Proverbs Reviews

Minesweeper-like with a Northern Renaissance (specifically Pieter Bruegel the Elder) theme. Wild amount of content. I woke up and played this most mornings during surgery recovery and it definitely helped my brain.

Just as good as the others in the series. Learning about old proverbs was also a treat. If you like this one or any other games like this from the developer I recommend getting them all.

Pretty addictive game play, I like the segmented sections making it more manageable Mega Mosaic feels more crazy

A game you can play for a bit while not focused on other things. When you get tired or distracted you can shut it down and when you come back you usually see something you missed. Strongly recommend turning off the feature that Tells you you made a mistake. While frustrating to learn you made on after working on it, its better than spoiling a solve by accidentally clicking the wrong square.

Fun game if you like Minesweeper. (It's a lot less Picross and a lot more Minesweeper - it's forming one large picture, but that's about where the Picross ends. It fully follows Minesweeper rules.) It's been interesting to learn about various 500 year old Dutch proverbs, and after the 50% completion mark I started to pick the game back up every spare moment I got. That said, one minor gripe: when you use the button to clear errors, two undesirable things happen: 1) The erased tiles dramatically overshoot the actual mistaken tiles, and erase a larger chunk including correct tiles; this includes even deleting red tiles placed around 0s. 2) On both Steamdeck and keyboard/mouse on PC, pressing that button both clears tiles and makes the game think you're clicking through it to whatever's under it, so if that button is hovering over a completed proverb region, you get that proverb as a popup again. (Also, beware of overusing right trackpad controls on Steamdeck with this one. It's a satisfying way to play, but it flared up my old De Quervain's tenosynovitis.) Overall, I do recommend it.

Proverbs is a puzzle game unlike most, a slow-burning and thoughtful experience that combines methodical logic-solving with historical art appreciation. Developed by Divide the Plunder, this indie title takes a minimalist gameplay loop and wraps it around a grand, singular ambition: reconstructing a pixel-art interpretation of Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s 1559 painting, Netherlandish Proverbs. Rather than delivering dozens of short puzzles, the game centers entirely around one massive grid—spanning over 54,000 tiles—split into more than 250 regions. Each region corresponds to a portion of the larger image, and with every completed area, the player uncovers part of a historical painting along with its corresponding proverb. The effect is both educational and meditative, and the format is surprisingly engaging for a game that asks so little of your reflexes, but so much of your patience. The gameplay mechanics are simple to grasp but grow increasingly absorbing. Drawing inspiration from both Minesweeper and Picross, the rules ask the player to determine which tiles in a 3x3 area should be filled based on numbered clues. Unlike Picross, however, the clues here are not on the edges of the grid but embedded within it, adding a level of spatial reasoning that requires careful observation and deduction. Each numbered tile indicates how many of its immediate surrounding tiles must be filled in, and no guessing is ever required—every solution is fully logical. This makes for a game that rewards attention and methodical play, rather than speed or brute force. The most compelling element of Proverbs is how these puzzles are nested within a larger, cohesive image. Rather than solving isolated grids, every completed region becomes a visible piece of Bruegel’s satirical Renaissance painting, which is populated with visual depictions of over a hundred Dutch-language proverbs. As regions are solved, the associated proverb is revealed, sometimes offering humorous, wise, or bizarre insights into human behavior. It’s a brilliant concept, because it turns what could have been an abstract logic game into an interactive piece of cultural restoration. Players aren’t just solving puzzles—they’re slowly rebuilding a historical artifact, tile by tile, and in doing so, are subtly introduced to 16th-century folk wisdom. The game’s presentation is clean and purposefully restrained. The visual design makes it easy to focus on the grid without distraction, but the overall interface has enough personality to keep the experience from feeling sterile. The music, inspired by Renaissance instrumentation, adds a gentle, atmospheric tone that enhances the meditative quality of the gameplay. Harpsichords, flutes, and lutes play softly in the background as you work your way through the puzzle, and while some players may find the soundtrack slightly repetitive over long play sessions, it fits the tone of the game remarkably well. There’s also the option to mute the audio entirely and play with your own background noise, which many players take advantage of—especially those who enjoy using Proverbs as a second-screen game while listening to podcasts or audiobooks. One of the most interesting facets of Proverbs is its pace. There’s no time pressure, no hint system pushing you forward, and no incentives outside of the image itself. It’s a game of delayed gratification, one that demands focus and returns satisfaction slowly but steadily. That pacing won’t appeal to everyone, especially players looking for quick, dopamine-rich gameplay loops. But for those willing to settle in, the experience becomes almost meditative. Many players have described the act of filling in tiles as calming, even therapeutic—ideal for unwinding after a stressful day or simply engaging the mind in a quiet, focused way. Of course, no game is without flaws, and Proverbs has its share of minor frustrations. While the logic puzzles are largely airtight, there have been scattered reports of regions that feel either ambiguous or less well-designed, possibly due to a misinterpretation of clues or unintentional overlaps in visual structure. These moments can be jarring in a game that prides itself on logical solvability. Additionally, not all regions yield a proverb or unique image, which may feel underwhelming when you finish a particularly challenging area only to reveal a seemingly empty patch of background. Still, these moments are relatively rare and do little to undermine the overall satisfaction of watching the image come together over time. What makes Proverbs so special is that it’s more than just a puzzle game—it’s a quiet celebration of slow thinking, patience, and art. It doesn’t overwhelm with mechanics, but instead leans into the power of simplicity done well. It respects the player’s time by offering a massive single puzzle that can be chipped away at indefinitely, and it creates a genuine sense of progress without flashy rewards or constant interruptions. The feeling of unlocking a new proverb, seeing a strange figure in the painting emerge, or just finishing a tricky region after a long stretch of careful deduction is far more satisfying than one might expect from such a minimal experience. In the end, Proverbs is a rare type of game—one that encourages reflection rather than competition, patience over instant gratification, and thoughtful engagement with culture and logic alike. It may not be flashy, fast, or particularly modern in its mechanics, but its design is intentional, meaningful, and deeply rewarding for those who appreciate this kind of quiet craftsmanship. For fans of logic puzzles, historical art, or contemplative digital experiences, Proverbs is a quiet masterpiece in its own right. Rating: 9/10

I just got this but I can tell I will thoroughly enjoy this game. The grids are just challenging enough and well-crafted enough for me that I know that I should never have to make a guess on where something goes, and that the answer is always there if I look well enough for it.

I feel like this one, in comparison to the other Mosaic style games, lacks style in the final imagery, and most regions were not really that interesting to solve. Also, this is the worst the replay has broken in the end, but none of the games had that work correctly for me. Also, if you fill the last region with an error, the game still offers you the Replay! No idea if this is a common error among the other games too.

Probably one of the best chill puzzle games on steam as far as minesweeper-like style of puzzles. I like the art as it fills out and it's pretty satisfying. Definitely worth the price. No idea why this is "unsupported" on steam deck as mine works with this flawlessly.

Figured I'd inchworm my way through this, off and on between other games or tasks, over the course of a couple of months while listening to podcasts. I blew through it in a week and a half. It was all I wanted to do. I FOUND other podcasts I otherwise wouldn't have bothered to listen to. My dreams involved little snatches of delight at spotting a 0 or a 9 in the wild, or of a 5 in just the right corner. My only complaint is that it eventually ends, though that's definitely a boon to my not just dessicating and slowly merging with my recliner while playing this. Cheers to its creators: you hold a dark sorcery in your hands and I narrowly trust you to only use it for good.