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From puzzle flow to playtesting, The Witching Hour went through many iterations before ending up perfectly packaged in a box. This is Rebecca Channon’s experience of the development process of The Witching Hour: INITIAL REVISIONS: This took a while. And by a while, I mean a few years. After the initial Secret Santa exchange that the game was created for, I made some changes to the game, increased the scale, and added more puzzles. This was all done on a very part-time basis while I was working on other projects and trying to work up the confidence to pitch it to PostCurious. I always thought the theme and world of the game would be right up their alley, but they are such a well-respected company that it was daunting to make the initial approach. PITCH: Finally I wrapped up my tinkering with the game and made a PDF pitch document, outlining the story, themes and mechanics of the game, plus some photos of the components in action. When I sent this to PostCurious, they asked me for a prototype copy of the game! PROTOTYPE: Making this new prototype took some time, as I had to order certain customised items online and send off various files to be professionally printed. Then there was all the cutting and assembly, plus postage time between the UK and California, meaning it took another couple of months before PostCurious received it. ACCEPTANCE: A few months later, Rita contacted me over email to set up a Zoom meeting, without any indication of whether it was going to be good or bad news. I logged in, unsure what was going to happen, to find the PostCurious team discussing Kickstarter slots and what would be the best time of year to launch it. So that was a yes, then! DEVELOPMENT PHASE: We properly started work on the game in the summer of 2025. PostCurious had a few things they wanted to change: the title (it was originally called The Witch Maze), adjusting the story delivery system from a booklet to a deck of cards, and adapting the hints to a new system. I also worked with Arlo Howard on firming up elements of the story and gameflow so it felt clear and balanced. As a result of adjustments to the gameflow, we revised some puzzles, and added in even more puzzles, because who doesn’t like more puzzles? Arlo made some incredibly helpful diagrams that laid out all the gameplay elements in several different ways. PLAYTESTING: In early 2026, Rita set up some playtests in the US, and Arlo and I organised one in the UK as well. Each playtest was timed and we wrote notes about anything that caused people trouble or seemed unclear in any way. This led to... EVEN MORE REVISIONS: I am a tinkerer at heart, and I’ll happily revise anything I think isn’t working. Is it even a proper game if it hasn’t been altered a million times? ILLUSTRATION & PHYSICAL ITEMS: We had chosen illustrators for specific elements of the game and they started working away on things, once the puzzles were firmed up enough. They would occasionally send sketches or images to us for feedback and we’d discuss colours and layouts, etc. At this point, Rita was also talking to manufacturers and 3D-designers about how to make the physical objects in the game. EDITING: PostCurious brought in a professional editor to go over all the text, of which there was plenty! We made changes based on her feedback, mainly for clarity and brevity. This was all done in our shared spreadsheet document, which was the best way of keeping track of all the different numbered cards and their accompanying text. EVEN MORE PLAYTESTING: In June and July, once a good portion of the art was ready, Rita set up some late-stage playtests, and I managed to pull one together in the UK as well. You always need to playtest again once you’ve made revisions, to catch any possible knock-on effects you hadn’t expected. YET MORE REVISIONS: Yep, you guessed it. These were much smaller and more specific revisions this time (fixing a missing comma or slight misalignment, etc). MANUFACTURING SAMPLES: Rita received samples of the items she had specified, and we discussed colour, size, texture, finishes, etc., until we were happy. It was hard for me to weigh in on this completely as I was in another country and so could only see photos/videos of the items, but I trusted Rita’s judgement. REVIEW COPIES SENT OUT: By the start of August, we were reaching the end of the process and coming up towards the Kickstarter launch, even though some of the illustrations were not entirely complete, so the review copies that were sent out had a small amount of incomplete art on them. FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS AND REVISIONS: We finally pulled everything together, leaving us with a complete game. KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN: PostCurious decided, very sensibly, to launch this during the autumn period, as it is a spooky game and perfect for the Halloween vibes at this time of year. So the launch date was set for the end of September, with the funding period lasting for most of October. Next will come manufacturing, before the final product gets delivered to all the backers in 2027! SLEEP. To see the final product in action for yourself, back our Kickstarter campaign for The Witching Hour through October 29th.

As we enter the second week of our Kickstarter campaign for The Witching Hour, we wanted to give you a glimpse behind the scenes at the initial design, before it made its way to PostCurious. A game originally created to bring joy in a single gift exchange has now been funded and will eventually be on shelves around the world. In last week's post you learned the "why" behind the game—now you can discover the "how", straight from the creative mind of its designer and author, Rebecca Channon. 1. STORY: My central story concepts were chosen, so I fleshed them out into a world that the game could sit in. Some central questions I had to answer were: Why was there a maze? How did it relate to the witches? Who were these witches and what did they want? Who was the central character, the one that the player of the game would inhabit? How did that character fit into the world and what circumstances would send this character into the maze? 2. FLOW: I sketched out the maze itself and worked out what new secrets would be discovered by the main character on her wanderings through the maze and where in the maze they would be situated. Snapshot from the original maze design I worked out where the information needed to be gated in order to maintain the fine line between giving agency to players exploring the maze and keeping some elements hidden for exciting later discoveries. I also developed an overarching mystery to be solved along the way. 3. PUZZLES: I had a lot of meta-fun creating some puzzles as literal gates inside the maze. Every puzzle needed to have its own reward in terms of revealing a part of the story, a clue, or providing you with a physical reward, such as opening an envelope to find items for a new puzzle. One of the puzzle cards in the first prototype of the game I have always preferred puzzles that fit into the narrative and don’t stand out as a puzzle that is there “just because”. It can be very jarring if something about the puzzle doesn’t fit into the world you have created in your head while playing a game, or there doesn’t seem to be any reason for its presence. Thus, I made every effort to embed them as fully as possible into the story world. 4. STRUCTURE: As I was developing the puzzles, I began writing a booklet with numbered narrative passages. This resulted in the effect that most of the puzzle answers would need to be numbers, so that when you got an answer to a puzzle, you would look for the passage with that number to find out if you were correct. For scenes that needed to be investigated for the mystery element of the game, I drew digital pictures of the various characters involved and put numbers by their heads, so that if you could talk to them by reading that numbered passage. Additionally, the numbers you pass in the maze would lead you to descriptions of your exploration. All of these things gave the game a choose-your-own-adventure vibe and made it more immersive. One of the scene cards in the first prototype of the game 5. ORGANISATION: Keeping track of roughly 150 text snippets became quite complicated, so I made a spreadsheet to keep track of all the numbered passages, their contents, and how each one is found. I also allocated specific passages for the hints, which I provided in incremental stages, with a hint icon for each puzzle that would direct you to the first hint. 6. TESTING: Eventually, when I was happy with how all the elements of this game came together, I sent it all off for printing and played the whole game through myself to test that everything worked as intended. This led to quite a few small changes, which I implemented before printing out the parts again. Then it was ready, so I packed it up and sent it off to my Secret Santa recipient, Phil. But that, of course, was only the start of this game’s journey… Concluding The Initial Design Process From flow to prototype, the maze went through many steps before it ended up in Phil's hands. What reads here as six stages of design process was actually a lot of trial and error built one puzzle at a time. After a year of development with PostCurious, we made quite a few upgrades and changes before the game was ready to launch— more on that next time!

Before The Witching Hour became the game it is today, it was a gift. Rebecca Channon built it as a Secret Santa present, meant for one person to unwrap, solve, and enjoy. It existed in the way that many good ideas start out: privately, with no stakes beyond giving the recipient a nice holiday. But why not spread the spooky cheer a bit further? On May 1, 2024, Rebecca asked if we take submissions, to which we responded, "Sort of." What followed was less a pitch than a slow realization that what she'd made for one person was interesting and unique enough that we wanted to develop it into a product that many more people could enjoy. This series of design diaries follows the whole arc of The Witching Hour's creation, from the mazes and witch trials that seeded the earliest ideas, through the work of turning a handmade prototype into a game ready for your table. In this first installment, you can read about the inspirations for the game in the creator's own words: Mazes From the very start of the design process, I knew I wanted my game to involve a maze. I have always been fascinated by mazes, both on paper and in real life, and I wanted this game to be a love-letter to the form. I grew up relatively close to Hampton Court Palace, which features the UK’s oldest surviving hedge maze, so I was lucky enough to visit it several times during my childhood. It’s the perfect example of the classic maze and has a cleverly designed route that makes it tricky to complete, despite its relatively small size. Photo via Guinness World Records website When visiting Vienna, I remember insisting on trying the maze at Schonbrunn Palace, which had a raised bridge as part of it. This was an exciting break in the form and got me thinking about how the rules could be bent to play with height as well. Image via Vienna.info The idea of incorporating bridges is taken to further extremes at the Dream of Poliphilo maze at the Chateau de Thoiry in France. Image via sortiraparis.com I was even lucky enough to visit a maize maze, once they crossed the Atlantic from America to the UK. In this maze there weren’t hedge walls surrounding you, but temporary crops, and a new footprint could be made every year if needed. The one I visited also had clearings with clues to a puzzle that could be solved if you found them all, adding another dimension of interest. Devon Maze image via Devonlive.com But while these are all excellent classic, relatively traditional mazes, the maze form is capable of so much more than that. While researching mazes, I found some interesting ways that people have experimented to create something almost unrecognisable as a maze, while still maintaining the crucial solving pattern that makes them so addictive. For example: a Colour Maze, where there are plenty of routes to the centre, but restrictions on which ones can be taken in which order. Different coloured paths run between various points, such as a network of stars, and you have to change which colour of path you are following every time you get to one of these points (for instance, you must follow the order green-orange-blue in your steps). This creates restrictions beyond the traditional “hedge in the way” barrier. Colour Maze Rotorua, image via wonderworld.co.nz Twists on that format could involve being forced to reverse direction every time you get to a specific point, having certain paths be one-way only, or being forced to follow certain directions as indicated by arrows. The Archery maze was invented in 1999, which is coincidentally is also the year The Witching Hour is set in. Image via bosburyhistoryresource.org.uk I was determined to have fun with the structure of mazes when designing The Witching Hour. If you play it, see if you can spot how many of the puzzles were inspired by mazes! Witches The next major theme I wanted to bring into the game was witches, as I have always been fascinated with the ridiculous circular logic behind witch trials. Particularly absurd are the tests for witches where they would be submerged in water. If the defendant survived, then they would be “proven” to be a witch and would therefore be killed. They would only be considered innocent if they drowned, which would offer them very little comfort, on account of them being dead. Illustration of a 1692 Salem witch trial, by John W. Ehninger (Public Domain) It’s really the pinnacle of human stupidity… Or is it actually the pinnacle of human willingness to commit evil acts in order to maintain control over others? Is it merely demonstrating the human fear of those who are different? Or the strength of superstition in giving humans the illusion of safety? Perhaps all of the above. ...So I created a modern yet isolated town, where witches are still feared and burnt at the stake. A woodcut illustration from a 19th century book depicting a European witch burning centuries earlier (via Wikimedia Commons) Accidental Inspirations The plot of The Wicker Man may have also been an inspiration for the story in The Witching Hour, although I haven’t actually seen the film. The Wicker Man, Film Poster Another film that feels like it should have been an inspiration (as it involves a maze and a child being stolen) but I have also never seen, is Labyrinth. I’m led to believe that it involves goblins and David Bowie being iconic—neither of which the game contains, I’m sorry to say. Labyrinth, Film Poster With all that, I now had a couple of linked concepts for the game, but what next? In the second design diary I will describe how I went about the initial design process of The Witching Hour (though at the time, the title was actually The Witch Maze).

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?

This month's What Are We Playing ranges from coming-of-age stories that are out of this world, a fast dice-drafting rouge-lite video game, and a boxed set of supernatural mystery cases. Image via Steam I Was a Teenage Exocolonist by Northway Games A teenager comes of age on a new planet, taking on the daily work of a young colony, hydroponic farming among them, alongside a cast of colonists who each carry their own history. The art carries a lot of the game's charm, with palettes that turn calm and open during the outdoor stretches and alien creature designs that lean warm and a little strange, more fantasy than hard science fiction. Where most RPGs would put the outcome of a challenge to a dice roll, this one runs everything through a card game instead. Cards build up over the course of play, some earned through story beats and some through the choices made along the way. Resting lets a player drop a card to sharpen the deck, though only between two options rather than the full hand, a limit that keeps a more intentional build just out of reach. Card draw is random, but the the occasional modifier woven into a challenge gives these moments a rhythm that brings Balatro to mind. Difficulty rises in step with the characters' growing skills. The early hours ask for a little patience. Experience builds slowly, and some dialogue options sit behind stats before they feel earned. Relationships take their time too, sometimes to the point where deepening one friendship means setting the rest of the colony aside. A few earlier, smaller wins would go a long way toward pulling a new player in faster. The final stretch also hands over less control of the story than the hours before it, which stands out after so much time spent making choices that felt like they mattered. Time: ~10 hours Difficulty: 2/5 Image via Steam Rue Valley by Emotion Spark Studio A mysterious time loop story with a comic book look, with vibes in the neighborhood of The Forgotten City, Kentucky Route Zero, and Disco Elysium. Each loop means talking to people, moving through the town, and gathering information that carries into the next run. Time loop games can wear thin fast, but this one mostly avoids that trap, aside from a wish for a quicker way through a loop's early beats once they're already familiar. The ending draws mixed feelings, and a few systems feel rough in places, but the overall experience holds together well. The Kafkaesque premise, waking up in a therapist's office every single morning, carries real weight throughout. A good pick for anyone drawn to narrative-first games with some bite to them. Time: ~10-15 hours Difficulty: 1/5 Dicey Dungeons by Terry Cavanagh A rogue-lite built on dice drafting, where skills get chosen and upgraded on the fly and the fun comes from stacking synergies between them. Six characters each play differently, and the Inventor stands out among them, forcing real choices about which skills to keep and rewarding quick thinking when new combos show up mid-battle. The word "Episode" promises more story than these levels actually carry, but that's a small quibble against a fast, snappy dice-battle format built for short runs and quick progress. It fills a gap that Citizen Sleeper, another dice-drafting game with far more story wrapped around it, doesn't quite fill in terms of gameplay. Worth a look for Slay the Spire fans wanting something different but with a similar line of thinking. Time: <1 hour per run Difficulty: 2+/5, increasing with progress Image via Steam Lost Records: Bloom & Rage by Don't Nod This is a story split between past and present, from some of the same creators behind Life is Strange, and it carries a familiar shape for anyone who has played those games. The writing suits the cast well, with a little repetition here and there. Anyone who grew up as the quiet, awkward kid in the room may find a lot to recognize in the protagonist, though that connection will land differently for everyone. Plenty of branches shape how the story can end, though it's not always clear which choices moved things in a different direction. Tension and release run through the plot in equal measure, even with a cutscene-to-gameplay ratio that leans heavy on the cutscenes. A strong pick for fans of narrative games, coming-of-age stories, or 90s nostalgia. Time: 11 hours Difficulty: 1/5 Image of Six Feet Under The Magnus Protocol Mysteries by Indie Boards & Cards The first boxed set of The Magnus Protocol Mysteries brings three cases: The Last Supper, The Grinning Corpse, and Six Feet Under. Each one works the same way, laying out a full pile of evidence at once for players to sort through and investigate as they work out a supernatural mystery. Most of the deductions come together, and there's something novel about a case built on supernatural logic, even though a few details stay vague enough that a "best guess" is the only way through. Each case runs short and tight, which works in its favor even where a bit more depth would have been welcome. A solid pick for anyone drawn to evidence-based mystery games but wanting to try something a little different. Time: <1 hour per game Difficulty: 2.5/5 What have you been playing lately?

This month's What Are We Playing features games ranging from a five-chapter treasure hunt to a murder mystery that feels straight out of 2009. Dead Man's Tale by Mysterious Package Company Dead Man's Tale is a paper pop-up adventure that unfolds across five distinct chapters. The props and production design are impressive. Some components hold up beautifully throughout play, but a few are a bit fragile to handle. Unfortunately, some of these elaborately designed components feel underutilized for how interesting they look. Most puzzle solutions come together smoothly without hints, but there are a few stretches where confirming a correct path takes longer than warranted. It's helpful to have each chapter's solution be self-confirming, even if decoding them is mildly tedious. The puzzle difficulty and complexity feel a bit uneven at times. There are many layered puzzles that are quite clever, while a handful feel somewhat finicky in their logic. One note for anyone picking this up: keep good notes as you go. Information from earlier chapters resurfaces later, and it's easy to lose track of where you are without it. Difficulty: 3/5 Time: ~1 hour per chapter (total ~5 hours) The Archives of Trevosa by Jamwitch The Archives of Trevosa is a deduction game that is recognizably influenced by The Roottrees Are Dead, Chants of Sennaar, and keyword-searching games like Her Story and Telling Lies. The puzzling centers around deducing the meanings of words based on context clues, figuring out family relationships, and scouring documents in the archive to find connections between characters. For a free game, the polish is genuinely surprising. Anyone who already likes this style of deduction will get pulled in fast, and hold on until the entire family tree is resolved. If you're a fan of this genre, give this game a try. It's a solid couple of hours of puzzling for the very reasonable price of free! Difficulty: 3/5 Time: ~2 hours ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies by ZA/UM ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies is one of several spiritual successors to Disco Elysium (a psychological RPG that is mentioned in nearly every blog post because I keep seeking out other games like it). This publisher went through a drama-filled split after the release of Disco, which is a valid reason for hesitation. Could the studio release a game similar in quality with most of the original creative team gone? The answer to that is yes. While the setting may be different from Disco Elysium, the tone, visual language, and gameplay feel very similar. This makes it hard to call the game an innovation on its predecessor, but that can't be the base metric for judging all games. For anyone who enjoys this style of writing-heavy RPG, the thirty hours of gameplay go by fast! Though derivative (by design), Zero Parades feels thoughtfully conceived and well-written. Characters have distinct personalities, and interactions are often consequential. A few branches converge on the same destination from different routes, and a small reward for finding all paths would be a nice touch. Some skill checks feel harder than necessary, and the resource system for tracking basic needs gets a bit frustrating at times. A few more side quests and unhinged plotlines would round things out, though there's enough weirdness woven in to keep things interesting. While it doesn't really break new ground, there's plenty it does well, and I am thoroughly here for it. Difficulty: N/A Time: ~30 hours Fallen Star: The Emily Hemingway Case by Studio Stamp Studio Stump's Fallen Star is a classic tabletop murder mystery built around paper props and companion websites that are styled to look like they're straight out of 2009. The retro website design leans into early social platforms like Myspace, which may bring a pinch of nostalgia to millennial players. The site interface feels clunky in places, but is functional overall. The clues themselves feel fair throughout, with just enough misdirection to create doubt before finding all of the evidence. Most of the case came together for us without needing hints, but we did manage to miss a few things along the way. Sometimes it was hard to know if we had found everything—for example, a few pages required login credentials, and it wasn't always clear how many individual accounts we had access to. The hints are useful and incremental, but not the most intuitive to use. A few confusing details caused some hang-ups along the way, but we solved the case in the end. The physical materials are good quality: photos printed on actual photo paper, handwriting that reads like handwriting, etc. There aren't any non-paper materials, but it's clear that every component was designed with intent. Difficulty: 2/5 Time: ~1.5 hours Dispatch by AdHoc Studio Dispatch is a story-driven video game, built around light puzzle elements and strategic choice-making. The premise puts you in charge of dispatching a team of superheroes made up of former villains. Gameplay revolves around upgrading skills for your roster and deciding who to send on what mission during dispatch shifts. Those shifts move at a faster pace than the cut scenes, and they work well as a kind of mini-game, never overstaying their welcome. Most of the eight episodes include two shifts, with cut scenes and dialog choices filling the space between. Heroes level up by successfully completing their tasks. The puzzle-style "hacking" sequences range from fun to frustrating depending on how much quick timing is required. Some of the quick-time events feel a bit too quick, and leave little time to read the prompts. The comic book art style is well-executed, and makes sense for the superhero theme. Natural break points are provided through the episodic structure. The animated sequences are a highlight, and the story stays character-focused rather than leaning on superhero action to progress the narrative. The writing is quite funny, and, along with the dispatching gameplay itself, is one of the stronger elements of the game. Difficulty: 2/5 Time: ~11 hours (~45m per episode) What are you playing this month?

The Design Process Behind The Puzzle Book The Stormlamp Rituals started out as a monthly publication by Jack Fallows, and was originally titled Cryptogram Puzzle Post. Each issue was packaged in a beautifully illustrated envelope with several loose pages inside. These are some of the envelopes from the first year of CPP—the gorgeous covers have since ended up as the chapter openers in the new Stormlamp Rituals book. Four envelopes from the original Cryptogram Puzzle Post series, 2018. Later on, these seven-page zines were reformatted into three-chapter booklets and renamed The Stormlamp Rituals. This was done in preparation of eventually turning the whole series into a puzzle book, so by the time the project came to PostCurious, it had already gone through several rounds of the design process. Still, an eighteen chapter book was an entirely different beast, and we had a lot of our own changes and suggestions to make. Three-chapter booklets of The Stormlamp Rituals, compiled several years later. When we (PostCurious) decided to collaborate with Jack for the publication of the book, our first course of action was to play through all of the chapters and make our own suggestions to improve the puzzles and overall flow. After all, a few extra rounds of playtesting can only make a product better. I created a spreadsheet to track suggestions and changes, and it included notes on absolutely everything from visual legibility to feedback on what puzzles required more signposting. There were many points at which I got stuck, which was great data from an editing perspective. Some of the changes that came out of this process were puzzle-level tweaks; others were structural decisions that quietly affected the whole book. A non-spoilery snippet of initial notes in the feedback sheet. One of the big formatting changes we made was eliminating the page numbering system that existed in the original series, wherein pages were numbered i-vii. This numbering system made sense for a packet of loose pages, but seemed entirely unnecessary once those pages were in book form. Moreover, we were worried it would just end up as a distracting detail if the numbers didn't serve any true purpose, especially since some puzzles would end up spanning more than one single page in the book. Getting rid of this number formatting allowed us to have more space on the page, giving the text and illustrations additional room to breathe. An example of the original page numbering in the zine. Using this feedback sheet, we built an iterative workflow for putting the book together. First, Jack would review and revise elements based on my initial notes, and then begin formatting those elements into the book. Next, Chelsea (official task juggler here at PostCurious) would play through these new book pages, making notes about additional revisions as needed. As those changes were made, we handed off the pages to other playtesters, who would take their own notes, and so on. In addition to playtesting the puzzles several times, Jack also made many revisions to the narrative. Since the zines were designed to be played as standalone episodes, there were instances where transitions felt disjointed, or there wasn't enough story context overall. The beginning of the book was especially challenging—we ended up adding a prologue to set the scene for the narrative that follows, as well as revising the opening pages of the story and the accompanying puzzle. Some initial feedback from playtesters was that the first puzzle threw them into the deep end, and we definitely didn't want that! The newly edited first spread from within The Stormlamp Rituals. Throughout the playtesting process, Chelsea and I also wrote a brand new set of hints for each chapter of the book that would guide you step-by-step through each puzzle. In the initial series, there were no official hints, and in the 3-chapter zines, hints were available online, but were relatively bare-bones. Having a comprehensive and incremental hint system is a hallmark of PostCurious games, and we were committed to making this project completely analog, so we crafted a two-page spread of tiered hints for every chapter. We also wanted to make sure people wouldn't accidentally read hints they didn't intend to, so we added a red-reveal overlay on these pages so they'd only be easily readable with our bookmark filter. An example of a red-reveal hint spread along with the red-filter bookmark. Another major change from the episodic series was the treatment of pages that required cutting. To avoid making players cut into the book itself, any puzzle that required physical manipulation of the paper was made into a loose page and placed in the "satchel" at the back of the book. This is basically an envelope styled to look like a leather bag, in which all of these extra components are housed without adding too much extra thickness to the book. We also created a digital downloads page for folks who may want to print out additional copies to cut up without damaging the satchel pages. A flat-lay template of the book's satchel. The series booklets also each came with a "prize postcard" that depicted a portion of a map alongside a story flashback. Although we were initially going to replicate these for the book, we quickly decided that a different treatment would be more appropriate for this iteration of the project. We asked Jack to place the story flashbacks into the book itself so they were naturally interspersed, and decided to make a large fold-out world map for players to enjoy in lieu of the map fragment postcards. The new map, alongside the rest of the book components. Finally, we knew the book needed some sort of satisfying finale, and we wanted to incorporate our lovely new map into the last chapter. The ending had to be rewritten to give a feeling of finality, but also make it clear that there is still more to come, since this is just the first volume. To give cohesion to all the chapter solutions, we created the Incantation page where players could record their answers throughout the entire playthrough. This page has labeled spaces for each of the chapter answers—using the line length, players can confirm they have the right answer in most instances without necessarily having to refer to the hints. Of course, there were many other tweaks we made to the contents before we were satisfied—after all, it's a whopping 300+ pages! In addition to puzzle edits, Jack created extra spot illustrations, which are scattered throughout the book. We also hired a professional copyeditor and proofreader to ensure we didn't miss any silly grammatical errors. Jack and I passed the book file back and forth to each other for a couple of months as we finalized all the text and formatting. Overall, it's been quite a journey, but we're really pleased with the final result. Hopefully you, future player, will be too! Is there something you want to know about The Stormlamp Rituals? Ask us in the comments!

This month's What Are We Playing highlights the amazing quarter we've had for video games. Of course, it wouldn't be a PostCurious WAWP without a few tabletop games to round out the screen time! Image via Steam Esoteric Ebb by Raw Fury Esoteric Ebb is an RPG that wears its Disco Elysium influence openly, but also holds its own—lighter in tone, fantasy-set, and considerably more whimsical, even when it edges into more serious territory. If you're drawn to D&D-style lore and world-building, you can get a lot of mileage out of this game. The onboarding was smooth, though expectation-setting was a little off. The game leans more dialogue-heavy than the setup suggests, and some abilities go unused—raising the question of what might've been missed in unexplored corners. Though light in combat, the wittiness of the writing more than makes up for it: there were frequent laugh-out-loud moments, and the world-building has enough depth to keep the momentum going. Though it's an homage to one of our all-time favorite games, it is also something unique in itself, and made me want to spend more time exploring the world and characters. Time: 20+ hours Difficulty: 2/5 Image via Steam Gris by Devolver Digital From its opening sequence, Gris is gorgeous and experimental. A light platformer—watercolor, atmospheric, closer in spirit to Journey than to anything puzzle-heavy—with art that kept surprising throughout. The animation is a clear labor of love, and the music lifts the whole experience to a Zen-state that is hard to overstate. It was not always immediately obvious what to do, but the solution always felt attainable. The game wants you to succeed, but there are some sequences that require precise timing, so expect your patience to be tested a bit. The mechanics build on each other nicely, and the art, animation, and small extra touches make pushing through the harder moments feel worthwhile. This game is simple, but full of beautiful moments, which was enough motivation to persevere through the occasional pesky jump sequence. If you're looking for a way to challenge yourself while winding down from a long day, add this one to your list! Time: ~4 hours Difficulty: 2.5/5 Image via Steam Lord Winklebottom Investigates by Cloak and Dagger Games Lord Winklebottom Investigates is a classic point-and-click mystery solving game where the detective is a giraffe in a world full of animals. Punny, dry, and easy to get started at any skill level. The art isn't the most polished, but its quirky style fits right with the vibe. The puzzles occasionally require combining objects in ways that aren't intuitive, and the hint system tends to be too generalized to be reliably useful. Always make sure that you're thorough, as new options don't always appear until a particular action is triggered. Otherwise, you'll be sent back to sleuth around more. The puzzling could have been more satisfying, but it feels like the start of something that could develop into a stronger series. Fans of whimsy in detective games will still enjoy this one for its particular flavor of silliness. Time: ~5 hours Difficulty: 2/5 Wilmot's Warehouse by CMYK Games Wilmot's Warehouse is a co-operative tabletop game about placing tiles and then remembering where you put them. Sounds easy enough, right? The catch is the only way to remember is the collective story your group builds around each tile. Is that a candy corn or a mountain? It depends entirely on how your group decides to look at it. The ambiguous shapes make for genuinely fun collaboration, and building a shared organizational logic with friends is more entertaining than it sounds. A little intimidating at first, but with the right group it's a great time. If co-op communication games like Concept or Decorum are your thing, this is worth a play! Time: 30-60 minutes Difficulty: 3/5 Slay the Spire 2 by Mega Crit This is the sequel to Slay the Spire, a roguelike deckbuilder and one of my favorite games. Though the game is still in early access, it already feels more polished than many finished games. Some placeholder artwork remains here and there, but don't let that put you off! The core gameplay is still the essence of the original, with new cards, rewards, and characters, each introducing a mechanic that opens up a fresh set of synergies and abilities. The biggest addition is the multiplayer feature, and it's not an afterthought: it runs smoothly, works cross-platform, and holds up just as well over voice chat as it does in the same room. With multiple characters and generated levels, each battle is a new puzzle with effectively endless replay potential. For newcomers to deck-builders, this is a great title to try, especially for its multiplayer functionality. For anyone who's logged serious hours in the original, the wait was worth it. Time: ~1-1.5 hour per run Difficulty: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Taskmaster: The Escape Room by Ginger Fox Games Fans of Taskmaster will find a lot of love in the details—the artwork and writing are full of nods to the hit show. Didn't know it was a show? Not a problem, as no knowledge of the show is required to play. The game can be played fully offline, though the online solution checker is worth using for the bonus videos featuring "Little" Alex Horne. Most puzzles are beginner-friendly and well signposted, with clear, logical solutions. A handful had too many possible extraction paths to work through comfortably without hints, which made those particular moments feel more tedious than challenging. The "pop-up" format of the board is enjoyable—clues appear in the cards and papers as well as the house itself—and the variety of mechanics kept things from feeling repetitive. Nothing groundbreaking, but nothing that overstays its welcome either. Fans of the show looking for a lighter tabletop escape game experience should add this to their must-play list! Time: ~2 hours Difficulty: 1.5/5 What have you been playing lately?

Jack Fallows has been creating tales of the Twicelore since 2016. What started out as a gift for a partner grew into a 36-issue series, and is now a full-blown puzzle book! The Stormlamp Rituals Volume I collects the first 18 of those issues, expanded and updated, with a satchel full of extra materials and a red lens bookmark to uncover hints as needed. This book is intended to get readers out of their comfort zone—not only because of the challenging illustrated puzzles, but also because it asks us to reflect on ourselves and the world around us. Immerse yourself in this world and become one with the characters in the narrative. PostCurious sits down with Jack, the author and illustrator, to discover the authentic passion behind the project and dive deeper into this decade-long journey of growth. In Conversation with Jack Fallows For people that have never heard of The Stormlamp Rituals, how would you describe it to someone at a party? Wow, I’d first need to be invited to parties! But I’d probably say something like “It’s an illustrated story about witches, where you solve puzzles to progress through the chapters,” and then brace myself for lots of follow up questions. You've been creating such a vast and detailed universe for almost a decade. Where did it all start? I’ve spent most of my career in comics, or comics-adjacent spaces, so I was originally developing the world and characters of The Stormlamp Rituals to become a graphic novel. This was in winter of 2016, and that Christmas I made a kind of strange His Dark Materials-themed gift for my partner at the time. It was an illustrated envelope full of loose pages of prose, illustration and puzzles, where you solve page 1 to get the key you need to solve page 2, etc. It went over really well and seemed like it had cool storytelling potential, so I took all the material that was going to be the graphic novel and applied it to this weird new format. That’s how the series looked for a good few years, with a new envelope coming out more or less monthly. The book collects the first 18 of the 36 issues I’ve released so far, with tons of updates and new material added! Image via Cryptogram Puzzle Post Anna is the character that your story is centered around. Who is she to you? Anna shares her name with a teenage arsonist who immigrated to Jackson County, Wisconsin in the 1890s. She set her employer’s barn and several other buildings on fire because she was lonesome and homesick and craved excitement. To me, she is an avatar for the survivor, the defiant light in the darkness, the bearer of the torch, and the flame that can’t be put out. To me, [Anna] is an avatar for the survivor, the defiant light in the darkness, the bearer of the torch and the flame that can’t be put out. Our preview copies of the book were sent out, and you got to hold The Stormlamp Rituals for the first time. Is there one part of the book that you are most excited for readers to experience? Honestly, it’s been such a long time coming that I haven’t thought much beyond just getting to hold it in my own hands so far. Which was a semi-religious experience to be honest. I suppose it’s time to engage with the fact that it will be perceived by others very soon, which is surreal! I think the production quality of the overall object is so lovely and tactile. I’m excited for people to discover the crow-shaped bookmark-come-hint-revealer, the map, and all the loose bits in the satchel pocket at the back. But mostly I’m just looking forward to hearing how people find the experience of reading and playing! You made this world, and then PostCurious came in to help get it puzzle book-ready! What was that collaboration like? Well I’m proud to say this ain’t my first rodeo with PostCurious—Rita and I have collaborated on other projects, most notably The Light in the Mist. So I knew my baby would be in very good hands and I was not wrong. There isn’t another publisher I would work with on putting this project out, honestly. Seeing how quickly it went from almost-there, to better-than-I-could-have-imagined has been incredible. Very very grateful to the PostCurious trio and their playtesters for all of their support and expertise. Viva PoCu! What do you hope someone feels after they finish it? I tried to make something I’d like to see in the world. It’s a book you’re supposed to nerd out about on multiple levels. So artwork enjoyers, puzzle solvers, fantasy world explorers, survivors, and witchy weirdos like me should all hopefully feel seen and appreciated by its contents! The Stormlamp Rituals Kickstarter Launches June 2nd For the lovers of all things occult, to our prized puzzle-solving sleuths, and everyone that has ever wanted a purpose in a magical, fantasy life—we are excited to bring you something meaningful with our first ever book project! If you've gotten through this interview and thought "I'd really love my own copy (or eight) of The Stormlamp Rituals," our Kickstarter will be launching on June 2nd, and we will have additional interviews, behind-the-scenes looks, and more, in the next issue of The Stormlamp Diaries! PostCurious is an award-winning publisher of narrative puzzle games based in Oakland, California. PostCurious titles have been backed by thousands of supporters across seven successful Kickstarter campaigns—with media coverage from the LA Times, IGN, and more. Follow on Social Media Instagram: @postcurious Facebook: /postcurious Jack Fallows is an independent artist, model maker, game designer, and musician based in Leeds, UK. Written, designed, and illustrated entirely by Jack, The Stormlamp Rituals is a solo creative work spanning every element of the book—from the story and puzzle design to every page of original art. Follow on Social Media Instagram: @jack_fallows Facebook: /cryptogrampuzzlepost

This month's What Are We Playing covers a puzzle series, two beginner-friendly games, and an RPG video game. The Shackleton Series, Parts 4-6 by Escape Mail We covered the first half of The Shackleton Series last year, but here's the short version for new readers: The Shackleton Series is a 6-chapter puzzle game that unlocks the mystery of how Ernest Shackleton and his crew stayed alive while stranded in Antarctica for two years. The later chapters definitely carry that same spirit forward. Part 4 was shorter and easier than earlier chapters—no hints or flow cards needed—but the paper contraption in this episode was a highlight: fun to assemble and satisfying to manipulate. We especially enjoyed this puzzle and the chapter's meta puzzle; both were very cleverly designed paper components. Parts 5 and 6 kept the neat papercrafting going with a few additional props that added to the tactility without overcomplicating things. We ran into a couple of snags in the last chapter, but a majority of the gameplay was smooth and well signposted. It felt like the perfect difficulty to keep us engaged without frustration, but it also didn't hurt that the hints were fairly thorough when we did need help! The story is engaging throughout the series, though it occasionally gets bogged down in detail and may have benefited from another editorial pass. That aside, we would absolutely recommend the The Shackleton Series if you're looking for a light-to-medium weight puzzle adventure that you can pore over for multiple sessions. Difficulty: 2.5/5 Time: 1-2 hours per chapter Down The Rabbit Hole by Puzzling Pursuits Down The Rabbit Hole is a quick, beginner-friendly puzzle game that uses the source material of Alice in Wonderland as a theme more than a story—almost like a mini escape room. The art is simple but works well for what the game is, and there are clever puzzles and cute wordplay woven in. We didn't need any hints, and while experienced solvers will likely find it fairly easy, it was still a nice change of pace from heavier games. One practical note: it works best with one or two players if you want everyone actively involved in each puzzle. Time: 1-1.5 hours Difficulty: 1/5 Mystery Maps: Murder in Fremantle by Fictional Reality We played an earlier draft of Murder in Fremantle, which had some rough edges, but the strength of the gameplay was easily evident. The format is immediately appealing: a portable booklet that plays like a choose-your-own-path story layered with a grid logic puzzle. The instructions are clear enough that the system makes sense before you've even started, and the difficulty felt accessible throughout. We recommend this to anyone looking to do some light solo puzzling. Looking forward to more Mystery Maps! Disclaimer: We were offered a playtest copy of this game. Sign up for Fictional Reality's mailing list to download a free copy for yourself at fictionalreality.com.au. Time: ~1 hour Difficulty: 2/5 Image via Steam Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 by Kepler Interactive Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a story-driven RPG video game with a unique flavor of turn-based combat that also includes quick-time events. The onboarding and difficulty curve is managed well: learning four characters' skill sets at once could easily feel overwhelming, but the designers paced this out very thoughtfully. While playing, the music stands out right away—it's a lovely complement to the atmosphere. The world design and animation are beautifully rendered, and both the writing and voice acting feel up to par. The story centers on themes of loss and ends up going far deeper than I initially expected, but there's plenty of humor and whimsy woven in too, which made for nice moments of levity. I wished for a better understanding of the scale and the world earlier on—as is, it's easy to miss out on some of the additional exploration that's possible. Reorienting after battles and not accidentally backtracking was also an annoyance. Having a map available throughout the game would've helped significantly for those of us that are directionally challenged. That being said, these critiques are fairly minor. Considering this is the studio's first release, the level of polish is genuinely impressive. I eagerly await their next project, and if you are a fan of story-driven RPGs, this is an absolute must-play. Time: ~40+ hours Difficulty: Variable What have you been playing lately?

This month’s What Are We Playing includes puzzle boxes, a video game, and a comic book game. The theme this month is feeling very out of this world, with several cosmic selections. The Wonderbox of Alice by IDventure Part of the CluePuzzle series, The Wonderbox of Alice is a puzzle box game where assembling the jigsaw pieces reveals memorable scenes from Alice’s adventure and triggers hidden mechanisms within the box. This is a game that doubles as a display piece, and even the unboxing was a delight. The debut of IDventure’s CluePuzzle series was enjoyable, though I’ll admit this one feels like it kicks everything up a notch and experiments more with the format. It’s satisfying to see an evolution with each box they design—it’s not just a repetition of the same thing each time. The mechanics and signposting were clear throughout, with lots of fun reveals and “aha” moments along the way. If you like jigsaw puzzles and neat mechanisms, this a great choice for a chill solo session. Time: ~2 hours Difficulty: 2/5 Image via Labyrinth Games & Puzzles Escape Comics: The Alien Ship by Labyrinth Games & Puzzles Escape Comics: The Alien Ship is a immersive sci-fi puzzle game built around a 27-page comic book. With physical components woven into the story, it plays like an escape room in a box. You’re captaining a team that’s trying to board a mysterious alien vessel, uncover its intentions, and save humanity. The instructions are clean and lean, which was the first thing to immediately impress me. The conceits for the hint system and solution checker are also cleverly integrated into the sci-fi theming rather than dropped in as an afterthought. Then you actually start playing and find a whole comic book inside! There are also a bunch of neat components that tie back into the story, including some genuinely surprising life-sized props. The components were packed in a way that was player-friendly as well as efficient, and the pacing felt right on point. Hint cards were not only useful but written in-world, which is a nice touch. I am personally not a big fan of score keeping in games, so I wasn’t too concerned with tracking this mechanic, but it does have a fun payoff. The art makes this a pretty unique product in the puzzle genre, and feels like a graphic novel crossed with a Star Trek episode—the story is light but full of character. It’s also easy to reset and pass along, which is always a plus! They’ve been working on this game for several years now, and that’s evident in its level of polish. I received a preview copy from the publisher to provide my honest review, because Escape Comics: The Alien Ship launches on Kickstarter at the end of this month! Time: 2-4 hours Difficulty: 2.5/5 Image via Steam As Dusk Falls by Xbox Game Studios As Dusk Falls is a choice-based narrative game with strong characters and high-stakes situations, reminiscent of Telltale Games and the Life is Strange series. While the point of view shifts occasionally, you mainly play as one character. Choices that you make can have massive consequences, and to some degree, the game allows you to explore the storyline to see other outcomes, giving you the chance to override your save or simply explore. I don’t always take advantage of the exploration feature, but the story here was compelling enough that I actually wanted to go back and replay certain scenes to make different choices and see the other outcomes. It was satisfying to see that among the small details, there were also some more consequential differences in outcome. The art style is a bit odd, like an animatic made of painted-over photos and 3D assets, but the writing felt right for the characters and the voice acting really brought the story to life. There are two “books” across six chapters, and the second ends on a cliffhanger with no continuation currently planned. This was a disappointing note to end on, as I would have been satisfied with the way the story wrapped up if it weren’t for the cliffhanger. If you like narrative choice games, this one is definitely worth trying. Time: 7-9 hours Difficulty: 1/5 Image via Steam Occlude by YCJY Games Occlude describes itself as “cosmic-horror solitaire,” where each game is a particular type of ritual with its own secret rules you need to discover. Playing this brought me back to Solitaire on the family computer as a kid, only this time it was also layered in puzzle. Figuring out the rules for each ritual was not easy, and I was almost surprised to find I had more fun just playing Solitaire than I did puzzling out what the rules actually were. That’s probably a reflection of my own impatience than a flaw in the game, though sometimes it felt like a Mastermind-style puzzle turned into a lateral thinking puzzle. Careful observation and meticulous note-taking are required throughout. While most of the game felt fair, the one part that truly frustrated me turned out to involve outside knowledge I didn’t have. There was a fun build-up to the way you obtain clues throughout the game that end up being used in the final ritual. You earn artifacts by getting a full coin score on each ritual, and those feed into the final challenge. I wished the artifacts were cluing other rituals along the way rather than only the very last one, but this is a minor complaint. Overall, it’s an interesting take on card-based logic and observation puzzles. Try the demo if it sounds up your alley! Time: ~7-9 hours Difficulty: 4/5 Cosmic Artifact by INSCAPE Part of the Inscape Box series, Cosmic Artifact is a wooden puzzle box with hidden compartments and sequential mechanical puzzles to work through. There’s something a little ironic about a “cosmic” artifact made entirely of wood, but I can suspend my disbelief. The box has some neat mechanisms, and the majority of the puzzles were genuinely fun to solve. A handful of the mechanisms felt tight or poorly calibrated, and one item within the artifact would have been a real showstopper if it had worked better in practice. It wasn’t essential to the puzzle though, so thankfully it didn’t derail things too much. A numeric code that comes up several times throughout also suffered from unclear orientation, which caused more friction than it should have. My biggest frustration was agonizing over what should have been a simple puzzle because it seemed that my box had been assembled incorrectly. The hint system saved me here, so I was grateful it had photos to show what elements and solutions were supposed to look like. The final drawer in my copy was also stuck, requiring disassembly to get inside, which made finishing feel anticlimactic. After writing all of this up, I learned the assembly I thought was wrong was actually an intentional design challenge to increase difficulty. Unfortunately it made an otherwise fun puzzle feel tedious rather than challenging. Between that and the stuck drawer, the manufacturing inconsistency is hard to ignore. This is an otherwise fun puzzle box, so I hope other customers have better luck. Time: ~1-2 hours Difficulty: 2/5 What have you been playing lately?

Periodically on this blog we highlight a handful of tabletop and digital games to spread the word about interesting experiences and support other creators. Here's our February edition, which includes puzzle, board, and video games. Image via Steam Death Howl by The Outer Zone Death Howl is a open-world, deck-building video game centered on a woman working to bring her son back from the Spirit Realm. Each boss fight is its own mini puzzle as players determine which of their cards are best to use against which enemies. The art direction and color palettes in this game were incredible. While the writing could have been a little more refined, I thought the bittersweet and wistful nature of the story fit the mood and themes of grief well, and I enjoyed its almost folktale-like quality. I thought the deck-building portion of the game was challenging, but satisfying to solve. If I ever encountered an enemy that was out of my league, I found it was better to leave and come back when I was stronger instead of trying to force my way through the encounter. There are some quality-of-life improvements that could have made the journey feel less punishing, though I thought the game was overall tough but fair. As a result of it being a new game, there were a few glitches that will need to be patched, but they were minor enough that they did not impact my opinion of the game as a whole. Death Howl is a really solid strategic deck builder that's meticulously balanced and allows for a satisfying amount of player agency. On top of all that, it's an absolute feast for the eyes. Difficulty: 4/5 Time: 30-50 hours Image via Floodgate Games Sagrada Artisans by Floodgate Games Sagrada Artisans is the campaign version of Sagrada. Played over ten scenarios, you draft dice and color in panes to design beautiful stained glass windows and defend your family’s artisan legacy. I thought there were a lot of fun twists on the mechanics in this game—as long as you were familiar with the base game, the additional rules in this version were novel without being too overwhelming. It was exciting to open new containers and envelopes as we progressed through the game, though I wish I had a reset guide to make replaying easier (yes, I know that's not the point, but it's a lot of waste otherwise!) The narrative was not as strong as those I’ve experienced in other legacy games. However, while I would have happily engaged in a more complex plot, I recognize that I was playing an abstract strategy game and did not expect anything narrative heavy. My one complaint with this game was that it came with poor quality colored pencils, which was frustrating in a game that is so heavily focused on coloring. I appreciated that they made the dice colorblind friendly by adding glitter to some of the colors, but the colored pencils did not match the colors of the dice nor the printed colors in the game. Tip: I ended up using Frixion erasable markers and Prismacolor colored pencils instead of what was provided to try and find a better quality match. The reward at the end of this campaign was exactly what I wanted as a Sagrada fan, and I recommend this game to anyone who also enjoys the base game and wants to dive into something meatier. Image via Steam Split Fiction by Hazelight Studios From the creators of my favorite couch co-op game It Takes Two, Split Fiction is another co-op video game where you play as two authors trapped in the worlds of their own stories. In addition to beautifully polished environments and smooth in-game physics, I thought the story was less corny than It Takes Two, which I appreciated. While I’m not usually a big fan of action in video games, I found the controls satisfying and the platforming forgiving enough that I never had to rerun an entire sequence to the point of frustration. I particularly enjoyed the late game sequences—they were a little funkier and had more variety than the earlier ones. It was also nice to have high-action scenes split up by slower-paced, lower stakes, sections. I loved the homages to other beloved games, as well as the moments of humor and surprise that were scattered throughout Split Fiction. Overall, it’s a really great choice for people who like two-player co-op games with platforming and light puzzles. Difficulty: 2/5 Time: ~14 hours Atlantis Labyrinth by Inscape Box Part of the Inscape Box series, Atlantis Labyrinth is a puzzle box game where you unlock the mysteries of the underwater city of Atlantis. The puzzles of this box were overall enjoyable. While I liked the many of the mechanics and interactions, it was also easy to accidentally trigger something early, which meant I solved some of the puzzles out of the intended order. This game used 3D printed components in a novel way, interlacing them with the laser cut wooden box. Unfortunately, the graphics were occasionally hard to see and I found the decorations to be haphazard. In fact, I unknowingly skipped the first puzzle because it was not indicated as the starting point, and I literally could not see it... Make sure you have good lighting if you play this game. This experience could benefit from more attention to detail, but it generally worked well and I had a good time uncovering its secrets despite the hiccups. Difficulty: 2.5/5 Time: ~75m Image via Steam Keep Driving by YCJY Games Keep Driving is a management RPG where players go on a road trip across a procedurally generated world, managing resources, picking up hitchhikers, and handling random events in a turn-based system. I find myself frequently drawn to this style of game, and I enjoyed playing this one. I had fun with the mini games I encountered in my playthrough, and liked the challenge provided by the car’s storage limit. I also really enjoyed triggering interesting events, and I wish that had happened more regularly rather than only at the end of the game. My biggest complaint is that I wanted the hitchhikers to feel not like tropes, but like developed people I could form a relationship with in the game. It was disappointing that I could pick up and kick out hitchhikers on a whim with no story consequences. To me, the interesting part of a road trip is the bonds you form while traveling, and I did not feel that reflected in this game. On my first playthrough, I accidentally ended prematurely and felt like I missed half the game—the ending quest I completed felt like it was presented as a goal instead of as a game-ending mission. It happened again on my second playthrough and it again felt unexpected because the game had a different ending quest. While I appreciate a game that has multiple endings, there needed to be better sign posting, or the option to still continue after these events. Despite wanting more narrative depth and less abrupt endings, I enjoyed taking the roadtrip at the heart of this game. Difficulty: 2/5 Time: ~4-10 hours