The Indie Informer

One of my earliest appointments at GDC 2024, Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure, quickly set a high bar for every game that would follow. Its art style is singular, its storytelling ensnaring and its puzzles will haunt my nightmares.

Being so early in the show, I am among the first people to play the grid-based adventure outside of the studio. GDC is also the game’s first hands-on opportunity since its reveal at the Nintendo Partner Showcase.

Jemma is our hero, and the opening scene displays a wordless but nevertheless heart-piercing origin story. A small baby, a crying mother, and an eerie door are all the clues the player gets to what’s going on.

Years later, I find myself setting out to walk back through those doors as an adult to see what lies beyond. Well, it’s not so much walking as directing the world to move me. The gameplay in Arranger centers around a conveyor belt system where I move the entire row or column I stand on to venture forward. The devs have some fun with this, making my reckless shifting cause an unhappy NPC to fall from a ladder while I explore my hometown.

I can’t go far without stopping to admire the game’s distinctive aesthetics. I’ll blame my distraction on David Hellman. Not only is he in charge of Arranger’s art, but he co-founded the title’s studio, Furniture & Mattress. The creative-minded developer explains he wanted to craft a world that looks like no other, citing post-impressionist painter Cézanne as an inspiration.

His fellow co-founder, Nick Suttner, quickly chimes in to praise the artwork and Hellman’s talent — an exchange that both seem to know will make the artist uncomfortably pleased. Suttner’s congratulatory teasing reveals something about the duo’s working relationship and the friendly foundation on which Arranger has been built. Suttner’s humor soon spreads to my reactions to the demo.

Specifically, he encourages my paranoia that a seemingly inconsequential duck is up to no good (and I fully expect the winged menace to be the final boss after suspicious comments from the dev). It’s not quite as far-fetched as it seems since I quickly learn nothing here is coincidental. A cat lounging in the town square proves the key to starting my adventure. A sword casually left lying on an entryway floor becomes the tool I need to save the day. The duck is no accident.

Finally, through a series of homely quests, I secure a path to get through The Hold, the giant gate that protects the village and that many villagers will never see beyond. Things take a horrific turn when a long-lost community member appears and transforms into, essentially, a Dark Souls boss. Now, weaponless and surprised, I have to shift the ground beneath our feet to defeat the horror and take my first steps into Arranger‘s wider world.