Thinky Third Thursday

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Thinky Third Thursday
April 2026

Welcome to the April 2026 edition of Thinky Third Thursday - a roundup of games that the puzzle experts from Draknek & Friends think are worth your time.

Before we start, we have some exciting news! Last month we announced our next published game: He Who Watches. A first person puzzle game about walking on walls, manipulating gravity, and discovering secrets. Delve deep into a labyrinth of intricate conundrums, seeking the god at the centre of it all.

From the Draknek & Friends Official Podcast

Recent thinky highlights


Puzzle Spy International, by Travel-Friendly Cake
This borrows some of the best bits from recent thinky hits - the deduction from The Roottrees are Dead and Golden Idol's fill-in-the-blanks - and adds escape room puzzles wrapped up in mid-century modern espionage charm. Shaken, not stirred - or should that be puzzled, then solved? In all, the 11 or so puzzles across the game aren't too challenging, but they are substantial and satisfying. On a need-to-know basis, you need to know this one's good fun.


A Little Perspective, by Tad Cordle
From the developer of Sensorium, A Little Perspective is another recent release that is equal parts playful and challenging in all the best thinky ways. You play a little red cube in a big isometric world, and your goal is to get from A to B through a series of paths that at first seem impossible but eventually deliver plenty of satisfying "aha!" moments. All you need to turn impossibility into possibility is... a little (shift in) perspective. We recently chatted to the developer about designing perspective puzzles and you can listen to that podcast episode here.


Tezzel: The Tilemaker's Tale, by Old Mayor Studios
This is a delightfully thinky game about dragging coloured mosaic blocks around a grid. Those paths leave colour trails, thus restricting later movements, and new tile-making tools add increasingly complex mechanics. One of the things we enjoyed the most is that every solved puzzle adds gorgeous pixel art to your growing mosaic, and the game's nonlinear progression means you can skip particularly tricky puzzles. Completing Mateu's mosaic will require solving them all eventually, but like the Sagrada Familia, I'm enjoying the process and in no rush to finish my masterpiece.


Poke ALL Toads, by SpaceMatra
Last month we talked about upcoming game Poke ALL Toads, and excitingly, this game is now released! Across 100+ levels in the full game you'll wrangle multiple fairies and outwit increasingly aggressive toads. The puzzles hit that Goldilocks zone where you're challenged without being stuck for ages. Minor timing elements occasionally frustrate, but the creative mechanics, lovely art, and comedic charm toad-ally make up for it.


Outpacked, by Antikythera Games
A cozy puzzler that knows how to "carry-on" the best parts of thinky logic. Yes, yes, the puns have started early. But let's unpack this one. Each level presents a geometric puzzle with extra steps: Hot items can't be next to cold items, liquids can't go next to electronics, and scissors can't be next to soft fabrics. It doesn't fundamentally break the genre, but the developers have executed a simple idea well, and wrapped it up tightly with a bow.

Thinky releases from the past month

Free games:

Paid games:

New demos:

Upcoming games to watch for


Factory Balls Go!, by Bart Bonte
In this upcoming title, Bart Bonte brings back the classic Flash-era Factory Balls with 100 fresh levels of paint-mixing logic. Your job is simple, transform a plain white ball into the target design through a combination of dipping, masking, sticking, and tool-using. Bonte's been releasing polished puzzle games for years, and this proves he's still got the factory running at full capacity.


Who Summoned It?, by Crooked Foot
Who Summoned It? is a new Golden Idol-like in which you play a magical, sentient scroll who may only have true statements written on it. The demo presents a small slice of the full game, which promises 40+ areas to investigate and magical tools (like tiny rats and crystal balls) to support you. The deductive fill-in-the-blank genre continues to develop, and this entry is one to watch, as it "scrolls" confidently into the pantheon with its light-hearted setting and hand-drawn charm.


He Who Watches, by Danga Games and Draknek & Friends
Lastly, we can't talk about upcoming games without mentioning our very own: He Who Watches! It's a challenging 3D game in which you'll walk on walls and ceilings and manipulate gravity. Your bow isn't a weapon - it's a tool for triggering chain reactions and opening paths inward toward the centre of it all. When deciding to publish He Who Watches, we were really impressed by the game's depth and thinkiness, and we can't wait to share more about it.

That's it!

That's all for this month! Next month will be a bumper issue as we'll be a few days out from Thinky Direct and the Cerebral Puzzle Showcase.

Until then, did you particularly enjoy any of the games above, or do you have a recommendation for a game I should check out? Please get in touch!

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