This puzzle game’s simple premise hides surprising depth

What’s the Password? has a simple concept: To solve each of the game’s more than 100 puzzles, you have to type in the right four-digit password on a number pad. That might sound like a limited constraint. But the simplicity gives solo developer Dan DiIorio, better known as TrampolineTales, lots of room to play with clever ideas. Over the course of a few hours, the game never stopped surprising me.

Puzzle clues come in several different formats. Some are written text; the very first puzzle is a sentence that tells you what numbers to punch in. But you’ll also have to decipher four-digit codes from things like the blinking digits of a clock, nonogram puzzles, solving arithmetic, and even counting the number of teeth on a key. Clues can get a little meta, too, like ones referencing a password on the game’s cover art or information in menus.

The puzzles can be tough. I’d get a few right away, but for most, I’d have to try a few solutions to see what worked. Fortunately, there’s no penalty for wrong guesses, so you can try as many combinations as you want. Some stopped me cold for minutes at a time. If you’re stuck on a puzzle for a while, the game will give you an option to skip it, and occasionally you can get a hint.

The game is backed by a calming, jazzy soundtrack that loops a single song over and over, and it pairs well with the game’s entirely black-and-white visuals. The whole vibe made me feel like some kind of noir gumshoe. But I also found that the slow drone could help when I was stuck on a particularly tricky puzzle; my mind would occasionally wander to the meandering music, and every once in a while, that idle thinking would lead me to a puzzle’s solution.

[Media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlxtTi1iKA8]

In the end, I couldn’t solve everything. It took me about three hours to work my way through What’s the Password?, and I completed about 77 percent of the puzzles. But the game reminded me of the value of patience and a good night’s sleep; coming back in the morning with a fresh mind and coffee in hand, I usually had an easier time figuring things out. A lot of the fun of What’s the Password? was seeing what unexpected format would be thrown at me next, and that’s what gives the simple premise such depth.

What’s the Password? is out now on PC via Steam, iOS, and Android.