Origami is the art of paper folding to create artistic shapes and designs. Mosaics are built using fragments of objects to design a whole. The Pane Puzzle feels like a game that fits in among these kinds of artistic puzzle-like activities because it asks the player to recreate various panes of glass. It is a relaxing game that requires spatial awareness as you’ll be doing this by layering geometric patterns on top of each other.
Each level presents a design for you to recreate and you must do this from the selection of 20 geometric designs on the screen. Initially, designs can be created using three of those 20 designs but as the game progresses, more will be required. Each layer can be selected, placed on your design pane and then rotated around the hexagonal pane walls or flipped over. This is crucial for asymmetric designs that need to align perfectly to match the pane design you are aiming for. Controls are simple and you can undo previous actions or restart each level with ease.
It is a simple premise but as you progress to later levels, some designs require 7 layers and it takes brain power to work out which layer should go on first and with what orientation. As someone who struggles to build flatpack furniture – this made The Pane Puzzle perhaps harder for me than for the average puzzle gamer! Thankfully a progressive hint system lets you add on one layer at a time and there is no cool down to wait if you are simply stuck on a level and want to move on. The game is split into two lots of 50 levels, so you’ll have the option of 2 levels to tackle at all times but oddly there is little difference between the sets of levels. I’d have thought they’d use different patterns to make each set feel or look different but the patterns you choose from stay the same from beginning to end. This means you’ll spot repetition across the game and know which patterns build specific parts of pane designs which makes the game easier and a little less enjoyable to play.
Cheap, well-designed, and with 100 levels to get through – The Pane Puzzle will take about 3 hours to complete. It is good value for money but with a lack of puzzle variety, I did get a bit worn out towards the end. This will be more interesting for graphic designers or puzzle art gamers.
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