Storyteller

Storyteller is a point-and-click puzzler about arranging charming illustrations in order to bring stories to life. Each level begins with a descriptive title for a story yet to be written, and supplies you with the characters, scenes, and plot points to author it. With a novel balance between creative and logical thinking along with an enchanting design, Storyteller is a good fit for players of all skills.

Each level of Storyteller sets a new goal in the form of a descriptive title, such as The Heartbroken Lover. In order to tell this tragic tale over a comic-panel layout, players need to drag characters from the bottom of the screen and drop them into properly ordered scenes, e.g. ‘Man and Woman fall in love’, ‘Man and Woman marry’, and finally ‘Man visits Woman’s grave’.

This may appear straightforward at first, but increasingly complex titles will require a deeper knowledge of the game’s surprisingly intricate logic. For example, if a prompt mentioned revenge, placing a hero and a villain in a panel together would result in them standing idly… unless one wronged the other in a previous panel. As new characters are introduced, you’ll learn about their behaviours and relationships with one another, and understand how to motivate them to perform your story.

Completing Storyteller is in reach for players of all experience levels, and the game was hailed in the Most Approachable category at the 2024 Thinky Awards. However, bonus objectives will still provide a challenge for seasoned puzzlers. Stories such as Someone Gets Arrested may not seem too difficult when given a disgruntled butler and a shrewd private eye, but how can you twist the tale to frame someone else in between? Swapping one character for another isn’t enough; you need to leverage their specific motivations for bringing the tale to its final page.

Despite being a one-player game with single controls, Storyteller puts forth a kind of highly visual logic which is easy to enjoy with other curious minds. If you plan to share its colorful, cartoony aesthetic, note that some of the game’s scenarios involve darker themes such as violence, grief, and suicide. Much as many fairy tales though, these depictions are never graphic and will be appropriate for most audiences. Overall, the ambiance is rather one of funny twists and turns.

Completing Storyteller only takes a few hours, but with each level finding a new way to explore the game’s mechanics, the experience feels fresh and innovative from start to finish.

This description was written by Andrew Nicholson and edited by Oriane Tury.