Welcome to Puzzle Lovers! - Play Hard. Think Harder.

Brainrack, Issue #290 (November 18, 2024)

Welcome once again to our weekly newsletter with puzzle game news, new and upcoming releases, giveaways, deals and bundles, spotlight on a lesser-known or forgotten game and other stuff, posted on Mondays (evening US time, night EU time, Tuesday morning AUS time).

Greetings to those who’ve joined since last week! If you found us through a link to the newsletter, read the group overview to see what else we can offer, visit the forum for puzzle discussion, follow our curator for reviews and recommendations, check out our Basic Functionality and Accessibility Guide on how to improve your games, and tell your friends if you like what you see. Thanks!

Sick, so I’m keeping it short.

Ideally, every group member would follow our curator and vice versa, but until then here's the changelog. And don't forget our many lists based on themes and subgenres.

New curatees with full reviews:

• Agent Brain: Tricky Puzzles (puzzle platformer)
  
• Bible Jigsaw Puzzles (jigsaw)
  
• Country Tales 2: New Frontiers CE (time management)
  
• Hexus (minigames)
  
• Number Stomper (pathfinding, logic)
  
• Proverbs (minesweeper)
  
• Put it Here (casual)
  
• SplitPool (billiards, puzzle)
  
• Zero Orders Tactics (turned-based strategy)

New curatees with mini-reviews:

• Deckception (card game)
  
• An Everyday Story (platformer)
  
• For the Pine Cone (sokoban)
  
• Murder On Space Station 52 (detective)
  
• OneShot: World Machine Edition (adventure)
  
• Rogue’s Hexagon (turn-based strategy)
  
• SysOps Saga (programming, automation)
  
• TellTale - Casino Murder Case (detective)

Please let us know in the Curator Info thread if you'd like to write mini-reviews (max. 200 characters, positive or negative) for puzzlers that aren't curated by us yet. Examples and inspiration can be found on the Group Member Recommendations list.

The giveaways are on SteamGifts, but no need to create an account, just visit the site and log in through Steam. Good luck!

Number Stomper[www.steamgifts.com] is available for everybody, and The Lost Penguin[www.steamgifts.com] only for group members, courtesy of the developers.

Got your own puzzler, adventure, demo or some new content coming out on mobile or PC? Let us know in the forum or by adding sdumitriu on Steam Chat.

Free Game Highlights:

• GroOove (rhythm, adventure)
  
• Ika’s Odyssey (platformer)
  
• Inkesis (exploration, adventure)
  
• Ms.Director (investigation, became free)
  
• Myrmica (time management)

New demos:

• THANKS, LIGHT. (portal-like)

Prickle is a cute puzzle game about getting your runaway hoglets back home by sticking them to you, similar to Candle Prick, but without the death. Stig is a puzzle game that I don’t remember seeing anything like it before, you must build a path that allows you to move in such a way that you can copy a target sequence of color changes (and more), it gets quite challenging in the later chapters. Starpuffs is a pathfinding game in which your character can split and rejoin, with each new part moving mirrored somehow. Meow Mission is a pathfinder with cute cats that you can pet and build a cozy house for, but the puzzles themselves are on the easy side. Electrogical is a good mixture of game types, with a bit of math, jigsaw, open ended zach-like solution optimization, though it could use a bit of polish and improved UI and controls. Follow the meaning is a hand-drawn point&click adventure, which I expected to feel more like a Rusty Lake adventure, but at least what I’ve seen in the demo isn’t very good. Mister Antonio is from Bart Bonte, a developer that makes great short puzzle games, so even though I haven’t had a chance to try it, I’m looking forward to it. Youlogic could be a nice puzzle game, but it relies too much on precise timing. You build paths for marbles to ricochet through and reach targets (Plungeroo - pinball-like), but the machine is not static, things keep moving around and you have to precisely time the release of each ball, which means that you replay the same solution many times hoping to get a run that succeeds.

https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/2501650/Electrogical/
https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/1709880/Loco_Motive/
https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/3139640/Meow_Mission/
https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/1689080/Mercury_Abbey/
https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/2759760/Prickle/
https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/2651050/Starpuffs/
https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/2834830/Stig/

And the rest:

• 6-Sided Stories (jigsaw-like, but you just flip pieces)
  
• Baggy Duo (platformer, co-op or single)
  
• Bera MAX (3D platformer)
  
• Bricking Bots (3D platformer)
  
• Cursed House 14 (match3)
  
• A Drop of Color (exploration, environmental puzzles)
  
• Follow the meaning (point&click adventure)
  
• Hard Chip (chip design)
  
• Jellies of the Deep (relaxing, logic)
  
• Mister Antonio (logic, pathfinding)
  
• Traverse Colour Space (one-line)
  
• UnPlugged (co-op platformer)
  
• Youlogic (logic, physics, precision)
  
• Zup! Y (physics)

Highlighting a short and free puzzle game every week!

The premise of No! Don't eat that! is funny, you’re the parent of a baby who keeps putting things in its mouth, so you must shake the baby to nudge things out of it. And no, you must not shake babies in real life! You bump two pieces in one of the four directions, but only the pieces that were in contact with a wall on that side will be nudged, and they move until they hit something or get out of the mouth. 8 nice levels, with funny names like “No! Don’t eat the soap dispenser”, short enough for a break. Works in a browser, even on a phone.

Highlighting another free puzzle game every week!

Did you find all 12 cats in part 1? Well, buckle up, part 2 is much bigger and harder, with even weirder mechanics to discover. Works in a browser, but not on a phone.

Puzzler screenshots are mostly for providing hints or solutions, but they can still be beautiful, funny, or some other adjectives, so post yours in the Screenshots thread on the forum, include a caption if you want, and we might put it in one of the next issues. No spoilers, please!

https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3365491918



Epic Games Store has Snakebird[store.epicgames.com] free for a few more days.

You can always check our curator for curated titles on sale. Specials on the front page is incomplete, click the Discounts tab for more.

This is good enough for the spotlight, putting it in this section because it has the steeper discount. One of the best metroidbrainias out there, although there are only a few metroidbranias, and all of them are good. Toki Tori 2+ is a very simple puzzle platformer game, in which you play as a little bird who can only do very few things: move, jump, stomp and chirp! Explore a world in danger and become the hero the world needs. Like a good metroidbrainia, you don’t gain any new powers, but insights into how to jump, stomp or chirp in a more useful way. It seems too trivial at first, but if you stick with it, you’ll be rewarded with the pleasure of discovering a well crafted world full of secrets hiding in plain sight, and challenging puzzles that miraculously only require jumping and stomping.

https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/201420/Toki_Tori_2/

Not to be confused with our Deal of the Week, which is just an especially good deal from the weeklies. Every week we'll pick a puzzler we really like and try to push it down everyone's throats. But with love because it's so good. Or highlight a lesser-known title that's unlikely to get curated. Comment below if you'd like to write about an undeservedly forgotten game for next time!

A nice, unique puzzle game with a charming story, prepare bento boxes for your young kitten as you watch it grow. The goal is to fill up a bento box to match the target pattern by placing squares of rice, fish, veggies or other foods, or perform operations like clone, swap or push. It sounds simple, and it is easy for the most part, but some of the levels are quite challenging. It is a well polished little gem of a game, available both on Steam and on phone stores, and given that it’s quite popular, you might already own this. But if you don’t, it’s on sale for the rest of the week, so grab it and enjoy packing many delicious lunches!

https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/1567440/inbento/

Here are a few quick & easy ways you can help us out. A little can go a long way, otherwise we'll never achieve world domination.

• Feedback is important, so let us know what you like or don't like.
  
• Follow our curator and get notified about new additions and reviews.
  
• Tell your puzzle- and/or adventure-loving friends and your favorite developers about us and our Basic Functionality and Accessibility Guide.