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WhiteHowler
Apr 3, 2001

I'M HUGE!
It's Steam sale time. Get some puzzles for cheap.

Here are some good deals on goon-recommended games:

Portal / Portal 2: $1.99 each (-80%)
The Talos Principle: $5.99 (-85%)
The Witness: $9.99 (-75%)
Chuchel: $2.99 (-70%)
Filament: $8.99 (-50%)
Antichamber: $4.99 (-75%)
Gorogoa: $4.49 (-70%)
Sensorium: $4.99 (-50%)
Braid: $3.74 (-75%)
The Turing Test: $2.99 (-85%)
The Swapper: $2.24 (-85%)
Back to Bed: $0.59 (-90%)
She Remembered Caterpillars: $2.03 (-83%)

WhiteHowler fucked around with this message at 16:06 on Jun 27, 2021

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WhiteHowler
Apr 3, 2001

I'M HUGE!
My wife and I just finished up Tick Tock: A Tale For Two.

It's a two-player, co-op puzzle game with asynchronous, parallel play. Each player sees different things and has to describe what they're seeing and doing to the other player. Most of the solutions to each puzzle will require information from both "sides" of the game.

This is a great one to play over Discord, or in the same room (but on two separate computers -- you're not supposed to see each others' screens). Note that you can't play this solo -- I mean, I guess you could launch it in two windows, but that's... not really what is intended.

It's fairly short; we got stuck on the third chapter for quite a while and still finished in about three hours. But it's on sale for $2.99, and it's a wonderful way to spend an afternoon with a friend.

John Murdoch
May 19, 2009

I can tune a fish.
Just wrapped up The Room 4: Old Sins. It's...alright. It feels like they ran out of budget about 2/3rds of the way through, because suddenly the game gets a lot more linear and the puzzles feel less intricate. It also fumbles a bit more w/r/t conveyance and repetition. I replayed through the rest of the series to refresh myself beforehand and while 3 has some awkward spots it's proven a tough act to follow. Also there's no real big story reveal or twist to it, which was disappointing.

cave emperor
Sep 1, 2016

Some puzzle games I played recently, plus their current discounts in the Steam Summer Sale:

The Room 1 and 2 (both -75%)
First person puzzle box games with surprisingly nice graphics. Most of the puzzles aren't terribly original or difficult, but they're still a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours. I slightly preferred the first one, but both are an easy recommendation.

Superliminal (-40%)
Inventive first person puzzle game where you have to use perspective to grow or shrink items. I personally didn't finish it, my laptop couldn't handle one of the later puzzles and I couldn't be bothered to fix it. Supposedly around three hours long.

Quern: Undying Thoughts (-70%)
Very solid Myst-like with a wide variety of puzzles. Some of the puzzles aren't great (love to solve a sliding block puzzle in TYOOL 2021), and the backtracking can get pretty bad, but still a great choice if you're looking to scratch that Myst itch.

Cosmic Express (-70%)
Extremely simple concept, but gets absurdly difficult. I only managed to beat around 75% of the puzzles before giving up and resorting to a guide. Lovely presentation though, give it a try if you're into simple-but-tough puzzle games.

Hexologic (-50%)
Similar to Hexcells and Tametsi, but far easier and arguably too short. Fine as a fairly mindless time-waster, but don't expect too much of a challenge.

Golf Peaks (no sale)
Putt the ball using a limited set of possible moves. A few decently challenging puzzles, but not much variation and too easy to use a brute force trail-and-error approach.

Infinifactory (-50%)
Possibly my favorite Zach-like, maybe after Spacechem. An incredible amount of freedom in how to tackle each puzzle, and watching the finished production lines is immensely satisfying.

Voxelgram (-50%)
3D picross. Great as a mindless podcast game, not that much of a challenge otherwise.

Solas 128 (-34%)
Guide colored light beams to their destination using mirrors and prisms. As an interesting twist, light is represented as particles moving in time to the (excellent) soundtrack, meaning that beams can intersect without the light particles colliding. Haven't finished it yet, but really impressed with it so far.

Tametsi (-67%)
The Dark Souls of Minesweeper-likes. If you want a game where you can easily spend fifteen minutes staring at a grid before spotting your next move, Tametsi is for you. I originally bought it as a podcast game after finishing Voxelgram, but it's difficult enough that I often have to pause what I'm listening to in order to work out some multi-step deduction. After more than 40 hours I'm almost done with the 100 main puzzles, but after that there's another 60 bonus puzzles, which at first glance are even harder. Amazing value for money, if nothing else.

Superrodan
Nov 27, 2007
I got Understand because it was on sale and didn't personally care for it much. It's kind of like The Witness except the rules are constantly changing every six panels, and the whole goal is to figure out the common, very arbitrary rules between each set of panels through experimentation. I really liked The Witness but a huge part of that was that once I learned the symbol rules it transitioned from learning to applying. You get very little of that in Understand, the moment you suss out the rules there's usually one or two more puzzles to be really sure, and then you're done.

I played through the first set of puzzles, then got right near the end of the second set but got extraordinarily stuck and looked up the answer. It was unsatisfying, I realized I wasn't really enjoying myself, and just kinda lost all motivation. This game is probably one that has an audience out there, but it's not me.

roomforthetuna
Mar 22, 2005

I don't need to know anything about virii! My CUSTOM PROGRAM keeps me protected! It's not like they'll try to come in through the Internet or something!
Just played Tales Of The Neon Sea, which is mostly like a point and click adventure but with arrow keys and highlighting when you can interact with things rather than pointing and clicking, but it also has occasional puzzles in it like those hidden object mystery games do. I was surprised and impressed that some of the puzzles were original, or at least uncommon. For example, I hadn't previously seen a sliding block puzzle where instead of sliding/swapping/rotating the blocks you can only rotate blocks of four of them, making it tricky to get each tile the right way up *and* in the right place. It also has a couple of Ricochet Robots puzzles (like the classic sliding ice block puzzle, but with more than one thing you control).

Nothing super difficult, but also not trivially easy like puzzle-in-a-mystery-game puzzles tend to be.

I dont know
Aug 9, 2003

That Guy here...
Going to throw out a recommendation for Tengami ($2.09 with the steam sale). It's a stylish casual puzzle game themed around a popup book with a soundtrack by the legendary David Wise. Nothing super challenging, just a really pleasant game with gorgeous visuals and music.

ultrafilter
Aug 23, 2007

It's okay if you have any questions.


I dont know posted:

Going to throw out a recommendation for Tengami ($2.09 with the steam sale). It's a stylish casual puzzle game themed around a popup book with a soundtrack by the legendary David Wise. Nothing super challenging, just a really pleasant game with gorgeous visuals and music.

Seconded.

Whybird
Aug 2, 2009

Phaiston have long avoided the tightly competetive defence sector, but the IRDA Act 2052 has given us the freedom we need to bring out something really special.

https://team-robostar.itch.io/robostar


Nap Ghost
I'm not sure if it properly counts as a puzzle game because it's an adaptation of a board game, but the board game does have strong PipeMania energy so I reckon it's appropriate: the Steam adaptation of Galaxy Trucker is on sale right now, and it's really, really good.

HopperUK
Apr 29, 2007

Why would an ambulance be leaving the hospital?
I fondly remember one game of Galaxy Trucker where my best friend ended the game with one engine tile and one crew compartment and nothing else.

WhiteHowler
Apr 3, 2001

I'M HUGE!

HopperUK posted:

I fondly remember one game of Galaxy Trucker where my best friend ended the game with one engine tile and one crew compartment and nothing else.

Anything beyond that is just showing off.

Discendo Vox
Mar 21, 2013

We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.
Tametsi is a fantastic game that I have to stop playing immediately. It's reached the point where I flinch involuntarily even at the success sound effect.

WhiteHowler
Apr 3, 2001

I'M HUGE!
The Spectrum Retreat is free on the Epic Game Store right now.

I haven't played it, but it says it's full of puzzles, so... free, right?

NRVNQSR
Mar 1, 2009

WhiteHowler posted:

The Spectrum Retreat is free on the Epic Game Store right now.

I haven't played it, but it says it's full of puzzles, so... free, right?

It's decent enough, a solidly middle-of-the-road first person puzzler. Story didn't engage me, but the puzzles themselves were fine. Worth your time if you're getting it for free.

Discendo Vox
Mar 21, 2013

We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

Discendo Vox posted:

Tametsi is a fantastic game that I have to stop playing immediately. It's reached the point where I flinch involuntarily even at the success sound effect.

I've also hit the wall at about 47 puzzles, with very slow progress. To not make myself sound like a total moron, I should apparently mention that I'm only giving myself one attempt at a puzzle a day, a failure always means full reset, and I'm not using the writing tools.

Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 21:00 on Jul 3, 2021

cave emperor
Sep 1, 2016

Discendo Vox posted:

a failure always means full reset

I started out with that personal rule, but ended up dropping it after around half of the puzzles. Since I'm neurotic enough to still want the puzzle marked as "solved without errors", I now usually take a screenshot and reconstruct the last valid state after a full reset.

Discendo Vox posted:

not using the writing tools

You do you, but I can't imagine living without them, and I don't consider using them cheating in any way. The deductions needed for some of the later puzzles get so complicated that trying to do them in my head would be a complete nightmare.

I don't use any of the other QoL tools though, basically playing at the default settings.

roomforthetuna
Mar 22, 2005

I don't need to know anything about virii! My CUSTOM PROGRAM keeps me protected! It's not like they'll try to come in through the Internet or something!
Just tried Tick Tock: A Tale For Two with my wife since it was cheap and thread-recommended-ish. Not very keen on it. We got stuck and had to ask the internet at the bells puzzle that's not really a puzzle at all, more of a "you saw a block of text with number-words in it vaguely near to other words that are vaguely related to the text near these 6 bells, with one single word actually in common and no sort of clue that it has anything to do with bells or codes". Which would be okay if it was the only thing you had to interact with at that time, or everything else had been used already, but at the same time I had a sequence going 33363663 which looks *far more* like a sequence you would play out on 6 bells than "in 5 years I'll be waiting for you at the dining table" apparently meaning "you should ring the bell labelled dining hall 5 times".

I played one of those escape-room-games-in-a-deck-of-cards ("Unlock! The Island of Doctor Goorse") that did the player separation, tell each other parts of clues you need gimmick much better than this, and it really should be easier to do it well with a computer. It doesn't even work thematically in Tick Tock, there's no explanation of why you can communicate clues to the other player who is representing a different person in a different time-place, and most of the time no apparent reason why you should. (Reading out the long block of apparently irrelevant text to my wife more than once just in case it "rings a bell", haha, seems more annoying than anything.)

If anyone else decides to try it with a local partner though, a tip that might be of use - if only one of you does Steam things, you can install Steam on the second computer with your account, install the game, and put it in offline mode, then your partner can also play on your account without Steam getting mad about it. (i.e. you can play two players and only buy one copy of the game.)

roomforthetuna fucked around with this message at 02:54 on Jul 4, 2021

fez_machine
Nov 27, 2004
Stephen "increpare" Lavelle of Stephen's Sausage Roll just released this year's funniest puzzle game

It's also balls hard

https://www.puzzlescript.net/play.html?p=6db35fb9d71be4690b029fff02579653

StrixNebulosa
Feb 14, 2012

You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

fez_machine posted:

Stephen "increpare" Lavelle of Stephen's Sausage Roll just released this year's funniest puzzle game

It's also balls hard

https://www.puzzlescript.net/play.html?p=6db35fb9d71be4690b029fff02579653

Yep, I cannot figure out how to complete sexual intercourse

Unlucky7
Jul 11, 2006

Fallen Rib

fez_machine posted:

Stephen "increpare" Lavelle of Stephen's Sausage Roll just released this year's funniest puzzle game

It's also balls hard

https://www.puzzlescript.net/play.html?p=6db35fb9d71be4690b029fff02579653

Sokoballs :v:

victrix
Oct 30, 2007


Is there a steam game out there that steals Puzzle and Dragons matching mechanics and doesn't suck?

Node
May 20, 2001

KICKED IN THE COOTER
:dings:
Taco Defender

fez_machine posted:

Stephen "increpare" Lavelle of Stephen's Sausage Roll just released this year's funniest puzzle game

It's also balls hard

https://www.puzzlescript.net/play.html?p=6db35fb9d71be4690b029fff02579653

I knew I wouldn't be good at this.

Argue
Sep 29, 2005

I represent the Philippines

victrix posted:

Is there a steam game out there that steals Puzzle and Dragons matching mechanics and doesn't suck?

The exact matching mechanics? I don't know of one. But if you just want something where you have to line up 3 of the same tile and it doesn't have to be the precise matching mechanics of P&D, I enjoyed Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes. I am still waiting for a sequel or spiritual successor; all of these Bejeweled RPGs simply don't cut it for me D:

victrix
Oct 30, 2007


Argue posted:

The exact matching mechanics? I don't know of one. But if you just want something where you have to line up 3 of the same tile and it doesn't have to be the precise matching mechanics of P&D, I enjoyed Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes. I am still waiting for a sequel or spiritual successor; all of these Bejeweled RPGs simply don't cut it for me D:

Nah, I played a lot of Gems of War, but that game got extremely degenerate

P&D mobile had a ton of gacha issues but the core timed matching mechanic was absolutely rock solid and I'm annoyed it doesn't seem to have been stolen by something not quite so exploitive

Discendo Vox
Mar 21, 2013

We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

cave emperor posted:

I started out with that personal rule, but ended up dropping it after around half of the puzzles. Since I'm neurotic enough to still want the puzzle marked as "solved without errors", I now usually take a screenshot and reconstruct the last valid state after a full reset.

You do you, but I can't imagine living without them, and I don't consider using them cheating in any way. The deductions needed for some of the later puzzles get so complicated that trying to do them in my head would be a complete nightmare.

I don't use any of the other QoL tools though, basically playing at the default settings.

Just updating on progress; with rules still in place, I'm up to 68 solved from 47 before. I find that I have good days and bad days, and that my root issue is locking into the same loop of overlooking possible deductions. I have to take a couple days off to approach puzzles with fresh eyes when that happens.

Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Dec 22, 2005

GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

cave emperor posted:

You do you, but I can't imagine living without them, and I don't consider using them cheating in any way. The deductions needed for some of the later puzzles get so complicated that trying to do them in my head would be a complete nightmare.
Having played more of this, I might go further and say that developing an effective system for how and when to use the writing tools is part of the game. Not only have they proven essential but it's not always obvious when they will help, and it's a real challenge to use them in some cases without blowing up your possibility space.

Khanstant
Apr 5, 2007

victrix posted:

Nah, I played a lot of Gems of War, but that game got extremely degenerate

P&D mobile had a ton of gacha issues but the core timed matching mechanic was absolutely rock solid and I'm annoyed it doesn't seem to have been stolen by something not quite so exploitive

The Nintendo versions don't quite cut it either. It's a great mechanic and the teambuilding aspect seems like it would work well in a more traditional jRPG/monster-catching framework. Wouldn't be hard to add a pokeball to the battle system to replace the egg machine. What's the cheapest you can pay to have someone make a game for you? one hundred dollars?

WhiteHowler
Apr 3, 2001

I'M HUGE!
A new remake of Myst is out: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1255560/Myst/

It's available on Steam, Epic, and is "free" on Game Pass for PC.

I think I'll finally get around to playing Myst!

Superrodan
Nov 27, 2007

WhiteHowler posted:

A new remake of Myst is out: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1255560/Myst/

It's available on Steam, Epic, and is "free" on Game Pass for PC.

I think I'll finally get around to playing Myst!

I would love to hear your trip reports/details as you go. I love vicariously rediscovering puzzle games through others.

WhiteHowler
Apr 3, 2001

I'M HUGE!

Superrodan posted:

I would love to hear your trip reports/details as you go. I love vicariously rediscovering puzzle games through others.

That was the plan, but it seems it's not to be. The game (Game Pass version) goes to black screen for 30 seconds and then crashes to desktop with a generic "UE4-Myst game has crashed" message.

This is a year-old gaming PC that has run everything I've thrown at it, so I guess I'll wait for a patch.

Party Boat
Nov 1, 2007

where did that other dog come from

who is he


Apologies if there's a better place for this but I thought people with this thread bookmarked might like it. There's a youtube channel called Cracking the Cryptic where champion puzzle solvers Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe tackle sudoku and other brain teasers, and over the last month or so Simon has been playing through The Witness. It's been a delight to watch, not just because Simon has a very soothing voice and never uses language stronger than "bother", but also to see him systematically dismantle puzzles that had me tearing my hair out. In the first episode after leaving the tutorial area Simon stumbles on a puzzle that he doesn't have the context to solve yet, but cracks it after a couple of minutes (while apologising for being so slow).

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLK-l8O0YikOlZOoplZUpz4x_ix7mQFsZZ

Omobono
Feb 19, 2013

That's it! No more hiding in tomato crates! It's time to show that idiota Germany how a real nation fights!

For pasta~! CHARGE!

Party Boat posted:

Apologies if there's a better place for this but I thought people with this thread bookmarked might like it. There's a youtube channel called Cracking the Cryptic where champion puzzle solvers Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe tackle sudoku and other brain teasers, and over the last month or so Simon has been playing through The Witness. It's been a delight to watch, not just because Simon has a very soothing voice and never uses language stronger than "bother", but also to see him systematically dismantle puzzles that had me tearing my hair out. In the first episode after leaving the tutorial area Simon stumbles on a puzzle that he doesn't have the context to solve yet, but cracks it after a couple of minutes (while apologising for being so slow).

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLK-l8O0YikOlZOoplZUpz4x_ix7mQFsZZ

:catstare:
Yeah, just solve a bonus puzzle for bonus lategame content without any tutorial on that type of puzzle 15 minutes into the game.

Party Boat
Nov 1, 2007

where did that other dog come from

who is he


If it helps you feel better it takes him embarrassingly long to notice environmental puzzles. He looks directly down at the river that's the first one most people spot multiple times as well.

Megazver
Jan 13, 2006

Party Boat posted:

Apologies if there's a better place for this but I thought people with this thread bookmarked might like it. There's a youtube channel called Cracking the Cryptic where champion puzzle solvers Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe tackle sudoku and other brain teasers, and over the last month or so Simon has been playing through The Witness. It's been a delight to watch, not just because Simon has a very soothing voice and never uses language stronger than "bother", but also to see him systematically dismantle puzzles that had me tearing my hair out. In the first episode after leaving the tutorial area Simon stumbles on a puzzle that he doesn't have the context to solve yet, but cracks it after a couple of minutes (while apologising for being so slow).

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLK-l8O0YikOlZOoplZUpz4x_ix7mQFsZZ

There was a very cute article about them recently:

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/these-sudoku-youtubers-are-about-to-become-your-favourite-game-streamers

Personally I've been aware of this channel because of that 'miracle sudoku' video that went viral-ish a year ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKf9aUIxdb4

It's pretty interesting even if you're not into sudoku.

giogadi
Oct 27, 2009

These don’t really fit with the rest of the thread, but I didn’t know where else to talk about it. I’ve been addicted to competitive puzzlers for the past few weeks.

Tetris Connected got released on PS4, and the big draw for me is that it has a classic Tetris mode to mirror the CTWC format, which is super duper fun. It’s so challenging having no hold piece and not knowing how long it’ll be before you get an I piece.

Then on the switch I’ve been playing a lot of puyo and panel de pon (Tetris attack) on the snes virtual console. I’m addicted to the challenge of thinking ahead to build chains in a hurry, I love it. It honestly feels a little like improvisation in jazz. My brain feels like it’s getting such a good workout when I play these.

I wish there were more people playing these games online! The puyo competitive scene is pretty small and it’s real hard to find other beginners to play with. I’m not even aware of a panel de pon scene, unfortunately. Maybe I’ll just teach my baby daughter to play with me when she’s older

murklins
Jun 18, 2005
router hax plz
some people here will probably like bean and nothingness from the next fest. it calls itself "a difficult tile-based puzzle game" and from the demo that does not appear to be a lie. nice puzzles, pretty smooth introduction of mechanics (it's not stephen's sausage roll brick wall). I'm looking forward to the full release.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1706090/Bean_and_Nothingness/

ultrafilter
Aug 23, 2007

It's okay if you have any questions.


Go play Sizeable. It's very good and gets semi-regular updates.

Desdinova
Dec 16, 2004
I had to be on my toes, like a midget at a urinal!

skeleton warrior posted:

Oh, hey, if you’re into classic puzzle games:

Cliff Johnson has available all of his games - including The Fool’s Errand and 3 in Three, two of the best puzzle games of the 1980s - on his website for free, along with a Mac Emulator to let you play them on modern machines.

https://www.fools-errand.com/

If you want to see what old fogeys like me were doing in high school computer lab, and want to see what puzzle games were like before Myst made things like “theme” and “synergy with story” a thing, check it out. They have great puzzles and fun stories.

Love these games, preordered Fool and His Money about five years before release and it's harder than all of his other games. I've solved about 7 or 8 puzzles out of the 20 starting available. Well worth playing though and I'm glad I bought it.

davidspackage
May 16, 2007

Nap Ghost
Would this be a good thread to ask for a good Mahjong game? I used to play a Flash version of Mahjong on Newgrounds that was really relaxing and would love to find something with gradual difficulty to pick up. I've looked for one on Steam, but there's so many obvious shoveled ports of phone games with microtransactions, I'd like to avoid those.

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Mayveena
Dec 27, 2006

People keep vandalizing my ID photo; I've lodged a complaint with HR

davidspackage posted:

Would this be a good thread to ask for a good Mahjong game? I used to play a Flash version of Mahjong on Newgrounds that was really relaxing and would love to find something with gradual difficulty to pick up. I've looked for one on Steam, but there's so many obvious shoveled ports of phone games with microtransactions, I'd like to avoid those.

You could ask in the boardgames thread under Traditional Games.

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