He Who Watches Brings Gravity Puzzles to Steam with Strong Early Reception
A solo developer's gravity-based puzzle game earned a Very Positive Steam rating within days of release, and the developer has already responded to difficulty complaints with a patch.
Reporting from 1 source: Automaton.
Bobby Vanden's gravity puzzle game He Who Watches launched September 3 on PC via Steam and itch.io, with Japanese text support. Players walk on floors, walls, and ceilings, using a bow and magic arrow to move blocks and trigger switches. The game holds a Very Positive rating on Steam, with 95 percent of 64 user reviews positive. Vanden patched difficulty on September 5, adjusting several late-game chambers after player feedback.
He Who Watches draws on FEZ, ANIMAL WELL, and TUNIC for its hidden mysteries, which sit alongside the main puzzles. The developer, US-based solo dev Bobby Vanden, handled design, programming, and art, with music by Andre Frauenstein. Vanden spent about four years on the game, tracking playtest data in spreadsheets to tune early pacing and difficulty.
That tuning continued after launch. A September 5 update adjusted the Carry puzzle, moved the high-difficulty Release section in Chamber of Duality to a bonus area, and reduced the required clear count in two chambers. The game is on sale at 15 percent off until September 17.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.