Kevin C. Wong

iOS Game - Tiny Room Story: Town Mystery (2021) [+]

Tiny Room Story is a tap-based puzzle-solving game developed by Kiara Games. You are trying to solve the mystery of your father's disappearance (and all the townspeople for that matter). Each chapter you visit a location which is a set of connected rooms. Each room is an isometric view and you have to swipe right and left to rotate the room so you can see all the walls.

Tap to interact with objects. If it's an item you can pick up it automatically goes into your inventory. If it's something you manipulate the item moves (many clues are hidden behind or under items) or you get a closeup where you tap to do stuff. Tap room exits to leave and everything is clearly marked and if you can interact with something then it's useful/needed to solve a puzzle.

Puzzles I've seen:

  • Find missing parts to activate a machine or object.
  • Find the numbers or symbols for a password.
  • Manipulate an item in the correct sequence to reveal the next clue.
  • Move items around in order to open doors (or get to an alternate entrance).

I've played the first third of the game and sometimes the puzzles are repetitive in mechanics though different setting and there's a plot going on so it remains interesting. But half the puzzles are fairly unique and in general the chapter areas are fairly small so you don't have to remember a clue that won't be used for half an hour.

The puzzles kind of vary in challenge. I'm not that great at puzzles so had to look at a walkthrough a couple of times (Appegamer has a good guide that both doesn't use videos and is up to date because some of the other guides seem to be based on an older version with slightly different puzzles).

It's been a pretty fun game and I spent the $3 to unlock the rest of the game.