Doodle style games have become somewhat of a phenomenon on the App Store; what happens when a developer with an acute attention to detail and polish creates a doodled game? The answer; Aqueduct. Although it shuns the cheap looking scribbles for more detailed sketches, the change of graphical style can certainly be attributed to a public fascination with hand drawn games. Yet this title lacks none of the detail that made us fall in love with the developer’s previous output, and is certainly a puzzle game that stands out from the crowd.

Aqueduct can best be described as a grown-up slide puzzle meets Pipe Dreams, although it takes more of a maze-like form. The basic gameplay is extremely easy to pick up, but like the best puzzle games it is hard to master. You can move blue tiles simply by sliding them across the screen, but the orange ones you cannot. Initially the faucet and the drain—the two objects you need to connect to complete the level—are orange, although other pieces can be locked in position; many later puzzles take advantage of this to great effect. In addition there are many elements common to maze games; switches and doors, warp vortexes and grating that you can move around the screen to transport the blue tiles into position. Note that you cannot move grating if anything is placed on top of it.

The tutorial levels introduce you to all of the different objects and how to utilise them efficiently, although it’s true that once you’ve completed it you won’t find any different objects to those you’ve been shown how to use. This is a shame because we would have liked to have seen more obstacles introduced during the main gameplay; much like Angry Birds does with the different types of birds unveiled during the course of the game and not just all at once.

Sometimes you’ll find that the game’s difficulty is somewhat uneven, a problem we had certainly after breezing through the first two level sets. You can complete a few in a row, then get stuck on one, eventually complete that and then breeze through the next lot. The linearity of the game can therefore be a problem, but we’re not suggesting that all levels should be accessible from the get-go. Instead, we’d love a system that gave you a few “skip tokens”, say three after completion of the introductory level set. It would then supply you with further tokens at predetermined points in the game; you could use these to skip levels and reclaim them upon successful completion; we think this could be a very good addition.

As touched upon before, the hand drawn style of the game is really successful in lending a certain je ne sais quoi to the overall experience. It feels personal, warm and inviting; there’s all sorts of little touches that go a long way; the clicky sound effects that accentuate the pieces clicking into place; the puffs of air as a new level opens up for play; the wheel that slides into place once the puzzle is complete (tapping it lets the water loose); and of course, multiple puzzle save state if you’re up for revisiting prior levels. We also liked the soothing background music that helped us focus on the gameplay.

Truly, Aqueduct is the kind of game that you’ll start playing and then before you know it, an hour has passed as you sit there, horribly immersed (excuse the pun) in it. This is how you create a puzzle game for the iPhone.

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