Photographs - Puzzle Storiesios
I think you should play Photographs. I tried to make it a little bit different from most games. It sort of mixes puzzle and narrative in a ( hopefully ) interesting way. You might get stuck on some puzzles, but you should never not know what you need to do to proceed. So what do you actually do? Well, you search around and solve puzzles, and as you do so you'll be developing a scene in front of you and hearing a story. I want to the story to really stand out, so the game has got really beautiful pixel art and top notch music, combined with gameplay and narrative beats that individually would do a pretty good job of telling that story, but come together to really make something special. It's a pretty short game too. I would say about three hours. There are loads of games these days and who has time to play them all? I've tried to keep things as condensed as possible rather than add filler, to be as respectful for your time as I can be. Each story is in a different setting and has completely different gameplay mechanics. It ended up being a LOT of work, but It's kind of necessary: The gameplay itself has a hand in telling the story, so what works for one tale wouldn't work for another. I don't think there's anything else like it out there, so if nothing else, It should give you a unique experience. So yeah. That's my pitch, If that sounds interesting to you, give it a shot!

Screenshots

Store gallery · 12

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Iceland · paid
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Australia · paid
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South Korea · paid
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North Macedonia · paid
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Macau · paid
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Store presence

As of Jul 4, 2026stale (74d)
Rating 4.15
Ratings 65
Price $3.99
Version
Updated
Released Apr 3, 2019

Rank grid

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Version history

Versions observed at capture, newest first
v1.1.1346Oct 15, 2019
- Added Hints and Skips - Bug fixes: Fixed lots of them

Update impact

Dated releases · rank and review signals, 14 days before → after

Review sentiment over time

Positive, neutral, and negative share by month, week, or version

Player reviews

Recent store reviews · rule-based labels
Sampled 16
Positive 11 (69%)
Negative 3 (19%)
Mentions pricing 3 (19%)
57 (44%)
44 (25%)
32 (13%)
22 (13%)
11 (6%)
★★★★★positiveMisterYES · 2022-05-02 · v1.1.1346
🤝👌🏻👏🏻
Although I’m much more a fan of match-3 battling RPG’s like #ymbab rather than somewhat level repetitive hit n miss/trial and error puzzling type games...this one is just nothing less than spectacularly good! Occasionally new levels/stories would be appreciated though.
★★★★★neutralLibzwrry · 2021-09-04 · v1.1.1346
Depressing stories
I wish I had read the reviews that these stories are so depressing and macabre! I regret buying these. It looked so whimsical but it’s sooo depressing and the other puzzles aren’t interesting or fun.
★★★★positiveSirappsalot22 · 2020-09-07 · v1.1.1346
Great story but you must love puzzles
I really like this developers previous apps so I gave this one a try. The story, sound effects and originality are all great. I think this was a successful attempt to go outside their comfort zone and try something different. That being said, the puzzles were too frustrating. Some made sense and were more or less simple. But others required too much time to figure out the weird puzzle mechanics being introduced. I could have handled it better if I could willingly skip puzzles whenever I wanted but instead the app forces you to try some arbitrary number of times. I spent too long purposefully trying to fail the puzzle so that I could skip and see the story. Eventually I just stopped playing cause it was frustrating.
★★★★★positivelilpink · 2019-07-22 · v1.0.1338
A masterpiece
This game is truly a masterpiece for mobile gaming. The stories draw you in, getting you emotionally involved, while the puzzles challenge you and help to unfold the story line. I had to look up one puzzle to help me solve it, it can be difficult at times. But it’s an offline game so is great to take on a long plane ride, and the commentary feature is incredible. Coming from a game development background, it’s so cool to hear how the developer chose to do certain things to advance the story or craft puzzles. Highly recommend playing the second time around with commentary on. Great work all around, 5 stars. Warning: can be dark at times.
★★★★★positiveMvnuop · 2019-07-22 · v1.0.1338
Great, Unique game
The puzzles are good but the story telling is what makes this a great game. No complaints.
★★★★★negativeMentions pricingSplatoontang · 2019-07-18 · v1.0.1338
👎 should only be 99¢ 👎
Very easy puzzles. If you are good at puzzles you will cruise through this game. I only got stuck for a few minutes twice. The stories were depressing but predictable which takes away from the experience. Still it is a unique game and i liked the graphics. If they make a second one i might play it but not for $3.99. This game should be no more than 99¢.
★★★★negativeCris Luengo · 2019-05-25 · v1.0.1331
Uninteresting
I liked the artwork. This is the best I can say about the game. After reading all those good reviews I was expecting something that didn’t involve simplistic, childish stories with no depth or character development to them. And those stories are totally orthogonal to the puzzles, which are uninteresting and, except one, not at all challenging.
★★★★★neutralMentions pricingIt is me forever · 2019-05-24 · v1.0.1331
Really wanted to love this but....
Ok so I read the reviews about the stories being depressing and thought well what do those people know?!? And the stories are beyond depressing...they’re macabre with blood and awful outcomes. Would have loved to play and would be 5 stars if the stories weren’t so dark. Loved the concept and pixel photos but believe the creator could have provided a better experience with stories that were not so dark. Ultimately not a winner and not worth the money.
★★★★★positiveTheharleyquin · 2019-05-07 · v1.0.1331
Simple games with short, deep story
The 5 vignettes tell deep stories for the very simple mechanics (mini)game mechanics. A game about second chances with redeemable characters.
★★★★positiveJamcat1190 · 2019-04-27 · v1.0.1331
Great game, but no help if you’re stuck
I absolutely loved this game. Very original and unique, great graphics and stories. It’s the kind of game you don’t want to put down. But unfortunately, I had to stop playing when I got to the last story. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t get past the odd puzzles. Kind of like a match 3 game combined with Rock Paper Scissors, and as much as I like puzzle games, this part made no sense to me. If there had been any sort of hint or help functionality, I would have given 5 stars for sure.
★★★★★positivedoug funnie · 2019-04-20 · v1.0.1331
A really nice departure
This was a really unexpected departure from the developer of 10000000 and YMBaB. I played those years ago and they were iOS perfection. I've fallen off playing games since the App Store is no longer like its golden days for original games, but this reminded me of that era while being a unique and fun experience.
★★★★★positiveG u i s e · 2019-04-19 · v1.0.1331
Brilliant
narrative puzzle game.
★★★★positiveHsphdohdositayioyshos · 2019-04-14 · v1.0.1328
Great but annoying bug
This is fantastic! Unfortunately, there is currently a bug that re-sets my progress to the beginning of The Preventer every time I close my app or change profiles. Please fix!
★★★★★negativewehgt · 2019-04-11 · v1.0.1328
Just OK
The puzzles are different enough to keep you interested, but I wouldn’t call it a “fun” game. I played it for a half day and deleted it because it quickly became more of a chore than anything else. Plus it’s rather sad, not great for someone with anxiety/depression.
★★★★positiveRiyya · 2019-04-11 · v1.0.1328
Interesting but flawed
This is an interesting if incredibly depressing game in many ways. I do wish there were a way to replay the ending and see the other possible choices, since I disliked some of the puzzles in the last section immensely and don’t really want to replay them. I do not recommend this if you can’t handle really really depressing storylines, however.
★★★★★positiveMentions pricingdeltafourzero · 2019-04-08 · v1.0.1328
Worth every dollar
This game is pure quality. I wish the the App Store would have more games like Photographs. If you like adventure and puzzles, give this a try.