Rotate rainy islands and deliver mail in this free, chill puzzler

Fans of Monument Valley’s Escher-like staircases and Carto’s level rearrangement, allow me to introduce you to an indie that unites both of those pleasures under one small roof. Solo developer Atlas Imaginal released Little Postman last week as a “personal exercise” to test their game-making knowledge and communicate with players in non-verbal ways. The results are a series of nine down-tempo headscratchers that are out now, for free.

Little Postman follows our yellow-hooded courier as they sail from one archipelago diorama to the next, all of which are captured on polaroid pictures and served to us for puzzle-solving purposes. Our postman begins every puzzle box standing next to their ship with the goal of delivering a large envelope to the end point, marked in gold. Although the letters are marked for all the island’s inhabitants, all of them choose to ignore our groggy postman, forcing him to suffer the rainy trek. But I digress.

Of course, that trek isn’t quite so simple as the islands are all disconnected, you see, meaning you’ll need to manipulate the environment to get the job done. This is where the Carto connection comes in. There are buttons dotted around the world that will rotate the islands, and early levels have you turn an island once to connect two half-bridges, for example. Job done. The game gets significantly tougher as time goes on, though, with multiple vertical platforms, different rotation points, and knotted sets of stairs creating that labyrinthine Monument Valley feeling. Later levels also force you to backtrack and plan rotations ahead of time, to finally make everything click together.

I’d happily pay for more of this short and sweet puzzler. Zen wind chimes aplenty, a soothing soundtrack, and a runtime that lasts less than an hour? A good workout for the old cerebrum and an even better distraction for rainy days, I think. Little Postman is available for free on Steam and Itch.io. Give it a try.