It’s a brand new year with plenty of thinky goodness to look forward to, but before we move on too quickly, let’s make sure to check out all the great new free and experimental games that came out in December!

This latest list might look deceptively short at a glance, but it hides within it a whopping 160 new games! With both The Case of the Thinky Game Jam and the Confounding Calendar running throughout December, we’ve had an abundance of brilliant free thinky games to try out. Have a look through and find something to tease that brain of yours.

Mixer

Developed by Evan Charfauros.

You’re a barista for the popular new juice bar in town, and it’s your job to perfect the recipes for as many unique menu items as you can. Navigate mazelike grid puzzles to get as many two-fruit combinations as possible. If you manage to concoct every combination, you’re in for a surprise! Let’s just say there’s more than one reason we named this game Mixer…

81 detective games from The Case of the Thinky Game Jam

We love detective games and always wish there were more, so last month we ran The Case of the Thinky Game Jam to encourage developers to experiment with this fascinating genre. This resulted in 81 amazing new detective games, many that are extremely promising and that we hope to see developed further! Check out all of the submissions on our jam submissions page.

78 puzzling treats from the Confounding Calendar 2023

The 2023 edition of the Confounding Calendar has now concluded, having brought us 78 bite sized puzzly treats through December. If you weren’t able to keep up while it was all happening, I highly recommend jumping in, finding a thumbnail or title that grabs your attention, and giving it a go! There’s so many great little puzzles in this collection (and I suppose you could even try some from 2021 and 2022 also!).