ranzware
I find that the best way to stay sane between playing frustrating competitive games like Valorant, Overwatch 2, or Marvel Rivals is to cut through the intensity with calm and relaxing puzzle games. Everyone has their own coping mechanisms, and this is mine. So I’m always on the lookout for a new cute little game to help my copium levels balance out, and Is This Seat Taken? is my new obsession.
Is This Seat Taken? is a slow-paced, calming, and cute puzzle game that involves finding the best place to put little anthropomorphic shapes (triangles and squares, with eyes, hands, and legs—you know, the usual) inside restaurants, on buses and in cars—all to make them as happy as possible, because nobody wants to sit next to someone they hate. But the catch is that some shapes have more requirements for happiness than others. Some may want to be placed next to a window, sit in a clean seat, or be away from others who smell or are playing loud music.
You have to cater to a lot of different needs, and while it may seem like some requirements are impossible to fulfill, there’s always a layout that will make everyone happy. It can sometimes take a bit longer to find these, especially in later levels, which include more shapes to cater to, but I always managed to make everyone happy.
In the demo, you can try out five puzzle locations: a taxi, a limo, a theatre, a bus, and a concert. Each place has a different layout and number of seats, and different variables will affect the happiness of some of your clients.
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Places like the limo or bus were reasonably easy thanks to there being plenty of space, so I could easily separate the shapes that stunk and those with sensitive noses while also catering to everyone who wanted a window seat. However, the concert was probably the hardest level as there wasn’t as much space on offer and there were tons of different requirements: those who wanted to stand or sit, shapes that wore too much cologne or stunk against those with a sensitive sense of smell, those who wanted to be close to the stage but not close to the speakers and so on.
There’s also a small story taking place around these different locations, which mostly just involves one shape trying to break out into the indie film industry as an actor. I’m not sure how far the little triangle has gotten with following their dreams, but there’ll probably be more plot points following them when the full game releases. Following the daily life of shapes isn’t necessary to complete this game, though—you can have just as much fun skipping all the plot points and getting straight to the puzzles.
Even though there’s not a release date yet, the 20 minutes I played was enough to make me really excited for the full game, if only to get more of my calming puzzle fix. So, if you’re also a fan of puzzle games, especially ones that aren’t stressful and let you take as much time as you need to figure out the best answer to a problem, then I’d highly recommend giving the free demo a try.
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Kurt Indovina
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