Greta Sees Ghosts! – A Hand‑Drawn, Shape‑Shifting Ghost Story That Might Actually Hit Different

Why This Announcement Actually Matters

Greta Sees Ghosts! caught my eye because it taps into a sweet spot I’m a total sucker for: smart, tactile puzzles wrapped in a cozy-spooky vibe. You play as Greta, a lighthouse keeper helping confused spirits move on by solving intricate, shape-based puzzles in a hand-drawn world. It’s the debut from I Knew It! – Games, it’s aiming for Spring 2026, and there’s already a demo live on Steam. That’s a rare combo-clear tone, playable slice, and enough runway to iterate before launch.

• Demo available now on Steam; full release planned for Spring 2026.
• Shape-driven environmental puzzles tied to helping quirky ghosts move on.
• Charming hand-drawn aesthetic that lives or dies on puzzle clarity and UX.
• PC confirmed via Steam; console plans unannounced.

Breaking Down the Announcement

This isn’t just “another indie with ghosts.” The hook is how spirits and puzzles are intertwined: Greta’s job isn’t to exorcise but to empathize. Expect each ghost to have a specific hang-up, and a puzzle that literalizes that baggage-think reassembling keepsakes, aligning silhouettes, or rotating architectural shapes so memories click into place. If the design leans closer to Gorogoa’s visual logic or Amanita’s tactile cause-and-effect (Creaks, Machinarium) rather than fiddly jigsaw fragments, this could sing.

The lighthouse setting does a lot of heavy lifting. A lighthouse is both a beacon and a waypoint, so it naturally anchors a hub-and-spoke structure-new areas, new spirits, new puzzle rules. Done right, you learn a visual language chapter by chapter. Done wrong, you’re just dragging pieces until they stick. The demo existing now is the studio saying, “Please kick the tires.” Good. We will.

Why This Caught My Eye

Puzzle adventures live and die by the “aha!” curve. The best ones teach without tutorials, escalate rules cleanly, and respect your time. The hand-drawn look helps sell warmth and personality—somewhere between Spiritfarer’s gentle afterlife empathy and Carto’s cozy cleverness. If Greta’s ghosts are more than quest markers—if they’re written with humor, melancholy, and small-town weirdness—this could land in that cherished “feel-good but still brainy” category.

Also, shape-based puzzling can be incredibly satisfying on mouse or touch, but it’s easy to get clumsy on a controller. If I Knew It! nails input feel (snappy snapping, generous hitboxes, sensible rotation steps), the difference between “delightful” and “fiddly” will be night and day.

The Real Questions (And What I’ll Test in the Demo)

• Clarity of rules: Do puzzles surface their logic through visuals, or does progress rely on random tinkering?
• Hinting and onboarding: Are there gentle nudge systems and a way to regain momentum without spoiling solutions?
• Input and accessibility: Controller support, remapping, colorblind-safe palettes, readable fonts, and options to reduce visual noise.
• Pacing: Are ghost vignettes snappy, with minimal backtracking and busywork between “aha!” moments?
• Performance and portability: Smooth on mid-range PCs and, ideally, Steam Deck-friendly (UI scaling is critical for hand-drawn art).
• Save design: Quick saves or autosaves before complex multi-step puzzles so experimentation isn’t punished.

Industry Context: The Cozy-Spooky Puzzle Wave

We’ve been in a multi-year run of games that trade combat for contemplation—Spiritfarer’s tender goodbyes, TOEM’s gentle discoveries, A Little to the Left’s tactile neat-freak puzzles. Greta Sees Ghosts! is positioned right in that lane, but with a trickier design remit: visual shape logic is notoriously hard to tutorialize. The art can be charming; the music can be lovely; if players don’t understand the puzzle rules, it collapses. The upside? With a demo out this early, the team has time to iterate based on honest feedback rather than wishlists alone.

The debut angle matters too. First games often overreach or play it too safe. A tightly scoped lighthouse region with modular ghost tales could be the smart middle—variety in mechanics without feature bloat, intimate stories without sprawling filler.

What Gamers Need to Know Right Now

• There’s a playable demo on Steam today. If the shape puzzling clicks for you there, you’re the target audience.
• Full release is slated for Spring 2026 on PC. No console confirmations yet.
• No word on price or length; most puzzle adventures in this space land around 6-12 hours, with optional extras if the design supports it.
• Watch for dev posts about accessibility, controller feel, and whether the hint system exists (it should).

My Early Read

I’m cautiously optimistic. The premise is strong, the art direction looks inviting, and the “help spirits move on” framing usually leads to memorable micro-stories. But the success of Greta Sees Ghosts! will hinge on puzzle UX and pacing. If the demo already nails readable rules, generous inputs, and short, satisfying puzzles with emotional payoffs, this could be one of those 2026 indies that quietly dominates word of mouth.

TL;DR

Greta Sees Ghosts! is a hand-drawn, puzzle-first adventure about helping quirky spirits move on, with a Steam demo live and a Spring 2026 launch window. If the shape logic feels intuitive and the ghosts are written with heart, this could be a cozy standout. Try the demo; you’ll know within ten minutes whether its particular brand of “aha!” is for you.