The Shape of Things

It's like, on the verge of being a good game?
But the controls: I'm so frustrated with the controls.

Atmospherically, it nails everything. The music's nice, the graphics are comfy, the level selection thing is neat.
I really loved their previous game, Tiny Lands, and it's obviously got all of that visual & ambient polish.

But:

Esc doesn't escape you backwards out of menus, you have to find the button onscreen to do so.
I'm not sure at all what any of the keyboard buttons do for that matter.
There's no explanation of controls outside of the tutorial, which is just move your mouse left/right or up/down.

For the life of me I couldn't figure out how to rotate the object sideways on M+KB. It seems like if you click empty space it'll rotate the whole thing 360* around a centre-point, in 3D space.
This is frustrating because the pieces have some kind of diminishing-returns threshold around that swivel point.

If you grab, pull, let go, grab, pull in short motions it'll be fine. If you grab, pull, and pull more (like to fine tune it), it tends to fight against you or try to catapult around its axis. At which point pulling becomes pushing or it'll act wonky and sort of push-pull-push-pull despite no change in direction on your part. Like there's diminishing returns on dragging the mouse down, to move the part down, at which point you need to drag the mouse up to keep moving the part down, which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

It's not obvious which pieces are sideways motion vs vertical motion, particularly after rotating.

But then when I swap to controller, it lets you "tab" between pieces with the shoulder buttons and you can rotate the object as a whole with left stick, and move objects with right stick. It's so much more fluid. But what are the keyboard equivalents? There's no rebinding, no explanation in options, just an aesthetically pleasing but functionally defunct tutorial screen.

I want to like it but it's just annoying the ♥♥♥♥ out of me instead of being a comfy fun thing to wind-down with.

06-24 edit: I've tried it again after the update, and while the icons better reflect the axis / direction you're intended to move the mouse in, it's still frustrating actually moving the pieces. The movement itself doesn't seem to have changed. Also, due to the thick white outer glow surrounding the pieces and the finickiness of some of the puzzles, there's a lot of blind tweaking and trial & error as the glow obscures the edges, so I can't actually see where things collide in order to line them up with the precision the game expects without cycling between which pieces are selected to get rid of the glow. Ultimately, I'm just not enjoying it, which is a bit disappointing given how many other people clearly are.

I honestly kinda lost track of time playing this game, I got so relaxed I didn't want to leave!

This game has been incredibly enjoyable. I'm a bit of a perfectionist so I love getting the puzzles in pixel perfect form and it's soo satisfying. The music, ambience and sound design is wonderful. All the environments have so much detail and it really makes you feel like you're in a little snowglobe! The menu room develops the more you play and you can spot some of the items placed around and even change the weather or time of day to whatever cozy vibe you're feeling!

I think this is a perfect game for anyone wanting a cozy puzzle experience!

My Playtime: 5.3h (100% achievement, finished the game)
Grindy Achievement(s): No.
Optional Achievement(s): Yes (8 achievements).
Difficult Achievement(s): No.

Intro

The Shape of Things is a puzzle game where you need to move, rotate, and/or zoom pieces to create an object, turning it into a "shape of things". It currently has 300 levels in total, separated into 30 worlds.

Pros:
- 300 puzzles
- Finish any level in any order that you want
- Puzzle has a different starting point in every reset

Cons:
- Sometimes objects can be moved very slowly
- Unable to rotate the whole pieces
- No zoom option for the camera

Specs
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, 16GB RAM, AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT

Should you buy this game?

If you have OCD and just want to unwind from time to time, buy it on sale. Best to be played in short bursts.

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In-Depth Review

The Game

Gameplay
The gameplay is simple. Each level will present you with an object that looks like it has been cut into uneven pieces. You can click on each piece and do something to it: drag left to right (and vice versa), drag up to down (and vice versa), rotate, and zoom in/out. Each piece can only be manipulated into either of those rules, and you can only figure out which is which by trial and error.

The hardest part of the game is finding the right orientation. Objects tend to be portrayed in different angles, and you need to make sure that they are at the right angle. This is more prevalent on rotating pieces since you need to find the right axis for the objects. You need to match it with any existing zoomable and draggable pieces, making sure that they match well. Sometimes, the game can be evil and display an object that has similar left and right pieces, only to have them positioned 180 degrees at the beginning of the level, making you think that the pieces somehow didn't fit.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3262458851

The game has 300 worlds in total. Each world consists of 10 levels. You can start the levels in any order that you want, and the game will track which one you have finished. The same goes for worlds, although you must unlock them first. The worlds are shaped as gachapons, and you must pull them from the gachapon machine after you have enough money, which can be obtained by playing the game. Since the gachapons that are dropped will be randomized, you might have different progress than other people. This will be reflected by a constellation that you can see in your room that acts as the main hub. I don't think of the constellation as anything special, though; it feels more like just a bunch of lines connecting without making any sense.

It wasn't clear which levels you have completed. The game actually colors the gachapon in yellow if you do, but since unfinished gachapons will have several colors, it can be hard to notice the difference.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3480963328

The game actually has a great attention to detail. I thought the background that was in each level was just a static image, but it turns out that they have an animation that runs from time to time. I was quite surprised when that happened.

Length and Difficulty
I finished the game in 5.2h. I spent 0.1h idling for the last achievement. The game isn't difficult, although you might encounter some issues when rotating or moving some objects. The game has less room for error for rotating pieces, making it seem as if the game wants the object to be stitched without any gaps. The movable objects, on the other hand, can move differently depending on your angle. Sometimes it will move very slowly if you drag it to the left, but it will move at a normal speed if you drag it to the right. This usually can be fixed by rotating the object and moving it from a different angle, but since the game doesn't allow you to rotate the whole object easily, it can be challenging to do so.

Conclusion

The Shape of Things is a nice game that can be played in short bursts to relax. The soothing music, along with the brainless gameplay, just makes it easier to unwind, although it is best suited for OCD people due to the issues with the movable and rotatable objects. Moreover, due to the same reason, I can only recommend buying it on sale.