Dungeon Sweeper is a cute free pixelart puzzler based on a Windows classic
Tile by fire
Normally when writing up a new game, I'd tell you how to play it. Today, I'm going to be massively self-indulgent and ask you to tell me. The game in question is Dungeon Sweeper, a nifty free Itch.io browser puzzler made with the Godot engine that, as the name suggests, has a certain amount in common with Windows classic Minesweeper.
OK, I'll tell you a little: you click map hexagons to expose forests, villages, paths, lakes and, yes, dungeons, with more biomes becoming available as your score increases. The trick is understanding the relationship between these biomes, and which combinations of tiles lead to a game over. Unhelpfully, the in-game instructions are in kanji. But the art is lovely and who knows, perhaps the lack of guidance makes figuring the game out more fun.
There's a zoom bar at the bottom of the UI, and you can pan the map with right-click. Also, if you hit "a" the game plays itself, which is both soothing to follow and might clue you in on some of the moving parts. Creator Setamopixel also makes Famicom-style pixelart videos of high school kids taking photos of rundown industrial areas. Here's one.
I don't think it's one for our best puzzle games list but look, it's a slow news day. Play the cute browser freebie already.