It’s Kooky

It’s Kooky is a hand-drawn hidden object game where players search for quirky and silly characters hidden within various sketched scenes. Developed by Roshan Nowshad and published by RedDeerGames, the game features a unique black-and-white sketch art style. Players are given a time limit to locate absurd items like an octopus wearing shoes or a cow in a hot air balloon across thirteen different levels. With easy-going gameplay that includes a hint system and no penalty for incorrect clicks, it’s a casual, family-friendly puzzle experience designed to spark creativity and imagination.

It’s Kooky: A Whimsical, Fleeting Foray into the Absurd

In the vast and often predictable landscape of hidden object games, a genre frequently characterized by gothic mysteries and cluttered Victorian parlors, a singularly odd title emerged in early 2022. It’s Kooky, a hand-drawn labor of love from developer Roshan Nowshad, dared to ask a different question: not “Where is the missing amulet?” but “Where is the cow in the hot air balloon?” This review will dissect this peculiar, charming, and ultimately ephemeral puzzle game, analyzing its unique artistic vision, its clever twist on a classic formula, and the divisive design choices that prevent it from achieving true greatness. While it may not have set the charts ablaze, It’s Kooky stands as a fascinating artifact of indie passion—a brief, kooky burst of creativity in an industry often dominated by convention.

Development History & Context

It’s Kooky is a testament to the modern indie development cycle, born from a dedicated Kickstarter campaign and brought to life by a small, passionate team. The credits list Roshan Nowshad as the sole programmer, with creative direction and art handled collaboratively by Nowshad, Yap Chin Ying, and Fatin Elier. This tight-knit collaboration is evident in the game’s cohesive, singular vision.

Built using the ubiquitous Unity engine, the game was first released on Steam for Windows on January 6, 2022. Its subsequent rollout across platforms—Macintosh, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S throughout the rest of the year—was handled by publisher RedDeerGames, a company known for curating and distributing a wide array of niche and indie titles. This partnership was crucial in bringing Nowshad’s quirky vision to a broader console audience, particularly the family-friendly Nintendo Switch market where the game found a natural home.

The gaming landscape of 2022 was, as always, crowded. Blockbuster titles and live-service games dominated discourse, but the digital storefronts provided a thriving ecosystem for smaller experiences. It’s Kooky entered this fray not as a technical powerhouse, but as a pure concept: a return to the simple, observational joy of a “Where’s Waldo?” page, reimagined with a digital, interactive, and absurdist heart. Its development was less about pushing technological boundaries and more about honing a specific, hand-crafted aesthetic and a playful set of rules.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

To critique It’s Kooky for a lack of narrative would be to miss its entire point. This is a game that operates on a purely thematic and tonal level. There is no story of a detective solving a crime or a protagonist unraveling a family secret. The “narrative” is the player’s own journey through a sketchbook come to life, a tour of absurdity.

The core theme is one of joyful, gentle surrealism. Each level is a self-contained vignette of the bizarre—a train station, a ski slope, an airport—populated not with realistic citizens, but with archetypes of silliness. The “plot” is the act of observation itself. The game posits that the world is a fundamentally strange place if you only look closely enough, and it rewards a keen eye and a willingness to embrace the illogical.

The “characters” are the kooky objects themselves: the octopus wearing boots, the man attempting to chop wood with a hammer, the bicycle with square wheels. They have no dialogue, no backstory. Their entire existence is defined by their incongruity. This lack of explicit narrative is the game’s greatest strength and its most significant limitation. It creates a universal, language-agnostic appeal perfect for all ages, but it also offers no emotional hook or driving force beyond the intrinsic satisfaction of discovery. The theme is consistent and well-executed: this is a celebration of the weird, a gentle nudge to not take the world—or video games—so seriously.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

At its core, It’s Kooky is a classic point-and-click hidden object game, but with a brilliantly simple twist that reframes the entire experience. Instead of finding a list of specific items (e.g., “feather,” “candle,” “book”), the player’s goal is to identify anything and everything that is “kooky”—that is, out of place, illogical, or simply silly within its environment.

Core Loop: The gameplay loop is straightforward. A player enters a hand-drawn scene and clicks on every anomalous element they can find. Each correct click adds to a progress bar for that level. Finding a certain percentage of items across all completed levels unlocks the next stage. This progression system is forgiving for most of the game, though reviewers note that the final two levels require 100% completion of previous stages to unlock, a sudden shift in difficulty that can cause friction.

The Twist and Its Execution: The genius of this mechanic is that it trades the often-frustrating pixel hunt for specific nouns for a more open-ended, interpretive hunt for concepts. It engages the player’s brain differently, asking “What’s wrong with this picture?” rather than “Where is the thing labeled ‘spoon’?” This leads to delightful “aha!” moments, such as spotting a clock with counterclockwise numbers or a penguin sunbathing on a beach. However, this subjectivity can occasionally be a double-edged sword; what is “kooky” to the developer might not be immediately obvious to the player.

The Timer Controversy: The most debated mechanic is the introduction of a timer in the later half of the game’s levels. While the first several stages allow for relaxed, methodical exploration, later ones impose a time limit to find all kooky things. This design choice, intended to incrementally increase difficulty, was met with significant criticism from players. As noted in Steam community discussions and reviews, this forced timer runs counter to the relaxed, casual vibe the game otherwise cultivates. Many players expressed a desire for it to be an optional challenge rather than a mandatory gate.

UI & Accessibility: The user interface is minimal and functional. A hint system exists, activated by finding a hidden lightbulb within each level. These hints are stockpiled and can be used on any level, allowing players to bank help for tougher, timed stages. The game also features a highly praised “Invert” button, which switches the monochrome palette from black-on-white to white-on-black. This is a simple yet effective accessibility feature that reduces eye strain and makes the game more comfortable for a wider audience.

Length: A consistent point across all reviews is the game’s brevity. With only 13-14 levels (the count varies slightly by platform and version), the entire experience can be completed in roughly 45 minutes to two hours. This short runtime is its primary criticism, leaving players wanting more substantial content.

World-Building, Art & Sound

The world of It’s Kooky is not a continuous geography but a series of disparate, beautifully realized dioramas. The world-building is implicit in the art style itself—a universe that appears sketched into existence, where the rules of logic are optional and the absurd is king.

Visual Direction: The game’s most defining and celebrated feature is its hand-drawn, monochrome art style. Eschewing color entirely was a bold choice that pays dividends. It creates a clean, cohesive, and charming aesthetic that feels like paging through a talented artist’s sketchbook. The black-and-white palette eliminates visual noise, making the kooky elements—though also in black and white—stand out through context and action rather than color. It also, as reviewers noted, makes the game inherently more accessible to players with color blindness.

The animation breathes life into these static drawings. Characters pace back and forth, vehicles move along tracks, and creatures swim in place. This subtle motion makes each scene feel alive and dynamic, and it introduces an element of timing for some kooky objects that are on the move.

Sound Design: The audio landscape is minimalist. The soundtrack consists of a few “chill beats” and quirky tunes, sourced from free open-source libraries. It provides a light, upbeat, and unintrusive backdrop to the gameplay. While reviewers felt a more robust soundtrack could have enhanced the atmosphere, the simple music effectively complements the game’s relaxed and silly tone without ever becoming distracting. Sound effects are minimal, typically limited to a positive chime for a successful click.

Reception & Legacy

It’s Kooky was not a blockbuster hit, but it found a modest audience and generally positive, if measured, critical reception.

Critical Reception: Reviews consistently praised the game’s unique concept and charming art style. Sites like Higher Plain Games called it a “breezy and light game, wearing its personality out loud and proud,” while Just Another Game Review deemed it a “POSITIVE” experience, highlighting its “simple but very charming hand-drawn art style.” The common critique, beyond its short length, was the imposition of the timer. The game holds a “Mixed” rating on Steam, with the timer being the primary point of contention in user reviews. One critic from Gamers Heroes summarized the consensus well, scoring it a 60/100 and stating: “It’s Kooky’s object finding shenanigans are certainly silly, but it is far too simplistic for its own good.”

Commercial Reception & Lasting Impact: As a small-scale indie title, its commercial performance was likely modest. Its true legacy lies in its proof of concept. It demonstrated a novel way to iterate on the well-worn hidden object genre, replacing literal shopping lists with conceptual hunts. Its success, however minor, paved the way for a sequel, 100 Hidden Kooky: Sand & Sun, announced for 2024, suggesting there was enough interest to warrant further exploration of the idea.

While it won’t be remembered as a genre-redefining classic, It’s Kooky holds a place as a charming, experimental indie curio. It serves as a perfect example of a game designed for a specific mood and audience—a short, affordable, and family-friendly palette cleanser between larger, more intense experiences.

Conclusion

It’s Kooky is a fascinating study in contrasts. It is a game of brilliant simplicity and occasional frustrating design; of breathtaking charm and fleeting content. Its core mechanic—finding the absurd rather than the specific—is a stroke of genius that injects new life into the hidden object genre. The hand-drawn art style is not merely aesthetic but fundamental to the gameplay, creating a clean, accessible, and utterly delightful world to explore.

However, the decision to enforce timers in later levels undermines the relaxed, observational joy that defines its first half, and the entire experience is over far too soon, feeling more like a robust proof-of-concept than a full release.

Final Verdict: It’s Kooky is a flawed gem. It is an easy recommendation for parents looking for a game to play with young children, for puzzle fans seeking a half-hour of gentle, whimsical fun, or for game design students interested in seeing a classic genre twisted in a novel way. It is not a game for those seeking a lengthy, narrative-driven, or challenging experience. Ultimately, It’s Kooky earns its place in video game history not through grandeur, but through its unwavering commitment to a single, wonderfully kooky idea. It is a brief, beautiful, and bizarre sketch in the margins of gaming—and sometimes, that’s enough.