Ruya

Ruya (2017) is a narrative puzzle game about a mother on a journey of healing after love leaves her. You play as Ruya, meditating and remembering important parts of her life, shown through simple matching puzzles, with each colour tied to one of her children. Between puzzles are short scenes that help you understand her story.

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Play consists of matching the patterns that Ruya thinks about, using pieces of the same colour. Some are as simple as 2 next to each other, but others are more complicated shapes that require careful planning. As the game progresses you gain quite a bit of flexibility in how you solve the puzzles.

There's a twist. Each colour represents one of her children and you need to make a certain number of matches with the right children to pass the level. The game uses recorded audio of nature and binaural sounds to accentuate emotions while playing. It's thought that binaural sounds can increase focus, relaxation, or sleep, depending on the frequencies.

The result is a low-stress, relaxing game with a refreshing take on the match-3 formula. You journey with Ruya as she works to come to terms with her emotions. In the audio, visuals and metaphors it's a game can entertain, challenge and moves you.

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Our examiner, Angela Hickman Newnham, first checked Ruya 23 months ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 14 months ago.