Tezzel: The Tilemaker's Tale

Tezzel: The Tilemaker’s Tale is a grid-based puzzle game about completing a grand tile wall in Barcelona, one puzzle at a time. Each puzzle requires the player to drag several types of blocks to designated end positions. The game has a gentle start, and the solutions always include some amount of freedom, yet piece by piece the conundrums get fairly challenging.

Every level takes place on a 9x9 board that represents a tile waiting to be completed. The tile contains a number of controllable blocks and as many designated end positions. Depending on the level, some blocks may be controlled individually, while others may be controlled simultaneously as a group. Players may switch between these given groups of blocks as they move towards a solution. The goal is to eventually have a block onto every end spot at the same time.

Most tiles are associated with a particular tool of the tilemaking trade that provides them with specific abilities. For instance, the ruler blocks slide into a direction and only stop when meeting an obstacle. And the compass blocks skip one space every time they move, which can be useful for entering enclosed areas, but also prevents them from stopping at the cells they jump across. The different types of blocks are progressively introduced and tutorialized through the game, along with special markings on the board such as portals and pressure points.

Perhaps the most game-defining block ability is the one that leaves a trail of paint over every cell a block has been at. Since blocks can only move over blank cells or cells painted with their own color, setting the cells to a particular color with one block means that blocks of a different color have less and less cells they can move onto. This gives a line-drawing quality to many puzzles: while block movement always comes with some leeway, solving a level often boils down to understanding and circumventing a deliberate topological bottleneck.

Once all blocks are correctly positioned, the puzzle is cleared and a new tile is added to the grand wall. Each tile is a meticulous piece of pixel art inspired by the colorful works of Barcelonian tilemakers. The wall also acts as a level select screen. Unlocking new rows does not require solving all previous puzzles; however, the game only ends after all levels are cleared and the wall is complete.

This description was written by Oriane Tury.