Some indie games are secretly tablet games

I nearly gave Paper Engine Nine a much lower score before I tried it on a tablet. The game didn't change. The experience did, completely.

On a phone, dragging tiny folded-card pieces was a fight against my own thumbs. Solutions I'd worked out got ruined by a mistap. On a bigger screen the frustration just vanished and the puzzle underneath finally showed itself.

This is a growing problem. Developers design on desktops and tablets, then ship to phones where everything is smaller than they tested. The game is fine, the fit isn't.

So now I note screen recommendations in reviews when it matters. If a game leans on precise touch, I'll say to play it big. It's not a flaw exactly, more a mismatch worth knowing about.

If a puzzle game feels unfairly clumsy, before you rage-quit, try it on the biggest screen you own. You might be judging the phone, not the game.