One person wants to sit by the window, but the only open seat is near the front of the bus, and the next person hates sitting towards the back, and meanwhile the kid in the middle needs to move everybody around so he can sit with his family. These kinds of cross-referencing, preference-satisfying logic dilemmas, presented in a very charming style, form the basis of Is This Seat Taken?, an upcoming puzzle game that launched a new demo today.
Published by our friends at Wholesome Games, this adorable little outing takes you through all sorts of public settings, tasking you with somehow appeasing everyone's picky little requirements: from sitting arrangements on the bus, to crowded restaurants, to movie theaters and diners. We chatted with Ausiàs and Sergi of Poti Poti Studio to pick their brains about the inspiration behind the game and their experience designing the puzzles. But first, here's the trailer, showing off the game's super-cute presentation:
An interview with Poti Poti Studios
Tell us about yourselves and your studio! How did you get started making games?
We met at university in 2014. We both studied Game Design and Development at the UPC in Barcelona. In our spare time, we started working on tiny mobile puzzle games, entering them in various competitions and winning a couple of local awards.
After that, we finished university, got "normal" jobs in the industry, and remained friends. We would occasionally do game jams or side projects because we always wanted to go indie, have our own company, and make our own games.
In March 2024, Ausiàs was informed that he would be laid off in June for financial reasons. We talked about the situation and decided that it was time to try the indie route for real — it was a great opportunity for us. Sergi quit his job the following month and started working full-time on the project.
We've noticed there tends to be a lot of overlap between wholesome and thinky games. Do you think a logic-puzzle kind of game like Is This Seat Taken? naturally lends itself to being cute and wholesome?
We wanted the emotions of the characters to be easily identifiable. For us, that meant simplifying the art style in order to be clearer with the expressions and the different quirks the characters have. Furthermore, we wanted to make them cute so that players could empathize with the characters and see themselves reflected in the day-to-day scenarios.
"Wholesome" is subjective, but in addition to the cute art style, we tried to be respectful to everyone while being inclusive and funny.
The kind of cross-referencing logic happening in your game calls to mind puzzles sometimes called Zebra or Einstein puzzles. Did paper puzzles influence your mechanics, or how did the ideas evolve?
We didn’t know about those paper puzzles, to be honest!
We built a tiny prototype during a weekend where players organized an entire bus, with almost 30 characters at the same time. We felt that it was a little bit overwhelming, so we started iterating on ideas to make the game more enjoyable and relaxing, such as adding bus stops to help with pacing and reducing the number of people you organize each time. After all, we wanted players to have a positive experience instead of a stressful one.
For new scenarios, we try to think about day-to-day events in our lives, choosing the ones that we think would fit the game best or be fun to play. After that, we select a scenario that we feel would bring something different to the game, and we make a list of possible quirks/annoyances and scenario-related elements that could impact characters in a funny way. Finally, we prototype it, play it, and iterate until we are happy with it.
It’s hard to know from just an idea if it will be fun and interesting, so we like to try it out and decide based on experience. We make the ideas that fit our skill set and then iterate on them if we see that they could lead somewhere.
Your demo is launching today — what can players expect from it?
Players will be able to experience the entire first city of the game, Barcelona! That’s a total of 5 regular levels and a special level unlocked after completing a hidden requirement. Also, they will discover the beginning of the story of Nat, our protagonist.
How did your previous experience working on puzzle games influence the development of Is This Seat Taken?
After all these years of making games, I think we've learned a lot about how to balance a game’s difficulty. As a developer, there comes a point where your knowledge of the game is so deep that it can seem too hard to balance the difficulty, especially in the first levels.
We now feel more confident creating the first levels of the game, keeping them easy enough for players to learn the basics while being challenging enough to remain entertaining.
Can you discuss any specific puzzle design challenges you've encountered?
The main challenge that we have to face every time we create a new scenario is how to keep surprising the player with new silly and quirky traits. Our main focus is to put a smile on the player's face.
Another challenge is to make each level interesting without being intimidating. We wanted the game to be accessible to most people. We feel that puzzle games can be intimidating for people who are not used to them since they usually make players feel dumb until they solve the level. We put effort into making the game feel more friendly and laid-back.
Have either of you ever had any notable interactions when trying to find a seat in public?
We don't have any remarkable anecdotes about looking for a seat, but we use public transport a lot in our daily lives. We tend to pay attention to our surroundings, especially since we can use them in our game. Nonetheless, the truth is that we are very picky when choosing seats at the cinema!
Thanks so much to Ausiàs and Sergi for taking the time to talk with us. You can wishlist Is This Seat Taken? on Steam now, where you'll also find the brand new demo. I think after this I'll go attempt some seat-swapping myself.
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