Paper Trail

Developer: Newfangled Games

Release Date: 2024

Paper Trail is a top-down puzzle adventure about leaving home, set in a foldable, paper world.

Paper Trail is an artful, puzzle game. I recommend turning the lights out, having no other distractions and getting absorbed in the atmosphere provided by the stunning colour palettes and understated but beautiful soundtrack.

Played entirely with the mouse, Paper Trail feels silky smooth to control. Every location that you enter is a piece of paper that can be folded from any of its edges. What is on the back of the paper is different to what is on the front, providing new paths for Paige to bypass the obstacles in her way should they be folded correctly.

The game gives you the ability to view what is on the back of the page, and doing so felt like a glimpse into another world. While the function of this is for puzzle solving purposes, I liked to imagine that what we see on the flip side is a view of the same location in times long gone. Seeing where our character stands now through the page, encouraged by the melancholic music evoked feelings of a history lost to time, a sad but inevitable thing that thoroughly captures my imagination.

The closest game that I have played to Paper Trail is Gorogoa, a puzzle game taking place on panels. While they play differently and each have their own unique mechanics, if you like one there is a big chance you will like the other too for the ingenuity, commitment to the idea of their craft and a roundabout exploration of a fantasy world a little different to our own.

Demo Length – 40 mins

At a glance
+ Art direction.
+ Soundtrack.
+ Colour palettes.
+ Checking the back of the papers.
+ Played entirely with mouse.
+ Unique idea implemented perfectly.
+/- Not too difficult (so far). I managed to get through the puzzles through experimentation rather than figuring it out with logic.

More demo impressions here…
More from Steam Next Fest October 2023 here…