New thinky releases in September 2022

Wow, who knew so many thinky games get released each month? To make it a little easier to keep on top of, this list should help you find what you might have missed, including both polished commercial games and more experimental free games. So without further ado…

Released: 4th September
Pricing: Free
Available on: cyadonia.com (Web)

A classic sliding block puzzle game in every way, some of you may remember Cyadonia from way back on the Amiga. Now, a definitive edition of Cyadonia has been ported to the web with hundreds of puzzles and many more to come.

Released: 6th September
Pricing: Paid
Available on: Steam (Windows, MacOS), Google Play (Android), App Store (iOS)

Railbound is a track-laying puzzle game with a cozy comic book art style. Place railway tracks so that the carriages arrive at their destination in the correct order, working with track switches, tunnels, and other mechanisms that twist the tracks around on themselves.

Released: 7th September
Pricing: Free
Available on: Itch.io (Web)

An experimental expansion of the classic logic puzzle (“one person is lying, the other tells the truth” — you know the type), Knights and Knaves has you constructing conversations in an esoteric language to uncover the truth in a series of increasingly complex scenarios.

Released: 9th September
Pricing: Paid
Available on: Steam (Windows), Itch.io (Windows)

Clearly taking much inspiration from The Witness, Matthew VanDevander’s Taiji swaps the line-drawing for grid-toggling in this open-world puzzle adventure filled with logical and observation-based puzzle panels and plenty of secrets to uncover.

Released: 9th September
Pricing: Paid
Available on: Steam (Windows, MacOS, Linux)

Wilderplace is a turn-based tactics game designed by Saman Bemel Benrud with a unique hand-drawn art style. While exploring the maze-like Divine Garden, narrative and puzzles intertwine as you assist the many characters you encounter along the way.

Released: 11th September
Pricing: Free with ads (in-app purchase to remove ads)
Available on: Google Play (Android), App Store (iOS)

One of the winners of the GMTK Game Jam 2022, Dice Versa is a game of strategy, requiring you to plan ahead and put out fires to deal with the random dice rolls that the Demon of Luck throws your way.

Released: 13th September
Pricing: Paid
Available on: Steam (Windows)

ParkTo is a casual puzzle game about directing cars to their destination while avoiding any nasty collisions. Place turning markers on the grid and hit play to watch the cars follow your instructions, with the opportunity to rotate the cars after each step of the journey.

Released: 16th September
Pricing: Free
Available on: stickmanland.com (Web)

The Onion of Despair is a lo-fi block-pushing game about retrieving your scattered picnic sandwiches while dealing with the water, pesky ducks, and other obstacles that get in your way.

Released: 18th September
Pricing: Free
Available on: Itch.io (Windows)

MetaWitness is an experimental game about creating puzzles. Based on the logic rules of The Witness (which you should probably play first!), you must place symbols on the grid to ensure the resulting puzzle has exactly one solution.

Released: 25th September
Pricing: Paid
Available on: Itch.io (Windows)

Spirit of the God Kings mixes exploratory free-roam gameplay with mathematical puzzles, in an Ancient Egyptian tomb setting. In the puzzles, use cards to change numbers on the grid so that the rows and columns add to a target number.

Released: 26th September
Pricing: Free
Available on: Itch.io (Web)

Marzanna is a puzzle platformer created for the #IndieSpainJam about an intrepid explorer scrambling to escape from an awakening volcano. With the special ability to draw platforms of ice, find your way out before it’s too late.

Released: 29th September
Pricing: Free (with ads)
Available on: Google Play (Android)

Tectra is a sliding-block puzzle game in which the block you’re sliding around can stick to other blocks, creating more complex shapes that will help you position everything correctly to slide to the goal.

Released: 30th September
Pricing: Free
Available on: Itch.io (PDF)

House is a cryptic puzzle book, filled with all sorts of curious diagrams and scribbles that at first look like minimalist art pieces, but gradually reveal their hidden clues and secrets.