Wilmot Works It Out is the illustrated puzzle sequel to the great warehouse sim – here's a demo

If you’re feeling particularly rested and peaceful today, I don’t recommend playing the demo of the newly announced puzzle game Wilmot Works It Out. It will relax you so much that you’ll slowly turn to stone. Future archaeologists will marvel at you, a smiling stone figure amidst the ruins of a bygone civilization. “What exactly was happening in 2024 to inspire such critical mass of relaxation?” they’ll wonder. Then they’ll see the computer screen glowing beneath the dust, and the cycle will begin again.

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Wilmot Works It Out is, of course, a sequel to Hollow Ponds, also published by Finji, and Richard Hogg's Wilmot's Warehouse. That game was about organising a warehouse. This one is about solving a total of 60 or so picture puzzles. The puzzles are delivered to Wilmot's door by a friendly postwoman. You drag each parcel to the centre of her house and create a mess of rounded squares, which you then set about sliding together. Then you hang the picture on your wall and the postwoman arrives with another picture. The sound is immediately soothing: the soft click of tiles coming together, the sound of a finished picture falling into place, the easy crescendo of the piano accompaniment.

The original Wilmot's Warehouse is one of our favourite puzzle games, winning two Brendawards for Nicest Smile and Best Courier. It prompted Matt (peacefully RPS) to write about Wittgenstein. In our 2019 review, Nate called it a “deceptively simple little organism”, and I wonder if the same will be true of Wilmot Works It Out. Based on a few moments with the demo, it seems far less involved than the previous game: there's no time limit, and the whole thing is framed as Wilmot's break from his warehouse job. Wilmot's Sunday Afternoon, if you will.

But I have a feeling there's more going on beneath the surface. Maybe it's something to do with successive delivery packages mixing up pieces from different puzzles. Or maybe the complexity will come from unlocking “new rooms and customization items to decorate.”

As simple as it may seem, Wilmot Works It Out is a delightful creation that fills the veins with serenity. It’s also coming very soon on October 23rd. Learn more and try the demo for yourself on Steam.

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