OpenCritic
Steam
Hidden Folks is an original puzzle game created by Adriaan de Jongh and Sylvain Tegroeg. Gameplay is based on a simple, although a rather unusual scheme. The game takes place on a dozen or so 2D, monochromatic boards where we have to find all of the targets, which can be characters or specific items. Our search for them is hampered by the necessity to use the game's environment to find some of them (i.e.
Hidden Folks for PC, iOS and AND is a fun puzzle game created by two developers: Adriaan de Jongh, who took care of the development of the game, and Sylvain Tegroeg, who was responsible for the drawings.
Mechanics
The gameplay mechanics in Hidden Folks are extremely simplistic. The creators prepared about a dozen or so small levels - animated drawings on which they hid various objects and characters. Our task is to find all of them - we do this by simply clicking on them. The difficulty comes from the images being black-and-white, the characters looking very similar (although of course, they do differ in some details), and additionally, some levels are filled to the brim with various elements of the environment, such as trees, tents, etc. All of this makes searching much more difficult. Luckily, there are small hints on the special bar where the target objects are shown. The suggest e.g. where we should be looking for a given target.
Technical aspects
The minimalistic gameplay goes hand in hand with minimalistic graphics. Hidden Folks for the PC, iOS and AND looks a bit like sketches of a student who was exceptionally bored during a lecture, which has its unique atmosphere and charm. Besides that, the game offers many interactive elements and a multitude of varied sound effects. All this makes it impossible to confuse it with any other title.
Last updated on March 22, 2019
Videos and Screens
[1:00] Hidden Folks trailer #1
Hardcore Gamer: 3.5 / 5 by Kyle LeClair
Hidden Folks may be on the short side, and has its occasional hair-pulling moment, but the hefty amount of charm it has in even the smallest individual, combined with some particularly clever puzzle design, make it worth taking at least one quick spin with.
Digitally Downloaded: 2.5 / 5 by Matt Sainsbury
Hidden Folks is good as a mild diversion, but doesn't offer much beyond that. The development team seems to have missed what made Where's Wally books truly special - it wasn't simply in packing the books full of stuff, and then challenging people to find the proverbial needle in the haystack. It was in filling the books with vibrant, exciting, and imagination-stirring scenes. Hidden Folks doesn't do that.
Cubed3: 7 / 10 by Ofisil
Those who run away at the sound of the words "hidden object game" should actually stay put because Hidden Folks is one of the better ones out there, with its tiny-yet-gargantuan worlds and "mouth-sound" audio effects giving it a unique, playful, and almost magical charm, and the gameplay portion seamlessly blends fun, challenge, and some welcome amounts of cooling off.
Hidden Folks Summary
Platforms:
PC Windows February 15, 2017
Android December 14, 2017
Apple iOS February 15, 2017
Nintendo Switch October 31, 2018
Developer: Adriaan de Jongh
Publisher: Adriaan de Jongh
Age restrictions: none
