Minimal Crypt Reviews

Minimalistic indeed, yet complex enough to give you headaches, well designed, innovative, surprisingly varied and makes me struggle much more than I am willing to admit. It's definetely worth its price and you'll be able to enjoy it for days with the community levels.

Deceivingly complicated design. It will test your logical mind and make you think unusually. Well worth it!

Original puzzle game with good level design. Decent challenge level with some tricky levels toward the end. Not as difficult as games like Baba is You or Stephens Sausage Roll but more challenging than similar styled games. With the level editor and ability to load levels from the community there is more puzzles available than the base game.

A great puzzle game - simple mechanics, excellently designed and polished levels. I picked this up for a relaxing afternoon on the sofa, absolutely worth it. I think I've completed about half the levels, looking forward to tearing my hair out over the remaining half. The level progression and tutorialisation are spot on, every puzzle feels tractable. Haven't tried it yet but I love that it comes with a level editor, this game is definitely one to aspire to.

A cool and simplistic puzzle game to play whenever you want to get your brain working. The UX/UI is sleek and the mechanics and puzzle design well thought. I have been a long time playtester, hence the small final hour count.

I really love this game! As the name suggests, the game interface is minimal but the possibilities of levels are infinite! Each section has a good progression curve that let's you understand the game mechanics at your own pace. When you thought you understood all the mechanics, there are more to come and real challenges to face. And if you'd like, you can even design your own levels and try out the ones from the community with exclusive advanced mechanics for the level editor. After checking all the marks you're looking for in a puzzle game, I have to mention the amazing soundtrack that suits perfectly the game so you can chill & focus on the most difficult levels.

Played on Steam Deck. I appreciate the color blind mode! The puzzles are alright, though it does seem more like a framework for community-generated content, because many of the 64 levels are just explanations of the mechanics, and the final level says "thanks for playing and good luck!" which sounds more like the end of a tutorial. This community framework would be fine except there is no in-game search, and you have to get levels as copy/paste codes from.... somewhere??? The low amount of ramping difficulty puzzles felt very rushed and if there were maybe twice as many with some more natural solutions instead of hard to see sequences it would have felt better but leaning on the crutch of user content without giving a suitable environment makes me regret my time with Minimal Crypt.

This game is absolutely brilliant! It's a steal currently at 75% off. Had I known it was this good beforehand, I would have waited to buy it while *not* on sale to support the developer. On first glance, Minimal Crypt looks like a sokoban-like with a handful of novel mechanics. It is that, but the main new mechanic actually introduces a very different dimension to the puzzle solving; it becomes not simply about planning a route, but also requires some higher level reasoning of sequencing to build literal layers of "paint" that makes the traversal possible. Add to that, some puzzles throw a little subterfuge to trip you up further. I won't say any more about that but if you're curious you can read the discussion thread where I asked for a hint (subject "Logical Burden 12 seems impossible") and I got a response from the developer and some of their ideas of how to craft a puzzle. Oh yeah, I should mention the devs are really cool like that. What I am trying to say in a roundabout way is that the puzzle design is really good. I'm about halfway through all the levels. There is a mix of easy and hard. Some of them seem really easy once you figure out the key trick or strategy - but that is not always obvious. The game is not as hard as say Stephen's Sausage Roll - most levels here are small (fit in an 8x8 grid) so there is a limited number of moves required, but sometimes you really need to take a moment to sit back on reflect on what are possible and impossible strategies that may lead to a solution. As the dev so eloquently put it for the level I needed a hint on: "it captures several layers of thinking (high-level and execution)" Add to that, the game has a simple clear aesthetic, infinite undo, instant reset and chill music. There are a lot of levels /puzzles and all are unlocked after the tutorial chapter. This brings me to the organization of the puzzles in the game: There are 6 or 7 chapters, each introducing a new mechanic. Within each chapter there are roughly 10 puzzles that start off gently by introducing the new mechanic of that chapter, then have a bunch core puzzles then finishing with one or two really tough ones. This game has it all. Some brilliant puzzles (the ones are not brilliant are there to warm you up to get ready for the brilliant ones), great quality of life features (infinite undo), nice aesthetic, and full game unlock early on to avoid anyone getting completely stuck.

Puzzle games with genuinely innovative mechanics are incredibly rare these days and this little gem in the rough is a perfect example of something brand new that's easy to pick up but incredibly hard to master. The simplistic graphics, smooth, minimalistic animations, fantastic soundtrack and the exponentially steep difficulty curve all culminate together brilliantly. For just 5 bucks you've got access to the 5-ish hours campaign (including a secret level that you unlock by inputting the Konami code) and a plethora of community made levels. Buy this game if you have any interest in puzzle games or just want something new. It's a mindbending, brainbusting experience you won't soon forget.

[b]minimal crypt[/b] is a clever color-based puzzler. you're a yellow circle (or pawn, as the game calls them) on tile-based levels tasked with stepping on all the flags in any order. colored tiles won't let you pass unless you're the same color, but the big obstacle is not simply coating yourself by stepping on the appropriate tiles, but keeping them on to achieve your goal. after a post-release content update the game has [b]68 levels[/b] in 6 packs with a bunch of mechanics, and a [b]level editor[/b] is also included. each level within the first pack is unlocked, completing the whole set unlocks the rest of the packs and levels at the same time, which is very nice. sadly, [b]level selection is only accessible while playing, not from the main menu[/b]. [b]no timer or move limit/counter[/b], but you can only stack 3 colors on yourself and they each wear off after a single use. [b]lifo is the name of the game[/b] (last in, first out), so the outmost layer, the one you put on last, gets used first. stepping on the same coloring tile repeatedly lets you put on multiple coats of the same color. teleporters are a big deal in the crypt. they can be activated from any tile but using them costs a layer of paint and they also reset already activated flags. there are tiles that break after stepping on them once, as well as single-use coloring tiles, both restored after using the teleporter. pushable blocks are also a thing, they can push each other and can be colored as well. and what I hate even more than sokoban: moving multiple things simultaneously. the content update also added things like flags that have to be stepped on twice or traps that hold circles hostage. the mouse works in the menus and for selecting levels, otherwise [b]it's keyboard or controller only[/b]. rebindable controls aren't always necessary, especially if alternatives are provided (here it's only for movement to support qwerty and azerty keyboards), but [b]putting the undo and level reset hotkeys next to each other was a bad idea[/b]. no icon to click in the editor to exit, have to press esc, and the same key immediately yanks you out of the level you're playing, no confirmation or anything. rude. there are on-screen level numbers, but only dots on the top/bottom of the screen, so finding the level you want to jump to is more cumbersome than it should be. keyboard also works, but then it's just previous/next, also finicky. there's also a visualize links' hotkey that has to be held for some reason. it mostly shows which pawn is connected to which teleporter. really nice, clean visuals, great soundtrack and [b]good amount of settings, everything necessary (except rebindable controls and mouse movement) is available[/b]. windowed mode with a resizable window, separate volume settings, a few languages, colorblind mode, even a speed setting. I found 'normal' adequate and I always want to skip and fast-forward all the unnecessary fluff or repetition. besides the issues above, not much to complain about, but that's still plenty and I'd like to see them addressed at some point, until then [b]it's only recommendable on sale[/b]. it has some really tricksy puzzles, meaning [b]I had no chance of finishing it, but enjoyed what I played[/b] and only have about half a dozen levels left. there's a [b]demo to try[/b] with the first level pack, mostly trivial stuff, so it's not exactly an accurate representation of what awaits later. still, it gives a general idea about some of the mechanics and progress carries over to the full game.