Nuts is a puzzle game where players must set up a series of surveillance cameras to hunt down a squirrel and find their hidden stash of food. Wandering through a hazy maze of trees to find the perfect space to drop a camera is a surprisingly tricky mind teaser that challenges memorization skills. The game’s concept is simple but fun and is this week’s indie pick!
Created by Jonatan Van Hove, Nuts is all about tracking a rascally squirrel and discovering where they hide all of their delicious berries and nuts. Every day, the player can set up tree cameras anywhere within a small forest. After the cameras are set, they can watch the feeds while the squirrel wanders around during the nighttime and heads towards its stash. The location of the stash is randomly chosen from a small pool of possible locations at the start of the game. The goal is to put together the squirrel’s path through the forest piece by piece until you discover its hideaway.
The process unfolds like a memorization puzzle. The player needs to make a mental note of each location where the camera spots the squirrel before shifting the camera position slightly in the next day in order to glean more information. You’ll place a camera, catch a tiny glimpse of the critter, reset it a little further back and capture more the next night. Moving around the cameras also stresses familiarity with the game world. The player must learn the forest’s hills and glades if they want succeed. Dropping the camera down a little more to the left or further back on the hill is a deliberate decision that always feels important. The process feels like a genuine hunt and there’s a sly sense of satisfaction that comes getting closer to victory.
It only takes about 20 minutes to play Nuts but it’s an engrossing time. Like any good puzzle, you’ll slip right into the zone and feel like a damn genius when you succeed. You can play Nuts on PC and Mac.