Windosill is a series of single-room puzzles which feel somewhere between little curio cabinet and cardboard theatres. A box of geometric plants dripping with dew and buzzing with life. A display of interesting items, hinged paper legs and an eerie doll and a little house and a twirling crib mobile of ghosts and a springy thing and a clock and folded cloth and waves which ripple as you drag and and and. They’re full of objects which spin and rattle and shake and flop and ding and plip and watch you. So fiddle and play and poke and figure out the sequence of events you must perform to find the cube which will unlock the door and let you roll your little wooden car into the next scene. Maybe you need to feed a bird. Maybe you need to grow plants and catch seeds. Maybe you need to steal something. It’s a lot of trial and error, sure, but what joyous trial! Living creatures in the scenes have such a surprising amount of life to them simply from observing your movements with curiosity, their eyes following and necks craning. It’s a simple trick yet performed so well. It feels like we’re all playing through these scenes together, my curiosity feeding theirs and theirs feeding mine. The game first came out on PC in 2009, then hit iOS in 2011 and Nintendo Switch in 2022, but only hit Android this Monday. You can buy it from Google for £2.99. I did, and am very pleased. Windosill has always felt tactile as you knock objects about and tug to break ties, just the right amount of weight and give to everything. Doing that with my fingertip on my tablet touchscreen is even better. If you dig this, do check out Vectorpark’s latest, the playful picture book Metamorphabet. Our Metamorphabet review called it “the most delightful alphabet-teaching game you could hope for” and we declared it one of our favourite games of 2015. Windosill is also on Steam and Itch.io for £2. You may well have unknowingly received a copy on Itch through 2020’s phenomenal Bundle For Racial Justice And Equality.
