The first thing that struck me about Cargo Delivery upon starting up their new fangled demo this morning was just how much the game reminded me of Machinarium, artistically. I mean this is a very good way too. I’ve always loved that sort of art style, and I’m very pleased to see another great game developer put in a decent amount of effort to make their game look unique.

Anyway, enough gushing about the art, I’m sure, since you’re reading this now, you would prefer to read about the actual game. Well, as the title suggests, Cargo Delivery is a game that’s about delivering cargo. It’s a simple premise, but one that gets exceedingly difficult as the levels move on, and I’ve only played the demo.

Each level you’ll have your ship tied to the dock with a bunch of boxes stacked on the harbor. These crates and boxes come in all different shapes and sizes as well as contents. So, for example, you could have some boxes that are just big and bulky, some could be small and fragile, others could be live animals. It’s up to you to get the assigned amount across in one piece without losing anything.

Now, given that you control a ship, you’re obviously bound the rules of the ocean which basically means you have to deal with stacking cargo on a ship that’s constantly moving up and down. This makes the game even more challenging seeing as how you will be required to stack many fragile and explosive boxes.

Of course, simply stacking them all together doesn’t really mean the level is over. I mean, you may have nailed down the cargo, but what about the delivery? For each level, once you’ve got the right amount of items on board, you will be required to sail across the body of water and make it to the other dock in one piece. This is a pretty simple procedure at first, but one that slowly begins to get very complicated as fish, whales, and swells will attempt to knock everything you’ve got off your ship.

Overall, Cargo Delivery is a brilliantly fun puzzle game that not only challenges you to build, as so many other games do, but also makes you test out what you’ve done under pressure. This means you seriously have to think about the placement of your boxes to ensure they don’t spill out mid-voyage.

Cargo Delivery is showcasing at IndieCade next month where we’ll be on hand to talk with the developers and play the fully released version. Until then, I highly recommend taking the flash demo for a spin.

[Cargo Delivery]

Trailer