Subscribe
Indie game designer and Passage developer Jason Rohrer has released his second iPhone title, Primrose ($2.99). In a departure from his earlier arthouse PC titles, Primrose is a comparatively straightforward puzzler, though it does feature an intriguing set of mechanics all its own.
In Primrose, players must place colored tiles on a 7×7 grid. When a group of colors is surrounded by tiles of another color, the surrounded group clears, and the surrounding tiles change to the cleared color. Careful tile placement can yield chains, and more points can be earned for bigger clears and longer combos. Rohrer likens the experience to games like Go and Othello, with a little bit of Lights Out mixed in.
Primrose offers a networked leaderboard that allows players to watch full move-by-move replays of all high scoring games. Also included is a colorblind mode, which is always a considerate and appreciated addition to any puzzle game.
While the iPhone edition of Primrose costs $2.99, it’s worth noting that full-featured Mac, Windows, and Linux editions of the game can be downloaded for free from Primrose’s official website. It’s a bold release strategy, and one that I hope more iPhone developers will adopt in the future.
