David Williames | Free ($5/£5 Pro mode)
- Minesweeper meets Sudoku, with added cows
- Thousands of free puzzles, no ads
- Clean minimalist aesthetic
Developer David Williames describes Bullpen as being like “Sudoku meets Minesweeper”. As three-word descriptions go, we can’t do any better than that, but we can expand on what makes it worth playing even if you’ve had your fill of both reference points.
Like Sudoku and Minesweeper, Bullpen is all about the methodical filling in of grids. While you’re adding cows to paddocks rather than isolating bombs or inserting numbers, the games follows the same “if this goes here, then this has to go there” logic work.
Add dots to indicate where cows can’t be
Unlike Minesweeper, there’s no initial guesswork involved with any of these puzzles. There’s always at least one square to begin with with where a cow simply has to go.
This all stems from two simple rules – no two cows are allowed to touch; and there can only be one cow per paddock, row, and column.
Each added cow informs the next
Hard mode mixes things up a little by requiring two cows per paddock, row, and column, but that’s it for embellishment. The developer shapes each puzzle by filling selected squares with rocks.
It all sounds remarkably simple, repetitive even. It is both of those things, but there’s something about Bullpen’s core gameplay loop that proves irresistible.
The hint system teaches you new strategies for Hard mode
There’s variety to the mental states the game puts you in rather than its mechanics, and it’s all determined by the difficulty level. Once you’re familiar with the rules, Easy mode becomes a pleasingly methodical idle game of filling in squares.
Normal and Medium modes require more brain power, while Hard mode requires you to fully engage and to look at each grid with new eyes. It’s here that the excellent hint system helps to teach you, revealing techniques for spotting those columns and rows where there’s no longer any ambiguity.
Completing your first Hard level without hints is bliss
The presentation is suitably clean and crisp, with a tastefully minimalist Apple-meets-New-York-Times style. I’m not a huge fan of the repetitive background ditty, though, which seems a little too plaintive for the bright and pastoral setting.
That, and a fundamental lack of novelty and variation, are really all there is to complain about here. Bullpen is even free to play with no ads, though you can unlock a Pro mode for $5 / £5 that unlocks all 5,000 levels from the off, adds iCloud support, and supplies “super powered stats”.
All levels are freely available
More importantly, paying for the Pro tier supports the developer of a type of game that’s vanishingly rare on the App Store these days. If you value the kind of clean and clever puzzlers that used to be the App Store’s bread and butter 10 to 15 years ago, be sure to dip into your pocket.