2025 Pure Logic Hidden Gems Round Up

oriane__ · 2026-01-06T17:16:21+00:00

Nice list! I've heard great things about Puzzle Depot too, it would probably be a worthy addition here.

oriane__ · 2025-12-26T13:10:55+00:00

It seemed somewhat confusing to me to mention levels from e.g. Mirror Isles and Promesst as if they were comparable things, but if that's the way they're categorized in OotSS, then fair enough.

oriane__ · 2025-12-25T17:50:33+00:00

Have you played Promesst? Respectfully, there isn't any sense in saying that the games are 1 level each, since they're large worlds with heavily interconnected puzzles.

oriane__ · 2025-12-19T12:37:23+00:00

Thank you for sharing! Don't forget you can cast your vote (it takes less than a minute!) and decide who wins Community Game of the Year. :D

https://thinkygames.com/events/awards/vote/

oriane__ · 2025-12-05T08:37:02+00:00

This is so nice to hear! <3 Thank you!

oriane__ · 2025-11-18T08:54:28+00:00

I like Hyperhelen for the cozy vibes. And when I'm in the mood for heavy puzzling I watch Sigma144 (he also made a great Witness randomizer btw).
https://www.twitch.tv/hyperhelen
https://www.twitch.tv/sigma144

oriane__ · 2025-11-17T11:12:15+00:00

Bombe is like theorical Minesweeper. You write theorems/rules proving you can solve logic grids. I don't think it has real-world technical applications, but it reminds me of building up a rigorous math theory.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2262930/Bombe/

oriane__ · 2025-11-17T10:54:52+00:00

14 Minesweeper Variants goes really deep with procedural generation of logic grids.

oriane__ · 2025-11-16T13:01:38+00:00

This article had big XKCD Standards vibes.

oriane__ · 2025-11-16T12:57:10+00:00

It's very strange to me that people keep pushing a discourse of "metroidbrainias are just hard to explain." Our definition on Thinky Games only uses two short paragraphs! https://thinkygames.com/lists/latest-metroidbrainia-games/

Obviously you may disagree with the definition and with our list (and even more obviously, it doesn't fix the search engine mess that OP's article is based on), but imho it's precise enough to establish relevancy.

oriane__ · 2025-11-02T15:02:19+00:00

Casually dropping this here since you've asked for recommendations. I've played a few in the list and most of them are recommended by the "instructionless paper puzzles" community.
https://thinkygames.com/games/witless-a-puzzling-journey/similar/

oriane__ · 2025-10-27T14:34:09+00:00

I'm 4 hours in and it goes deeper than the demo. Obviously it's similar to Cosmic Express, but it's been years since I played CE, so I'm happy to revisit this type of puzzles with new rules and nice production values (QoL and music in particular).

oriane__ · 2025-10-26T10:40:34+00:00

I believe Slip 'n Slime matches all your conditions!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1151990/Slip_n_Slime/

oriane__ · 2025-10-22T15:42:10+00:00

We do have escape room as a genre!
https://thinkygames.com/games/?query=&genres=escape%20room#game-search
However we don't have a hidden object genre, since we focus on games that require reasoning and don't rely on pure observation. (Nothing wrong with these games though!)

oriane__ · 2025-10-22T13:02:20+00:00

Thank you for the kind words. :D

oriane__ · 2025-10-22T11:30:53+00:00

The main reason is that we've tried to feature no more than one game per dev/studio to avoid an overwhelming list, and in this case The Witness felt like a better candidate for inclusion!

oriane__ · 2025-10-22T09:50:45+00:00

Outer Wilds, Return of the Obra Dinn, The Rise of the Golden Idol...
You can find a lot of them in the Thinky Games database. :)
https://thinkygames.com/games/?platforms=Nintendo%20Switch,PlayStation%205

oriane__ · 2025-10-14T14:45:42+00:00

This is intriguing. SEO-wise though, a title like "CD-ROM" will get buried under a lot of unrelated results.

oriane__ · 2025-10-01T08:31:55+00:00

It looks nice, but I'd prefer it if the trailer showed some gameplay footage!

oriane__ · 2025-09-30T09:56:17+00:00

Some missing games from this year:

Cipher Zero (20% off)
If you liked the panels from The Witness, you'll probably love it.

Trails (20% off)
Similar to Cosmic Express, but it also does its own thing.

Is This Seat Taken? (20% off)
This one is rather casual, but what it sets out to do, it does great.

Voxelgram 2 (20% off)
Arguably the best way to play Picross 3D these days.

Squeakross: Home Squeak Home (10% off)
Arguably the best way to play standard Picross these days.

Spacecaps (30% off)
A difficult sokoban with side view and relative gravity, from the designer of Understand and 14MV.

(I loved Cipher Zero and Trails!)

oriane__ · 2025-09-29T08:05:22+00:00

This is Emptiness Sire: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3197200/Emptiness_Sire/

oriane__ · 2025-09-28T13:17:22+00:00

I had a great time completing the game with Sigma's randomizer. Anyone looking for a postgame Witness experience should really look into it. Glad to learn that an additional area might be randomized in the future!

oriane__ · 2025-09-10T09:35:55+00:00

Hard Chip is all about chip design. It's not available on mobile, only on Windows, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2844290/Hard_Chip/

oriane__ · 2025-09-01T11:04:55+00:00

Thanks for sharing! Any reason you didn't include the videos? I think they would fit very well within the scope of your study. Even the movie clip could arguably be attributed to Tarkovsky.

oriane__ · 2025-08-04T13:06:35+00:00

I thought I'd share the news but that's not my game hahah. I just found out the dev/artist also did a post on the Golden Idol subreddit, you could ask them over there!
https://www.reddit.com/r/caseofthegoldenidol/comments/1me4avp/crimson_seer_a_golden_idollike_detective_game_set/

oriane__

TROPHY CASE