Secret Shelf: Paper Trail is the perspective puzzler folding back to brilliant basics
Sometimes in the gaming industry, it’s easy to feel that it’s kill or be killed, especially as many small creators don’t have many options in terms of platforms.
We’ve seen it frequently before - indie games can finally get their time in the spotlight as increased attention can take them pebble-steps towards appearing on Steam’s front page, until an industry giant stomps into the room and blasts them back into the shadows. Not all games are created equal, after all, no matter how unfair that can feel.
There are workarounds, though, like taking to TikTok to promote it or fighting desperately for attention for the project on whatever it is that Twitter has become this week - but if they’re lucky, a small team can find a solution. They can be unavoidable, and impossible to refuse.
This is the approach that Paper Trail seems to have taken, perhaps by accident, and in developing a puzzle game with sincere charm and packed with so much love, the team at Newfangled Games has created something almost impossibly infectious.
