0PLAYER is a recently released experimental puzzle game project for those who like a challenge: this free game, available for download on itch.io, consists of only a single large image that looks like the interconnected map of a typical puzzle videogame. And the rest is up to you to figure out...
The game's page isn't going to fill you in much further: the only info found there is the tongue-in-cheek descriptor "A playable game." Upon downloading you'll find a few files: a folder filled with hints, should you desire them, a very large image, and two notes labelled "CREDITS" and "WHAT_IS_THIS". That last one is extremely useful in figuring out what exactly this whole thing is about. Here's the message it contains:
0PLAYER is an experimental puzzle game that exists entirely within the included image 0PLAYER.webp.
While 0PLAYER's mechanics are consistent with those of a digital interactive game, its puzzles are designed for this non-interactive medium.
We recommend using an image editor, not for laboriously emulating every single input, but for note-taking and as a visualization aid. Editors that can handle large .webp images include Krita and Paint.NET.
We've also included a HINTS directory for further clarification about 0PLAYER's mechanics.
Okay... now we're getting somewhere. So we can think of this game as being similar to playing any other paper logic puzzle, in that you look at a static image, maybe make some markings on it, and somehow "solve" the puzzle being presented. Except, in this case, it's also a cryptic instructionless rule-discovery puzzle, where you need to deduce for yourself what the goal is and how the puzzle mechanics function. And last but not least: this whole thing is presented in the visual style of a puzzle videogame. But it's a videogame you'll only ever play inside your own head.
The screenshot above may look like just that; a shot of a puzzle videogame. But it's much more functional than most: you can play the intro area of 0PLAYER using only that image above, because there isn't anything more that you need. That image is exactly what I was using when I played through the start of the game myself.
You can see mouse and keyboard instructions, but they exist only to signal "this is the start of the game." There are no digital controls actually used to play. If you start from that little lit up white circle-line on the left side, and follow it until you hit a break in the wire where it meets some blocks... I bet the design of that little segment will easily suggest to you what might need to happen next. And if you've made that logical leap, you're now playing the first level of 0PLAYER.
The white line you've connected continues on from there and runs quickly into new puzzles. Follow the thread and see where it takes you: that's the joy of these self-discovery style puzzle games, that the connections and the whole mechanical nature of the game is something you're slowly piecing together yourself as you play, being subtly guided by the designer's choices.
If this is all a little head-scratching for you, or if you run into a new set of blocks or a new area that you can't make any sense of, the developers of 0PLAYER have very kindly provided a whole folder full of carefully parceled-out hints that can show you just one tiny puzzle at a time, giving you visual aids for what the result of your intended actions should look like.
The final hint for each segment of the game will literally explain how the mechanics work, which is great for clearing up any possible confusion you may run into. (But my suggestion is to avoid reading these unless it's absolutely necessary: it's great fun to learn and play a whole game only ever using visually-communicated guidance.)
Even having played only partway through so far, I believe 0PLAYER is a wonderful achievement and a lovely new entry in the growing genre of cryptic rule-discovery puzzles. (Bonus points for the game being completely free.) Its experimental design excites me in ways that few puzzle games manage to these days: it's a format that does something truly new, playing in a realm of imagination.
You can download 0PLAYER for free on itch.io. The game was made in memory of Jack Lance, a brilliant puzzle game designer who passed away in 2023 and has been dearly missed by the community since. If you're interested to check out some of his work we have a few games in the database, and his site lists many more. They're all very much worth your time.
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