Gnomdom

In Gnomdom, you are tasked to find 12 little gnomes to attend Grandpa’s 100th birthday party. They’re hidden in 12 different locations harboring several puzzles each, which are often chained together. Gnomdom is a short game (it takes around ~1.5 hours to complete it). The adorable hand-drawn art style and wholesome animations make it a very cozy experience despite not having a narrated story.

The puzzles’ difficulty alternates between easy and average, and there are also some new creative puzzles added to the mix. Those who have played point & click / adventure / hidden object games will likely be very familiar with them. Encountered here are variations of the Hanoi Tower, sliding blocks, Hungarian rings, lights out, matching pairs puzzles, etc. Most of them are pretty straightforward to figure out even for less experienced players, although the game doesn’t provide any information about what the objective of each puzzle is. I can recall only a very few spots where clarifying the objective could have saved me a bit of time, as I wasn’t sure which of the several possible approaches was the expected one (thus, I had to try them all).

In addition to a description of the puzzle goals, some might find it useful to have a hint system. Personally, I would only love to see Steam achievements implemented, as well as a way to track the 12 collectible photos that one can gather for Grandpa’s photo album. Completed locations are marked accordingly on the map, but the information on whether one can still get collectibles from a certain location is currently missing.

All-in-all, Gnomdom is a very sweet, beautiful and wholesome little game, very suitable to be played during a chill evening. It’s somewhat similar in style to an Amanita Design game with puzzles that are neither too easy nor too difficult.