Kavel

I'm not into matching games usually, and yet I found myself having much fun with Kavel, and coming back to it repeatedly. The tetromino twist on the usual matching mechanics is instantly enjoyable. There's a cosiness to the mindset it induces, while the variety of the patterns keeps things stimulating. And the colorful feedback from the visual effects is impossible not to like. So the main rules are easy to grasp. But there's more to discover, and I'd say that's where the game shines. Funky stuff happens when you start spawning bombs and matching them. In casual mode, there's no time pressure, so you can experiment and improve leisurely. (If you'd rather fill yourself with adrenaline, there's a frenzy mode capped at 90 seconds.) I didn't care much about scores, but I kept seeing glimpses of better moves. So I kept pushing. As seamless as it is, Kavel actually harbors a sweet learning curve, from matching four dull blocks to aligning super bombs to sorting the board right in time for bonus shapes. It's balanced and nuanced and thoughtful. It's arcade design at its best. I believe my first games in casual mode were about 15mn long. Now it's more about 40mn. Kavel does not judge. Take all the time you need to chart your next moves. Let yourself sink in the music. Sometimes it works out fine and matches flow into one another and it feels great. Sometimes you're down on your luck and you've got to fall back to more conservative moves. Either way, the game never feels unfair. It's just that rare kind of soothing challenge. [i] I purchased Kavel through itch.io, and eventually asked the dev for a key to review it here. [/i]

I really like Kavel! It's relaxing with having interesting gameplay. The graphics and sfx are pretty great too. I somehow missed this game on mobile and am glad to have found out about it via twitter before the steam release. One thing that would make the game even nicer would be some flexibility with the control scheme. Clicking and dragging with LMB and rotating with RMB isn't the most ergonomic choice in my opinion (it does make sense thinking of this as a mobile game designed at first with touch screens in mind). I'd like to be able to either rotate the held piece with the space bar, or have the held piece snap to the cursor automatically and place with a click rather than release. I tend to grab first and then rotate on the way to where i want to drop and it's not great for my hands to do so.

a very interesting game, with a nice atmosphere. would recommend for any tetris or match-3 enjoyer!

This game is a very chill relaxing puzzle game, that you'll find the minutes disappearing as you discover a new layer and strategy. Kavel has a ton of different customizations that allow you to style it to your liking (and for increased visibility). I've played this game on Steam but the majority time has been on iOS. If you see the Tetris like shapes and think it's just a gimmick, I assure you this game is very much its own thing and well designed. If you like puzzle game and like seeing new ideas, give this one a go!

i bought this because the game page for mixolumia (another fave) recommended this and i dont regret getting this one bit! it's a simple concept but surprisingly gets more complex with the addition of super and omnibombs (i do wish the more complex bomb strats are explained in-game rather than being relegated to a guide!). the color palettes are stunning and it's so simple and sleek in design. the zen mode is amazing for practice. i naively thought that the scores on frenzy mode would be significantly higher (calling back to my old bejeweled days) but i was pleasantly surprised with how engaging the casual mode is in design. every move has to be thoughtful and strategic + building up to a big move, it's so good! also a small addition: i'd really appreciate a volume slider instead of an on/off toggle. amazing achievements by the way, i love checking off challenges and tasks! it's very motivating. overall this is a wonderful addition for any puzzle game junkie's repertoire.

Simple but clever design, and executed with a high degree of polish.

I'm doing my part Dave