Alan Hazelden's Thinky Third Thursday — January 2025 (2024 GOTYs)

Alan Hazelden, 18 January 2025

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.

In this month's newsletter, each of us at Draknek have chosen three of our personal highlights from all the thinky games that released in 2024.

Today we also released a brand new episode of the Official Draknek & Friends Podcast on the same topic, where we're joined by Joe of ThinkyGames.com / Joe Plays Puzzle Games to talk in a lot more depth about our GOTY games and what we loved about them. So, if you want even more thinky puzzle game content, you can check that out here.

Giveaway time!

To celebrate all these fantastic games, we're giving away three steam keys each for some of the games recommended here. To enter, simply go here and sign up:

Winners will be chosen randomly on Friday 24th January. Thanks to the developers of these games for providing keys!

Games we released in 2024

Sokobond Express, by José Hernández and Draknek & Friends
In February 2024, we released Sokobond Express, a beautifully minimalist puzzle game about combining chemical bonds and puzzle pathfinding. Sokobond Express is developed by José Hernández and combines the gameplay of two classic Draknek & Friends games, Sokobond and Cosmic Express.

LOK Digital, by Letibus Design, Icedrop Games and Draknek & Friends
And last month in December we published LOK Digital, a charming puzzle solving journey about learning cryptic language of world-changing words and mastering their mind-bending effects. Since launch, LOK Digital has received an honourable mention in the IGF Awards, alongside many other fantastic awards. We're excited to be releasing LOK Digital on Android and iOS very soon, so keep an eye out for that.

Alan's Thinky Highlights from 2024

Leaf's Odyssey, by ludobloom
Play as the intrepid ferret Leaf, on their journey to explore the land, defeat monsters, collect keys, and ascend a central tower. The puzzles all revolve around the intricacies of enemy behaviour - like a more approachable DROD - and the puzzles themselves are near-universally excellent. This is the most challenging of my three recommendations, but that made it all the more rewarding when I managed to defeat a tricky puzzle and get to the next area.

Star Stuff, by Ánimo Games Studio and Astra Logical
Program robots and cooperate with them to solve puzzles. Queuing up programming commands to run while you're controlling a character works extremely well - even though you're using programming concepts it always feels approachable and welcoming in a way that most programming-focused games don't. The puzzles are also consistently great, and balanced well - most people should be able to get to the end of the game and have a good time, but the bonus puzzles are well worth playing too.

Leap Year, by Daniel Linssen and Sokpop Collective
A delightful puzzle platformer with a fragile protagonist who can't survive short falls or jumps. It's short and full of surprises - if you love games which make you say "wait, could I have been doing that the entire time?" then this will definitely be for you. It contains some tight platforming, but not an excessive amount - it never felt like a challenge was asking too much of me.

Syrenne's Thinky Highlights from 2024

Tactical Breach Wizards, by Suspicious Developments
Tactical Breach Wizards is an astoundingly good execution on one of my favorite gameplay styles - tile-based tactics. While I can go on for hours about the excellent pacing, the spectacular feeling of defenestrating dudes, and the humor, of particular interest to me is highlighting the skill tree and how everything appears to be overpowered and unbalanced, yet deceptively everything remains tightly balanced and designed. It's a masterpiece of game design that I recommend to anyone.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, by Simogo and Annapurna Interactive
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a mysterious game where a pen, paper, and curiosity are a must. I loved discovering puzzles, mulling on them, and coming to immensely satisfying conclusions over and over again while uncovering the overarching narrative and world of this game. The less you know the better, so if you like intricate puzzles with excellent design, this game comes strongly recommended.

Duck Detective: The Secret Salami, by Happy Broccoli Games
Duck Detective: The Secret Salami takes the Golden Idol gameplay and pairs it with 2-3 hours of hilarious writing, great vibes, and well-considered puzzles. I love that the Golden Idol gameplay is already seeing successful commercial implementations by other teams, and I personally love a good "one sitting" thinky game. I laughed so hard that I'd be remiss not to recommend this game as one of my favorites of the year.

Mairi's Thinky Highlights from 2024

The Rise of the Golden Idol, by Color Gray Games and Playstack
Any year a new "Golden Idol" game comes out, you can expect to see it on my GOTY list. Rise of the Golden Idol, sequel to the popular Case of the Golden Idol, doesn't reinvent the format but instead gives us a brand new ~15 or so hours of fill-in-the-blank logic puzzles. Whilst these puzzles are compelling and challenging, it's the sheer strangeness of the world that makes Rise of the Golden Idol so memorable.

Botany Manor, by Balloon Studios and Whitethorn Games
Peaceful, elegant, and utterly rewarding for those who think outside the box (or rather, the plant pot). Botany Manor is probably the thinky game I both enjoyed the most, and recommended the most this year. After all, I get to solve escape room-like puzzles, and live out my wildest fantasy of keeping a house plant alive for more than three days.

No Case Should Remain Unsolved, by Somi
We didn't cover it on Thinky Third Thursday when it first released back in January 2024, but one of the games I was most surprised (and delighted) by last year was No Case Should Remain Unsolved. At two hours long, it can be completed in one sitting and it'll have you step into the shoes of a detective trying to piece together a complex case through conversation fragments. The core mechanic is figuring out who said what, and in what order, but it's delightfully original and executed flawlessly.

2024 Highlights: Ones we didn't get around to yet

Sometimes there are quite literally too many great puzzle games released to play them all. The following, whilst we didn't get a chance to play in 2024, we've heard fantastic things about! So as some bonus, we think these titles are well worth checking out:

• ANIMAL WELL, by Billy Basso and Bigmode
• Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure, by Furniture & Mattress LLC
• Chroma Zero, by ekorz and ZeroXP
• Epigraph, by Matthew Brown
• Isles of Sea and Sky, by Cicada Games
• Maxwell's puzzling demon, by muratsubo Games
• Ouros, by Michael Kamm
• Paper Trail, by Newfangled Games
• Robot Detour, by Nozomu Games
• Slider, by boomo

Thinky releases from the past month

Free games:

• Covermount, by Hempuli
• Can You Solve These Equations?, by matrix67
• Covemachine, by Hempuli
• Broken Links, by Danielle Riendeau
• The Sacrament of the River God
• Wood and Flesh: A Candleforth Short Story, by Under The Bed Games, Bibiki
• Sebastian's Quest, by Adam Saltsman
• Raking Sokoban, by cantibizkit
• Dragonsweeper, by Daniel Benmergui
• Hikoban, by xXChickyChuXx

Paid games:

• Cubin, by Limsod Games ($7.19)
• Take Notes, by Stoneware Game Studio ($6.99)
• Discolored 2, by Godbey Games ($17.99)
• Reviver, by Cotton Game ($8.99)
• Super Puzzled Cat, by Penguin Mug Games ($15.29)
• Nurikabe World, by Hemisquare ($8.49)
• The Roottrees are Dead, by Robin Ward and Evil Trout ($17.99)
• Signal Maze, by theArkitect and IndieArk ($14.99)

New demos:

• Locator, by Empty Exhibit

Games to look out for in 2025

The Roottrees are Dead, by Robin Ward and Evil Trout
One of the best games of 2025 is already here! Released yesterday, The Roottrees are Dead is a genealogical mystery that has players piecing together a large and complex family tree of America's largest maple candy empire. It was previously available as an engrossing free game on itch, but the Steam version features new art, an expanded story, a new family tree to complete, and a whole host of new scandals to uncover.

Blue Prince, by Dogubomb and Raw Fury
Blue Prince, or as we prefer to call it - "getting lost in your great-uncle's house simulator", is a cross between a tile-laying strategy game, and a first-person exploration game. Set to launch in Spring 2025, the demo for Blue Prince challenges players to find the mysterious Room 46.

Lab Rat, by Chump Squad and Klei Publishing
I've been looking forward to Lab Rat for a long time, and it seems like 2025 should be the year it happens. Featuring a surprising blend of clever block-pushing challenges and Portal-esque test chamber humour, this game will constantly subvert your expectations of what's next.

868-BACK, by Michael Brough
The sequel to Michael Brough's excellent 868-HACK, this hacking themed game is guaranteed to be a great entry in the puzzle-tactics genre. This iteration features similar core gameplay to the original, with a revamped campaign mode that seems very promising. 868-BACK was recently crowdfunded and is set to launch later this year.

The House of Tesla, by Blue Brain Games
After the success of The House of Da Vinci series, Blue Brain Games has plans to return in 2025 with a brand new escape room world, set in the workshop of enigmatic inventor, Nikola Tesla. If the demo is anything to go by we can expect plenty of peculiar contraptions to fix, and wonderfully tactile puzzles about manipulating electrical currents.

Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping, by Happy Broccoli Games
Eugene McQuacklin is back! He's everyone's favourite divorced detective, and he also happens to be a duck. Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping is set to launch later in 2025, and it will be a short murder mystery in the same style and format as the game's salami-themed prequel. A new setting, new characters to meet, and a new mystery to get to the bottom of.

Unannounced games from Draknek
Last but not least, we have two unannounced games in development that we're planning to release in 2025. Keep an eye out for more information soon!

Cerebral Puzzle Showcase

And finally, one last piece of news to share: Cerebral Puzzle Showcase will be returning in 2025 from May 29th - June 5th. If you're a developer of a thinky puzzle game and would like your game to be considered for inclusion in this year's showcase, you can submit your game here.

That's it!

Well, that's a wrap on 2024. So many fantastic thinky puzzle games released in 2024 - too many to cover in just one newsletter, which is why we release a new Thinky Third Thursday every month.

Did we miss any of your favourites, or do you have a recommendation for a game we should check out in 2025? We'd love to hear from you! Please get in touch.

And remember to enter the giveaway for a chance to win a free Steam key for one of the games we recommended above!

Thinky Third Thursday is archived at ThinkyThirdThursday.com if you want to share this roundup with friends. Please also feel free to reply to this email or 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