Happy Wednesday.
I’ll be perfectly honest here: I just wanted something easy to write between bouts of looking after a new kitten. As such, I wanted to highlight a handful of interesting looking games that were part of the Thinky Direct for 2026. None of the games are in any particular order, but they all caught my eye for one reason or another. Hence, I thought it’d be nice to share them with other folks who might also find them interesting.
That said, let’s get into some thinky games.
Pikku Adventure
“That’s so cool.”
That is verbatim what I said while watching the trailer for Pikku Adventure during the Thinky Direct. In fact, Pikku was one of the only games that elicited any kind of verbal exclamation during the entire showcase. It’s such a novel idea that’s rife with so much potential for puzzle solving goodness.
The elevator pitch is such: you’re exploring an alien planet, and can’t understand any of the natives. As such, you’ll need to piece together their entire lexicon by using context clues to work out what is being said.
Now I know what some of you are thinking: isn’t that just Chants of Sennaar?
Yes.
And that game was excellent. I don’t see a problem with another game taking a stab at the same set of mechanics, especially when Pikku seems to be evolving the scope of what’s on offer. The trailer alone already showcased a depth of language that goes beyond what was offered in Sennaar, so I’m very keen to see what else Pikku has in store for players.
Mimic Meadows
Next up is Mimic Meadows, which also caught the eye of fellow blogger Luna (of Luna’s Gaming Log). In it, you play as a shapeshifting creature, and must mimic the movements of other creatures in the surrounding environment to transform yourself in order to continue exploring. For example, if you want to cross a mountain range then you’ll need to transform into a mountain goat. River in your way? Then turn into a fish.
That alone would’ve been enough for me, but Mimic Meadows goes a step further. It isn’t just you that can transform: all of the creatures in the environment can transform. This means that puzzles can involve manipulating various critters to transform in a chain that’ll allow you to solve whatever terrain related conundrums confound you.
It’s really neat, and I’m keen to try the available demo to see if I’m as taken with the concept in practice as I was from the short trailer.
Bulbo’s Belief System
Speaking of demos that I need to try, our next game is Bulbo’s Belief System, which put me in mind of games like Baba is You. Not because it’s another Sokoban game – it’s not. Rather, Bulbo asks the player to manipulate the game’s rules. Basically, the titular Bulbo can only remember 4 rules at a time, so you’re tasked with learning, and subsequently forgetting specific rules in order to solve puzzles. For example, if Bulba has no concept of gravity then they can’t fall down pits. Very suddenly you’ll find yourself able to walk over any pitfalls that impede your path forward.
That sort of game-breaking logic is what I find so appealing about Bulbo. It’s exactly the sort of thing that made solving the myriad puzzles strewn throughout Baba is You so damn compelling. Here’s hoping that Bulbo is equally compelling.
Backpack Boy
While I wasn’t as taken with Animal Well as certain sects of the internet, I still enjoyed it. Moreover, I continue to enjoy platforming games where players are asked to think their way through exploring the environment, instead of muscling through on the back of 30 years of accumulated aptitude at platforming.
Hence, my interest in Backpack Boy.
I don’t know if it is a Metroidvania per se, but it do be a game about jumping with an interesting central mechanic. Most of the game’s world exists in 2 states. There’s the world you’re currently exploring, and there is an alternative reality that is visible when a special flashlight is used. This allows players to flip between 2 realities while platforming, which is a lot like my favourite level from Titanfall 2, Effect and Cause. Except Backpack Boy is a whole game of that.
I love the look of it, and am keen to try out the available demo for myself. Hopefully I can make my way through said demo before the Steam Next Fest begins on the 15th of June.
EMUUROM
For the penultimate game on this list we have EMUUROM, which actually released not but a few days ago.
The pitch for EMUUROM is thus: do you remember that gun in Axiom Verge that revealed secrets? Well what if an entire game was just that. You run around hitting things with your glitch gun, see how they respond, and use those altered behaviours to explore further in the game’s world.
Much like with Backpack Boy, this is absolutely my kind of thing. I’m very into the more cerebral Metroidvania space, and am keen to give EMUUROM a proper looksie.
Prophet Margin
Finally, we have a game where the pun in the name made me audibly laugh: Prophet Margin.
Having said that, I’m not entirely certain I know exactly how to describe it.
I believe you play a religious prophet, hence the pun, and help to guide the economic development of nations by way of establishing trade routes between them. This is all abstracted through cards, which you’re able to play to create specific kinds of trade routes, along with adding production bonuses to the kinds of resources that are generated at each location. It’s a little bit like forming trade routes in something like Civ, but your goal is more inline with helping the entire region to achieve economic prosperity instead of crushing everyone under your foot.
Either way, perhaps playing the demo will give me a better sense of exactly what Prophet Margin is all about.
While the highlighted games were my favourites from the showcase, there were several more shown throughout the Thinky Direct. It’s certainly worth a full watch if you, like myself, enjoy a good noggin scratcher. Alternatively, consider reading the summary page of the event with each of the shown games, and attached trailers.
Regardless, if anything I’ve highlighted here caught your eye, be sure to give the game in question a Wishlist on your preferred platform. I know I’ve said it before, but it helps developers a lot, especially on Steam, and is free to do.
And if you wouldn’t mind sharing, I’d like to hear from you: which game(s) caught your eye? Let me know down below!
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Frostilyte Writes 