The most puzzle-packed Calendar around is back for a 5th year running (can't believe it's been that long): I'm one of the organizers of The Confounding Calendar, a big community event that takes place every November-December and involves everyone getting together to make bite-sized, single-level puzzle treats that are then slowly released over the course of a month for us to all enjoy and discuss together.
Everything about the Calendar is free and community-oriented: it's all about making things as part of a big shared project and giving people a bunch of easily-accessible, quick-playing puzzle games they can fit into their December schedules. All the games use the same color palette, are playable on the web, and most importantly, they're very small: the whole game has to take place on a single screen, no scrolling or transitioning to new levels.
This restriction is a fun creative challenge, but it also benefits the overall project in an important way: just like any good advent calendar, our hope is that anyone interested in playing some freshly made puzzle games will be able to find time to open up the calendar page, discover a new game waiting for them, and spend 5-10 minutes getting some fun out of it before moving on. We'd love for it to be a thinky treat in your daily routine, so we work to keep everything compact and manageable to keep up with.
If you're not a gamedev and don't have interest in making a game, you can sit back and look forward to December 1st when we'll start releasing a new webgame each day on the Calendar homepage. We'll also have dedicated channels for discussing the games on our Thinky Games Discord. And I can't miss the opportunity to advertise that the Calendar page already boasts hundreds(!) of tiny webgame puzzles from the 4 previous years: hard to overstate what a treasure trove of cute, fun stuff that page has become.
If, however, you are a games-making kind of person, or aspire to be, I'd encourage you to try your hand: the CC is a really great place to start because the tight restrictions on what you can make force you to think small. Many people across several puzzle discords will be working on things and sharing their progress and more than happy to answer questions. A common starting point is the free online game engine PuzzleScript, which people use to make many of our Calendar games each year.
We really hope you'll join us in playing and making a batch of new miniature games, and hope you'll look forward to the new Confounding Calendar this December!
Disclaimer: Thinky Games is part of the Carina Initiatives and may have professional relationships with individuals and businesses related to the subject of this article. Please see our Editorial Policy for details.
