‘Mindset’ Brings Cube-Shaped Puzzles to Meta Quest

Calling all logic and puzzle game fans! From Carbon Studio—the studio behind Crimen - Mercenary Tales, The Wizards, Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall, and more—comes Mindset, a narrative-driven VR puzzle game that’s sure to satisfy casual gamers and hardcore enthusiasts alike.

Mindset combines challenging logic puzzles, unique graphic layouts, a bizarre story taking place at the very core of your subconscious, and plenty of mechanics based on motion, gravity, and general physics. That’s a bit of a puzzling description (pun intended), so read on to learn more.

Whether you choose to explore the three-chapter Story Mode or jump straight into Challenge Mode, you’ll be tasked with solving various cube-shaped puzzles in a three-dimensional, full-depth space. That means that in order to find a solution, you’ll have to explore all the sides and mechanisms of the cube, bearing in mind that changes to one of them can affect all the others.

The Basics

Each cube has one or more starting gears that spin around from the very beginning of each level. To complete the level, you have to set the last gear in motion. You can achieve this by grabbing other gears from a pool of available parts and slotting them into place. To make things a bit trickier, gears can only be placed on special pins—some of which are dependent on the state of other pins, often placed on the other side of the cube. If you take one out, another may hide and ruin your plan. But with the right sequence, this combination may change. You’ll also be dealing with gravity pins, pins sliding on special rails, and more to keep you on your toes.

While the proper positioning of the pins can be quite tricky, the real fun begins when placing the gears. They differ from each other not only in size, but also in their unique additional mechanics. When you manage to match the gears to each other, each will set the next one in motion. And then another. And another. Sometimes you’ll have to hook them up with a special cord that connects them from afar, rotate the whole panel, or switch the button to see the otherwise invisible pieces of the cube. And every time you move the cube, the gravity-dependent elements will automatically move, retract into the cube, or emerge again, often launching previously placed pieces into the air.

Hand Tracking Magic

While you can play Mindset with Touch controllers, it’s really meant to be enjoyed with hand tracking—after all, it’s hard to find a better tool for solving logic and dexterity puzzles than your own hands. Each turn of the cube can make the entire previously arranged mosaic of pins and gears fall apart. It just feels more intuitive to grab gears, put them in the right places, make corrections, connect elements, and move or pull out pins just as you would in the physical world.

No Two Puzzles Are Alike

While you’ll face dozens of cubes in Mindset, rest assured that you won’t find two identical puzzles. Each is an individual and unique experience, with numerous triggers and possibilities. To help spice things up, some problems will have more than one solution—it’s up to you how cleverly you’ll use the available elements and mechanics. Is it better to choose the side of the cube with pins on rails, or maybe the opposite side with gravity mechanisms? The possibilities are multiple.

Step Inside a Lucid Dream

In Story Mode, you’ll play as Jack—a brilliant scientist who gets into quite a bit of trouble. Fighting to regain consciousness and return to the world of the living, you must delve deeper and deeper into your own subconscious. As you solve more puzzles, you’ll meet new characters, take part in moral dilemmas, and discover how you got into such a mess in the first place.

Your mind will play all sorts of tricks on you and take you to amazing, abstract places. Some of them are beautiful and full of life, while others are filled with anxiety and darkness. The story, divided into three chapters, lets you visit the farthest corners of your mind. You’ll enjoy an ever-changing environment, fully-narrated dialogues, and a plot twist that reveals nothing is as it seems.

Put Your Skills to the Test

In Challenge Mode, it’s just you, the cube, and the lab. A series of really demanding challenges lie ahead, and there’s no tutorial to guide you. No worries though—there’s no timer or other limitations, so you can take your time and process everything at your own pace.

In the future, Carbon Studio plans to add an achievements system to reward your struggles. And regardless of whether you choose Challenge or Story Mode, you’ll have the opportunity to unlock numerous badges.

Check out Mindset on the Meta Quest Platform today.