The coolest puzzle game makes you think through road construction

Sometimes you see a puzzle game with such a sense of style that you can’t look away. Such is the case with Please fix the roadwhich uses stunning animations to elevate a relatively simple puzzle game.

We have addictive puzzles and more in Cool WIP, Polygon’s weekly roundup of eye-catching clips and work-in-progress screenshots. Every week, the Polygon team scours the internet for the coolest games still in the works, to give you a sample of the coolest projects to come.

This week we have a game following the lives of peasant mice, a Sonic-like platformer, a beautifully lit stage, and a game that shows us new layers of impressionistic paintings.

The most beautiful animations I’ve ever seen in a puzzle game

Ariel Jurkowski create Please fix the road, a polished titled puzzle game where you try to fix the road running from one end of the board to the other. Excerpts from the game show that you will need to organize and destroy tiles in order to repair the road. The animations are absolutely stunning and a standout part of the game. the clip just shows how dynamic the world is as you pick up, smash and lay down all the tiles. The game has a 2022 release window and you can find out more on its Steam page.

A disturbing and convincing concept

mother of many is a small game with an absolutely fascinating concept. Made by Brainwash Gang, the game follows a family of peasant mice who have fallen on hard times. To lift a curse and make things better, you have to sacrifice your older sister in the game. we can see in the trailer, the game absolutely nails a dark and ominous tone – the trailer shows you wielding a scythe to battle dark monsters amid roaring flames. If it’s looking for your driveway, you can download it on a Windows PC right now from Itch.io.

Sonic-like platformer meets candy-colored wonderland

Project Rascal is an upcoming game from a studio called The Rascals. A short clip shows off its varied gameplay, like speeding up ramps and grinding on rails – many courses appear to be inspired by 3D Sonic games. The developers shared a recent post teasing a carnival-themed course. They also said that they are planning to bring multiplayer to the game. There isn’t much information about that yet, but you can follow progress on the game’s Twitter account.

Who knew lighting could be so pretty

Here’s our neat game dev tool of the week: Christopher Sims has created a cartoon shader that renders scenes in an etched art style. This gif shows how the shader transformed these basic shapes into an intriguing scene. The Sims regularly post and share different tools like this, so you can check out more work on their Twitter account.

This game brings new layers to impressionist art

The master’s student is a new hand-painted adventure game in the paintings of Claude Monet, in development at Pat Naoum Games. A recent clip showed off the game and its impressionistic art style. In one recent clipyou can see the main character running across the board, Vetheuil, and see the paint split into a bunch of different layers as the character moves across the scene. It’s a neat concept and you can see more of the developer’s work on the workshop twitter account.