Thinky Games

Je contribue depuis 2024 à Thinky Games, un site anglophone dédié aux jeux vidéo de réflexion. En plus des traditionnels articles d'actualité et de critique propres à la presse vidéoludique, le site héberge une base de données dont je suis l'éditrice principale.

Une partie de mon travail consiste à publier des descriptions de jeux rédigées par une petite équipe de collaborateur·ices, ou bien directement par moi-même. Ma ligne éditoriale s'articule autour des mécaniques de chaque jeu : quels problèmes formulent-ils ? à quelles capacités doit-on faire appel pour les résoudre ? J'approche ces questions avec une familiarité de ton mesurée, et je fais preuve de réserve dans l'expression de mes opinions.

La liste ci-dessous présente des extraits des textes que j'ai écrits dans ce cadre. Vous pouvez également retrouver les thinky games auxquels j'ai joué en consultant ma chronologie.

I've worked as an editor for Thinky Games since 2024. We cover “games you love to solve”, meaning puzzle games, detective games, strategy games and the like. Our website publishes the kind of news and reviews that have come to define videogame journalism, but we also curate a large database of thinky games. And it's my job to update and manage its contents.

Some of the database entries include a factual, mechanics-oriented description of the game. Many descriptions are submissions from freelancers that I reviewed, edited and published, but from time to time I get to write them myself. The editorial line I follow focuses on articulating the challenges that each ruleset creates and the problem-solving skills that they require. I've kept to a mildly informal tone and to mostly muted personal opinions.

I've listed below excerpts of my own game descriptions, along with links to the full articles. You can also visualize every thinky game I've played recently using my timeline.

Cipher Zero

The difficulty slowly ramps up from one biome to the next, as different glyphs are mixed to explore complex and satisfying consequences of the ruleset. Most grids from the first half of the game can be swept up after pulling out a clever break-in, like the puzzles of RYB. [...]

The Rise of the Golden Idol

These so-called sentinels rely heavily on the veridola, a piece of tech meant to distinguish truth from lies. Language, however, is more ambiguous than the veridolas assume, and it’s your job to explain the inconsistencies and unbend the truths that the devices failed to detect. [...]

Word Play

Compared with Balatro, Word Play commits to a lean, finely balanced design of forgoing mechanics of money and interest. Instead, it relies only on plays (Balatro’s hands) and refreshes (Balatro’s discards) to build up continuity and tension between the rounds. [...]

Slip!

Each level is a relatively small room you have to navigate in order to reach a special exit tile. The core obstacles you'll have to deal with are bouncing diagonal walls, which send you sliding in another direction and disrupt the visualization of where you'll end up after a few moves. [...]

Pup Champs

Keeping in mind the state of each player as you study every possible step can feel daunting at times, but usually you can deduce the scoring pup and their final position based on their special kick, so visualizing things backwards should eventually net you the full solution. [...]

The Rise of the Golden Idol

Character Tesa Nevari returns in a tangential capacity; the focus is rather on the dealings of a new cult, and how its main figures came to shape the country’s politics. Some events are presented out of chronological order, and one of the cases involves language deciphering puzzles. [...]

14 Minesweeper Variants

The variants are organized along two core principles: adding a new logic constraint to the vanilla rules, or changing the meaning of the clues. An example of the former is the Connected variant, which requires all mines to be orthogonally or diagonally connected. This can have wide-ranging consequences across the grid as you ensure that all mines can always be chained together. [...]

Lab Rat

The testing rooms you have to complete are presented in typical 2D top-down sokoban view. However the mechanics are less conventional, since you can not only push the crates on the grid, but also pull them, drag them sideways, and climb on them. Additionally, each side of the crates can be altered by color-coded charges from laser guns, and you can only grab the sides that match your own charge. [...]

Linelight

A few puzzles rely exclusively on activating the right switches to toggle line segments, but most of them combine these static elements with secondary, mobile dashes. For instance, red dashes are always on the move and you should never let them come in contact with you, otherwise the level will reset. [...]

Lyne

Lyne does not introduce new rules past its first sets though, so while the puzzles are numerous, they may end up feeling somewhat repetitive. It's more of a game to help you unwind, with straightforward mechanics and sleeky-soft design. [...]

Dogs Organized Neatly

The collection of 30 dogs progressively unlocks as you make your way through the levels. They come in all kinds of goofy shapes—some of them way larger than the cats from the studio's previous game, Cats Organized Neatly, providing a small gameplay shift in an otherwise established formula. [...]

The Rise of the Golden Idol

Each case’s difficulty has been met with varying responses. This will be influenced by your familiarity with crime tropes and your reaction to unexpectedly disarranged deduction setups. [...]

AmaZoo

Several rooms include real-time elements, in the form of moving platforms and patrolling robots. The levels are presented in sets of six; these sets cannot be interrupted and must be cleared in order, however the levels are paced with creative variations to prevent fatigue. [...]

Leap Year

Soon enough, the puzzles become as much about finding a path to the page inside a room as about drawing up a route to enter the room properly. This involves some back-and-forth across the world—but getting some forced practice may turn up to be a blessing in disguise. [...]

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes’ narrative is complex, fragmented and time-blurred, its story dabbling in esotericism. With stylish visuals and mesmerizing sound design, the game’s dark atmosphere calls back to surreal arthouse films. The silent main character herself has agreed to take part in an obscure art project, and some sections include strong nods to video game history. [...]

RYB

In RYB the “mines” can be either one of different colors, so it’s less about uncovering the location of the mines than finding out the right type of mine. The tiles omitting information (by having less circles than the number of adjacent tiles) add to the difficulty. Still, all levels can be solved with pure logical reasoning, and guessing is never required. [...]

AssassInvisible

As a scribbled assassin, you won’t have much in the way of weapons, but your camouflage technique is excellent. You can turn invisible after a few moves, thus being able to get past the guards without getting caught. However, if you hit a wall, you’ll turn visible again, so you often need to memorize your position and input a few moves in the blind until you reach a safe spot again. [...]

Robot Detour

Since going straight to the objective won’t work, you’ll need to wrap around obstacles to line up the cable on spike-free paths. The game features six areas with a focus on different mechanics. The second area introduces blocks whose positions change halfway through the level; this makes for bite-sized exercises in spatial visualization. [...]

N Step Steve: part 2

The step counter and the flags are combined with various other classic turn-based mechanics, like pushable boulders, conveyor belts, slippery ice, and a few more. The resulting setups usually call for precise, not-a-single-step-left solutions. [...]

Filament

This wiring logic is quite unique, and it comes with a sense of open-endedness. Since it’s hard to predict from your first moves whether or not you’ll be able to clear all the pillars, tackling Filament puzzles often involves some trial and error, and the progressive uncovering of a working solution. [...]

Void Stranger

Indeed, the depths of the Void hide knowledge and tools which, with enough determination, can recontextualize many rooms, and bring the sokoban procession closer to dungeon-crawling gameplay. Uncovering some of these mysteries involves dealing with a permadeath mechanic. Other secrets are dependent upon highly concealed world interactions. [...]

Cocoon

Insect-drone companions and other biomechanical contraptions roam exotic, low-poly decors. Most creatures are non-threatening, except for a few unearthly bosses confined to short puzzle-action sequences. This ambitious art direction is capped off with pristine sound design, built around synthetic noises which blend both organic and industrial elements. [...]