FRAMED

FRAMED turns a film noir chase into a comic-book puzzle: the player rearranges panels on the screen so that the order of actions — dodging bullets, jumping a fence, hiding in a doorway — changes from a failed escape into a successful one, even though the first attempt almost always ends in capture or worse. Controls are purely touch-based, panels are moved by dragging with a finger, and rearranging the comic frames is the game's only mechanic, yet within a few levels it becomes a surprisingly deep puzzle.

The New Zealand studio built FRAMED on a simple but inventive principle: each scene has only one correct order of panels, and the player finds it through trial and error, while watching the animation play out after each change is rewarding in itself, even when it doesn't lead to success. The art style draws on classic spy films and comics of the forties and fifties, complemented by jazz music that reinforces the atmosphere of a nighttime chase through a city full of shadows and neon signs, and as the levels progress, more panels are added, so the combinations keep growing.

The game was released as a paid title with no ads, can be finished in a few hours, and after its success on mobile also received ports to other platforms including consoles and computers. At the time of release it was among the first titles to show that comic-panel storytelling can be a game mechanic in its own right, not just a wrapper for the story, and this idea still influences similarly styled mobile puzzles today.

Why play it: For fans of elegant, short puzzles with striking visuals who will appreciate that simply reordering comic panels can be a tense game in itself.