Recent reviews by Dohi64

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edit: some polish happened, edited the review here and there.

matching meadows is one of many hex- and card-based islanders-likes, a new one comes out almost every week now. plonk down tiles strategically for the highest score.

there are 31 levels divided into 6 worlds, everything is unlocked from the start. level selection and general menu navigation used to be abysmal, now it's better but still not great, too much unnecessary scrolling/dragging. with a bit of rearranging both world and map select could fit on a single screen each. on the former, levels are only represented with colorful but unmarked hexagons, except for their border. white means unplayed, blue finished, green perfect, levels in progress aren't shown, gotta click through each to find them. there's a continue button in the main menu, not all that useful with multiple saved levels. map selection has level names, the starting hand, potential challenges and individual leaderboards, and there are 2 level types. on pool levels the deck is improved with a higher score, draft stages let you cherry-pick cards from a selection at opportune times.

the first world acts as a tutorial, with actual tutorials to start with, every single time the level is loaded. after a patch they became skippable and don't show anymore when the level is simply restarted. cards don't only hold various buildings and whatnot but also placement instructions. the more stars on the card, the more complex the puzzle is. put a green forest tile next to a blue factory tile, as per the pictogram, and you're golden. fail to do that and you're rewarded with a desolate tile of the same color instead of a nice forest. there's no score calculator but relevant tiles are highlighted if the current card is a good fit for the tile you're hovering over. a skull will remove the placed card from your collection, 2x obviously doubles the score.

challenges include a score target, filling the scorebar a few times, drafting x cards, building landmarks, finishing levels within a time limit, etc. the last world is pretty crazy with its goals but the very last level is on the easy side. challenges don't all have to be done in one attempt, focus on what you can, then do the rest next time. the scorebar on the right is not the best either. at first I thought I was losing points due to bad placement but it was just filling up and resetting, as is a progress bar's wont, but it's somehow wonky here. the level complete screen has map select and restart options.

there's individual mid-level saving, implemented in the most ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up way I'd seen in a puzzler until they quickly patched in some common sense. I'm on an obsolete pc and thought saving crashed the game but no, save & quit meant quitting to the desktop immediately. now it goes back to level select in the same world and quitting without saving is also possible, to avoid filling level select with continue buttons if you're just messing around. clicking 'continue' doesn't lock you into loading or restarting that level anymore, can back out to choose another map.

controls are mouse-based with not enough and non-rebindable hotkeys that also arrived in a patch. there's edge-scrolling (can't turn it off), wasd/arrows, holding left click and wheel click move the map around too. left click selects a card, as do the number keys. right click is only used to cancel the current card selection, wheel zooms, often not far enough to see the whole level and the camera resets after a restart, again leading to tedious dragging/scrolling. 'r' is single-step undo because why not mess with tradition and there's no level reset hotkey because why not mess with tradition? it's only possible from the pause menu.

basic cartoony graphics with often too bright and empty backgrounds and it can be hard to see if there's a tile or just inaccessible ground, or if a tile has a skull or something. they made some but not sufficient adjustments. wouldn't-notice-if-it-wasn't-there audio, music only in the menu. very basic settings: separate volumes, resolutions, windowed mode, a few languages, the end. and only volumes are available while playing a level.

it's pretty good stuff and after a bunch of feedback and multiple patches, it's just about recommendable on sale, but hopefully more polish and unlimited undo will happen at some point. the price is on par with most of these kinda games, unless we're talking about the greedy devs of dorfromantik or panorama, and there's a demo if you want to give it a try while waiting for a discount and/or more patches.

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fishjong 2 is a mostly standard mahjong affair from 2019. carbon copy of the first game, and so is most of my review. this is priced a bit higher for some reason.

108 somewhat fishy levels unlocked one by one, not ideal in a game like this. there's a 3-star rating based on the number of tiles left. the final pair is clearly marked, should be the last one to be removed even if it's possible before. finishing with no stars still unlocks the next layout. big fish reviews around release mention that level 37 is bugged but it must've been fixed at some point.

a counter shows the number of tiles and available matches. no timer and there's undo, shuffle, hint, and a toggle to differentiate between clickable tiles. no auto-shuffle if no moves left and shuffle itself is slow. using the helpers takes away some points that are only shown while playing and on the level complete screen and aren't used for anything. level complete only has a continue button, goes back to level select. would need next level and retry as well. level numbers are only shown on level select but it jumps to the last unlocked level, not always page 1.

there are a few mechanics, uncommon in regular mahjong but familiar to those who played the developer's other titles. sand needs to be freed up to gain access to certain tiles and annoying covered tiles only get revealed on mouseover and while the cursor is there. locks and keys are new (or not, I only played 30 levels of the first game but they show up almost immediately here). match a key to the lock to remove it. treasure chests are the other potential new thing, click to get 1000 meaningless points.

nice graphics with some customization options (tile shape, tile color, tileset, background, multi-colored layer toggle), not too bad audio with some little mermaid-inspired music, also from the first game. settings are the usual, available anytime: separate volumes, windowed mode (smaller, non-resizable), game cursor, tutorial toggle (it only explains the trivial matching part, not the other mechanics), and there are multiple player profiles.

not much else to say or complain about but the developer's own non-fish-themed legacy of the toltecs has 300+ layouts all unlocked for a lower price and legendary mahjong and its sequel are also available, so check those out as well.

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fishjong is a mostly standard mahjong affair from 2017. 108 somewhat fishy levels unlocked one by one, not ideal in a game like this. there's a 3-star rating based on the number of tiles left. the final pair is clearly marked, should be the last one to be removed even if it's possible before. finishing with no stars still unlocks the next layout.

a counter shows the number of tiles and available matches. no timer and there's undo, shuffle, hint, and a toggle to differentiate between clickable tiles. no auto-shuffle if no moves left and shuffle itself is slow. using the helpers takes away some points that are only shown while playing and on the level complete screen and aren't used for anything. level complete only has a continue button, goes back to level select. would need next level and retry as well. level numbers are only shown on level select but it jumps to the last unlocked level, not always page 1.

there are a few mechanics, uncommon in regular mahjong but familiar to those who played the developer's other titles. sand needs to be freed up to gain access to certain tiles and annoying covered tiles only get revealed on mouseover and while the cursor is there.

nice graphics with some customization options (tile shape, tile color, tileset, background, multi-colored layer toggle), not too bad audio with some little mermaid-inspired music. settings are the usual, available anytime: separate volumes, windowed mode (smaller, non-resizable), game cursor, tutorial toggle (it only explains the trivial matching part, not the other mechanics), and there are multiple player profiles.

not much else to say or complain about but the developer's own non-fish-themed legacy of the toltecs has 300+ layouts all unlocked for the same price and legendary mahjong and its sequel are also available, so check those out as well.

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mike's garden is an excellent take on the classic color lines from 1992, where the goal is to line up 5 or more of the same thing (plants in this case) by moving them around on a grid, as long as the path is clear. if no match is made, a few more plants will appear randomly in the next turn. once the board is filled, it's game over, man. a recent example I played and enjoyed was magic bubbles but this one is more involved.

it's endless score attack with a leaderboard and an isometric view. thankfully, no need to mess with the camera. no undo either, but due to the nature of the game it wasn't a dealbreaker. if it had hand-crafted puzzles, it'd be a different case. still wouldn't hurt, of course.

simple mouse controls, left click to select, right click to cancel. no hotkeys, might happen at some point. the learn to play section explains the basics and provides some hints and other useful info. missing mid-run saving was patched in before release, so you can quit anytime and continue or start a new one next time. a point calculator would be very useful, to see how many you'd get by placing that thing there, but I was told it's not possible, as score is calculated after placement.

so far so 1992 but there are a few things increasing longevity. bully for me, as normally I'd play something like this 2 or 3 times and move on after an hour or so. the difficulty level increases after every 50 turns in the form of a new plant appearing on the scene, making it harder and harder to create matches but also awarding more points than lower level greens. more plants can be unlocked and brought to the game from the greenhouse but it's only cosmetic, they're all equal and can be put into any level slot.

quests are a thing too. they start out easy, more of a tutorial, then get trickier and lead to a single bonus plant (there are 30 total). they can also be checked while playing, the window always opens on top, not the current quest. there are 9, each with 4 goals and the next quest only unlocks after doing them all. I found it doable but still a bit restrictive, grinding that elusive target while I could be aiming for other things at the same time. still, kept at it and managed them all, much to my surprise. one of the final goals was bugged and none of the credited testers noticed it, great job, enjoy your free game, I guess. it's fixed now for the general public, too late for me but it's only an achievement (the way the bug behaved, I still got the plant reward, just as useless).

and finally, tools. 12 different ones, not unlike power-ups in other matching games. some more imaginative than usual and can mix things up quite a bit once unlocked with cash, plus finding an efficient loadout can be satisfying in itself. the toolbox holds up to 5 of them with 3 slots locked at the beginning. once bought, tools have an energy cost, rewarded after matches, and increasing with each use. be careful, as most of them end the turn on use, potentially breaking streaks. or creating or maintaining them, of course.

fantastic presentation all around, spiffy ui with tooltips. there are separate volume settings, windowed mode, resolutions, gfx quality and a few languages, all available anytime. the lack of player profiles or save slots is a problem and sadly isn't gonna change. progress is tied to your steam profile, so mom playing through family sharing should work. a reset progress option should be available, especially without profiles, to let players re-do quests and unlocks if they want. text/ui scale settings would go a long way too, as some of it is pretty small. and there are a few grammatical oversights as a bonus, not a big deal.

seeing a properly developed game is always a joy, and a rare one these days. this had and still has its fair share of issues but it's a really impressive first effort nonetheless. even more so when devs with 10-15 years of experience are still clueless and can't do anything right. it works both as a casual matching thing and as a challenge if you want to do and unlock everything, with that gift/curse 'just one more run' feel. try the demo if any of the above piqued your interest, progress carries over to the full game, which you should buy asap.

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deep in the woods is an undeniably beautiful point & click adventure. not exactly for kids, as there's blood and gore and other good stuff. it's largely without text or basic functionality. the devs apparently have 10+ years of experience and about as many pc releases of their mobile games, though this is the first I've played, so others may or may not work better. this, for instance, doesn't even have an exit button and the only settings are separate volume sliders and a few languages. excellent start. esc brings up a confirmation window in the main menu but doesn't work anywhere else. way to put a crucial function only on keys in a completely mouse-driven game.

one would think mouse-based controls can't be that bad, it's a point & click adventure. well, one would have to think again. nothing wrong with supporting touch controls (calling it a 'unique touch-based puzzle experience' is a joke though) but don't neglect the main control method of the platform you're releasing the game on. navigation is awful, drag the mouse to drag the screen, no arrows to click for convenience. left, right or mouse wheel click to interact, they all do the same because laziness. no hotspot indicator or active cursor on mouseover, of course, gotta click everything to see if they do anything after the brief tutorial. only scene transitions are marked, with identical pulsating spots for clarity no matter where they lead, genius.

there's an inventory. no tooltips/names or close-ups of items, drag them to the scene to use, but why are the open and close buttons in a different place? click one, gotta move the mouse to click the other. can't keep it open all the time either because it might cover important stuff, as if there's not enough room in those unnecessarily vast and empty locations.

I wasn't even surprised by the slow typewriter effect for text display, keep adding to the ♥♥♥♥ pile, why don't you? click every sentence to make them appear instantly if you read faster than a 3-year-old. at least there's no gibberish during dialog and not much text to speak of.

no manual saving, nor multiple save slots or profiles, starting a new game wipes progress but there's a confirmation prompt at least. items and general progress gets saved continuously, location doesn't, so you'll find yourself at the starting area of the current level every time you quit. a properly working autosave system, you say? surely the stuff of legends.

anyway, you're the son of somebody, living in a forest where animals talk to you. then dad dies (not a spoiler, the first thing after the tutorial) and you swear to kill the wolf who did it with the help of a forest spirit. that always goes down well, especially if a talking bird suggests it.

next scene, some timing right off the bat. click on jumping deer until you get it right (whatever that means, white skull good, black bad) enough times so the spirit appears. and I hope you memorized all the symbols on the trees between deer jumps because there's a test now. or just try all the combinations. and now you have to help the spirit too, who was robbed of its horns, as seen in the cutscene before the deer. and so on.

as seasons/levels change, more puzzles follow if you can find them or random items. there's never welcome tile-sliding, a tedious maze with a slow-moving bug, etc. they're interspersed with more arcade nonsense, like catching waterdrops with a skull. and hooray for accessibility, nothing is skippable and there are no hints. it's rare to see a mobile game without the latter and it (and I) could've used one, so I eventually gave up, as both my mouse and my patience got worn out from all the tedious clicking. I must've been around halfway through or so, at the end of spring (couldn't find the final gold piece), so the whole thing should take around 3 hours, possibly less if you persevere.

to be fair, the game is exactly what I thought it would be, at least from a functionality perspective. a mobile game released on pc without any thought put into actual pc functionality. still, there's always hope a mobile dev has played a pc game at some point before making one (or 10) themselves. not these guys, even after all this time. very disappointing overall, if you want to look at pretty pictures, there are far better options.

small consolation that it's not sold for 10-20 bucks but it wouldn't be recommendable even for free in its current state. and weirdly enough, I found a trailer for it from 2020 but mobile versions got released at the same (march 2024), so they had plenty of time to do better, they simply chose not to.

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travel fanz is a formerly paid card-matching game. started at $1, went up to 5, then down to 1 and now it's free. not the usual +1/-1 solitaire, always good news, as much as I love those (and have fewer and fewer options because lazy devs can't even clone them properly).

gameplay is explained on the store page but the tutorial button in the game inconveniently leads to a 3.5-minute video on youtube. it's already a 2gb game, why not have it locally, along with written rules in the game as well?

anyway, it's an untimed single-player game against 2 computer opponents, you can choose from 18 avatars. cards are laid out in a 3x3 grid, each with a few icons representing their features. the grid is connected in lateral directions, put more cards on neighboring cells or on top of placed cards to match as many features as you can. always 2 cards to choose from, tooltips help identify icons and features are highlighted if they match (or don't match) the currently held card. each matched neighboring feature is worth a point, reach 21 first to win. at first I thought icons on tourist cards are only fluff but they can also come up and be placed, and with 12 icons (interests) they're as close to a joker as it gets. they're only revealed after starting a game though, not on the player select screen.

controls are simple: left click to pick up, right click to drop if you change your mind, another left click to place on the grid or anywhere on the screen but properly back to where you picked it up, bit weird. as soon as it's done, it's the opponents' turn. the game over screen only has a 'next match' button, can't go back to the menu or change player and tooltips on the right go off-screen if they're longer.

the educational value is strong in this one, always nice. click placed cards to embiggen the image and learn something about the place or thing. the downside of not being able to zoom in on cards in your hand is that they might get covered right away by your opponents, missed opportunity to learn.

the presentation mostly consists of photos, so not much to complain about, except everything is stretched to the same size on close-up, not very elegant. music is a literal mixed bag, all sorts of genres. a jukebox/playlist or at least a skip track option would've been nice, and longer loops with smoother transitions. there are separate volumes, windowed mode and an autosave toggle, on top of manual saving anytime, so there can be multiple on-going games.

as simple as it is, it's pretty good with all the interesting info and nice images. unfortunately, I only found out it when it went free, as it would've been a good deal for a dollar. too bad there's no multiplayer against meatbags, though local would be awkward, good old hotseat (player 1, turn away from the screen, player 2, your turn, etc.). an encyclopedia kinda thing to browse all the pictures by country and feature would've been handy too.

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moving letters is about moving letters. for about 20 minutes maybe. more content was promised years ago, over and over, still hasn't happened, so I finally gave up waiting. since it was created the same way, it works (or doesn't work) very similarly to one of the dev's other games, the impossible. so for instance, due to a probable win7 clash with whatever the game was made with, it can't be made full screen, the title bar with minimize and stuff is always visible. taking screenshots doesn't work either.

the language issue is also the same. defaults to your operating system's language without letting you choose one before the whole thing begins. wanna change it? cycle through the flags one by one, there are a lot, really inconvenient. and unlike the other game, no volume settings here, just a single audio on/off toggle and a resizable windowed mode. and unlike the other game, no dark mode either for something that's absolutely blinding. great work.

controls are mouse-based, work as they should. arrows also move the cursor around but that's it, couldn't find anything to bother the letters with.

there are 3 game modes. word lists in multiple languages are available but clicking the flags here does nothing, gotta click 'wordlist' instead, and once again go through them one by one, tedious as ♥♥♥♥.

relaxing has a ticking clock that can't be turned off, nor does it ever stop, like when the game loses focus. as non-relaxing as it gets even if it's not a countdown. you get an image to help with the word and after a while a 'reveal answer' button appears in case you can't figure it out. using it adds another counter next to the word count.

during my first attempt the 10th word was already a repeat, while what I assumed to be the completion percentage was still at 0. some 'levels' come with the same symbol, indicating an increase (+3 and such) but only after the 26th word and multiple instances of said symbol did the percentage go to 2%. I was really bored by then, so I stopped and the game told me the results. I guess this is some sort of endless mode.

survival is a bit more interesting. same setup, same clock still not counting down, so why is it even on the screen? the main difference is a move limit. run out and it's game over, don't run out and you get a few more. no 'reveal answer' option but same basic words, so pretty close to endless again and I gave up after a few minutes. the anomaly here was the word coming up solved, had to click a letter for the game to realize it's done already.

online is against randoms on the internet and comes with a double timer. yes, the usual pointless clock and a countdown indicated by a line, not actual numbers. if you fail to assemble the current word before it runs out, game over. this is actual hardcore survival thanks to seemingly random amounts of time allocated for each word. must be based on length alone but sometimes all the letters need to be moved, sometimes only one (or none, as I found out), so it's not great.

and that's it, very basic and pointless. you can learn a few simple words in foreign languages if you want, but there are better and more fun ways for that without annoying timers.

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the impossible is for those who think hocus needed some sort of vague narrative with constant and incredibly annoying interruptions instead of more functionality and quality of life. additional content was promised years ago, over and over, it's even on one of the screenshots on the store page but still hasn't happened, so I finally gave up waiting.

there's a talking ai lady, keeps yapping throughout the game, can't move until she shuts up. the first time subtitles automatically match your operating system's language without letting you choose one before the whole thing begins. wanna change it? cycle through the flags one by one, there are a lot, really inconvenient. I changed it to english, only to find there are no english subtitles, it's essentially a 'subtitles off' setting. great job.

on the positive side, separate volume settings for music, sfx and speech on top of an overall audio on/off toggle and there's dark mode. the game is very bright and white subtitles on white background was another genius idea. all settings are available anytime. there's windowed mode too but the game starts in full screen every time, then jumps to windowed if you quit like that, without restoring previous window size and position. rookie mistakes all over and there's more.

it's a sliding game but not exactly wall to wall, making things more tedious than they have to be sometimes. not to mention the cube isn't always visible, no see-through effect or anything, another wonderful thing. the only mechanic is the occasional color change to match the one for the exit.

all sorts of controls are supported, keyboard, mouse, gamepad. nothing's rebindable and due to the perspective, you'd think keyboard isn't ideal, but it's about on par with the mouse if not better, set up for arrows, numpad and the wasd area, also for diagonal movement. not saying either's great but it would be foolish to expect excellence and smoothness here. did I mention at one point I got locked into keyboard controls? clicked the buttons off the mouse, still no response from the game, only understood keypresses until I restarted it.

30 mostly trivial levels unlocked one by one in a linear fashion, no level numbers to keep track, the whole thing takes an hour if that. the level complete screen only has a next button, can't go back to the menu, replay or quit. can't even access level select from the settings menu, as there is no level select screen. get out. no undo, no level reset, have to go back to the main menu and click play there. starting to run out of words to express how disappointing it all is.

and this is probably win7 clashing with whatever the game was made with, seen it a few other times, but it can't be made full screen, the title bar with minimize and stuff is always visible. taking screenshots doesn't work either. with all the other nonsense it's just a by the by, but the game supports win7, so it shouldn't be happening.

as I said above, it's hocus with somewhat better and also much worse functionality, and with all the annoyances and issues it's best to avoid at all costs. maybe one day somebody will make a decent version of this thing because neither developer seems to be capable enough. and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, it's 5 eur, what a joke.

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wildlife matters is a rare species, an animal-based game without cats (tigers and such are fine). it's also a really common species called lazius mobileportus, born in 2022 without an exit button and never developed one throughout its life and transition to superior platforms. the only upside is its price matches the mobile one, 4 bucks for the whole thing, which is 4 too many if the product is this bad.

you're a young ranger taking care of animal business, starting in africa. the basics are explained during the first task of rescuing a caged elephant in the most roundabout way and by using basic scissors to cut some strong net instead of the scythe found earlier. after the 4 african levels, 4 asian and 4 north american locations await. they're all unlocked one by one but after africa you can go to both new places. takes about 2-3 hours but no mid-level saving, gotta do each level in one go.

they couldn't even come up with all different puzzles. the monkey exhange was not great, nor the timed, musical, sliding or physics-based puzzles. on the easy side (except that bastard rotary ball one and every tile-sliding ever) but why even have them? no puzzle skip but hints are also provided on request. clicking the icon brings up a beautiful empty screen with another hint button, which then shows you what to do. elegant. even more so when it just makes you go round and round. filthy peasant, no angle is good enough to show you the spot to click, probably because see next paragraph.

controls are abysmal. left click and drag to rotate the scene and other stuff, during the tutorial only in one direction, it's that railroaded. later some dials works fine, others less so. click to interact but hitboxes are all over the place, took a dozen attempts to zoom in on the grass in the tutorial, then the same for the battery, going round and round because the camera was locked at the time. things don't get any better later, be it zooming or picking stuff up. even worse, right click doesn't zoom out, gotta click the back button in the corner, tedious. in fact, right click doesn't do anything. I figured it's just mobile laziness, and it definitely is, but the wheel also zooms, except only in general, not on a specific thing like left click, so it's absolutely useless.

no axis flip options, of course, but found a few undocumented hotkeys, surprised by their existence. esc for the menu is a given (mostly), w/s zooms like the wheel but can't rotate, interact or anything, great stuff. at least all the text says click, no tapping in sight. there's also an inventory, can be hidden, and at one point in the tutorial can't be unhidden until something else is picked up. items are either examined with a click (also provides a name, nothing on mouseover) or dragged onto the scene or each other to be combined.

graphics from 20 years ago, opening or solving something comes with a screenful of exploding confetti, really annoying. audio would be servicable if not for the incredibly repetitive music and unlikely animal sounds. so I guess audio is bad too. settings are a joke as well but available anytime. the gear icon brings up the options window with a single settings button (there's that elegance again), covering sound on/off, music on/off and gfx quality buttons. no volumes, no windowed mode, no player profiles either. and of course progress is stored in the registry, the worst possible place. that's where you can edit resolutions and windowed status, plus there's alt+f4, so why waste time on making a game work like a game?

I love the idea, sick of seeing ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cats everywhere, and hate that it ended up with such an incompetent developer once again. 4 bucks might sound like a good deal and the launch discount was already 40% (beats selling the same crap for $20 like some shady devs), but it's still not worth bothering with.

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pixel of memory is a beautiful pixel shooter puzzler with some narrative. no idea what these are called but you're shooting pixels from all sides of a square to recreate various items, so I'm going with that. settings are windowed mode, resolutions and separate volumes, only from the main menu and the overworld, plus there are 3 save slots to keep individual progress. audio is bugged, loading a level resets values and music never plays there. the latter might be intentional.

as a kid version of yourself, walk around different places in order to restore the missing mystery items and piece your memories together. there are 50 or so levels in 5 locations, numbered but some are called 3b and such and I didn't feel like counting them. each is a grid, move the thingy around the border, add or remove pixels where indicated (there's a limited amount of 'ammo' to work with), done. later on void pixels get introduced (can shoot through them but can't place anything there), along with breakable and sliding pixels.

no timer, move limit, mistake counter or anything and there's usually more than one unsolved level available but no mid-level saving. relatively small puzzles that can still be tricky and take a while to figure out, and with multiple to choose from, why not let players come and go between them without taking away progress? not to mention if they have to or want to quit. there's also no reason not to unlock every level in a location from the start. and with new levels/items spawning all over the place, the overworld should fit a single screen, especially with such slow character movement.

some finished levels prompt a remark from the kid with an always annoying but silent typewriter effect. it's skippable but should be click to show the whole thing, then close the speech bubble with the next one. levels are replayable (you can go back to a previous chapter from the overworld pause menu), solved ones also have a description that only shows up if you click the item again, not on the level complete screen.

controls aren't rebindable but everything works to a certain extent, including a controller (supposedly, haven't tried it) not mentioned on the store page, only in the tutorial. unfortunately, it's not possible to play the game only with the keyboard or the mouse, you'll need both. clicking, wasd and arrows for overworld movement, bothering the mouse, wasd and arrows move the thingy on the levels. left click to add a pixel, right click to remove one, q is undo, only mentioned in the pause menu until world 4. it doesn't have a mouse equivalent, nor esc for the menu (only with reset and quit), taking 100% mousability with it. wheel would be fine, even better if the other direction was redo, and clicking the menu button should also work. no keys to place/remove pixels, i.e. the main ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ function besides movement, nor reset, so might as well not bother with the keyboard besides q and esc.

just as unfortunate that the demo got removed after the game came out and none of my feedback, posted weeks before release on the forum, made it into the game despite the developer's promise half a year ago at the time of writing. the puzzle part is not a horrible experience, nor does it have a ridiculous price tag, but with missing basic functionality and quality of life, it's not something to recommend. won't bother with whatever the dev comes up with next either if they care this little about their own product. I've seen similar games on steam (and there's more on other platforms) but can't recall any titles. too bad, some might work better and I'd be interested if they're similarly chill. I was told about pixelus but it's not available anymore.