Miniatures

Relaxing, 2D, puzzle, pastime game.

It is a puzzle game that was inspired by an "Illuminated manuscript". These are manuscripts where visual decorations and drawings are included.
This work of art is taken from the Ottoman statesman "Matrakçı Nasuh", in his book he tells about the places he visited, and includes many pleasant 2D miniature style paintings of the Temples, tombs, and forgotten Monuments

This little journey of ours begins with Eve, a little girl who spends time with her bookish friends, but her mother calls her to leave everything because it's late.
Eve wants to finish her book full of little puzzles, we have to help her complete this hobby of hers.

There are 4 chapters:
in the first we have to arrange the various buildings on the map there are squares to fill, we can freely place them as we want there is no fixed scheme to use.
In the second chapter we have to restore the path of the waters so that they reach the village, we can do this by rotating the various squares, there are red signs that must match, they are reference or help points.
In the third chapter you have to reconstruct the buildings by joining the various pieces and placing them in the right place
The last chapter the fourth is a more difficult version of the first.

Music exists only in the Menu, while we play we can relax with the sweet melodious sounds of nature and the beautiful singing of birds, I must say that I didn't miss music,
I felt like I was in a forest, a very strong reminder that makes us better identify with the places visited by the Ottoman statesman.

I recommend it, I really liked this little pearl of art

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5/10

An artistic game showcasing the beautiful art from an old illuminated manuscript, heavy on the artistic and light on the game.

What is it: A short puzzle game based on the illustrations from a 16th Century book. The framing is that you’re helping a little girl finish her book by putting back together the illustrations.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3303271652

It consists of four chapters, each with a few levels. The first one is a block puzzle, you have to arrange buildings of different shapes inside the cities. The second one is a pipe puzzle, you have to rotate tiles with rivers or roads to make a continuous path from one edge to another. The third one is a jigsaw puzzle, you have to assemble buildings from cut up pieces. And the fourth one is again a block puzzle, but with more pieces than in the first chapter.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3303271712

The art is beautiful, but that is copied from (or at least heavily inspired by) the book. The puzzles are very easy, and not very well implemented. The block puzzles are trivial because you are given a lot of 1x1 blocks that help you fill in any gaps you may have left around the other larger pieces. The pipes are also trivial because you don’t even have to solve the whole grid, just the path of the river/road, and you can just start from one edge and rotate one piece until it connects the previous and the next tiles. And when it might be ambiguous, you’re given even more help in the form of trees, fences, or just lines hinting how tiles must be oriented. The jigsaws are both easy and frustrating at the same time. Easy because you have a few pieces, usually between 10 and 20. Frustrating because the cuts are straight, a bunch of rectangles and triangles, often along the natural lines of a building, e.g. different floors are different pieces, and with no target image, you have to guess which floor is at the bottom and which is on top. It’s not as much joining pieces by how they fit, but trying to guess how the building might look, and try to bring pieces together hoping they would snap.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3303288968

Some other bugs make it even less pleasant to play. Clicks are often not detected. It doesn't fit properly on all aspect ratios, for example on the Steam Deck the menu button is partially hidden in some levels and completely missing in others. Progress is always lost when restarting the game.

This was a good idea, but the very basic and buggy implementation makes it an unpleasant experience. Only get it if you really want to look at the illustrations and can’t find/don’t want to buy the original book.

How hard is it: Trivial to easy.

How long is it: 4 chapters, each with a few levels, an hour or less of playtime. Must be done in order.

Level design: The layout/art of the levels are taken from illustrations of real villages and buildings, with Arabic designs, so they're as good as in real life. But as game levels, they're quite bad.

Quality: Beautiful art, but the original author of the book, and the original architects and builders of the cities deserve most of the praise. Everything else is very basic. Multiple save slots in theory, but progress is always lost when closing the game. Mouse only controls. No settings at all. No exit button. No cloud saving, no achievements.

Worth the price: No.

Most positive aspect for me: I’ll say beautiful art just to avoid saying “nothing at all”.

Most negative aspect for me: Too easy.

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Easy and short puzzle where you recreate images with tiny cities.

Your mission is to help Eve read a book by solving visual puzzles. There are four chapters, each with a simple mechanic. The game is suitable for players of all ages and skill levels due to its casual difficulty. All puzzles feature cities and landscapes. When you finish a puzzle, you will see the real image on which it was based.

The first chapter requires you to fill a grid with buildings of various sizes, the second chapter involves rotating tiles that must form a continuous path, the third chapter provides you with pieces that must be reconstructed, and the final chapter is the same as the first but slightly more difficult.

Because each chapter has only a few puzzles, the entire game may be completed in an hour or two. Except for the third chapter, where you don't have a reference image and must try pieces one by one, the rest are simple. There's no reward at the end, so the inclusion of achievements could make it a bit more interesting.