Moncage

Developer Optillusion

Publisher XD

Format Android, iOS, PC (tested)

Release Out now

Few games this year have had us so torn between admiration and disappointment as this curate’s egg from New York-based micro-studio Optillusion. The developer name gives you a clue as to the kind of with the perspective trickery of , where connections must be made between very different objects to progress. It’s all contained within a giant cube, each face displaying environments that link up in unexpected ways. Opening a door in a confessional box, for example, casts a shadow elsewhere that allows a giant stone construction to emerge, drawing lightning away from a belfry so that you can drag over a giant hourglass and watch its sands drain to form the shape of the missing bell. Therein lies everything good and bad about : as regularly as we find ourselves marvelling at how all the disparate pieces slot together, the process of getting there isn’t nearly so satisfying.