the way they describe the premise makes it sound like some weird mix of portal and tractor beam physics
The votes are in! The community's choice for a long title to play together and discuss in August 2026 is...
Developer: Andrea Interguglielmi
Genre: Puzzle, Simulator
Platform: PC, Mac, iOS
Why should you care: Nauticrawl is a game that throws you in at the deep end. You're a defector who's stolen an alien-adjacent machine called a Nauticrawl to escape a hostile world, and the entire game is you sitting in the cockpit trying to figure out what any of the levers, dials, and buttons actually do. You just start pressing things and hoping you will figure out how the machine works through trial and error.
It's part simulator, part puzzle game, part roguelike, with permadeath runs that reset you back to square one if you get caught or killed. The tension comes from that early phase of total confusion where you don't even know how to move. Reviewers have generally said the challenge eases off once you've cracked the interface, but the atmosphere and the sheer novelty of "learn an alien cockpit from scratch" carries it. It's a short, focused experience that can be done in one evening.
Game of the Month is an initiative similar to a book reading club, where every month the Patient Gamers community votes for a long game (>12 hours main story per HLTB) and a short game (<12 h) to play, discuss together and share our experiences about.
If you want to learn more & participate, that's great, you can join the /r/patientgamers Discord server to do that! (link in the subreddit's sidebar) However, if you only want to discuss this month's choice in this thread, that's cool too.
August 2026's GotM theme: Unusual transportation - this theme is covering games with a focus on operating vehicles that aren't cars, and while we're at it no boats either. Let's explore all the weird vehicles gaming has to offer!
the way they describe the premise makes it sound like some weird mix of portal and tractor beam physics