A Fold In Time: Paper Trail
Fold your way through a storybook in this charming puzzle game.
‣ Paper Trail
From: Newfangled Games
Platforms: PC
Release: 2024
Steam Page • Demo Video
Pick up any second-hand copy of MAD, the iconic (sadly defunct) satirical magazine. I can guarantee the back page has been folded. Most issues of MAD contain a particular gag illustration on the inside back cover. When folded, it reveals a new illustration—a great gag and a highlight of each new issue.
Paper Trail has nothing to do with MAD Magazine, but I wonder if artist Al Jaffee’s back-page puzzle sat somewhere in the minds of this game’s developers. You play as Paige, a girl leaving her home to go on an adventure and navigate through various places, each with new characters. More specifically, Paper Trail is a puzzle game where you must open the way forward for Paige—and you do it much like those MAD back pages.
Paige’s world resembles a storybook; you can grab the page edges and bend them over to reveal the image on the back. Find the correct overlap, and you remove obstacles in Paige’s way. Folding page edges sounds straightforward, but the demo’s three levels show it’s not a one-note trick.
The concept starts simple but can develop challenging combinations and elements. Solving a page can require a sequence of different folds to move Paige or particular objects. In one area, you must combine the folding pages with blocks you can slide around. And in the third section, you move stone pillars in Sokoban fashion.
There is a lot of potential here. Had Paper Trail come to life as a student project that turned commercial, it may well have been shallow. But the founders of developer Newfangled Games have award-winning resumes with previous forays into oddball puzzle games like Hue and Mush. They know what they are doing.
Paper Trail has a cosy visual style and ethereal soundtrack that suit its pace. The gameplay is compelling because you are encouraged to explore and might get lucky finding the next step. It’s a clever game, and hopefully, game buyers will notice.
Paper Trail is due for release on PC in 2024.
Best Demo Moment: The puzzles can become pretty elaborate.
Explore The Game with Youtube Chapters:
📽 00:20 After the storm
📽 05:22 Into the caves
📽 06:55 A bigger puzzle
📽 09:50 Lock and key
📽 12:25 Welcome to the swamps
📽 16:12 Showing its hand
📽 19:20 Just keep trying...
📽 25:43 The old ruins
📽 27:37 A hint of Sokoban
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