Is This Seat Taken? is a polite and cosy puzzler where you have to consider other people’s feelings

thesixthaxis.com:

I had to tell you about the latest game being published by Wholesome Games, because not only is it wholesome, it might be the most British idea for a game ever. Is This Seat Taken? is a game about matching the needs of different people as you try to shove them all into places like a bus, a waiting room, or a wedding. Basically, it’s a game where you have to manage spending time with people you’d really rather not. It’s quite possibly the most delightful idea for a puzzle game I’ve seen in a long while, and you should all definitely be excited to check it out when it launches later this year for PC, iOS and Android.

Go on, watch the trailer. You too can’t help but want to play it, and make all these people/shapes happy. Each level gives you a batch of characters that need sorting out, all of which have different needs, either that they have high hygiene standards and will refuse to sit next to someone smelly (if only this were an option on the tube), or that they want a window seat so they can see the view. Different events and places have different requirements too, so at the cinema you have to consider whether the seats are dirty, whether people are sitting too close or too far away, or if there’s someone next to them so they can steal some popcorn. I hope you can solve that by putting someone with low standards next to a dirty seat, and they’ll eat the popcorn off it. Just me? Oh, OK.

There’s actually a narrative at play here, and you have to help Nat to make their way through the world, while organising everyone around them, leading them on a journey of self-discovery and correct seating plans.

If you too are interested in social engineering you won’t have to wait long, with a Steam demo arriving on the 10th of February. I can’t wait!