“LOK” are friends. “LOK” are little ink creatures. LOK is a puzzle game created by Blaž Urban Gracar in which you spell words by shading cells, obtaining and using special powers along the way. “LOK” grants you the ability to shade an extra cell in. There’s also “TLAK” — which doubles “LOK’s” power — and many many more words and mechanics to discover! A new videogame adaptation of the LOK puzzle book is coming soon, with a demo out now on Steam.

Having started my LOK journey with pencil and paper, I’ve found great joy in tackling these unique word problems, and figuring out what each keyword does. Each “aha” moment is satisfying, as LOK doesn’t hold your hand much beyond the first tutorial puzzle. Never frustrating either, LOK leaves just enough information for you to deduce what to do next. The charm of this game is all about learning and growing this world with each subsequent puzzle.

Made in collaboration with Raindrinker, LOK Digital takes the basic mechanics in LOK and streamlines it into a compact digital experience.  It adds pleasing sound effects whenever a puzzle is solved, and the titular LOK and friends set to work shading out extra cells on their own.

From the Steam store page:

“Lok are a fresh new kind of living beings that spawned in the middle of a vast, incomprehensible world. Help them through mind-bending word-search puzzles and guide them towards expansion of their civilisation.”

The LOK Digital demo is available now on Windows, Mac, and Linux via Steam.