Botany Manor

The puzzles in this game are centered around growing plants in a Victorian garden. Each plant can only grow once certain conditions are met. You have to find out how by finding clues in your environment much like in The Witness. The visual design in this game is really beautiful.

LOK Digital

A word spelling game where each word has a special ability.

Limbo

This game combines platforming, puzzles and environmental storytelling really well.

Storyteller

In this game you have to arrange panels and characters (much like a comic writer would do) in order to tell a story. Designing this must have been pretty hard because of all the emergent complexity, but it really comes together nicely.

Stephen's Sausage Roll

This is the OG puzzle game that started the Sokoban renaissance. Made by Stephen Lavelle. Many tried to copy it but it's still the best Sokoban game ever made.

Infinifactory

This is also one of the more approachable Zachtronic games. You have to design little factories out of blocks in order to produce a desired output of blocks. All solutions are open-ended and can be compared to other players solution. The second campaign that got added later to the game gets too dry towards the end, but I think everyone will enjoy the first campaign.

The Swapper

It's a puzzle game where you can clone yourself and swap your consciousness with your clones. It will throw some mind-body-esque philosophical questions at you while you're at it.

Kaizen: A Factory Story

This is one of the most approachable zach-likes. The game ends before the puzzles get too convoluted and tiresome as is the case with most other Zach-likes. Every puzzle has its own art which also adds some charm.

Fidel Dungeon Rescue

A Sokoban roguelike that can be played in short bursts. Unlike any other roguelike, it has no filler.

Dear Esther

A walking simulator where you explore an island while a narrator tells you a story that is actually well written.

Cocoon

This is like 'Inception: The Puzzle Game'. You can travel to different worlds that you have to nest inside each other. Unlike the movie this game makes sense however.

Öoo

A puzzle platformer where you control a worm whose body is made out of bombs that explode and catapult you...kinda hard to explain. I liked it the most out of these new japanese platformers.

Inside

Really similar to Limbo, made by the same developers. If you like Limbo you will also like this one.

Snakebird

Excellent Sokoband game that is really hard and well designed. Don't let the cute graphics deceive you.

Outer Wilds

An open exploration game set in a miniature solar system. Maybe the game i would recommend over every other game on this list. It's best played going in completely blind. It's one of the few games i know that does story well. It's not perfect, but where it does well not other game comes close. The DlC is also a must-play, it improves on many aspects of the original game.

Volgarr The Viking

This is like one of these old-school side-scrolling platform games from the '80s but with a really good modern design philosophy. With one annoying exception: If you die too many times you have to start the game from the beginning. However, you can walk to the left of the first level to skip levels you have already completed.

MotionRec

A puzzle platformer where you can record and replay your movements.

Neon White

This game was inspired by people speedrunning games. You have to go through every level as fast as possible, killing all the enemies. Weapons have a second function that lets you move through levels faster. Every level has shortcuts that you have to find and that require a bit of planning and thinking. I was surprised that I found the story and dialogues enjoyable even at their corniest.

The Looker

This game makes fun of another game on this list. It's hilarious and the puzzles are quite fun. As a reviewer on Steam put it: "Witness deez nuts".

Cuphead

This game had huge success because of its amazing looking animation. But it's also a really well designed Run&Gun that forces you to think strategically while testing your reflexes.

140

A rhythm platformer with minimalistic graphics and really good music. By the same guy who made 'THOTH'.

Opus Magnum

Very much in the vein of Zachtronics games you have to solve puzzles in an open-ended way. This is one of the more approachable, having to design a machineries that assembles atoms into molecules.

ElecHead

A puzzle platformer where you can activate platforms by electrically charging them with your character.

THOTH

Minimalistic twin stick shooter with some cool ideas.

Gorogoa

A point and click game that plays like an interactive comic.

1001 Spikes

This is a platformer with short levels that tries to kill you again and again in unexpected ways. The joke of the game is that you can 'only' die 1001 times in order to complete the game. There are ways to get more lives though. You will need them.

English Country Tune

A abstract sokoban by Stephen Lavelle. Predecessor of Stephen's Sausage Roll. Also really good.

Obra Dinn

A game that started a new wave of detective games. It's still the best of its kind and has stunning 3D 1-bit visuals.

Chants of Sennaar

An exploration game where you have to decipher different languages in order to solve puzzles. It has a clue system that is similar to Obra Dinn, where you have to assign the meaning to 3 or more letters in order get a confirmation. Like in every other game, the sneaking passages are a bit annoying but it's still a worthwhile experience. The graphics are really nice too.

Papers, Please!

You play as an immigration inspector on a border outpost. Decide over the fate of people trying to escape a totalitarian system while having to provide for your own family.

The Witness

While most of the puzzles in this game are solved by drawing lines on a 2D panel, what makes this game's magic is how it communicates ideas non-verbally. You slowly uncover the meaning of each symbol, often having to think outside the box in the most literal sense.