Thinky Games

The Shovelling Hour

Dig up holes and relocate trees using a curiously unwieldy shovel.

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The Shovelling Hour is a free rule-discovery puzzle game about solving various problems using an unwieldy shovel. You can use the shovel to open up new paths by digging up holes and relocating trees, but it also makes moving in tight spaces more difficult. You'll have to recognize the problems yourself, experiment, and find out which method will enable overcoming each bottleneck.

The game was made for CorgiJam, inspired by Adam Saltsman’s game collection and general concept of CorgiSpace (aka small games with short legs), which you can learn more about in the talk he gave at our digital convention ThinkyCon 2025.

This description was written by Corey Hardt and Oriane Tury.

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Developer	SPARSE//GameDev
Publisher	SPARSE//GameDev
Release date	12 January 2026
Genres	Rule-discovery, Puzzle
Vibes	Dark, Mysterious, Pensive

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