Spot a gnome hiding in the scene — then watch it bolt. Block its escape routes, chase it down with your drone, and bring it home. Cozy, hand-drawn, and trickier than it looks.
Try it before you buy it. There's a free demo on Steam. If the game isn't for you, you'll know within ten minutes and it will have cost you nothing.
Almost every object in the world responds when you click it, and the gnomes use that against you. They hide out of sight, so you turn the camera to flush them out. They duck into objects, so you interact with the object to make them run. They aim for the next hiding place, so you block it off before they get there.
Four environments — forest, farm, village and city — with three hand-drawn levels each. Between levels a story unfolds in comic cutscenes drawn by Dutch cartoonist Meinder, with a soundtrack by indie composer Tobi Weiss.
A level takes ten to twenty minutes, and the game saves when you finish one. There is no penalty for stopping — you won't come back to a wilted farm or a missed daily reward. The game has an ending, and you're meant to reach it.
If you want more afterwards, the over-world map lets you replay levels with the gnomes in new positions, or rewatch the cartoons. There are 38 achievements if you're the sort of person who likes those, and nothing at all pushes you towards them if you're not.
There's a difficulty setting. Turn it down for a calm afternoon of looking at a pretty diorama; turn it up if you want the gnomes to genuinely outsmart you. It's built to work for a nine-year-old and for their grandparent, ideally at the same keyboard.