I’m back at it this week with a demo that is very reminiscent of the Carto, released by Humble Games. I made time to play demos again because I was supposed to get an ultrasound done but that fell through. Now I need to do more work to get all everything done, but I digress. This week, instead of fitting puzzle pieces I am folding paper to make my way through the world. This week is Paper Trail.

Paper Trail is a top-down puzzle game from Newfangled Games. The game will release on all of those fancy next-gen platforms eventually.

You take the role of Paige, a girl who is going on her very own adventure. The demo does not shed much light, so the author’s description is necessary:

“You play as Paige, a budding academic, leaving home for the first time to pursue her studies. On the journey, you learn to fold the world, merging two sides to solve puzzles, explore new areas and uncover long-lost secrets.”

The gameplay is much like Carto but Newfangled Games adds its own spin to it. The room that Paige is standing in can be manipulated by pulling either the sides or the corners of the page you are on to reveal a map on the other side. Pages can be folded only up to where Paige is placed in the level. The demo introduces three types of puzzles: Basic bridge building, boulder puzzles, and matching number puzzles. The puzzles start out easy enough but when the end of the demo is near, that last puzzle is really something else as it melds all of the puzzles into one big, multi-layered puzzle.

*Chefs Kiss*

The game does look really good for trying to replicate a paper feel. The watercolor really makes the game feel and look good. I personally always have liked watercolor and to see it as a style in a game is always a pleasure. The demo takes place solely in a dark, abandoned cave that shows off some really nice art and I am excited to see where else Paper Trails takes us.

Paper Trails is a game that I am quite excited about. The design itself makes the game easy to market. I really enjoy puzzle games and when you have a game like Carto that really nailed the joy of solving a difficult puzzle. The gameplay is deceptively simple. A bridge is not a bridge to a different area but it can be if you fold the level properly. The environmental puzzle gameplay is something that made Carto go above and beyond for me because it felt so innovative, and I am sure that Paper Trails has something amazing in store for the player.

I am really digging this game.