I’ve always been a big fan of the colour samples in the house paint section of Home Depot. Those unassuming sheets of paper, festooned with colour gradients, introduced me to a world that was more than simple black and white — a world with 50 shades of grey, several dozen oranges and more green than anyone could possibly ever need. They also prepared me for Blendoku.
Blendoku, created by Yeong-Hao Han, is a game about exploring the subtleties of colour blending. Inspired by colour exercises he performed in art school (been there, done that, made some really horrible t-shirts), Han figured filling in the steps between red and green might be an entertaining way to pass the time. He was right.
Players are presented with a playfield with several key colours already in place. Above the playfield are a selection of coloured squares. Their task is to place those coloured squares in the correct blending order. It’s like a crossword puzzle, only with colours instead of letters.
The presentation is plain and simple, with no music or fancy backgrounds to distract players from the task at hand. They are here to play with colour, and play with colour they shall. They’ll start small, placing five shades of green all in a row. Soon the layouts get more complicated, with more colours and branching paths. Determining how the colours flow is a learning process, and there is plenty of learning to do here.
Blendoku is such a unique and addictive experience that I feel a little bad for Yeong-Hao Han for giving the game away for free. He’s included 475 levels (150 simple and medium, 100 hard and 75 master) in the game, all of which can be played at absolutely no cost. There are ads, but they can be removed for $0.99, which also grants players five puzzle hints a day.
I’d suggest spending the dollar even if you don’t need the hints; Han deserves it for capturing the joy and wonder of looking at paint samples in a game.
Blendoku
Genre: colour puzzles
Developer: Yeong Hao Han
Platform: iOS, Android
Price: free
Get Blendoku from the iTunes App Store
Get Blendoku from Google Play
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