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Developed by Dustin X Davis
"VaguelyAwesome"
  • Solo developer in Austin, Texas
  • For Windows PC
  • Early Access scheduled for July 2026
  • Final release scheduled August 2026
  • Developed for more than two years
  • Compatible with keyboard and mouse, Xbox controller, and Steam Deck.
  • Price TBD (between $10 and $18)

Dustin formerly worked at:
  • Sciplay
  • Gearbox Software
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Worked on titles such as
  • Borderlands 3
  • Battleborn
  • Kraven Manor

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Puzzlor is a roguelite puzzle game where Tetris-like piece placement meets monster battling, deckbuilding, and run-based strategy.

Every enemy is a silhouette-shaped puzzle. To defeat them, players place Tetris-like pieces onto the board, covering enemy shapes while matching colored squares for bonuses like money, healing, and extra skips. Each run lasts around 10 minutes and asks players to build around upgraded pieces, passive equipment, consumable items, and character-specific abilities.

Across runs, players level up characters, unlock equipment, reveal new difficulty areas on the world map, and expand the roster to up to ten unique characters. Each character starts with different stats, equipment, and a defining once-per-puzzle ability that twists their gameplay in a new direction. As more characters level up, players unlock a growing pool of level-up bonuses that can be customized before each run, letting them shape different builds and strategies across the entire roster.
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It’s built for quick sessions, high replayability, and the thrill of making one more clever choice.
Fun Facts:
  • Puzzlor's playable characters are based on the players in Dustin's in-person Pathfinder tabletop roleplaying group, The Menagerie, where Dustin serves as GM.
  • Puzzlor's setting is the same high-fantasy world as his Pathfinder game, with a few of the same enemies and locations.
  • Puzzlor's world map contains secret challenges that are hard to find, and even harder to complete.
  • Dustin named many Puzzlor enemies with awful puns.
  • Puzzlor uses an puzzle creation system that generates puzzles based on the enemy sprite provided, allowing the creation of more than 250 enemy puzzles.
Game Mechanics:
  • ​There are15 Areas on the World map, each increasing the difficulty in a new way.  Themed enemies are much more likely to appear in matching locations.
  • The consumable items are Sparks and Bombs:  Sparks allow you to add a colored square to a puzzle piece, and Bombs allow you to remove a puzzle piece from your inventory.
  • 40% of enemies have Traits, which make that enemy more challenging and rewarding.  For example, when you fight a "Swift" enemy, each time you use a Skip, two are expended.
  • There are three types of Shop in the game:  The Forge (passive equipment) the Sanctum (Puzzle pieces) or the Trainer (stat bonuses and consumables).
  • Completing the game unlocks Menagerie Mode, where players can use their leveled-up characters from the core game mode to face runs of increasing difficulty, but each run requires drafting a starting character, equipment and ability.