Sometimes in this line of work, you see a game that immediately catches your eye in passing at a showcase or an event…and then that game seemingly disappears for years. You forget about it, only to be wonderfully surprised again when it finally shows up, looking even better than it did the first time you saw it. That, for me, is Woodo, a cozy puzzle game about assembling little wooden dioramas themed around country living. And wow, it’s come a long way since its debut trailer at the Wholesome Direct, five whole years ago:

In Woodo, you’re presented with a little diorama scene entirely made out of wood blocks, where most of the pieces are whited out. Like this:

In the panel to the right, you’ll be presented with a bunch of blocks that fit into the blanked out spaces in the diorama. You have to figure out where they fit, then click and drag them into place. It sounds like an easy task, but there’s a Where’s Waldo?-like difficulty to figuring out where exactly each tiny, specific shape might belong. I was genuinely surprised at the growing complexity of the dioramas with each new puzzle I solved: I had thought Woodo would end up being embarrassingly easy. I won’t call this game difficult by any stretch, but it’s got the same mental stimulation going that you might get from a couple-hundred-piece puzzle, and it’s possible that later levels are even more complex.

You can rotate the diorama, zoom in and out, and focus in on smaller items (such as a set table in a larger setting of a kitchen) to help you out.

Source link