Squeakross: Home Squeak Home is a game overflowing with generosity. I have never played a puzzle game more generous with its customization, tutorials, accessibility, or hint system. For a game that seems like two simple things combined - nonogram puzzles and home decorating - it kept surprising me with its depth and friendliness.
Nonogram games live and die by their ability to teach the player not only how they work, but the underlying strategies for solving them. When the puzzles get more difficult, you have to use some unintuitive approaches to filling in the next few squares. Squeakross excels at this with encouraging tutorials and an unlimited hint system. The rat you create at the beginning of the game is always hanging out in the corner as you solve puzzles, ready to give you a nudge. It does obvious things like show you mistakes or fill in a square to keep you going, but its real genius is in the Logic Assist feature. Choosing this option shows you all the possible solutions for a selected line based on what you’ve filled in so far. It’s the best kind of hint system, teaching you how to get better while unblocking your progress.
There’s even more customization in the settings menu, where you can choose to see when a line is not solvable because of a mistake you made, or show highlights around the hints (the numbers on the top and left of each line) when you can logically fill in or cross out squares on that line. If you’re a true sicko who doesn’t want any of that, turn it all off and solve puzzles in paper mode.
As you might expect, there is an achievement for solving a puzzle in paper mode. I mean that literally. There’s one achievement for solving one puzzle in paper mode. However, there are also achievements for using the different types of hints twenty times. It’s so fitting that a game this welcoming even encourages asking for help in its achievements, a place usually known for asking players to make the game harder for themselves, regardless of how enjoyable it is.
I haven’t even talked about the other half of the game yet. Each puzzle you solve turns into a piece of furniture for your rat’s home or a garment your rodent can wear around the house. I thought this would be a pretty simple framing device but there are hundreds of pieces, each one with a challenge puzzle that unlocks variants. Your silly little guy will even interact with the stuff in their home. Mine seems to love the moka pot and hate the humidifier.
If there’s any chance at all you might like nonogram puzzles, this game is your best chance. It’s a thoughtful approach to puzzle games that I hope more developers copy. I’m playing on Steam Deck but it’s also on Switch, which are perfect homes for it. You can spend thirty minutes in the morning or evening solving a couple puzzles and rearranging furniture. I’d recommend it to anyone.
Also, there’s a mail system in the game, and sometimes pictures of people’s cute pet rodents will show up in your inbox. Why haven’t you bought this yet?