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

Brainrack, Issue #62 (July 6, 2020)

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).

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!

There are a few days left of the Steam and itch Summer Sales, scroll down for some recommendations for both.

Fun fact: After getting mentioned in a number of games and Puzzle Lovers getting into one recently as well, I found out that I'd actually managed to breach the store page too, probably for the first and last time. Check out the first trailer for 3x64 and behold my enormous high score at 0:40. (Thx to cdeverett for letting me know!)

New curatees with full reviews: Not much, don't really feel like playing in this heat.
Ink Cipher (word game)

New curatees with mini-reviews: Jackson recommends (full review linked separately as it's not officially Puzzle Lovers):
INFRA (1st-person puzzler) (full review)

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: FMV in Puzzle Games. FMV stands for Full-Motion Video, the cheesier the better!

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

Glass Masquerade[www.steamgifts.com] is available for everybody and Mahjong Deluxe 3[www.steamgifts.com] only for group members, both courtesy of the developers.

We also have a bonus giveaway (not on SteamGifts!), courtesy of gamebalance, the developer of Orbox B: Rebirth[progamix.itch.io], a free sci-fi sliding game for Windows/Linux, Android[play.google.com] and iOS[apps.apple.com]. All you have to do is comment below if you'd like the last promo code to get rid of ads on mobile and get 2500 coins and 15 crystals in whichever version you're playing to use on solutions and later skins and other stuff.

If you have any puzzle-related news, not necessarily about games on Steam, or you'd like to see your own non-Steam puzzler or updates to your games mentioned here, let us know so we can let the group know!

Kickstarter alert:
Saint Kotar is a spooky 1st-person point & click and it's on Kickstarter until July 18.

New content:
Mad Experiments: Escape Room has a second room now. The game is still in early access.

Puddle Knights has a 9th world now with a bunch of new levels and mechanics, but only if you completed every bonus level before, which I didn't, so no new content for me. Mor levels are coming later, those might be unlocked sooner.

New demos:
Simply Puzzles: Junctions (coming on July 16)
Willy Morgan and the Curse of Bone Town (3rd-person point & click, coming in 2020)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1346630/Astronomia/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1357750/Box_Factory/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1292240/The_Chess_Variants_Club/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1348220/Colorize/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/917900/Monster_Logic/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1346110/Rock_Paper_SHIFT/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1339310/Solitaire_3D/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1342730/Truzzle/

Puzzler screenshots are mostly for providing hints or solutions, but they can still be beautiful, funny, or some other adjectives, and we can pretty up the newsletter with another random game every week. Feel free to post your own below, include a caption if you want, and we'll put it in the next issue. Not (yet) curated games are fine, but no spoilers, please!

Path of Giants is a fantastic puzzler, every lazy developer should learn this is how you port a mobile game to PC, without quadrupling the price.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1995897867

You can always check our curator page for currently discounted curated titles. Specials on the front page are only some of them, so click the Discounts tab for more, or browse the list below for both curated and uncurated deals. Powered by PuzzleBot-3000! (Thx, kertitorpe!)

chrono.gg: The Inner World[www.chrono.gg] is 80% off, $2.99, cheaper than on Steam currently.

Epic Games Store: Hue[www.epicgames.com] is free until Thursday.

GOG: Their weekly sale[www.gog.com] has a bunch of cool stuff, like Chuchel[www.gog.com] or Truberbrook[www.gog.com].

Humble Bundle: Their July Choice[www.humblebundle.com] is available until August 7 and offers Don't Escape: 4 Days to Survive (timed 3rd-person point & click) and a bunch of other stuff.

itch: Their Summer Sale[itch.io] is on until July 9. Developers get a bigger cut here than from Steam purchases and some games offer Steam keys with the DRM-free download, plus you can pay more than the sale price if you want. I could only find a way to filter puzzlers on sale[itch.io], not necessarily part of the summer sale, but they're discounted, that's the point. There's a TON, so I picked 10 at somewhat random:
Adjacency[sleepymacaw.itch.io] (-45%, $1.64, comes with a Steam key, not on sale on Steam)
Cardinal Chains[danijmn.itch.io] (-50%, $0.99, not available on Steam)
Clam Man[marafrass.itch.io] (-85%, $1.49, only -55% on Steam)
Codemancer[importantlittlegames.itch.io] (-100%, FREE until July 7, not available on Steam)
Garden Match[outofphayze.itch.io] (-50%, $1.49, not available on Steam)
Ink Cipher[ci.itch.io] (-100%, FREE during the sale, -51% on Steam)
Lizzi Crossing[evalee.itch.io] (-20%, $4.79, not available on Steam)
LYNE[thomasbowker.itch.io] (-50%, $1.49, comes with a Steam key AND the Android version)
Number Islands[thebdrive.itch.io] (-50%, $1.00, not available on Steam)
Ruya[miracle-tea.itch.io] (-30%, $2.79, not on sale on Steam)

Steam: Well, there's this Summer Sale thing. Posted 10 picks at historical lows during the first week, 10 uncurated games last week, and here are 26 more as yet uncurated titles to keep an eye on:
About Love Hate And The Other Ones 2 (-25%, 6.74 EUR)
Anode (-70%, 1.07 EUR)
Car Puzzler (-80%, 0.99 EUR)
Cradle (-80%, 2.59 EUR)
Draw Puzzle (-50%, 2.49 EUR)
DungeonUp (-90%, 0.39 EUR)
The Eyes of Ara (-70%, 3.74 EUR)
Forgotton Anne (-60%, 7.99 EUR)
GRIS (-60%, 6.79 EUR)
Hexus (-80%, 0.99 EUR)
Ironcast (-80%, 2.59 EUR)
Moonrise Fall (-67%, 4.12 EUR)
Mr Boom's Firework Factory (-90%, 1.00 EUR)
Oafmatch (-50%, 2.99 EUR)
Obversion (-20%, 6.55 EUR)
Push Blox 2 (-30%, 1.11 EUR)
Sagebrush (-50%, 2.84 EUR)
Sidewords (-75%, 1.24 EUR)
SpelunKing (-60%, 3.27 EUR)
Star Vikings Forever (-80%, 1.59 EUR)
STAX (-50%, 0.79 EUR)
Stonewall Penitentiary (-75%, 2.49 EUR)
Swim Out (-66, 2.03 EUR)
Tumblestone (-88%, 2.75 EUR)
Unheard (-40%, 3.41 EUR)
Yono and the Celestial Elephants (-66%, 5.09 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. Comment below if you'd like to write about an undeservedly forgotten game for the next issue!

Genghis Pawn pointed me towards this puzzle platformer. Looks great, but being a platformer it's not exactly for me. Then again, you're controlling an old dude, surely it's not Super Meat Boy levels of torture, though reviews mention a really frustrating final section and crappy controls, probably because it's a mobile port. And apparantly our hero possesses telekinetic powers, moving stuff further away, so it could've been called Obi Wan's Ride.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/463760/The_Beggars_Ride/

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.

I wrote a guide to Ink Cipher, detailing how to make your own levels.

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.