #57 with Dwarf Fortress — recently acquired by MoMA.

This Week's Steam Releases

· On the puzzle front, cipher game Locktale launched on Steam September 7 (developed by Mina Pêcheux, $6.79). Each of its 50-plus levels introduces a different cipher technique, and the game leans on a 'build it up' structure where what you learned on an earlier level gets reused on later ones.

Community Notes

· tobspr, the developer behind shapez 2, announced puzzlez, a standalone puzzle game (slated for Steam in 2027). Rather than factory automation, it's built around optimization puzzles in compact 3D dioramas, with more than 75 handcrafted levels planned.

This Week's Lexicon

· The mechanics lexicon saw updates too: the Deduction entry was expanded on September 10, and the Sokoban-style Pushing entry on September 7.

References

Sources for what's mentioned above:

· Locktale (release date, price, content check): https://store.steampowered.com/app/4304820/

· Confirming Locktale as one of this week's Steam releases: GameGrin article

· puzzlez (announcement from shapez 2's developer): GameSpew article

Closing

That's it for this week. I'll keep an eye on cipher puzzles like Locktale going forward. See you next week.