Carto is an adventure puzzle game that is unusual in letting you rearrange the map tiles while you are playing. This enables you to access new areas of the world previously impossible to get to. This can be as simple as redirecting a river out of your way, or as complex as arranging a series of landscape features to trigger a magical item.

You meet many characters along the way who can help you on your journey home and usually need a bit of help from you in return. The landscape is hand-drawn and has different biomes that each have their own character, culture and unique map mechanic.