Workworkwork is the latest solve-your-way-through puzzle book from Blaž Urban Gracar, the creator of fan-favorite works such as LOK and Abdec, and it's available to play now in PDF format. Blaž is a multi-talented artist, and makes games and puzzles under the brand Letibus. For years now his work has been among the most exciting and elegant things happening in the world of paper logic puzzles, and a new release always generates some hype in the community.
These books are self-guided little journeys of discovery, taking you through hand-illustrated worlds one puzzle at a time, giving a huge amount of agency to the player when it comes to leaving things unsaid and allowing you to draw your own conclusions and create your own realizations. They're cryptic, mysterious and hands-off, but expertly designed to still subtly shepherd a solver into learning the things they need to.
If any of this sounds intriguing to you, I highly recommend diving into one of Blaž's puzzle books without any more knowledge: LOK is the most famous of the bunch, and in addition to the PDF version and physical book format it was also released as a digital game last year on Steam, featuring new expanded content. The new release Workworkwork is currently available in PDF download, with a physical book release planned for the near future.
This time around we're helping these little Pac-Man-ghost workers assemble contraptions out of blocky components — rotating and welding together Tetris pieces to satisfy growing and changing constraints and goals. I've done some early playtesting of Workworkwork and although I haven't yet explored the mind-boggling depths it undoubtedly reaches, what I saw of the early puzzles convinced me this is another lovely addition to this growing catalogue of rule-discovery adventures. (I'm also very excited for the eventual release of Herd, Blaž's next creation in development which looks to lean more boardgame-y than any of the previous games.)
You can either download the PDF of Workworkwork today for just a few dollars, or pre-order the book (coming at the end of July) which will net you a small discount versus the launch price. You'll also find the rest of the books available either on the Letibus store or itch.io.
Although it costs a bit more to ship a book and I know that won't be an option for everyone, personally I can't recommend them highly enough: sitting down with some coffee or tea and doing a few puzzles together has become a regular ritual me and my partner both look forward to, and these beautiful, elegant objects also make great gifts for the thinky friends and family in your life.
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