Glowkeeper

Glowkeeper (2025) is a running and jumping puzzle where you match elements to create the path forward. Play is all about spotting clever sequences of moves that use the elemental properties to unlock paths that can span multiple rooms. It's an unusual combination of match-three chain reactions and platforming that works together to create brain-teasing puzzles.

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You play a small creature in a glowing world, searching for scrolls by building pathways. You run and jump to reach new checkpoints and collect scrolls. However, most paths are blocked until you use the mouse to select three or more tangential elemental blocks to open new routes. This can be simply making them disappear with your matches, but you also need to use the different elements' properties to progress. Fire turns ice into water or water into steam, boulders collapse and ice shatters.

As you progress, you master the mechanics and collect scrolls that open gates to new areas. You learn to use the matching to manipulate the environment, like matching fire to create a push of hot air that moves blocks. Puzzles start to span multiple rooms, sometimes far apart on the map, and even begin to require undos and resets to be used in inventive ways to succeed. It can initially feel impossible, but with persistence and experimentation, you're gradually able to make progress.

The result is a game with a super-simple match-three premise. Scratch beneath that surface, and it conceals an intricately designed set of surprisingly complex puzzles. Slowly uncovering the right sequence of moves through experimentation and curiosity is good fun, and the satisfaction of success is extremely rewarding.

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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Glowkeeper 5 weeks ago. It was re-examined by Ben Kendall and updated 4 weeks ago.