Tag: No Combat Games

Desktop Explorer – Demo Impressions

Step aside logic puzzles, there is a new contender in town.

Desktop Explorer

Developer: Recurring Dream

Release Date: 17 Jul 2026

Rummage through the abandoned profiles of an old PC to unravel an inherited mystery. What secrets hide in this eerie adventure of cryptic games and outdated software? Who was using this computer? And what happened to them?

Desktop Explorer is what I want to call an OS exploration game, but not like any other I have played. The entire premise of the demo revolves around solving the puzzles on the system, incrementally unlocking new folders and using the files within to solve the next puzzle. They are presented to you through a light horror adventure, laterally unravelling the presumably real life mystery of your uncles amnesia/history/life.

The immersive nature of the OS threw me at first, as puzzle solutions can and will be found throughout the functions of the programmes themselves. Every solution had me feeling like a tech genius, despite – or should I say, especially because of – the brain scratching moments that had me starting at the screen, browsing back and forth wondering what on earth I was supposed to do. The information is there for those lightbulb moments and I feel that is all that you should know going into this game.

After seeking out logic puzzles for the last while, Desktop Explorer is an absolute breath of fresh air and I can’t say I have played anything else like it. I was thoroughly invested in this demo both mechanically and narratively and I highly recommend checking it out for yourself.

Demo Length – ~1 hour
At a glance
+ Excellent puzzles
+ Diagetic puzzles
+ Diagetic hints
+ Immersive
+ Engaging story
+/- Doesn’t feel hand holdy
+/- Disturbing enough. Not too scary (yet)

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Duppy Detective Tashia – Demo Impressions

The cast are as vibrant as the colourful art style.

Duppy Detective Tashia

Developer: Spritewrench

Release Date: 8 Jun 2026

Help Tashia unravel the case of a heinous murder and find her cell phone in this point & click, mystery adventure based on Caribbean folklore!

With the full game of Duppy Detective Tashia due to be 2-3 hours, this 30 minutes slice showcased a fun, bubbly detective adventure that left no space for tedium. After unfortunately and unknowingly being struck from life, Tashia has a murder to solve in the afterlife. The stylish animations and UI tie the simple investigative gameplay together in a way that never felt like it slowed down.

The game is created by a tiny Jamaican studio eager to showcase their culture and as a result, the afterlife is populated with mythical figures that I am unfamiliar with. Cultures are unique but games are universal and indie games in particular remain an incredible medium to discover people, places and stories that you may never have encountered otherwise. I hadn’t even heard the word Duppy before (it means ghost!). This game has a flavour that couldn’t be produced be anyone else and I would love to see more.

What I didn’t expect was for the game to turn in to a narrative version of Among Us. You should play yourself to understand what that means as it gave me a good chuckle when the demo wrapped up the way that it did. An easy-going easily digestible way to spend some time and solve a mystery!

Demo Length – -30 mins
At a glance
+ Colourful and stylish
+ Characters based on not your everyday myths
+/- Gameplay is simple
+/- The game feels more about the narrative than a challenging puzzle

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Schrodinger’s Cat Burglar – Demo Impressions

Quantum zoomies.

Schrodinger’s Cat Burglar

Developer: Abandoned Sheep

Release Date: 21 May 2026

Portal with cats – Become entangled in a quantum puzzle adventure! Mittens gains the incredible power to be in two places at once. Explore twisted test chambers, make mischief and evade capture by a whisker! 🐈🐈‍⬛

Every cat game that I see triggers my scepticism and I don’t know where that has come from, I can’t think of a single cat game that I have tried that has actually dissapointed me. In fact, they generally tend to be full of heart, humour, and quality in their own way. Schrodinger’s Cat Burglar continues that streak delightfully.

Schrodinger’s Cat Burglar takes the concept of Schrodinger’s Cat, and a literal cat burglar, and fuses them together into a puzzle game in a way that feels like it was born with the universe. For those who are familiar with Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, this game controls similarly. One half of the gamepad controls one cat and in an instant, you can split into two cats, the second being controlled by the other half. It takes a bit of brain rewiring to start with – I can see why it is part of the Cerebral Puzzle Showcase – but soon enough it feels natural, and the speed and agility of the cats encourage getting stuck straight in. Zero pussyfooting around here.

The opening cutscene set the tone for the game, displaying the exact amount of seriousness necessary for a concept such as this. Lazy Susan is our hedgehog handler as we infiltrate a facility, solving puzzles of permanence, quantum physics, and steal cash to spend on fashion. Whether or not the fur density is actually fur density is down to interpretation but either way, the customisation is a joy and the bonus of this being Schrodinger’s Cat Burglar is that you have two cats to dress up rather than just one. Purrfection really.

It could just be big bones.

The puzzles were mind bending enough that I had to pause a couple of times to figure it out, and the addition of optional puzzles is a treat. If you take the time and go the extra mile you will be rewarded with currencies, which as far as I could tell so far, go towards the aforementioned fashion. If you don’t then it is no big deal, the rest of the story awaits. A fantastic demo that I had installed for far too long before finally playing. I stand corrected about putting it off and recommend any puzzle heads and/or cat fans to check it out!

Demo Length – 1hr
At a glance
+ TWO cats
+ Fantastic use of the concept
+ Feels great in the hands
+ Optional puzzles count towards optional fashion
+ The customisation is lovely
+ There is a built in hint system
+ Animations feel fluid and sharp, especially when splitting the cat.
+/- The demo made me pause to think, I have no idea how complexity will continue to increase

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Database Detective: Minor Crimes Division – Demo Impressions

The most engaging, useful, hilarious online course I have ever taken.

Database Detective: Minor Crimes Division

Developer: Thomas Hsu

Release Date: July 2026

Solve criminal cases through the power of SQL queries! Help out the city of Los Zorangeles by becoming a Database Detective in this new (unpaid) work from home opportunity.

Database Detective: Minor Crimes Division is truly the type game that I have wanted for my entire life.

It is your first day on the job as a Database Detective, which entails examining evidence and searching through databases to solve who commited these most heinous crimes, taking them off of the streets for good. You can then sleep soundly at night knowing that that elderly lady will never litter, ever again.

The game teaches you SQL, a real life programming language used to interact with databases. Through the brilliantly written manual for dummies and contextual practice, you will learn the basics. Each case adds on a new feature. Using those new features alongside what you have already learned allows you to find the data that you are looking for, and find that pesky perpetrator.

I am not exaggerating when I say that this is the best online course that I have ever taken. I am currently 3 chapters into a Python course and the entire process so far has consisted of ‘watch me do this’ and ‘copy that’. The reason Database Detective works so well is that even from the very first case, it does not tell you the answers directly. The instructions are very clear on what you have to do but you have to engage your own brain to input the commands relevent to the tables that you are working with. The entire process feels less like learning and more like solving a really satisfying puzzle.

The learning part is outstanding, but that isn’t the only thing that impressed me so thoroughly. The entire package of this game is a delight. You aren’t just solving any cases, you are solving the pettiest of crimes. The entire process feels completely ridiculous, not least when the air horns go off and confetti fills your screen on a successful arrest. It is a hilarious time that will make jumping back in to learn so much more of an easier process than picking up a book or watching a video would. The CopOS that you are navigating is thematically perfect, and I can feel a passion for not only teaching, but teaching through a quality product oozing through every interaction. 

I have no SQL experience and the demo took 1 hour. I wouldn’t say I am competent by now but the handbook is a fantastic reference and I presume any future cases will allow you to build on the basics while also introducing more complexity.

Some games are worthwhile because they make you feel something, help you see the world in a new light, or provide invaluable distraction. Database Detective is valuable as it showcases the astronomical potential for educational games, with the genuine potential to change the course of lives by making learning accessible, engaging, interactive and fun. I truly see the future of learning being infinitely better because of projects like this.

Demo Length – 1hr
At a glance
+ Genuinely educational
+ Great humour
+ Builds on itself
+ Seamless
+ Learning disguised as a puzzle

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Funeral for the Sun – Demo Impressions

When logic meets the surreal.

Funeral for the Sun

Developer: Nicolás Cid Delgado

Release Date: Coming soon

Search the ashes of an abandoned Latin American town and uncover 500 years of secrets. A non-linear mystery where you travel back in time and untangle the complex history of a community cursed by supernatural forces.

The final demo that I tried from the Thinky Direct 2026 was the demo for a game that I already had on my wishlist, Funeral for the Sun. We play as a historian on her attempt to unravel the past of a town doomed to flames and time.

Of all the games that I have tried that have evoked Return of the Obra Dinn in some way – my favourite game of all time might I add – Funeral for the Sun has come the closest to capturing that magic so far. Don’t get me wrong, Funeral for the Sun has its own soft, painterly art style, its own story to tell and its own unique way of telling it, but exploring the environments, discovering clues from the past and encountering the drama along the way is reminding me of the reasons that I like the genre. It is not only for the deduction of the logic puzzles – however smart that makes me feel when I have some success – but the story that unfolds along the way, the surprises, unexpected turns, and the oddities that provide another level of intrigue.

In less than 45 minutes I was given enough clues, enough fulfilment and enough strangeness to really want to continue beyond what is currently available. Exploring the same scenes in both the past and the present in order to fill out our journal, put names to faces and make the connections between them is an endlessly satisfying process, presented seamlessly. I will be keeping my eye on this one!

Demo Length – 30min-1hr
At a glance
+ A satisfying deduction system
+ I have no idea where the story is going to go
+ Drama ramps up quickly
+ The way the past and present work together to present puzzles and solutions
+ The colour palette is evocative and art style recognisable
– Only being able to save a limited amount of journal entries felt restricting

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Deductopia – Demo Impressions

A clever, cozy use of a deduction style format.

Deductopia

Developer: Nightwell Games

Release Date: Coming Soon

Explore the scenes, find clues, and sort out people, pets, and belongings in this cozy slice-of-life detective puzzle game. Fans of Duck Detective, Little Problems, and The Case of the Worst Day Ever will enjoy this new deduction game for all ages.

I have tried a lot of demos for Obra Dinn and Golden Idol likes (admittedly I still have yet to play Golden Idol beyond the demo), and Deductopia has been my favourite so far. It is a logic puzzle to its core and it did all of the right things. The UI is intuitive, the clues are just enough, and it pushes you in the deep end, giving that delicious initial overwhelm that unravels through exploration, turning ‘how the heck am I ever going to do this?’, to ‘if this is this then that must be that’, at a satisfying fast pace. It throws you in a scene, provides you with some questions, some clues and some solutions, and says, ‘have fun’.

Something that I really appreciate about Deductopia are the difficulty options. There is the option to experience these levels in two different ways. Easy mode checks your answers as you go, informing you if you are correct or potentially going down the wrong path. Hard mode waits until you have inputted all of your answers and deduced the entire scene to reveal whether you made any mistakes. Hard mode was exactly the kind of challenge that I am after. If you give me a way to brute force a puzzle I will, I just can’t resist it so for me, easy mode would have had me gaming the game rather than playing the game. I only bring this up because, while I am glad it exists for the folk that prefer to play that way, a lot of the reward of a deduction games for me is the dopamine flood I get when I get confirmation of my answers. From my experience so far, this is always 10x better when lots of information that you have been chipping away at all gets approved at once. These options allow me to flex whatever brain muscles that this works, while also providing reassurance that if I get stuck later down the line, I am not hung out to dry, easy mode will be there for me.

The demo offered 3 of 12 scenes to explore and solve. It took me 30 minutes total, so this is not going to be a long game. It does however seem like it is going to be an extremely satisfying version of what it is. Low stakes, sit down with a cuppa and a biscuit, and be the observation hero that everyone needs.

Demo Length – 30 mins
At a glance
+ Difficulty settings
+ Thoughtful UI
+ A good ratio of clues:deduction so far
+/- Trusts that the player doesn’t need handholding
+/- Short

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Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School – Demo Impressions

Stupid-smart puzzles. Genius, dumb fun. Clever all around.

Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School

Developer: Coin Crew Games

Release Date: To be announced

Class is (back) in session with Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School! Get a first look at next year’s curriculum with this new playable demo. Escape from a death-defying introductory puzzle course, kick it with new and familiar faces on campus, and enjoy a sneak peek at our brand new quest system!

There is something to be said for frantically zooming around a scene, on the clock, clicking on every little thing to help find your puzzle solutions and at least 50% of the time being provided with a pun instead. Whether the jokes land or not doesn’t matter, it is a delightful experience and surprisingly enough, the majority of them do.

Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School is the upcoming sequel of Escape Academy, where you are student at Escape Academy, learning to… well, escape. The pressure is high and the consequences for failure can be deadly, but that is just another day at the prestigious school. The entire premise and the writing alongside it are the dumbest of fun and I couldn’t have more affection for it. The sequel feels like an expansion of the formula of the first game in the most exciting way.

The writing is fun, the vibes are peak, and the gameplay is equally strong. There are themed escape rooms galore and the demo gave a wonderful and substantial taste of the variety ahead. Between main puzzles there are optional side puzzles, an abundance of your peers to chat to with the best – and worst – names, and an ever expanding environment to explore as you prove your capability by not dying in class.

I am usually allergic to rushing, in games and in real life, but in the case of Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School, I do recommend choosing the timed option, providing you are at least a semi seasoned escape roomist. The urgency adds a lot to the atmosphere of the game and so far I had enough time for every puzzle while also thoroughly exploring every nook and cranny of the room. You will never know whether a one liner will be worth the 10 seconds of your precious time until after you have read it, and that was a gamble that was always entertaining to take. If you prefer though, you can turn the clock off and take the game at your own pace.

Everything feels so serious and yet so light-hearted simultaneously. You will solve a puzzle so intelligently to be greeted by the dumbest joke. The puzzle itself may be a dumb joke. That is what sets this game above so many other puzzle games for me, and why I recommend it so highly. Despite the silliness, I even had to pull out a note book a couple of times! There are local and online co-op options available too.

Demo Length – 1-2 hours
At a glance
+ Engaging puzzles
+ Abundant jokes and amusing writing
+ An improvement of an already great game in the way that great sequels are
+ New open world providing more opportunities for laughs and brain scratchers
+ Substantial demo really shows what you are getting into
+ Snappy pacing
+ Difficulty options

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Deep Pixel Melancholy – Demo Impressions

Not even dystopic, just real.

Deep Pixel Melancholy

Developer: ok/no

Release Date: Q3 2026

Deep Pixel Melancholy is a visual novel about being stuck in a time loop inside a far northern city. Unravel the mystery, and decide whether escaping is really worth it.

A unique Visual Novel demo that works on every level for me!

I realised as I was gathering my thoughts that I wanted to describe what I have played of Deep Pixel Melancholy as dystopic. When I pondered on that for only a few seconds, I realised that actually, there is nothing dystopic about it. The game is just portraying everyday life for millions of people on the planet. We go to the job that we don’t want to go to to pay the bills that we have to pay to survive, while worrying about losing the job that we don’t even want in the first place, because we need it to survive. Of course this isn’t the case for everyone in the world. If you don’t relate on some level then I am genuinely so happy for you, but it is undeniable that this is a universal experience across countries and continents for many, and a sad but real part of the human experience.

A concern that I often have trying games with these kind of themes and atmosphere is that there is a thin line between bleak, and straight up, for lack of a better term, misery porn. Sometimes this kind of fiction, depending on the way it is written, makes me want to put it down immediately and play something else. But Deep Pixel Melancholy so far runs the line perfectly. I related to my characters thoughts, feelings and actions without ever feeling irritated or ever getting that ‘too real’ feeling that makes me run away. 

The pacing and prose make the story easily digestible. I am grateful for the bite-size, snappy sentances when dealing not only with a heavy world but a heavy mind. The game is written with present tense narration, guiding you as the player on what to do next, which you do by clicking on the stylised scene that you are in. You can also explore the scenes via descriptions and observations that you hover over. Each day they build on another which is another way that the game immersed me quickly. It is a subtle but true fact that my thoughts, even on a particular object, change each day depending on all sorts of internal and external factors and I loved seeing that represented.

Deep Pixel Melancholy has a gorgeously cohesive style, it presents just enough of a mystery to get its hooks in, and it has a relatable realness that I couldn’t help but want to see more. An immediate wishlist for me!

Demo Length – <1 hour
At a glance
+ Bleak but not overwhelming
+ Intriguing mystery
+ Unique visuals
+ Interactions feel more diegetic than a standard VN

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Wanderstop – Demo Impressions

A lesson in wellness.

Wanderstop

Developer: Ivy Road

Release Date: 11 March 2025

From the creator of The Stanley Parable and The Beginner’s Guide comes Wanderstop, a narrative-centric cozy game about change and tea.

We live in an era of hustle culture that glorifies work over wellbeing. We are encouraged to put everything we have into everything we do. If we don’t achieve our goals, we must not have worked hard enough. If we managed to take breaks or have fun along the way, did we really work hard enough? Of course, not everyone actually believes this, but we certainly all have met people who do, and based on the reception to this game by both critics and gamers alike, I would say a lot of us have internalised this mindset somewhat, whether we want to have, agree with it, care to admit it, or not.

Wanderstop challenges this mindset in a way that only a game really could.

These are demo impressions only, so I have yet to experience any of the story beyond the intro, but this small taster had a big enough impact that it felt really important to sum up my experience.

So far, Wanderstop is a commentary on passion and obsession. Where is the line between those things and if we are walking it, would we even realise it? Say we do take a step back and recognise, “Yes. I have a passion about something (in our main character Alta’s case, it is fighting). I am so passionate that I am going to chase this dream, idea, goal, or whatever it may be. I am going to chase it so completely that no one could possibly question my passion.” Wanderstop asks the question, “at what cost?”

We meet Boro, the most gentle, content soul, and the game asks another question. “Are you ok?”. Then, gives you all the time you need – probably more time than you would usually give yourself – to ponder it.

As someone who is prone to going all in on things and has burnt myself out multiple times before, every cutscene and conversation in this demo had an impact that I did not anticipate would hit me so hard. Personally, I am at a time in my life, I’d say a little further on than Alta is currently, where I have started to recognise the need for – and desire – balance. The moment I met Boro, his energy felt like the end goal for me. While Alta is wrecking herself, living her life with one goal in mind, desperatly clutching at one potential outcome and tormenting herself for falling short of an almost impossible goal, Boro is living in the moment, enjoying the journey, the here and the now. Alta, and I can confidently say a lot of us too, could do with taking a leaf or two out of Boro’s book (or tea… hehe).

Perhaps, feeling a longing for a Boro to find you and give you this opportunity the way that I did is an indicator that you yourself should take some time to reflect, to have no schedule, and to be. Whether that is through getting out in nature, a duvet day, doing absolutely nothing, or through making tea in Wanderstop, that is up to you – although I’d say Wanderstop is a good place to start.

The action of playing this game forces the player to do the very thing the narrative is encouraging. Slow down. Potter around. Make some tea. No rush. No worries. This is our time. Rather than just telling you that you should do these things in a way that you have likely heard 100 times before, Wanderstop teaches you through showing and doing. This, along with some beautiful artwork, voice work and dialogue, is the reason this game stands out to me among a sea of cozy games, and I am really pleased to have it accompany me during my LudoNarraCon 2025 coverage. I am thrilled by the prospect of taking a break from my other IRL projects to go all in on game content for the month, but I am going to keep Wanderstop going on the side, reminding me to take a break and check in with myself every so often. And I am rooting for Alta to do the same.

Demo Length – 1+ hour
At a glance
+ Writing – both conceptually and dialogue.
+ Beautiful cutscenes.
+ Heavy hitting package, relatable to many.
+ Meta in a way that only a game can be.
+ Voice acting is great.
+ Boro is precious.
+ Alta is imperfect in a very real way
+ Themes of tunnel vision, failure, sacrifice, exhaustion, burnout and the consequences of that have already been explored in the first hour.
+/- I am anxious to see where the story goes and whether it continues to resonate.
+/- I am also anxious to get further into the gameplay, to see whether it is therapeutic, or becomes tedious, boring or repetative.

Watch my playthrough and first impressions of the Wanderstop demo here!

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Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector – Demo Impressions

We have a crew.

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector

Developer: Jump Over The Age

Release Date: 31 January 2025

A dice-driven RPG, in a human and heartfelt sci-fi world. You are an escaped android, with a malfunctioning body, a price on your head and no memory of your past. Get a ship, find a crew, and take on contracts while you navigate across the Starward Belt.

The Citizen Sleeper 2 demo throws you straight into the narrative. We are a sleeper. We are disoriented and lost as we come to our senses in an unfamiliar situation. The eloquent introductory scenareo does a great job of filling you in if you have yet to play the original, while not lingering too long for those that are already acquainted with the fiction. The ever familiar UI and soundscape provide comfort to me as a player as I get to know a new individual in an entirely new scenareo. We are no longer confined to the Eye, and based on what I have played so far, I cannot wait to see the stories that are yet to be told throughout the rest of space.

Citizen Sleeper is a Narrative RPG in which we use dice rolls to determine and distribute our actions. As is the case in Citizen Sleeper, your character has stats to give an advantage to certain types of tasks over others based on your strengths. Building these up over time as you gain experience in the world is just one of the mechanics in play in this management style, choices matter story.

What strikes me about the sequal so far during my 2 hours with it is that while a lot of the tone is synonymous with the first, there is a subtle change that has huge implications in both the gameplay and the narrative experience. We have a crew. In the first game we met plenty of people, got to know them, relied on them, even grew to love some of them, but deep down, it was a wholly solitary experience. For me at least, it felt deliberate as we go through the personal struggle of acceptance of what/who we are. People can help us along the way but that journey has to be ours and ours alone. I went to sleep alone at night, and I made my decisions based on what was best for me as survival had to be my number one priority. The small shift of having a crew is going to ripple out not only into my decisions, but into my way of thinking, and that is an exciting proposition.

Another impactful mechanic added to 2 is the contract system, changing up the day to day gameplay. If you are not currently on a contract, you are probably going to want to stock up for the next one as these multi-day jobs take you away from any bustle, to focus solely on the hustle. This new system is sure to complement our nomadic lifestyle, but presents its own challenges in resource management, risk reward and possibly even crew relations. I can tell you that my first contract absolutely did not go as I intended.

The writing is just as engaging as the first and with the universe at our fingertips, the possibilities feel endless. And with the recent announcement of a January 31st release date, we don’t have long to wait.

Demo Length – 2 hours
At a glance
+ Meaningful changes from the first game.
+ A comfortable familiarity with the general structure and UI.
+ Choices matter, even during contracts.
+ Time pressure still feels weighty.
+ The addition of crew stress adds more plates to spin in an interesting way.
+ Writing and design remain stand out.
+/- Looking forward to seeing the rest of the structure of the game.

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