All posts tagged in Puzzle Game
Dec 7, 2023
Tales from Hazelwood Post is a cozy combination of puzzles and visual novel-like gaming. Your grandmother has fallen ill, so you return to the small town of Hazelwood to care for her. You unwittingly take on the job of being the new postmaster at the post office, and today is your first day! The post office is a small, dusty little operation that ought to be an easy task to run. However, the homes of Hazelwood don’t have addresses!
You’ll experience a gentle day-to-day cycle where you open the post office each morning. Explore the ongoing story of Tales from Hazelwood Post as you get to know the residents of the town and nearby Lighthouse Point and Crow Hollows. Piece together clues and figure out who everyone is, then deliver the mail to the people you think it belongs to! Sometimes it’s the regular newspaper delivery, and sometimes it’s a special delivery. You might even come across lost love letters with no signatures, and it’s up to you to deliver every piece of mail properly.
Your choices affect the story, so choose wisely and see what happens!
Release Date
Tales from Hazelwood Post is listed on Itchi.io and Steam. There is no release date available, though!
This game reminds me a lot of Witchy Life Story, Coffee Talk, and Tavern Talk! But if you’re looking for more games that deal with mail, try Lake and Mail Time!
- Dec 6, 2023
Station to Station is a relaxing puzzle experience set in a voxel-art world. Transform the world from dull and drab, to vibrant places full of life by building railways. Build connections for commerce and passengers across the countryside. Get the necessary materials to the production plants that need them, and then the finished product to the cities that need them to create thriving landscapes. Complete the puzzle elements and solve logistical conundrums while optimizing your train routes for the best results!
The Maps
Each level of Station to Station starts as a dull, lifeless landscape. It’s uninteresting and borderline boring, and it’s certainly an uninviting place for people and animals to live. However, as you make railway connections, the maps transform into gorgeous dioramas full of flora and fauna. There are six different biomes, each with a handful of levels. Each of those levels, while set in a specific biome, and therefore have the same atmosphere, differ from each other in their layouts. This offers just enough difference to keep the game visually appealing.
The voxel art style provides a visually beautiful and intriguing element to Station to Station, too. I’ve restored the color and life to a map only to sit panning around the map watching the individual pieces. Watching the camels in the desert, or the bustling little villages in the grassy meadows is one of my favorite things to do. Observing all of the little details that were added just absolutely sucks me in.
The Puzzles
Station to Station offers quite a bit of content, plus has announced more to come in a recently posted roadmap. I’d classify the “puzzles” as more objectives than puzzles, but that might be nitpicky. You have a set amount of money to use to build your connections. There are a limited number of cards to help you with discounts and such, too. However, you’re ultimately trying to build railway connections within a specific area of each map. Sometimes that’s easy, and sometimes it takes a little more trial and error. There’s also a few extra optional objectives per level you can complete to increase the difficulty level.
Nothing is overly difficult, though. I didn’t sit stuck contemplating a problem for long stretches. Plus, Station to Station gives you a couple of options for redoing the level. There is a reset button, making returning to the absolute beginning of a level easy. Or, if you just need to redo a little bit, you can return to a checkpoint instead of wiping the whole level. They’ve both come in handy when figuring out how to play and how to complete a level.
Final Thoughts
What Station to Station boils down to, though, is you place train tracks to connect buildings, then you move on to the next level. That’s it. This is not one of your deep, story-driven or deeply puzzling games chock-full of different mechanics and facets. It’s a simple game with a gorgeous art style, and that’s ok! This is perfect for me when I’m in a puzzle mood, but don’t want to be stuck on a problem for long. It’s a great low-pressure, low-stakes experience.
So, if you’re looking for something more, this isn’t for you. If you want that low-pressure experience, though, I recommend this game! I give it:
You can Station to Station on Steam!
Want more reviews? Check out my reviews of Witchy Life Story, APICO, and Little Sim World!
- Nov 23, 2023
Embark on a heartwarming adventure about a young duck who’s tired of feeling sad. Mirth Island follows the duck as he decides enough is enough and sets out for the odd little island where happiness is said to be abundant.
Set out in a worn-out little boat in search of this island. Face some challenges along the way, but also make friends with Mirth Island’s cast of quirky islanders. Listen to their troubles and lend a helping hand while you’re at it. Engage in some joyful minigames full of dancing, singing, and music, too!
There’s different events, scenarios, and endings for you to discover in this wholesome game!
Coming Soon
You can find Mirth Island on Steam, where you can add it to you Wishlist to receive notification of its release!
Time on Frog Island is another wholesome adventure you should check out!
- Nov 9, 2023
In While the Iron’s Hot, you play as a simple journeyman blacksmith looking to become a master. And it’s your turn to join the legendary artisans who have gathered in Ellian to learn and perfect their craft. Embark on a crafting adventure full of mystery, treasures, puzzling, and, of course, blacksmithing!
While the Iron’s Hot features an exciting combat-free experience. Journey to the mystical lands of Ellian to meet a cast of quirky characters. Explore tunnels full of puzzles and resources. Master every step of the blacksmithing process. Smelt ore, turn metal into ingots, and shape them into useful items. Use your skills to repair machinery to open up new areas to explore. Craft equipment that helps you explore new regions. Even work hard to restore the defunct blacksmithing town of Stal. Revitalizing the village just might prove to Eillian’s artisans that you’re worthy of being a master blacksmith!
Coming Soon
While the Iron’s Hot releases on Steam December 5th!
Wytchwood is another great crafting game.
- Nov 1, 2023
Looking for a relaxing and strategic game to play? Look no further than Growth! In this gorgeous hex-grid based strategy game, you explore and populate a procedurally generated world. Campaign mode puts your skills to the test by having you grow your own idyllic landscape. During your explorations, navigate around obstacles like mountains as you transform the landscape from a wasteland to lush forests, beautiful meadows, and many more biomes. Expand these biomes to discover 8 different animal species, each with their own abilities. Those abilities will help you further explore and create a beautiful map full of different landscapes. And with a super replayable gameplay loop, paired with intuitive gameplay, this game is perfect for filling up a few minutes of free time or relaxing after work. So what are you waiting for?
Available Now
You can find Growth on Steam now!
Equilinox let’s you nurture your own flourishing ecosystems. Or if you like Zoo Tycoon type games, check out Fantastic Haven.
- Oct 26, 2023
Station to Station is all about creating railway connections. Your world starts with a handful of rural structures and it’s your job to expand and connect the world. Engage in challenging puzzles like optimizing trade routes. Solve logistical conundrum. Also test your resource management skills by completing optional challenges. Achieve stack bonuses and use unique mechanics tied to each biome for even more fun.
As you build railway connections, watch as the landscapes of Station to Station change and grow into lush environments full of life and color. Convert dull environments to lively deserts or transformed mountains. Moreover, experience a world of abundant flora and fauna in beautiful voxel-style art. So, sit back and relax with this gorgeous train game!
Available Now
You can find Station to Station, with all of it’s intriguing vistas, on Steam now!
Try Overcrowded: A Commute ‘Em Up for some more train station fun!
- Oct 5, 2023
Lonesome Village is a relaxing puzzle-solving life sim where you play as the adorable Wes, a coyote. Wes is looking to solve the mystery of this empty village and the tower that popped up. You’ll enter that tower to complete a number of different puzzles in order to free the villagers trapped on each level. As you do that, the story of what happened will unfold, and it’ll be up to you to stop the evil that threatens it all.
The Pros
There is no doubt that Lonesome Village is uber adorable. The art is wildly cute, and each character you save is some variety of animal. Each has a great individual design. Even the main character, who’s a little coyote character dressed like Link. Even the overworld designs of each area you can explore are cute. Overall, this game is visually great.
The puzzle tower is a fun concept. You’re tasked with rescuing the villagers of the world, and to do that you need to complete a puzzle on each floor. Completing the puzzle releases villagers from the statues they’ve been encased in. Sometimes it’s just one character, sometimes it’s a whole family of characters. The puzzles aren’t super hard, which is perfect for having a relaxing game play experience. Some of them make you think harder than others, but none of them had me stumped for too long. I enjoyed the variety of puzzles, too. It wasn’t repetitive rehashing of the same ones over and over.
The day/night cycle doesn’t affect things like sleep, either. I found that to be a nice touch. It adds ambiance and life to the world, but doesn’t lock you into a specific way to play. There’s no running to bed to beat the inevitable 2am pass out, like some other life sims!
Coronya and Quests
I’m afraid that despite mostly liking Lonesome Village, my cons list is longer than the pros. True to early Legend of Zelda vibes, you’re equipped with a mirror item that allows you to talk to your fairy companion, Coronya. This is a great way to have a reminder of what you were doing as far as the story goes, as there is no quest log. However, she likes to pop up from time to time at the shrine levels of the tower. These levels require you to find the item the shrine requests and place it there in order to open the door to the next floor of the tower.
Coronya likes to pop up on these levels to talk to you about what the item is and how to get it. That’s cool, and often useful. However, she then returns to wherever she comes from, and must discuss EXACTLY what she just said, word-for-word, via the mirror. She’s also adamant about telling you that you must save everyone in the tower, so don’t forget to do that! It’s all so unnecessary. The point of the game is to release people from the tower. And I certainly don’t need an exact repeat of what was just said, right after it’s said. I would have preferred a quest log.
Which brings me to the fetch quests you get from villagers. Lonesome Village’s newly released inhabitants will have quests for you to complete. It’s how you’ll earn hearts to continue through the tower. Talk to a villager and they immediately launch into their quest, then it immediately opens your inventory so you can complete the quest, even if it’s your first time hearing about the quest. Just be sure to write down what it is you’re looking for if you go accept multiple quests. Again, there’s no quest log to keep up with what needs to be done. It made for a frustrating time when I’d pick the game back up and had to go around talking to people to figure out where I was in my fetch quest endeavors.
There is No Autosave and Storage is Lacking
I repeat, there is no auto save. Maybe I’m spoiled by modern games, but I expect autosave to be the standard in games these days. Having the ability to also save at will is great too, but autosave has saved me so much trouble over the years. Lonesome Village doesn’t even have the sleep to save mechanics like Stardew Valley. Instead, you have to visit one of the statues scattered across the map to save. I don’t have words for the frustration I felt when I thought I’d saved, but hadn’t and closed the game. I was set back several floors of the towers, and several villager quests.
Backpack size is woefully tiny. Access to the storage chest isn’t super convenient. There’s a chest in your house, your tent, and in the tower elevator. Sifting through storage is fiddly, at best. Everything shows up in a line that you have to scroll through to find what you need. The backpack is the same way when turning in quest items. Plus, there is one hotkey slot, so you have to go into your backpack, choose the item you want to hotkey, then use the item. It makes switching tools cumbersome and slow.
Final Thoughts
I’d still recommend this game overall. It’s cute and chill. There’s no rush to complete things, so you can play at your own pace. Plus, there’s no stamina drain or health to lose, adding another layer for a stress-free experience.
I’d rate Lonesome Village:
You can find Lonesome Village on Steam, Epic Games, GOG, Switch, and Xbox now!
- Sep 27, 2023
Play as Percival “Percy” Bilkin in this beautiful adventure puzzle game, Bilkins’ Folly. Percy is a treasure hunter on a mission to find out what happened to his mother and grandfather, both of whom mysteriously disappeared years ago. The problem is, his ship just got wrecked in a major storm, and now he has to find a new ship, reunite with his crew, and then resume his investigations. And of course, dig up hidden treasures along the way.
Bilkins’ Folly is a lovely narrative adventure that follows Percy and his trusty dog companion, Drayton. You’ll team up with your canine friend to uncover the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Percy’s family. Spend quality time with Drayton to level up your bond and earn points to spend on new skills. These skills can be used to clear puzzles. Also use Percy’s cartography skills to customize your map. This will help you solve puzzles, some of which you might need to come back to later in the game!
Socialize with the inhabitants you encounter, just remember they’ll remember how you treat them. Recruit aspiring sailors to join your crew. Fish for fun sea creatures and even enter treasure hunting contests to earn rewards. Play a number of different minigames in Bilkins’ Folly, too, like sheep herding, lock picking, and more!
And yes, you can pet the dog.
Coming Soon
Bilkin’s Folly is set to release in just 5 short days on October 2nd! You’ll find it on Steam, GOG, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation.
A Tiny Sticker Tale is an adorable adventure game you should also check out!
