Eksa: Isle of the Wisekind: A Social Puzzle Game Focused on Exploration and Collaboration

Salvador Garcia Martinez Mar 22, 2012 Tweet

As I discussed in one of my previous posts, social gaming is the current trend in video games.  It is very interesting how more games are beginning to incorporate social gaming as part of their main mechanics (successful games such as Zynga’s Farmville or Lolapps’ Ravenwood Fair are the leaders in this space).  For example, The Sims, one of the most popular gaming franchises, released its social version last year, making it one of the top social games in 2011.

However, it is not just major games incorporating social gaming – small and more casual games are as well, such as Eksa: Isle of the Wisekind.  This title is a small but quite entertaining Facebook-based game developed by Gambit, a Singapur-MIT game lab.

The main goal of the game is to lead your explorer or ‘wiseling’ through mazes in the world of Eksa. Mazes are constructed of little turnabouts that you have to rotate in order to navigate your way. Paths become complex, leading to dead-ends, getting longer and longer as you play, or tricking your explorer into doubling back and starting over.

Besides reaching the end of the maze, there are also different types of challenges integrated in the game, like solving a puzzle in the least amount of time, fewest moves, or both.  But what makes this game even more interesting is the maze-builder mode. You can create your own puzzles and share them with your friends  and can play those created by your friends – that’s where the social component of the games comes into play. The focus of Eksa is on exploring, creating and collaborating.

This game is worth a try; it is idea for casual players, because you don’t need to check the status of your game throughout the day.   You will have meaningful social interactions with your friends, and most importantly, you will have fun. It is also free – there are no monetization models behind it. Enjoy!