Every so often I get to have a rustle through game jam submissions on itch.io and every time I do there’s always a fistful of great little games to be found. Today’s search turned up Colourful County, a six-level long game where you slide cars around a grid in order to splash them with paint before parking them at their intended destination.
Those who’ve played sliding puzzle games before won’t find anything too difficult here until the last of the six levels, but I highly recommend giving it a go and challenging yourself to capture the star on each of the levels while doing it. They add an extra challenge to the mix, and push you to think outside of the box and fully take advantage of there being no move limits in any of the levels.
Similarly, sliding puzzles might not seem like the most original puzzle idea, however the uneven lines and almost-childlike sprite design are really endearing, and the whole thing is really intuitive, even so much so that the first level has you drive over the (optional) star to show you on the level-select screen that it’s a collectable. It might be a short game, but it was clearly made with a lot of thought and planning.
Colourful County‘s most endearing quality though is the sound, which shouldn’t be turned off. It’s silly and charming, it’s also basically just mouth sounds and noises as the cars slide around the map. Maybe a flag that the developer ran short on time during the LoJam (a week-long jam earlier in the year), maybe not, but definitely a standout element.
You can play Colourful County for free, in-browser, over on its itch.io page.