Freshly Frosted, the latest puzzle game from developers The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild, takes place in a conveyor-belt-filled donut factory... in the sky... in your head. When the game starts, a short cutscene informs us that these imaginary contraptions help the soft-spoken narrator sort things out in their mind when life gets a little overwhelming. Already, we're in unusual thematic territory for a logic-driven puzzle game. This focus on a unique aesthetic is a recurring theme throughout the design of Freshly Frosted.
The mechanics of the game are easily understood: rooms divided into square grids feature cute little input and output terminals, along with various dispensers and machines which will all end up connected by conveyor-belt paths you’ll draw with your cursor. The big idea here is to satisfy the donut production orders floating in the top-left of your screen: maybe this time around we want one with frosting and two with sprinkles. Once you're convinced that your maze of moving belts will successfully carry donuts from their sources, past the relevant topping machines, and into the donut receptacles, you press the play button to start your factory running. This is the moment that Freshly Frosted really comes to life.
Suddenly, the machines spring awake: conveyors start moving pastries along to the beat of fun, bouncy music. Toppings are pressed down in time with the rhythm. The action becomes hypnotic as the many moving parts come together in a synchronized dance. When I unexpectedly received an achievement referencing the performance, it became very clear that Freshly Frosted was fostering this feeling intentionally. It can be quite enjoyable to sit back and watch something work, especially when you've put so much effort into engineering it. This all connects back to the focus on aesthetics I mentioned earlier. Rather than worlds, the game is divided into 12 “boxes” of donuts, each with a different vibe: a season, or weather, or a time of day. New music and a new visual palette bring a nice change of pace to the spectacle. You'll manufacture new types of donuts, but notably, their toppings and colors do not change much from one box to another... more on that later.
In terms of the actual puzzles, Freshly Frosted is satisfying, if a bit repetitive. There are plenty of well-designed levels here, requiring specific realizations and efficient use of all the space they provide. The always-useful “Why is this thing here? There must be a reason...” will serve you well. As with many puzzle games of this track-laying variety, the game is at its best when the levels are tight and focused rather than sprawling and overwhelming. While I don't think the game is designed with an expert solver in mind, I don't personally see that as a negative, and things do get more complex and challenging in the second half.
This point, however, leads me to one of my biggest criticisms of Freshly Frosted: several worlds (boxes) into the game, I was bored of doing the same thing over and over. As previously mentioned, the toppings that you're applying to these donuts do not change as you progress: pink frosting, blue sprinkles, whipped cream, over and over. (Sometimes the lighting changes, and you're using orange-tinted frosting on pumpkin-shaped donuts, but that's as far as it goes.) In terms of keeping things consistent in a player's mind, I can understand and forgive that choice. Perhaps more significantly, there are no new puzzle mechanics or machines introduced until close to halfway through the game — a decision that frustrates and confuses me. When you finally do start seeing new elements, the game is instantly exciting and interesting again: a splitter that directs donuts in two different directions, a pusher which looks for a specific donut and bumps it over to the next belt. I was left wondering why it had taken so long for me to earn the privilege of playing with these new toys.
For the most part, Freshly Frosted feels polished: the expected undo and restart options are present, meaning nothing is getting in the way of working through puzzles one step at a time, and the fast-forward option is a very necessary inclusion here. Although it's generally very pleasant to interact with, there are a few details that feel like they could be improved. The conveyors that eventually fill every level are packed so close together that it can at times be difficult to determine how things are flowing at a glance. Even just putting some curves on the outside corners could go a long way to clarifying the flow of traffic. There are plenty of options to do with turning the narration off and different control methods, but I have to assume that the default settings indicate the developers' intention for the game, and... unfortunately, by default, the easy-going narrator will take just about any break in activity to mean that the player must be in need of some verbal prompting. Puzzle games of this type are about patience and taking time to think things over, so it's easy for that sort of feature to feel patronizing or annoying.
Ultimately Freshly Frosted left me feeling a little conflicted. There are solid, satisfying puzzles to be found here, but their mechanisms are not particularly revelatory or innovative. I had fun with the game, but some interesting elements are held in reserve a little too long. However, the particular sensory experience that Freshly Frosted offers does feel like something new and different – a direction in which logic-based puzzle games rarely push. It's a gentle, pretty, pastel-colored game, with a soft-spoken voice coaxing you into assembling hypnotic puzzle-factories. A few quirks held me back from fully embracing this charm: if it's all about the fun visuals and aesthetics, why do these donut toppings never change? (Speaking of which: have you ever heard of someone putting whipped cream and cherries on top of a donut? I know that's pedantic, but I had plenty of time to consider it.) These are minor complaints, and the real question is: how much does this kind of novel aesthetic experience matter to you when playing a videogame? The narrator of Freshly Frosted cannot stop talking about how much they love donuts... but how much do you like donuts?
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.
