Puzzle fans, this Wishlist Wednesday is for you. We’re exploring upcoming puzzle games with demos that blend mystery, humor, and creativity. Each title challenges the mind in a unique way, from surreal alchemy to time-rewinding dwarves and eerie first-person mysteries.
Why We Love Puzzle Games
There’s something timeless about the moment a puzzle clicks into place. After all, whether you’re aligning shapes, deciphering symbols, or untangling a mystery, puzzle games awaken our curiosity. In doing so, they reward patience with discovery.
These games slow us down, challenge our assumptions, and remind us that clever design can be just as thrilling as chaos or combat. As a result, every solved puzzle feels like a small victory—a moment of clarity amid confusion.
This week, we’re highlighting several unreleased puzzle gems. Each one offers a playable demo you can try today. From surreal alchemy to post-party mayhem and misty first-person mysteries, these are three games that deserve a spot on your wishlist.
🧪 All Living Things
Developer: MOXO
➡️ Wishlist on Steam
📖 Read more: PC Gamer – “A claymation picture-book puzzle game inspired by medieval alchemy”
The Philosopher’s Stone awaits—but first, you’ll need to understand its symbols.
All Living Things is an animated art-book puzzle game inspired by The Ripley Scroll, a 15th-century alchemical manuscript. Through twelve intricate puzzles, players uncover the stages of transformation within alchemy. As you select and sequence objects, each cryptic illustration springs to life. Ultimately, every solved puzzle becomes a looping animation that reveals the rhythm and mystery of the process itself.
🖐️ Hand-Crafted Stop-Motion Animation
Every asset in All Living Things is sculpted and animated through stop-motion. Consequently, the game radiates a tactile, handmade charm, as if pulled straight from a forgotten cabinet of curiosities. Solving each puzzle literally breathes life into still imagery. Symbols and elements animate in poetic, hypnotic motion, creating a rare sense of wonder.
📜 Allegorical Imagery
Each puzzle draws inspiration from real alchemical emblems and historical manuscripts. Moreover, cryptic verses accompany every scene, encouraging players to think both lyrically and logically. You’ll interpret symbolism like a riddle—where poetry meets precision.
🔮 Unique Puzzle Mechanics
Rather than sliding tiles or connecting wires, All Living Things asks you to observe carefully. The puzzles reward curiosity and close attention to mystical and natural processes. As a result, you uncover meaning through discovery, not instruction. The experience feels meditative and mysterious—an ode to the pursuit of understanding and transformation.
🍻🍻 Olaf and the Crowning Hangover
Developer: Hidalgo Code
➡️ Wishlist on Steam
📖 Read more: Bleeding Cool – “New Puzzle Adventure Olaf and the Crowning Hangover Announced”
Waking up hungover is never fun—especially when the kingdom’s at stake.
In Olaf and the Crowning Hangover, you play a dwarf who’s had one drink too many, waking to find a royal disaster of your own making. Broken furniture, missing deliveries, and a dangerously impatient king await as you stumble through the wreckage of your own chaos. However, to fix the damage, you’ll need to solve puzzles by rewinding time—undoing one ale-stained mistake after another.
⏪ Time-Rewind Puzzles
Instead of pushing crates or pulling levers, Olaf’s puzzles revolve around reversing cause and effect. Chairs unbreak, spilled ale rewinds into full mugs, and toppled objects snap neatly back into place. It’s a clever twist on the classic sokoban formula. Therefore, cleanup becomes comedy as the world literally restores itself before your eyes.
🧙♂️ A Cast of Colorful Characters
As Olaf works to right his wrongs, he encounters a cast of eccentric fantasy folk. From Grimlak the grumpy orc to King Charles de Valois—who secretly loves gambling—each character adds humor and heart. Through witty dialogue and absurd encounters, every puzzle becomes part of a broader tale about memory, mischief, and redemption.
🍺 Pixel Art and Playful Chaos
Rendered in bright, nostalgic pixel art, Olaf and the Crowning Hangover fully embraces its slapstick fantasy tone. Despite the absurdity, it never loses its puzzle focus. Over roughly two hours of dwarven mayhem, you’ll rewind, restore, and rediscover what really happened during Olaf’s disastrous night. Ultimately, it’s lighthearted, clever, and packed with personality—a reminder that sometimes, cleaning up is the hardest puzzle of all.
📸 Dimhaven – The Lost Source
Developer: Zadbox Entertainment
➡️ Wishlist on Steam
📖 Read more: GamesRadar – “Explore an abandoned tourist haven to investigate a first-person mystery in Dimhaven – The Lost Source”
Fog, memory, and mystery converge on a forgotten island.
Dimhaven – The Lost Source transports players to a once-vibrant tourist paradise now abandoned and swallowed by mist. Once a place of laughter and light, the island now stands silent—its hotels empty, its power flickering, and its secrets buried beneath layers of fog and ruin.
You play as Emily Ravenstone, an explorer searching for her missing uncle amid the eerie remnants of Dimhaven. Before long, a simple rescue mission turns into something far stranger. As you piece together memories and mechanical puzzles, the island’s haunting story begins to unfold.
🧭 Adventure, Puzzles, and Discovery
From the creators of Quern – Undying Thoughts, Dimhaven continues the tradition of thoughtful first-person puzzle design. Each environment hides intricate mechanisms, cryptic clues, and interconnected logic challenges. Consequently, exploration feels organic and rewarding. Every lever pulled or lens focused brings you closer to understanding both the island and yourself.
📷 A Camera as Your Compass
Your camera isn’t just a keepsake—it’s a key. By using its lens, you’ll capture evidence, uncover hidden details, and document Emily’s journey. Each photograph becomes a breadcrumb of discovery, chronicling not only the investigation but also the emotional toll of returning to a place once filled with life.
🌫️ A Story in the Mist
Through its blend of exploration and environmental storytelling, Dimhaven – The Lost Source feels both lived-in and haunted. As you uncover journals, artifacts, and intricate devices, the story of the island—and your family’s place within it—gradually surfaces. Ultimately, it’s a meditative experience built for players who appreciate patience, observation, and quiet revelation.
🗒️ More Upcoming Puzzle Games to Wishlist
If you love clever design and quiet wonder, keep an eye on these additional titles:
- Gecko Gods – Explore sun-drenched ruins and solve environmental puzzles as a tiny gecko climbing through an ancient world of secrets.
- Woodo – A cozy handcrafted diorama puzzler where you restore miniature scenes piece by piece in a soothing, tactile world.
- Shifting Chambers – A haunting manor puzzle adventure where rooms themselves rearrange as you uncover its ghostly secrets and shifting architecture.
🧠 Final Thoughts
Puzzle games remind us that not all adventures are about speed or reflexes. Instead, they’re about understanding and discovery. Each of these demos offers a glimpse into a world that rewards patience, creativity, and curiosity. In other words, they show that indie games continue to reinvent how we think—not just how we play.
And speaking of puzzles—our own folk-horror game No One Leaves the Field also invites players to explore its eerie challenges. In its demo, you’ll piece together clues scattered across a cursed farm, light ritual candles, and unlock hidden secrets buried in the wheat. It’s part mystery, part survival, and all atmosphere.
💡 Try their demos, wishlist your favorites, and don’t forget to play No One Leaves the Field on Itch.io.
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