Koral is a pretty simple and short puzzle game. Its strength is how it weaves together its underwater setting with a nice silhouette art style and an ecological message. But the other half of the game’s story is how it was developed. Basically one guy, Carlos Coronado, did at least most of the design work while on a boat trip in Catalonia, Spain with some mates. Released alongside the game is a twenty-minute amateur documentary showing them hanging out and getting inspiration for the game.

It’s really interesting seeing the moments that translate directly into themes in the game. For example, Carlos asks a water taxi operator in Port Lligat about the buoy anchoring system, learns how the old concrete blocks were damaging the local posidonia grass, then draws the new buoy system in his notebook, then takes photos of his hand-drawn art and converts it into game assets. This buoy history then plays out in the background of one level.

I do wish that the gameplay had been better integrated with these stories. There’s plenty of cool ocean life to see, stark environments with lovely coloured highlights, and environmental messages sprinkled in, but the puzzle tasks are sort of doing their own thing that doesn’t seem to relate directly to the locations. Imagine a much simplified and 2D version of Flower: you play as an abstract water current, which can interact with plants. You collect glowing wibblies, and use them to influence and induce growth so you can advance. In the process you’re ostensibly clearing pollution and restoring life to marine zones denuded by human activity.

The simplicity of the gameplay is a strength in itself for accessibility reasons: the whole game is played with just one joystick’s inputs. So even though the puzzle sequences do get more complex, it’s very casual-friendly. The puzzles do a bit of satisfying iteration with some new mechanics, then just like that it’s over.