We’re delighted to bring you the latest edition of Alan Hazelden’s Thinky Third Thursday newsletter. Alan is the founder of studio and publisher Draknek & Friends and designer of renowned puzzle games like A Monster’s Expedition, Cosmic Express, and A Good Snowman is Hard to Build.
Hey!
Welcome to the November 2024 edition of Thinky Third Thursday - a selection of puzzle releases from the last month, highlighted for your attention by Alan Hazelden of Draknek & Friends.
Recent news from Draknek & Friends
If you like puzzle games (which, if you're reading this, I assume you do) then you might enjoy a brand new podcast I'm hosting: the Draknek & Friends Official Podcast.
Every Thursday, join me and Syrenne from Draknek & Friends as we talk to developers of some of our favourite puzzle games, shedding light onto how games get made and the people behind them.
The first four episodes are now live, including interviews with the developers behind Pâquerette Down the Bunburrows, Baba is You, and Isles of Sea and Sky.
If you ever wanted your very own merchandise from Draknek & Friends games like A Monster's Expedition, A Good Snowman is Hard to Build, Bonfire Peaks and more, we're excited to share that we now have an official merch shop.
The shop includes t-shirts, mugs, framed prints, notebooks, desk mats, and more - all made to order. I'm especially happy with the range of t-shirts featuring exhibits from A Monster's Expedition!
And last but not least, some exciting LOK Digital news. It's just been announced that LOK will be one of the games shown at Day of the Devs: The Game Awards Edition! This will be streamed on the Game Awards Twitch channel at 9am PST on December 11th, and we'll be sharing a very exciting announcement so please tune in!
Additionally, the Steam demo for the game has been updated and the daily puzzle mode is back! Previously these daily puzzles were only available for a limited time in June, but they're now back permanently.
Recent thinky highlights
The Rise of the Golden Idol by Color Gray Games and Playstack
By far the biggest puzzle launch of the last month was The Rise of the Golden Idol. It's full of the same strange logic puzzle vignettes we've grown to love from the original, with some structural changes I like - after each chapter of cases you're asked to find and explain connections between the scenes that you might not have initially picked up on. In other areas I think it's a slight step back (the new UI feels a bit more awkward, and some cases are weaker than others) but overall this is a very enjoyable game and well worth checking out.
Mind Over Magnet by Game Maker's Toolkit
Mind Over Magnet comes from Youtuber Mark Brown of Game Maker's Toolkit, who built up an audience doing game design analysis videos and then decided to get his hands dirty learning how to make this magnet-based puzzle platformer. It's impressively polished with a breezy pace - most levels are short and focused, so you're unlikely to spend too long on any one puzzle before you're on to the next.
Is this Game Trying to Kill Me? by Stately Snail
This game (which definitely is trying to kill you, by the way) has you exploring a spooky old cabin in the woods. Your environment and actions are affected not just by first-person you, but also the pixel top-down you who exists inside a computer terminal. This sets the scene for some creative puzzles of searching the cabin for a clue and using it inside your terminal, or flicking a switch in the terminal-game to activate something in the "real world".
Robot Detour by Nozomu Games
In Robot Detour you're a little green robot delivering batteries to robots who've stranded themselves with no power. As you drive around each top-down level, you'll encounter spiky red obstacles and the real core of the puzzle is to avoid 'catching' your power cable on one of them - initially this is just a case of winding around the level geometry in the right way, but later on you'll encounter moving objects which force you to really think ahead. Similar to Mind Over Magnet, I found each level was small and self-contained and allowed me to breeze through the game in a very satisfying way.
Thinky releases from the past month
Free games:
- Entwined Time (Steam release), by Patashu
- Gridmount, by Hempuli
- FILLSNAKE, by Beep Yeah!
- Health, by NinaBirb
- Cellmount: Automata, by Hempuli
- Swap Mouse, by st33d
Paid games:
- In Memoriam, by MoCaps ($5.99)
- Say Cheese, by Dudeeki ($1.99)
- CLONY, by YORUROJI ($2.99)
- Trans Neuronica (1.0 release), by Evidently Cube and Untold Tales / Hyperstrange ($9.99)
- Wilmot Works It Out, by Hollow Ponds, Richard Hogg, and Finji ($14.99)
- Chrono, by David Simoes ($2.99)
- Stickin' the Landing, by Adrift Team and Entalto Publishing ($7.99)
- Slayaway Camp 2, by Blue Wizard Digital ($12.99)
- Ninja Ming: Wu, by 1 Poss Studio ($1.99)
- Valley of Shadow, by Synersteel Studio ($24.99)
- The Lost Penguin, by OddGinger ($4.99)
- Trash Goblin, by Spilt Milk Studios Ltd ($14.99)
- Proverbs, by Mark Ffrench and Divide The Plunder ($8.99)
- Hare 136, by Haremonic Games ($4.99)
- The Rise of the Golden Idol, by Color Gray Games and Playstack ($19.99)
- Is this Game Trying to Kill Me?, by Stately Snail ($12.74)
- Mind Over Magnet, by Game Maker's Toolkit ($9.99)
- 49 Keys, by Michele Buonanno, Veronica Wu, Fabio Porfidia and 2P Games ($9.99)
- Miniatures, by Other Tales Interactive ($5.39)
- Robot Detour, by Nozomu Games ($5.39)
- OCTOPTICOM 3D, by UP DEVELOPMENT LTD. ($14.99)
- Mindcop, by Andre Gareis and Dear Villagers ($13.49)
- Globs, by Ninesliced ($4.99)
- ABI-DOS, by ABI.DOS.SOFTWARE ($8.49)
- Great God Grove, by LimboLane and Fellow Traveller ($17.99)
- InFlux Redux, by Impromptu Games ($15.99)
- Raster, by Rchair Studio ($4.79)
- Mister Antonio, by Bart Bonte ($1.79)
- Starpuffs, by Cedar Street Studios ($7.19)
- Stig, by Miriam and Lage ($4.99)
- Electrogical, by kinjo and Phoenixx Inc. ($5.94)
Upcoming games to watch for
868-BACK Crowdfunding Campaign by Michael Brough
Michael Brough is one of the smartest designers around, and today he launched a crowdfunding campaign for his next game, a sequel to 868-HACK. Of all Michael's games, that's probably the one that I've played the most, so I'm very excited to see him return to that space and explore it further. You can pre-order a copy of the game for €28, and he's aiming for a mid-2025 release.
The Confounding Calendar
The 2024 edition of the Confounding Calendar is almost here! This is a collection of small and charming single-screen puzzle games which all share a unifying colour palette. Submissions are open until Nov 30th if you want to make something for it, and then from Dec 1st onwards there'll be a new game released every day.
LOK Digital, by Letibus Design, Icedrop Games and Draknek & Friends
Finally, here's one more reminder about LOK Digital! We're so proud of the work that Ferran and Blaz have put into this game, and extremely excited to have it out in the world very soon. If you haven't already, please wishlist the game on Steam to be notified when it comes out.
That's it!
Did you particularly enjoy any of the games above, or do you have a recommendation for a game I should check out? Please get in touch!
Thinky Third Thursday is archived at ThinkyThirdThursday.com if you want to share this roundup with friends. Please also feel free to reach out on Discord, Mastodon or Bluesky - I’d love to know if you found it useful or have any recommendations.
Until next time,
Alan
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