Welcome to Puzzle Lovers! - Play Hard. Think Harder.

Brainrack, Issue #102 (April 12, 2021)

Welcome once again to our weekly newsletter with puzzle game news, new and upcoming releases, giveaways, deals and bundles, spotlight on a lesser-known or forgotten game and other stuff, posted on Mondays (morning US time, evening EU time, Tuesday morning AUS time).

Greetings to those who joined since last week! If you found us through a link to the newsletter, read the group overview to see what else we can offer, visit the forum for puzzle discussion, follow our curator for reviews and recommendations, and tell your friends if you like what you see. Thanks!

Long time no 'editorial', so here's one. 2020 seemed like The Year of the Escape Room, as I played a new one every so often, and it was also ironic, as most of the world was trapped in their homes IRL too. And 2021 is shaping up to be The Year of the Word Game, played a bunch of them already this year.

It's also interesting that around March last year I already had multiple candidates for the Top 10 (that ended up being a Top 20 with so many great games around), but it's the middle of April now and I have exactly one entry for this year's list. Sure, most of my most anticipated games aren't out yet, but there are no great surprise releases either, just some solid recommendable stuff.

Plus we have April milestone #2: Move 'n' Bloom is the second game (as far as I know) to feature Puzzle Lovers on its store page, in the awards section on the right.

And April milestone #3:2400+ group members.

Ideally, every group member would follow our curator and vice versa, but until then here's what happened there since last time.

New curatees with full reviews: As explained earlier, not much is gonna happen until the end of May. 24 full reviews are ready and waiting to be posted, though a few games could use some patching first. And there's this:
Unblock Me Car (sliding/gridlock)

New curatees with mini-reviews: Two 1st-person adventures this time.
Gone Home (less spooky)
The Park (more spooky)

Please let us know below if you'd like to write mini-reviews (max. 200 characters, positive or negative) for puzzlers that aren't curated by us yet. Examples and inspiration can be found on the Group Member Recommendations list.

List highlight from the curator: Nonogram/Picross Games. Last year exactly one recommendable nonogram came to Steam (in previous years there were 2 or more), so the big question is, are we getting a good one this year as well?

The giveaways are on SteamGifts, but no need to create an account, just visit the site and log in through Steam. Good luck!

Jigsaw Pieces 2[www.steamgifts.com] is a new jigsaw available for everybody, Move 'n' Bloom[www.steamgifts.com] is one of the best games from last year, available only for group members, both courtesy of the developers.

Got your own puzzler, adventure, demo or some new content coming out on mobile or PC? Let us know in the forum or by adding Dohi64 on Steam.

New on GOG:
Broken Reality[www.gog.com] (-66% until April 19)

New demo:
Puzzle Dazzle 3D (tetris, coming in fall 2021)

New mobile (Android):
Bouncy Physics Puzzles[play.google.com] (physics-based)
The Captain is Dead[play.google.com] (tactical board game, also on iOS[apps.apple.com])
Hack the Matrix![play.google.com] (programming)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/795420/The_Darkside_Detective_A_Fumble_in_the_Dark/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1296980/Forgotten_Fields/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1003120/Hitchhiker__A_Mystery_Game/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1115870/Inner_Tao/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1286770/Internet_Court/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1414530/Kavel/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1497600/Poker_Squadrons/
And the rest:
Blocksplode (physics-based)
Cobots (control multiple robots)
Day Repeat Day (text adventure/match-3)
Grim Tales: The Final Suspect Collector's Edition (HOG)
Kombi Travels: Jigsaw Landscapes (jigsaw)
Newton's Life at Home: Pixel Art Jigsaw Puzzle (jigsaw)
Samurai Chess (chess)
Storm Tale 2 (match-3)

Puzzler screenshots are mostly for providing hints or solutions, but they can still be beautiful, funny, or some other adjectives, so post your own below, include a caption if you want, and we'll put it in the next issue. Non-curated games are fine, can be old or new, but no spoilers, please!

Shapik: The Moon Quest is a nice little sci-fi point & click adventure, probably among the 25 best games I played last year.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2243319421


Humble Bundle:

• Their April Choice[www.humblebundle.com] is available until May 4 (moved to Tuesday recently) and offers Simulacra 1-2 (found phone shenanigans) and a bunch of other stuff.

Indiegala:

• Stranded in Time[freebies.indiegala.com] (point & click) is available for free and DRM-free, no Steam key.
  
• Check the main IG freebies page[freebies.indiegala.com] to see what games are still available. Or again, as they occasionally bring some back.
  
• The Mini Yume Bundle[www.indiegala.com] has a bunch of Mens Sana Interactive games (Mini Words, Mini Words: Top Movies, Mini Words: Top Games, Instant Farmer, Pathfinders), plus Conduct Deluxe (train-based), Gemini (tower defense), and the mandatory anime nonsense. 8 games for $3.49, runs until April 23.

A FEZ-like at a new historical low until April 25. Looks great, but I think I saw some combat in the trailer. No key remapping and only arrows work, wasd doesn't, plus apparently no jumping in 3D and no moving in 2D other than jumping, so it might not be for everyone (or me personally), but might be worth a shot if you're not deterred by the above.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1240690/PIVO/

You can always check our curator page for currently discounted curated titles (Specials on the front page is incomplete, click the Discounts tab for more), but here are Steam's week-long puzzle deals with not necessarily curated highlights in bold. Prices are in EUR, but numbers are often the same in USD, sadly. Powered by PuzzleBot-3000! (Thx, kertitorpe!)

1001 Jigsaw: Earth Chronicles 2 (-90%, 0,39 EUR)
A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build (-70%, 2,99 EUR)
A Monster's Expedition (-20%, 13,43 EUR)
Algo Bot (-75%, 2,49 EUR)
Alice's Jigsaw Time Travel (-90%, 0,39 EUR)
Appease the Spider (-34%, 0,52 EUR)
Arcana Sands of Destiny (-50%, 3,69 EUR)
Aura: Fate of the Ages (-75%, 1,24 EUR)
BADLAND: Game of the Year Edition (-90%, 0,99 EUR)
Balls and Magnets (-55%, 0,89 EUR)
Bars and Balance (-55%, 0,89 EUR)
BlackJack Math (-41%, 0,47 EUR)
Bomb Defense (-30%, 3,15 EUR)
BOTvinnik Chess: Opening Traps (-41%, 0,47 EUR)
Caliper (-33%, 0,66 EUR)
Chess Knights: High Noon (-30%, 1,67 EUR)
The Chess Variants Club (-25%, 2,46 EUR)
Code Brown (-75%, 0,99 EUR)
Colortone (-80%, 0,65 EUR)
Cosmic Express (-70%, 2,99 EUR)
Current (-25%, 0,59 EUR)
Dark Fall: Lost Souls (-80%, 2,59 EUR)
Darkness Within 1: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder (-80%, 1,59 EUR)
Dig Deep: Race To The Core! (-30%, 11,75 EUR)
DotLine (-50%, 1,49 EUR)
Empathy: Path of Whispers (-80%, 3,99 EUR)
Etherborn (-55%, 7,64 EUR)
Fairytale Mosaics Beauty And The Beast 2 (-90%, 0,39 EUR)
Fairytale Mosaics Cinderella 2 (-90%, 0,39 EUR)
Freddi Fish 5: The Case of the Creature of Coral Cove (-50%, 3,49 EUR)
The Game is ON (-40%, 2,39 EUR)
Hex-Up (-25%, 0,74 EUR)
Hexon (-25%, 0,59 EUR)
How Buddy's parents met - a jigsaw puzzle tale (-30%, 1,11 EUR)
Hyper Treasure - The Legend of Macaron (-30%, 2,30 EUR)
Iconoclasts (-60%, 7,99 EUR)
Inmates (-80%, 1,99 EUR)
Inside The Gear (-55%, 0,89 EUR)
Kosmonavtes: Escape Reality (-25%, 2,24 EUR)
THE LONGING (-20%, 11,99 EUR)
LUNA The Shadow Dust (-20%, 15,99 EUR)
LX Patterns (-51%, 0,39 EUR)
The Magnets (-50%, 0,79 EUR)
Mahjong Carnaval (-90%, 0,39 EUR)
Nelly Cootalot: Spoonbeaks Ahoy! HD (-50%, 0,99 EUR)
Night Lights (-50%, 4,49 EUR)
Pahelika: Revelations (-65%, 3,46 EUR)
Path of Memory (-51%, 0,39 EUR)
Pixel Puzzles 2: Christmas (-63%, 1,47 EUR)
The Preposterous Awesomeness of Everything (-80%, 1,39 EUR)
Re:Turn - One Way Trip (-50%, 4,99 EUR)
Reflection of Mine (-75%, 1,99 EUR)
Retrowave Hexon (-25%, 0,59 EUR)
RoboSkate (-50%, 2,99 EUR)
Sandmason (-75%, 0,99 EUR)
Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter (-90%, 1,99 EUR)
Slayaway Camp (-66%, 2,51 EUR)
SLI-FI: 2D Planet Platformer (-30%, 4,19 EUR)
Sokobond (-70%, 2,99 EUR)
Somewhere on Zibylon (-55%, 4,49 EUR)
Spaceslingers (-60%, 2,79 EUR)
Spinny's Journey (-30%, 5,59 EUR)
Spirit of the North (-50%, 8,39 EUR)
Squishies (-60%, 3,59 EUR)
Star Vikings Forever (-80%, 1,59 EUR)
Still There (-50%, 6,24 EUR)
StopTime Drive (-75%, 0,39 EUR)
Sweep'n'Sweep (-25%, 2,24 EUR)
Tales of Esferia: Araxis (-25%, 9,74 EUR)
Tales of the Tiny Planet (-30%, 6,99 EUR)
Time Machine - Find Objects (-15%, 2,79 EUR)
TurnTack (-35%, 8,11 EUR)
Typoman (-80%, 1,79 EUR)
Unforeseen Incidents (-33%, 13,39 EUR)
Until Sunset (-25%, 1,19 EUR)

Not to be confused with our Deal of the Week, which is just an especially good deal from the weeklies. Every week we'll pick a puzzler we really like and try to push it down everybody's throats. But with love because it's so good. Or highlight a lesser-known title that's unlikely to get curated. Comment below if you'd like to write about an undeservedly forgotten game for next time!

Terraform takes place in the future and on hex-based levels. The goal is to create conditions for life on 220 planets. Various weather conditions to play with, like in good old SimCity, where you can unleash various things on the city you spent weeks creating, but here it's necessary to make sure there's enough water, etc. Come to think of it, it's also similar to the probably forgotten SimEarth, or SimLife to a lesser extent, but with hexagons, which is superior to every other shape.

Tools help you guide water where it needs to be, plant seeds to grow forests, build settlements, etc. and it's all turn-based, so you do some stuff, like dig up some tiles, then pass a turn to see water spread all over, level complete. The turn limit is not optional, running out fails the level, but undo is available, separately for tool use and turns. As are hints, a level editor, workshop support, all this for a low price even if it's a mobile port, though that version doesn't seem to be available anymore (it came out in 2012, then on PC in 2015).
https://store.steampowered.com/app/347790/Terraform/

Show the world how good (or bad) you are at puzzle games by submitting your Workshop levels, guides, walkthroughs, mods, artwork inspired by a puzzler, or whatever, even if it's not a game curated by us, in this forum thread or below in the comments, to be featured here next time.

Nothing new right now.

Here are a few quick & easy ways you can help us out. A little can go a long way, otherwise we'll never achieve world domination.
1, Feedback is important. Like or don't like something? Want more or less of something? Any other business? Let us know!
2, Follow our curator for recommendations and get notified about new additions and reviews.
3, Tell your puzzle and adventure-loving friends and your favorite developers about us.
4, Upvoting our reviews would help a lot with visibility.
5, I'll try to think of a 5th one.