Thank you TreeFall Studios L.L.C. for providing us with a review code!

This title is so minimalist that we can get straight to the point with it. Tilting Tiles is a puzzle game created by TreeFall Studios. The entire experience takes place on a grid where you play as a single red tile and the goal is to collect all the blue diamonds within the allotted moves located in the bottom. Every level is designed in such a way that you will either max out your moves or be within one to three moves from par. It’s an interesting way to design puzzles because it forces you to be aware of every move you make.

The perspective is a static camera with a top-down view. It is purposely designed as such because Tilting Tiles does play some tricks with you on how you view the levels. Some of this does mean it can lead to a bit of trial and error. I did get stuck on one level because my brain couldn’t process how one angle was designed.

A lot of planning and preparation takes place within the stages, visualizing in your mind how every move gets you closer to the diamonds. In terms of movement, you’ll always have access to 4-way directions with the tried and true WASD, or a gamepad if you sodesire. Like many PC games, switching between the two methods is easy and instaneous. On some levels you’ll have limited access to double or diagonal movement. The way they’re implemented is kinda weird because you have to manually select the form of movement with left or right click. My muscle memory made things more complicated for me as I would think that I’m on the default movement, but actually have double movement selected from previous moves and fell right into the abyss. I think it would have been better if they were just built into the movement naturally instead of having to press a different button to activate it.

Despite the name of the title, the gimmick of tilting your tile doesn’t happen until 40 levels in. A strange sense of progression given the title, as it’s like naming a movie Life of a Penguin but the penguin is only shown in the last 10 minutes of the film. The gimmick itself is cute and fun, but I do feel the experience would have benefited better if it was introduced a little earlier. In levels, there are always things to keep the experience interesting such as portals and sliding ice.

Located high up in the sky, Tilting Tiles presents good visuals through a sense of isolation. All that exists are the tile, the towers the tile is on, and everything below covered by a fog. It solidifies that for this moment you are above everything and there is nothing to worry about except for the immediate area. The music complements this as it is very relaxing and calming. Tilting Tiles feels very personal and it accomplishes this well. For every 10 to 15 levels, the environment changes from a desert, to an eerie dark-green area, snowy environments, and a grassy plain-like area.

TreeFall set out to do one thing only with Tilting Titles—make an entertaining puzzle game with a simple premise. Although I do have a problem with the control scheme, it doesn’t detract from the well-constructed puzzles that have a nice flow. This one has no moral concerns to speak of so it should be safe for anyone to play. If puzzles are your thing, Tilting Tiles is worth the purchase for the 58 puzzles it offers.