Alien Cartographer

Minesweeper-like games have always been my favorite, and this one feels refreshing. Plus ​the graphics are clean and minimalist, just to my taste. The learning curve was initially steep, but once you understood how these seemingly arbitrary alien rules work, you will appreciate how they enable a self-consistent chain of logic deduction and level complexity to `emerge'. The mechanics are introduced at a steady pace, keeping the player's interest throughout.

六角形盤面で行われる、マインスイーパーライクな理詰めパズル。 全ての？マスの色（エイリアンの種族）と形（エイリアンの建物）の2要素を特定するのが目的の全90問＋α。特定したマスから追加のヒントが得られ、最後まできれいにロジカルに解くことができるタイプの運要素無しのゲーム。 ルールの要素自体はそんなに複雑では無いのですが、赤色が出現してからの「同一エリア」の判定方法や「第３の建物」の設置条件などがトリッキーなため、なんというか、見落としやすい＆忘れやすい です。気を付けましょう。 また、最初の面のルール説明が箇条書きでは無くがっつり英文で、かつ６ページにもわたっていて結構読むのがしんどいので、簡易的な和訳を作りました。 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3660033289 慣れてきたら一度Codexでルール全体を俯瞰すると良いと思います。 難易度は簡単なものから徐々に難しくなりつつも、最大盤面でも4x4x4程度で収まっているのは美しいと思いました。地味すぎるけど悪くない一作。 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gohnuC1EpnM

Easily recommended if you enjoyed the other minesweeper games, like Tametsi or 14 Minesweeper Variants. The rules might be a tad tricky to wrap your head around at first, but they're all meticulously explained, and can always be referred to via an in-game rulebook. Once you get them, you'll get do some interesting and unique deductioneering. Has all the abstract logic game mod-cons, including on-screen drawing and colourblind mode. And, of course, guessing is never required! I gotta say, 14MSV sure did a number on the genre. Now one has to invent several different alien species just to add something new to the mix. ːtobdogː

Been waiting for this game to come out. Quality of life improvements (like markup) from the demo are a great addition! A good puzzle game to sit down and think about solutions for a while. Exactly what I wanted.

I recently started a curator for Minesweeper Evolutions. This one: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45912337/ This is the first game I received for free to review, which was great because I loved it. It has all the characteristics I look for in a good minesweeper game: purely deterministic, no luck, clean UI, interesting rules and brings something new. The game is excellent! 90 levels of pure deduction with additional challenges and workshop levels. I find the ruleset very interesting and it was a different approach to the pure number based abstractions I`m more used to. Overall a great game and I hope more levels and sequels come. Easy pick if you like quality puzzle games and a must pick if you`re into the Minesweeper Evolutions rabbit role.

I played the demo a while ago and just started playing the full game. It's quite a good puzzle game and one can very well make a lot of different interesting puzzles with this system (such as those in the campaign). Despite the seeming complexity/number of rules, I haven't had much trouble understanding or remembering how it works. Many of the puzzles could have easily been basically trivial if you just apply the rules in sequence but that has not been the case so far, largely due to some minesweeper-esque deduction. I think it could be possible for the codex to be a little bit easier to navigate and it would be nice if it had pictures of examples and nonexamples of the rules, but it's fine. Other than that, the UI is perfect.

Alien Cartographer is a brilliant, deduction‑driven logic puzzle reminiscent of Minesweeper and Towers, but with a personality all its own. Every structure on the map is a clue waiting to be unraveled: a Gold Mine demands at least one adjacent Energy Core, every House must touch another House, and a Market can only exist when flanked by a pair of Towers. These rules stack, intersect, and cascade across the grid, creating that wonderful puzzle‑logic where a single placement can unlock a whole village or send you straight back to the drawing board. What makes the game shine is how naturally it teaches you to think in its alien language. A built‑in Codex lays out every principle, so if you ever forget a rule, it’s right there to refresh your memory. The 90‑level handcrafted campaign gently introduces concepts and then steadily tightens the screws until you’re juggling multiple rule sets at once. Are you feeling stuck? There’s a drawing board where you can sketch out ideas and see how different strategies might play out. Each puzzle feels architectural, offering just enough information to deduce the full solution if you’re patient and methodical. There’s no guessing, no hidden tricks, just pure, satisfying logic. Alongside the campaign, there are five procedurally-generated challenges that offer a different type of tension, serving up brand-new puzzles with a built‑in scoreboard for players who enjoy shaving seconds off their solve times and climbing up the global ladder. It’s a smart way to extend the game’s life without compromising the handcrafted feel of the campaign. The inclusion of a level editor is the cherry on top. It’s surprisingly robust, letting you design your own creations and share them with the community. For players who love tinkering, it’s a welcome sandbox that encourages experimentation and creativity. If you savor tough, well‑crafted logic conundrums, you’ll feel right at home here. Alien Cartographer plays fair, but it doesn’t pull its punches. It rewards careful thought, but punishes guessing with four strikes, and you’re out. Yet when everything finally clicks, it delivers that rare satisfaction that only comes from cracking a complex puzzle through sheer reasoning. It’s a must‑play for anyone who loves spatial deduction. It’s the kind of game that rewires your brain, and you’ll thank it for the upgrade. [quote]For more puzzle game reviews, news, and everything puzzle-related, follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/25928931-Puzzle-Lovers/]Puzzle Lovers[/url] and check out our [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/puzzlelovers]Steam group[/url].[/quote]

Bought this on a whim and was really positively surprised - what a novel idea (at least to my knowledge!). This is a fairly complex puzzle game that gives a lot of room for creative solutions - by that I don't mean that there are multiple solutions, but rather that you never feel forced to go through a complicated mechanical heuristic that devolves into busywork (e.g. sudoku). I greatly enjoyed all 90 stages this game has to offer and I was never bored. In fact I have to admit I was so hooked I finished it in two or three sessions... Big recommend for puzzle fans! Cozy game and more than appropriately prized for its content.

I like the concept, but while playing, again, and again I resort to guessing because I see no way to tell which option it must be. The rules are static, you can draw on the map to make a plan, you have every time in the world - it's very sudoku like - for which I don't have the patience either. The rules could be displayed more succinct, reading all the text and clicking through the codex over and over to find some edge case isn't great. It's not a game for me, but it's well-made.

fun logic game, no guessing required