Sokobalien

I really loved the gameplay and graphics in this game, when I finished it, it was such a pleasant feeling of ‘great game had so much fun.’ BUT by the time I had 100% it, it took a lot of the joy away. So achievement hunters be warned see end for notes.
It’s a rare thing nowadays to get a really well priced game, good value for money, actually great graphics and theme along with a variety of gameplay and above all fun. There are 100 levels with no timers, stars, ltd moves – no cheap way of making a game harder. As it should be, the hardness and challenge is in the design of the puzzle itself and there are some lovely levels. Even when it’s a hard level, because of the animals and great sound effects it remained fun while head scratching.
Each animal has it’s own game mechanics in this sokoban game. Sheep jumped over an obstacle or gap, which was my favourite. Pig slide through mud, chicken slide to obstacle. In store page it’s marked as difficult believe me it’s not, if I can do it, it’s not difficult. But I would class this as between medium and hard compared with other sokoban games which usually are very easy. So I wouldn’t recommend this to beginners of sokoban or those that want easy games. There are a fair number of tutorial levels which are super easy so there are filler levels but the majority are ‘take a few minutes with each one type’ along with the odd stumper.
It has a clear written tutorial with each animal, choice of color of background. Movement I used arrows can use wasd but mouse doesn’t work. There is an area called hats, and with coins earned while playing you unlock different hats which you can use on your playable character.
There were two huge cons with me regarding gameplay (achievements I’ll get to later). There was an undo button but if you wanted to use it more than a couple of times the graphics were ‘juddering’ an unnecessary touch as an undo you just want to quickly get to the undo state as quickly as possible. The other one which because of the achievements is huge, is no level map. You have to scroll through levels so if want to replay a level with sheep in it or someone asking for help, looking for it and scrolling is a right pain. A level map along with a simple undo button are the most 2 basic things in a puzzle game.
ACHIEVEMENTS
I’m imploring the developer to remove the achievements you don’t get in the first playthrough. I have no idea why the ‘hats and play 100’ of each animal were put in. After a ‘use your brain’ game and are faced with grinding levels to gain enough money for achs it’s beyond annoying. I know a lot of people are used to these type of achs and turned to scripts/auto clickers which shows how pointless those achievements are in the first place.
It took me (not a script ) over 1hr 15 mins of grinding to get the remaining achievements. They all came together about the same time.
Coins you get per level correspond to what level you are on so level 100 gives you 100 coins, level 67 – 67 coins. So keep replaying the entire game would be the slowest way of doing it. While level 100 has 2 of everything (3 of pig), if you are doing it yourself then it’s boring repeating 1 level although if you’ve written down the solution it must be the quickest? To give you an idea the amount you need to do it’s over 90 times you’d have to do level 100. I went with the easiest levels so level 67 for 1 chicken, lvl 76 for 1 pig, lvl 26 -28 for sheep.
It's a really fun sokoban game especially if you aren’t into achievements.
N.B The developer kindly offered me a free copy of this game for curator review which I appreciated but I declined and bought it. I don’t accept free games for curator review.
See link for why
Ginger’s Games Curator page

july 2023 edit: level select, undo and windowed mode got improved, the game is now recommendable.
sokobalien is yet another drop in the sokoban ocean. it's about an alien trying to make a space farm by abducting all sorts animals. and it's an alien with excellent taste, not a single cat anywhere (except for the company logo on startup).
100 levels unlocked one by one, with the goal of pushing every animal to a corresponding tractor beam. no timer or move limit, not even a suggested par, just do what you have to however you can. coins are awarded for completion, they unlock hats for cosmetic purposes. level numbers only come up at the beginning and level selection used to be really tedious with only a left/right arrow instead of multiple levels to click per screen. now all of them are on one screen, much better.
more than one unlocked level or a level skip would be nice. the first 20 or so are beyond trivial even for me, then things get tricky. nothing new to offer until level 16, where buttons are introduced to reveal hidden blocks, but the first non-cow animal has to wait until later. animal intro animations play every time those levels are loaded but they're skippable now.
cows are just blocks to push, sheep can be tossed over pushable crates and gaps, chickens slide from wall to wall (there are no actual walls but you get the idea) and pigs slide over mud tiles, which are only accessible for the alien after a crate is pushed over them. dynamite destroys said crates and that's all the mechanics.
controls are keyboard-based and non-rebindable, controller also works, as does the mouse, but only in the menus and ui, can't control the character with it. wasd/arrows to move (can't be held to move more), 'u' is unlimited undo, 'r' is restart, esc for the menu. undo can't be held to take back multiple steps, but at least the annoying screen shake was removed. otherwise the graphics are fine if a bit basic.
settings are available from the main menu and during levels and consist of separate volume sliders for the okay music and not great sfx, a few languages and a resizable windowed mode, which used to be broken. took me less than 20 seconds to find the issue, why the fuck did the developer not test their game properly? it literally has 4 settings, plus you can change the background color while playing a level. progress is lazily stored in the registry.
nobody asked for more sokoban in years, yet they keep coming out of the woodwork (and space). this has a good amount of content (even if some of it is filler), basic functionality and a low price, and now that it's in a better shape (even if it took almost a year), it's recommendable. the developer is of the mindset that the next project is always more important than making sure the current one works properly, hence the long delay. maybe they'll rethink their approach (or do more testing) with their next game.

If only, the cost-benefit is valid!
But the game is fun! The theme and context is amusing. The characters are aesthetically pleasing, the music is as annoyingly fun as the cartoon musics are, and it is a Sokoban Puzzle with lots of stages and some interesting different resources.
A good game to test your solving skills with a pleasant aesthetics and an amusing context!

I don't like aliens, nor cows. But what I do like is puzzles. And pushing things around. And pretty games with nice soundtracks. This game has all of that in spades and is a great time killer.
The puzzles quickly become challenging. Highly addicting and highly recommended!

Very beautiful art. Well crafted levels. And I am very pleased with this as my first ever Sokoban-like game. New game elements are introduced clearly with tips. Very entertaining!

Great sokoban game! Nice graphics, puzzles and the different animals mechanics make the experience smooth!

Very good game with a lot of levels and very cute visual. The game has different mechanics for each animal - also different obstacles appears as you progress - making the gameplay dynamic and fun