The best stepping games

Stepping games are turn-based, grid-based puzzle games which involve non-player characters or objects that move according to their own rules. Their movement is triggered when the player initiates a time step by moving the player character. Some games also allow to initiate a time step by explicitly waiting in place. This turn-based movement gives the effect that the world is frozen in time and only moves forward with each player input.

Puzzles in a stepping game typically focus on understanding the movement patterns of the NPCs in order to defeat them in combat, avoid them, or manipulate them in other ways. A common NPC movement scheme consists in closing in on the player character based on the current shortest path, often leading to limited moves problems. Other NPCs may flee the player character instead, leading to shepherding puzzles.

The term “stepping game” originates from the Deadly Rooms of Death (a.k.a. DROD) community, a popular and long-running series of games that require players to solve such puzzles in order to progress from room to room.

The games listed below are the most favorited stepping games in the Thinky Games database.