It should come as no surprise to most by now that I’m quite the puzzle-obsessed weirdo. Would you believe me if I told you that at the top of one’s sought-after birthday present list for any year is something like a[nother] book of Sudoku puzzles, a weird take on Rubix cubes (can’t just settle on having the original six-sided, three-by-three grid design amidst one’s collection) or at the very least a contraption I can fiddle, thumble and mess around with? Whether it’s physical deduction or mentally alike – something to manipulate or deduce a logical answer to – I’m always on the lookout for something to get me thinking.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
One particular genre whose gravitational pull has been hard to escape as of late are the more grid-based pitches. A refreshing break perhaps from one’s prior obsession with Sokoban-styled releases last year – not that those haven’t sprung up too on occasion these past twelve months. The pitch this time, generally revolving around a subtly-revealed set of rules or criteria that must be met or maintained within a limited framework. No work-arounds, no handy shortcuts – one and only one solution that will prove x, y and indeed z are all true. Failure via impatience, ineptitude or simply failing to properly rule out any other impossibilities and the whole process is compromised – mess up one step, you mess up every other step thereafter. Absolutely no room for mistakes then.
So when a game likeColorSweepercomes along and already feels like the mental strain of three games all rolled into one, how in the world do you make that seem like a selling point? Or at least, a selling point to someone other than yours truly – a glutton for deductive punishment I may sadly be. The stress of Minesweeper, the unfathomably cryptic language of Nonogram’s and bewilderment on where to even begin that more challenging Sudoku puzzles can often muster. And you’re telling me this game condenses all three games’ philosophies and jams them into seemingly simplified square grids? Oh and if that wasn’t enough…it even finds a way to incorporate chess pieces too? Make that four games then.
Making Sense of the Nonsensical
Perhaps it’s down to the easy-to-navigate interface, as much the laid back soundtrack (inevitably running on repeat as the minutes of guess-work roll on) that eases players into proceedings. And yet,ColorSweeperis one of those strong cases of a game that sounds complex on paper, but in practice, executes it in a way whose novel twist to all three of those aforementioned titans of logical puzzle-solving somehow mitigates the stress or concern over how/where to start. Minesweeper no longer this anxious deathtrap of failure only one press of a button away; Nonograms and Sudoku brain-teasers are likewise far from the blank slate they can often impose on a player’s initial gaze.
Make no mistake, failure is still present. Three mistakes made means three heart-shaped lives lost and thus, that attempt is a fail. Moments in even some of the recent demo’s later periods, having the playing grid expand to a mammoth-feeling 10x10 structure wherein the more Nonogram-esque influences start to properly show up. Knight chess symbols that denote where said color can logically be; grid spaces emblazoned with a reflective symbol, indicating some form of palindromic pattern/sequence in specific colors/values to an unforeseen horizontal, vertical and even diagonal direction.
Cipher Zero Strips Puzzles Down to Their Most Versatile, Purest Form
Straightforward in practice and yet ever-so-complex the moment you stop and start to total up all the mechanics in play. ButColorSweeperdoes such an impressive job at packing all these rule-sets and requirements into so tiny a workspace that the mental image of all these rules becomes irrelevant. Even at its tightest, say in a 4x4 grid that encompasses maybe three or four different “requirements,” it’s surprising that even at the height of calculative caution one can get in ruling out possibilities,ColorSweeperseldom feels impossible to even commence a process on. For all these branching paths that inevitably lead back into the true route, the straightforward approach to presentation and visual communication is what shines.
Another Round of Grids Please!
Because at the heart of this process, lies a simple objective and what might be construed as the game’s own core gameplay loop, if you will: figuring out the color of each square on a grid and painting them all in. Numeric values present in certain squares denote, Minesweeper-esque, how many squares surrounding said unit are of the same color. Have a square with a 0 in it? Well that rules out every one of the eight surrounding spaces. Find a square with a 1, sitting next to another with a 4 present? In the case of the square with the 4, you’ve already figured out where at least a quarter of your hidden pack is located.
ColorSweeper is one of those strong cases of a game that sounds complex – maybe a little too convoluted for its own ambitious sake – on paper, but in practice, executes it in a way whose novel twist, somehow mitigates the stress or concern over how/where to start.
Success inColorSweepervery much persists on this idea of ruling out the most evident of anomalies and working outward from a period of seeming obscurity to more logical outcomes. Even if that process does mean an occasional spot of guessing and blunt 50:50 hoping for the best, rarely doesColorSweeperfeel like it’s overloading a player’s focus with one too many hints or rules to follow. Admittedly, this may sound contradictory given what’s already been detailed, but that’s perhaps part of the subtle joy inColorSweeper’s design. How easy it is to render this mess of rules (and rules that all must satisfy one another’s requirements) into something that feels bite-size, manageable, easy to identify.
Even at its loosest in the sense of providing players a viable starting point, understanding how a combination of two or more rules translates visually is key. ButColorSweeperagain thankfully strikes the right balance between subtle and direct communication. Even its hint system come across more like a gentle nudge, than a snatching-away of the process in simply giving you the right color to denote a given square. Everything about the game is digestible, sectioned off in ways that go beyond the nature of its being a level-by-level basis. Which in turn, makes that eventual conquering of the latter-period 10x10 grids even more satisfying to see completed. A once hedge maze-like impossibility that may have stood menacingly before you, now transformed by color.
Combine this with a demo assortment whose offerings feel pleasantly charitable – in both content, but also the variety of rule-sets already revealed – and it’s hard not to find a brief dipping one’s toe into a puzzle or two stretch out to a full-on swimming through grids and grids of color.ColorSweeper’sability to cram so much into so small a digital space is impressive on its own, but it’s developer ARRKKA’s knowledge in making these multi-layered deductions feel approachable that’s the real highlight. The kind of easing in with presentation that these sorts of level-per-level concepts need if they’re to convince players to invest in the hundreds of puzzles on show. Having already invested hours into just the sampling alone,ColorSweeper’s introduction suggests its minimalist presentation may well be masking a comprehensively-enticing depth.
