Cocoon

Cocoon is a minimalist puzzle adventure from a small team at Geometric Interactive, whose ranks included Jeppe Carlsen, one of the key designers behind Limbo and Inside. The player controls an insect-like creature that gradually finds mysterious orbs of light, each of which functions as a self-contained world that can be entered and exited again. The key element of the game is the mutual nesting of these worlds within one another — the orbs can be carried between levels and their properties combined to solve puzzles, with progress in one world potentially opening a path in a completely different one, creating a sense of elegant, almost architectural puzzle design without a single word of text or a tutorial. The game guides the player exclusively through visual cues and carefully considered spatial arrangement, so every solution must be worked out through observation alone, not by reading instructions.

On Xbox Series X|S, the game stands out with clean graphics featuring a striking color palette and smooth frame rate, which makes the transitions between the layered worlds and the small visual details of the environment really stand out. The audio is sparse and atmospheric, built on quiet surroundings and subtle sound effects that heighten the feeling of isolation, focus, and the gradual discovery of the unknown without distracting elements.

Upon its 2023 release, the game was received very positively by critics and players alike, who praised above all its elegant puzzle design and inventive handling of the nested-worlds concept, which has few direct predecessors in the puzzle adventure genre. Thanks to its compact length, clarity, and inventiveness, Cocoon became one of the titles often cited as an example of how a small team can create an exceptionally well-thought-out game, and it counts among the pleasant smaller surprises of the Game Pass catalog that can easily be finished in one or two evenings.

Why play it: For its elegant puzzle design and inventive take on the concept of nested worlds, it's proof that even a small team can create an exceptionally well-thought-out game you can finish in one or two evenings.