A Little to the Left was created by the indie game studio Max Inferno Games — a two person team Annie Macmillan and Lukas Steinman — and published by Secret Mode. The game itself started as an itch.io project and was a highly anticipated release, now available on Nintendo Switch, Steam (PC/Mac), Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4/5, and mobile Android/iOS. The game is intended for players of all ages who enjoy casual games, puzzle fans, and anyone who finds relaxation in organization!
The game is single-player and proceeds sequentially through levels where players are presented with a messy or displaced space, making the ‘puzzle’ aspect of the game solvable through correctly organizing the space. Mechanically, players drag and drop objects onto the screen, attempting to find the correct space for them. Through mechanics of the game and variety in puzzle types, A Little to the Left creates a game that is easy to engage with, allowing the puzzle to be fun and engaging for players of all backgrounds.
The game itself provides a number of features for players who find themselves stuck on or disinterested in a level by providing them access to a hint, or allowing them to skip a level (‘Leave As Is”, Figure 1).
The drag-and-drop mechanic that encompasses the entire game makes each level easy to engage with, as players are familiar with what they can and can’t do mechanically throughout the entire gameplay. A Little to the Left can be played with nothing more than a mouse, making it available to players without assuming anything about their prior experiences in game mechanics. The lack of mechanical challenge in the game allows the focus of the player to be on the visual aesthetics and logical stimulation of solving each level.
A Little to the Left leverages many ‘types of fun’ that add to player experience. The game can be thought of a hybrid building, sequence, and logic puzzle depending on the level — a variety which ensures players are consistently faced with new challenges and continue to be stimulated as they progress through over 100 different levels. Additionally, there are a number of levels that require different deduction types that add to this experience. For example, in one level the player must align a number of pencils a certain way, but it is unclear to the player at first whether this is based on tip sharpness, eraser length, color, or some other feature (Figure 2). Then, in an other level, players are presented with photographs on a wall, and through deduction find they must align the lines found in their foreground to be straight respective to the wall — an excellent example of a puzzle that utilizes ‘unusual use of an object’ as a challenge (Figure 3).
The formal elements embedded within the game contribute significantly to its cozy, low-stakes feel. As a single-player game, there is no pressure to progress through levels at a particular speed or pace — a feature supplemented by the option to skip a level or receive a hint. There are a variety of difficulty levels, which can allow players of all background to feel challenged without feeling stuck, making the game appealing and fun for everyone. There are limited control schemes (drag and drop only) so less effort needs to be placed on the players end to engage in gameplay, and the way the player interacts with the provided resources remains consistent throughout. Lastly, the game provides players with a light “ding” sound when they’ve correctly placed an object in the right place — quiet enough to not overwhelm the player while being audible. This feedback may encourage players to proceed step-by-step and take on smaller pieces of a larger puzzle at a time. Along with this, after each level the screen displays a pastel colored star, indicating they’ve ‘beat’ the level. However, the game does not score players based on how long they took or incorrect steps they took, a lack of which lowers the stakes further, removing more pressure from the player. These sounds, along with the light and faded color palette of the game allows for a calming sensory experience, which is often difficult to find in a challenging puzzle game!
Overall, the game implements a number of mechanics that allow the game to stand out from other puzzle games, allowing it to be challenging enough for it to be fun and stimulating, while not feeling like the stakes are too high. One feature I really like within the game is that they have a “daily tidy”, which encourages players to do a one-off level from the main gameplay once per day. These levels do not expire if you skip a day, and merely exist for the players to take a digestible piece of the game if they wish. However, netizens have expressed some frustration (via Steam community page) about a number of these puzzles repeating or only differing slightly from other puzzles offered in the daily tidy. I’m unsure why the daily tidy was implemented precisely from a design perspective, as perhaps players could have just been encouraged to go through the main gameplay instead, but it does provide a nice optional feature for players who wish to partake.
Ethics Portion: What kinds of knowledge do the designers of your game assume players have? Who do these assumptions include and exclude?
A Little to the Left thrives in its ability to assume little to no prior knowledge from its players about puzzles or games, but what it assumes about player’s background knowledge may differ drastically level by level. While most of the levels center around commonly used household items, a number of them may assume basic knowledge about the functionality of some items — requiring players to place stamps on the upper right side of an envelope, adjust a clock based on the time displayed, and other puzzles that may require minimal background knowledge. The game itself is heavily centered on visual organization, meaning that often, even if players aren’t familiar with the functionality of items they are able to complete the level by fitting them in a drawer, aligning them based on some characteristic, and others. There is no dialogue or text within the game, other than that on the title and pause menu, which avoids cultural differences in language or translation from becoming a barrier to gameplay. Overall, the game is accessible to players regardless of their background, and if anyone finds themselves struggling with a particular aspect of the game, they are always provided the option to obtain a hint or skip that level, preventing anyone’s lack of knowledge, experience, or ability from becoming a barrier in progressing through the main game!
