What Are We Playing? [Sept 2026]

This month's What Are We Playing blog focuses on five completely different games that require very different kinds of attention:  a paper-based puzzle game, a rhythm game about a teenage musician, a deduction mystery, a time travel narrative, and a merge game overrun with adorable dogs.

Synapse by Puzzling Pursuits

Divided into two parts, Synapse is easy to split up and play in two sessions instead of one long sitting. The puzzles stay close to theme from start to finish, and the first half is a genuine pleasure to solve. It came together without needing hints, right up to the final puzzle, which undercuts its own momentum and could use a bit more signposting. Part two leans too hard anagrams, but was otherwise quite fun to figure out. Though we ultimately found the story to be underwhelming—it never really moves forwards so much as marks time until the ending, and the even that lands on a pretty gloomy note. Although the game is entirely made of paper components, there was enough variety in how they're used to keep the format from feeling thin.

Difficulty: 3/5

Time: 3-4 hours, 1-2 hours per chapter

Image via Steam

Goodbye Volcano High by KO OP

This is a cozy visual novel in a rhythm game's disguise, as it plays like a visual novel at first. The musical mini-games feel like they exist because the protagonist happens to be a musician, and there aren't enough branching choices to call the gameplay an RPG either. At its core, Goodbye Volcano High is a story about friendship and how weird it is to be alive when the world is about to end. The musical mini-games are the weak point. Button timing drifts from what's on screen, and too much competes for attention all at once to track cleanly. With some tightening, they'd be fun instead of frustrating. Thankfully, the art and music hold up for the full runtime. The story skews Young Adult fiction in tone, which isn't for everyone, but is a good fit for those who like a coming-of-age story.

Difficulty: 1/5

Time: ~7 hours

Image via Steam

The Incident at Galley House by Evil Trout Inc.

Galley House grew out of a text-only game prototype called Type Help. Even in that rougher form, the puzzle logic was solid enough to make its a-ha moments land. The only downside of Type Help was tracking the scenes, characters, and rooms throughout—an essential part of the deduction mechanic that basically demands a spreadsheet. Galley House fixes that with a built-in interface to track all the details, plus a hint system that nudges without handing you the answer.

The one real letdown is the art and animation, which sit in an uncanny space that keeps pulling focus away from an otherwise confident presentation. One more visual pass would go a long way. One useful addition would be a way to log codes you've already tried on the in-game machine, so a wrong guess doesn't repeat by accident.

This spooky mystery has unexpected twists, and the ending wraps up in a way that feels earned. An easy recommendation for deduction game fans, and is one of the strongest titles played this year. Fans of The Return of the Obra Dinn and The Rootrees are Dead should give this one a try.

Difficulty: 3/5

Time: 10-12 hours

Image via Steam

Eternal Threads by Secret Mode

Eternal Threads has a simple premise, and it's hard to put down once it gets going: travel back in time and adjust key choices to steer a house full of people toward a better outcome. The writing of this narrative game is what makes it work, with several slice-of-life stories unfolding across characters, each hiding secrets and relationships worth pulling apart. The sequential discovery rewards a second and third pass, with outcomes and doors that only reveal themselves once the right thread gets pulled. It plays like a cross of Her Story, Unheard: Voices of Crime, and The Return of the Obra Dinn. A sequel in the same role but with a new story would be immediately added to our cart.

Difficulty: 2/5

Time: ~8 hours

Image via dogpilegame.com

Dogpile by Foot Games

Dogpile bills itself as a "cute, thinky merge game", and that description undersells how accurate it is. It blends elements of Tetris and 2048, drops in a roguelike deck-builder underneath, and wraps the whole thing up in silly cartoon dogs. In this game, turning a small dog into a bigger dog delivers more satisfaction than it has any right to. The difficulty sneaks up fast: once the board fills with big dogs, keeping everything from overflowing turns into its own tight puzzle. It also shared some DNA with Donut County and Katamari Damacy in how far it leans into the absurd, but the charm never comes at the expense of real strategy. Matching dog traits to the right tokens and reading the board's weird physics matters more than it first appears. A strong pick for anyone who wants a whimsical casual game that still poses a challenge.

Difficulty: 2.5/5

Time: 🤷🏻‍♀️

What have you been playing lately?