Basil & Za'atar

A warm, cooperative, puzzle-driven story of a boy and a girl who live on opposing sides of the Mediterranean. Grab a friend and explore your differences together. Your success relies on you communicating what you see... and really listening for what you don’t.

2 characters. 2 cultures. 2 players.

Delve into a colorful coastal town full of playful secrets, while your teammate explores their own world. Communication is key! The puzzles can only be solved if you combine the information that is presented to both of you. Make sure to carefully describe what you see and try to visualize what’s on the other side. To unravel the story, you will have to understand each other’s perspective; despite the sea between you.

Combine with your favorite voice chat to play remotely or play from the same room (as long as you don’t peek each other’s screen).

A different kind of puzzle

Test your wit with challenges that require precise verbal communication on top of regular problem solving. You have the information your teammate needs and vice versa. The difficulty increases as you go and no two puzzles are the same. Everything is built around delightful human-crafted artwork.

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Developer’s notes

Basil & Za'atar is my most ambitious solo project so far. It was also my thesis for my Master’s in Gaming. It required learning a few new skills that I wanted to explore for a while and practicing technologies that I hadn’t used as much as I wanted. From modeling entire buildings to programming custom animated shaders. I am very satisfied with the art direction, as the final artwork is pretty much what I envisioned and I hope you will enjoy it, too! Hand-crafting so many assets, both 2D and 3D, to create all the levels of two worlds with different aesthetics was a journey.

Be it the game design, the puzzles or the vibes, I wish you will find something to make you happy in my game! Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.