Cozy games, particularly ones with crafting aspects, are popping up more and more. This is great for me, personally, because these types of games are some of my favorite. Pieced Together is a cozy, scrapbooking puzzle game.
You play as Connie, an adult who is creating a scrapbook of her childhood. At age 11, she met her best friend Beth, but something recently happened, fragmenting their friendship. Now, you will spend some time reflecting on your childhood friendship, and deciding if you want to try to continue your friendship as an adult with Beth.
Pieced Together is a polished, well-developed game. You get a little drawer of different mementos, drawings, and tokens of a different time. On the two pages in front of you, you can add these different pieces. At first, this can be done by placing them anywhere you want, though there is a flow that matches the story as you learn more about the childhood of Connie.
After a while, some of the pages become more of a puzzle-based activity, where you will be placing information in specific places, that tell you more about these two young girls, their hobbies, and what is going on. Some levels even have you completing your pages, then having to add more items onto them, that changes the feel of what you have created.
I played a short demo of Pieced Together at Courage XL and The European Games Showcase, where I started to get really invested in these two young girls, wanting to know about their childhood and what could have possibly happened to fragment them in this way. The polish on the various little items and pictures that you need to place onto the pages is so charming, and it creates a scrapbook much better than I would be able to create!
There are so many relatable memories in Pieced Together, from talking about school subjects to drawing doodles, to having your first birthday party after moving to a new school. Connie had a bit of a bumpy childhood, but Beth was always there to pick her up and continue to support her. You’ll need to solve these little puzzles to figure out if you should let this all go. Though I only got to get so far into the story, I really am excited for what comes next.
Currently, you can wishlist Pieced Together on Steam.
