Do you want to click on playing cards in a Jane Austen-themed setting? Of course you do

Deep within the pastoral county of Dorset within the south of England, Jake Birkett (also called Gray Alien Video games) toils away making a really particular sort of sport. He arranges taking part in playing cards in pleasing tableaux on the display, and invitations the participant to clear them by clicking on them in ascending or descending numerical order; it’s his private evolution of the TriPeaks solitaire variant. He ensures the click is crisp and satisfying, and arranges enjoyable sport mechanics and a lightweight storyline — typically written by his associate Helen Carmichael — round this deeply satisfying core.

Birkett used to make video games for the informal PC gaming portals of the 2000s — websites like Large Fish. As that scene wilted in 2015, Birkett and Carmichael experimented with bringing a sport they’d made for Large Fish to Steam: Regency Solitaire, which performs out in a pleasant, light-touch spoof of the novels of Jane Austen, as debutante Bella pursues her marital match throughout the manicured croquet lawns of Regency England. Improbably, the Steam crowd cherished it, and it turned a minor hit there. Gray Alien then experimented with marrying solitaire with role-playing methods in a few puzzle RPGs, the buccaneering Shadowhand and extra brooding and darkish Historical Enemy. These are wonderful video games, however with their XP, loot, and fight, they inevitably misplaced a bit of of Regency Solitaire’s ineffable, consequence-free appeal.

Now Bella is again in Regency Solitaire 2 (out now on Steam and itch.io), and it’s as gentle and deliciously insubstantial as an ideal soufflé. That is pure informal gaming, designed to assuage and reward, with simply the correct quantity of problem and complexity: sufficient to maintain issues attention-grabbing, not a lot that it ever will get remotely disturbing.

Picture: Gray Alien Video games

Picture: Gray Alien Video games

Picture: Gray Alien Video games

The plot is that Bella, now fortunately married to the aristocratic Mr. Worthington, has determined to have a backyard occasion at their property. Delicate impediments come up: Worthington’s rakish younger brother elopes with a maid, whereas his stern mom, the dowager Duchess, frowns in disapproval at Bella’s frightfully trendy tea behavior. There’s nothing for it however to clear lovely, curlicued card layouts on hand-painted backdrops so as to earn gold to spend on ugly statuary for the backyard.

Birkett’s solitaire design, refined over many video games now, is inflected with an arcade sensibility that’s not 1,000,000 miles away from traditional PopCap puzzlers like Peggle. There are brilliant, chiming sound results; there’s a combo rating multiplier for clearing lengthy runs of playing cards; there are unlockable powerups on cooldowns, in addition to wild playing cards you’ll be able to hold in your hand to get you out of a jam later. There’s a delicate, strategic layer to selecting when to make use of these to maximise a run, or to get you out of hassle because the stockpile dwindles towards the tip of a stage. There are not any card fits to fret about, however Birkett ensures there’s at all times a lot occurring within the structure to maintain you engaged.

Regency Solitaire 2 is an ideal gaming palate-cleanser, a refreshing sorbet to clear the thoughts between extra intense or difficult experiences. That’s to not be mistaken for faint reward; there’s completely an artwork to this, and throughout the underappreciated discipline of informal sport design, Birkett is a grasp at work. If there’s a extra enjoyable sport launched in 2024, we’ll all be very fortunate (and really chill).