Hello from all of us at Max Inferno! 👋

We are proud to say we recently expanded our tiny team of three, to NINE people, and while that may still be considered small, it’s a BIG deal to us!

Max Inferno was sparked when we (Lukas and Annie) decided to quit their jobs and pursue making A Little to the Left[maxinferno.us17.list-manage.com] full time. It was scary and exciting, and a lot of hard work! It was also the best decision we ever made.

Lukas and Annie, Co-Founders Max Inferno Studio, 2021

A little later, Daniel Crane joined the team, coming on board as Technical Lead. Daniel is a wealth of knowledge and the kindest person you’ll ever meet, plus he has a very cute doggo named Salty.

Daniel’s dog: Salty!

This Fall, Justin Karas, Paul G. Hammond and Zack Delaney all joined, moving from freelance to full-time! They had been helping us from the start, so we are thrilled to continue working even more closely with these guys!

We also welcomed Isaac Young, Alex Smith and Thomas Eaton, and we can tell right away this is going to be great team to work with!  

We are excited to keep making fun games, and to better manage our work/life balance, thanks to the help of these talented people, and by moving to a four-day work week. We can't wait to show you what we got cooking, but for now we will send nine friendly waves from our various outdoorsy locations!

In order of appearance: Lukas Steinman (Co-founder, Programming Lead), Anne Macmillan (Co-founder, Creative Lead), Justin Karas (Senior artist and Sound Designer), Paul G. Hammond (Senior Artist), Daniel Crane (Technical Lead), Alex Smith (Senior Gameplay Programmer), Zack Delaney (Gameplay Programmer), Isaac Young (Senior Systems Programmer), Thomas Eaton (Programming Support).

Thanks all! We really appreciate your support and interest in our game-dev journey.

- Max Inferno team

Hey everyone,

We’re super excited to announce that A Little to the Left is partnering with the wonderful team at Witch Beam to create a Steam bundle with Unpacking!

You can now purchase a pair of beautifully cosy, mindful puzzle games that celebrate the joy of organisation and arrangement. Check out the bundle right here.

For anyone unaware, Unpacking is a puzzle game all about pulling possessions out of boxes into rooms and homes, all the while, telling a touching story about the life you’re arranging.

The bundle includes the base game for both A Little to the Left and Unpacking. If you are yet to jump into either game, we hope you enjoy discovering them via this bundle!

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/steamstore/bundle/58260/Unpacking__A_Little_to_the_Left/

Hi everyone, we had a small number of issues that popped up as part of some of our changes introduced in the Packed Update. Not too many fixes here, but a few critical ones, most notably around some Daily Tidy tweaks that produced confusing or unsolvable puzzles.

• Fixed errors that were preventing the Daily Tidy Plant puzzle from solving in some variations

• Eased difficulty of the Daily Tidy Calendar puzzle redesign by removing multiple cadences, and improving hint

• Fixed issue in Daily Tidy Books that saw puzzle start in order, causing puzzle to auto-solve and making it unable to be solved the alternate way

• Added an accessibility fallback to the Cat Pet rhythm segment of the Radial Dance Party that if after 1 minute the pet timing criteria has not been met, but more than 8 pets have been attempted, any subsequent pets will be considered successful

• Persist and load local backup save data in the case that cloud save operation corrupts save file

• Preventing excessive error logging from ZoomManager appearing in log files if save data cannot be loaded

• Slow music effect from Sharp Pencils cat swipe will no longer persist into next level in Shuffle mode, or if level was exited to Title via the Retry menu and gameplay was re-entered from there

• No longer possible for the Curved Zip Tie and Bit Case to be lost offscreen in the Archive Tool Drawer level

• Nail in upper left corner of screen in Parts Organizer puzzle will no longer shift position when level has transitioned in

• Removed additional criteria from Colour Assist version of Cupboards & Drawers DLC Coin Box level that required columns for Colour solution to be in a specific row order based on segments count. Columns can now be in any order, to align with logic found in the main game version

• Eased required alignment for bottom right Paint Can for Label solution in Paint Cans puzzle

• Fixed inconsistent title sizes on Level Selects for “Home Sweet Home” in Polish and “Good Tidyings” in Simplified Chinese

• Resolved superficial crash that could occur when quitting the game on Steam by using the “Quit” button on the Title Menu

As always, thanks so much for playing!

Hello everyone,

Almost three years since it first launched, our cozy puzzler A Little to the Left is wrapping up. Today’s Packed Update neatly brings active development on the game to an end, with one final gift to you, the fans, to thank you for your love and support over the years.

Here’s a breakdown of what to expect from this free update:

• Content:

  • 3 new drawer-themed Archive puzzles

  • Revised hints throughout the game that highlight solution criteria

• Daily Tidy:

  • Daily Tidy Streak UI to help visualize streak status

  • Ease DT streak requirements (checkpoints, bonus stars, missed day grace period)

  • Add incentives to continue DT play beyond all badges earned

    • New alt badges awarded at increased badge tiers

    • Badge Selector perk when exceeding 365 completions

  • Add 1 new DT puzzle (Books)

  • Minor gameplay revisions in some existing DT’s

  • Hints for Daily Tidy puzzles to help inform on mechanics

• Accessibility:

  • Colour Assist Mode (adjusts puzzles that rely on colours for their solutions)

  • Tutorials explaining role of stars and new streak UI

  • Ability to disable Quick Select (especially useful for those on Switch experiencing JoyCon drift)

  • Adding zoom/pan functionalities from mobile to all other platforms

  • Open menu with right-click (for one hand play)

  • Keyboard/mouse support for Xbox/PS

• Features:

  • Shuffle mode

  • Save data backups to restore corrupted save files

  • In-game link to newsletter signup on Steam

• Bug fixes

This little house was one of the main inspirations for our little game, and both have changed our lives in a big way. It’s a fitting coincidence that we are moving on from our lovely little home at the same time as we are releasing the final update to our dear debut game, A Little to the Left. 

We have cherished the feeling that we have connected with and welcomed so many players through our game. Thanks for playing, and for letting us know that you found something special in what we made. 

This isn’t really goodbye, as we still have lots of ideas for things to make, and lots of energy to make them. So wish us luck, stay in touch, and we hope to meet again in our future projects.

Annie, Lukas & Rookie the cat

Content

• 3 New FREE drawer-themed puzzles in the Archive:

  • Bathroom Drawer

  • Tool Drawer

  • Paper Plane Supplies

• New Daily Tidy puzzle: Books

• Microscope Daily Tidy game design updated to reduce from three rounds of shape matching, to a single round, but with the addition of decoy shapes added to the field

• Calendar Daily Tidy now has more variety of stickers offered and solution patterns

Features and Gameplay

• New “Shuffle” gameplay mode: Available from the Title screen after the main campaign is completed, “Shuffle Mode” will remix all available levels (campaign, Archive, and owned DLC’s) in a new surprising order, different every time!

• Added Streak UI to the Daily Tidy menu, along with easing of streak requirements:

  • Streak tracker that visually communicates current and longest streak counts

  • Added a grace period to streak criteria, accepting one day to be missed without resetting streak

  • Implemented checkpoints aligned with achievement thresholds (at 7, 14, and 30 days) that allow for broken streaks to pick up from last achieved threshold

  • Streak completion (30 days) now awards 10 bonus stars toward Daily Tidy total!

• Crossing a Daily Tidy badge threshold when all badges are already earned (100+ completions), will now award a choice to replace current badge at tier with a new randomly awarded badge

• Daily Tidy completion count of over a year (365+ completions) now grants access to the Badge Selector widget, allowing players to freely select any combination of badges to be able to craft their ideal set

• Daily Tidy puzzles are now supported by in-game Hints

• Added celebration effects to Daily Tidy menu for each year of play (multiple of 365 completions)

• Added a Tutorial to explain the role of stars. Will present on first multiple solution level completion, or can be accessed from question mark icon next to stars count on Level Select menus

• Loose objects will now detect and be automatically added into vacated placement of slots within range if occupying object has been removed. This helps resolve scenarios where level doesn't properly trigger solve, even through it appears objects are correctly positioned, as they had not been explicitly seated into position

• Updated hints throughout to highlight solution logic (Batteries, Books 1, Calendar, Cat Food Cans, Cat Frame, Cleaning Supplies, Clock, Clover, Computer, Drink Glasses, Eggs, Fridge Inside, Fridge Postcards, Junk Drawer, Medicine Cabinet, Plant Pots, Seed Pods, Shells, DLC1 Jewelry Box, DLC1 Junk Drawer X2, DLC2 Markers)

• To prevent save data corruption, save operation now writes data to a temporary file and moves it to save path on successful write instead of directly writing data to main save file

• Right mouse button now opens the Pause Menu during gameplay, to accommodate mouse-only play

• Unlock sequence on Level Selects can be skipped by pressing Start/ESC/Right mouse button

• Level Progress Reset confirm button now requires a long press, to minimize accidental reset of progress

• Hint Menu can now be navigated with swipe gestures

• Seeing Stars Boss Drawer can now be resumed across multiple play sessions (if not fully completed prior)

• Added a Max Inferno newsletter signup popup to the Daily Tidy menu

Accessibility

• Added Colour Assist mode, a toggleable setting found in the Settings menu, to help players with colour-perception difficulties navigate colour-based puzzles:

  • A modal will appear the first time encountering a puzzle with Colour Assist support (if the setting is not already active), that explains the feature and allows for the preference to be set

  • Several puzzles have been updated to provide alternate visuals that bypass colour criteria entirely, such as Books 3, Coloured Pencils, Tacks, Pencils 3, Matchboxes, Paint Cans, Spice Jars, Stacked Boxes, Storage Boxes, Rock Gradient, Desktop Computer, Tupperware Tower, Good Tidyings Cookies, Good Tidyings Stacked Presents, Something Eggstra Egg Cups, Something Eggstra Painted Eggs, Cupboards & Drawers Coin Box, Cupboards & Drawers Filing Cabinet, Seeing Stars Cupcakes, Seeing Stars Markers

  • Other puzzles have seen minor visual updates in the core experience to help with colour differentiation, such as the addition of shape or texture. Base levels that have been altered are Junk Drawer, Gems, Spiderweb (including Daily Tidy version), Cupboards & Drawers Craft Supplies, Cupboards & Drawers Fountain Pens, Seeing Stars Bookshelf, Seeing Stars Figurines

  • Buttons puzzle has been redesigned to provide a secondary visual characteristic to help avoid the need to perceive colour. The derived Sorting Items Daily Tidy puzzle has also been updated to solely focus on buttons objects and will no longer provide a random set of tinted objects to sort. Both versions of this puzzle now have a new second solution criteria to accommodate the accessibility changes

• Added Zoom function to be able to enlarge game play, to aide legibility of visual detail, as well as help ease interaction with small objects. Moving held objects to the edge of a zoomed view will push the visible frame in the desired direction. Clicking and dragging on an unoccupied part of the screen will pan the zoomed frame. Zoom is activated via the mouse wheel, controller shoulder buttons (L & R), or +/- keys on the keyboard

• Added diagram for touch controls to Settings menu

• Added “Quick Select” toggle to the Settings menu

• Added controller diagram for Steam Deck

• (Consoles only) Added Zoom enabled toggle to the Settings

• (PC only) Added VSync toggle to the Setting

Bugfixes

• Eraser visual in Hints menu will no become misaligned with cursor for some odd viewports/resolutions

• Drawer in the Gems Jigsaw level no longer reacts as if grabbable

• Cursor pointer behaviour is now consistent while modals are active

• Orange stem in Fruit Stickers level no longer appears behind orange

• Telescope Daily Tidy no longer renders an unplaceable Star in some rare permutations if placeable star spawns within two target placement areas on start

• Options will now deactivate in the Settings Menu if they are not supported by the active control method

• Level Select will no longer back out to Chapter 1 intro when closing if the Level Select had been exited to due to progression being halted by a level with a minimum star requirement that was not yet unlocked (such as the bonus levels of Seeing Stars DLC)

• Quick Select now works in Spiderweb level

• Sourced more adequate fallback fonts for Polish language special characters found in menus

• DLC2 Markers no longer solves with mismatched pairing and ordering criteria if Lid is placed last

• Hint Hunter achievement now increments with each hint revealed, instead of only counting one hint per level

• Stickers in the Calendar puzzle now support Quick Select and Cursor Assist

• Silent error no longer thrown when quitting the game while playing the Clock level

• Gems puzzle “Faces” solution now accepts reverse order

• Orange Breadtag in DLC1 Kitchen Utensils level will no longer become non-interactive if located at the lower edge of the green drawer while objects are quickly moved between drawers using touch controls

• Menu close “X” buttons now hide when a modal is active

• Added star icon beside completion percentages in Level Select to provide context

• Pencils will no longer pop out of placement position if another pencil is incorrectly placed

• Microscope Daily Tidy now avoids rendering two similar outer-ring shapes which could make match ambiguous

• Cursor will no longer remain in grabbed state when solving Microscope level by use of scroll-wheel zoom feature when Tap to Hold is active

• Microscope level mouse-scroll zoom reversed (up = in, down = out)

• Microscope level inside lens push scroll areas width reduced to avoid accidental push when moving cursor to top or bottom edge of zoom ring

• Trim Plant Daily Tidy level now generates with much more consistent distribution across the plant

• Incorrectly plucked leaves can no longer respawn behind static leaves in the Trim Plant Daily Tidy level

• Resolved issue that could prevent objects that passively enter a placement location via physics to snap

• Interactive stickers in the Calendar puzzle (and Daily Tidy version) now have a thin shadow to indicate that they are interactable, to be visually differentiated from immovable guide stickers

• Smaller stickers will appear above larger stickers in the Calendar puzzle (and Daily Tidy version), with guide stickers always appearing behind interactive ones

• Removed the spider from the Spiderweb level icon, to limit exposure (spider still appears on solve of puzzle)

• Placing Green Match in Purple Box now produces fully Blue Match

• Updated Mushrooms to Cauliflower in Seeing Stars Leftovers level, as Mushrooms are not a vegetable and could confusing as how to be classified

• Corrected error in hint for Seeing Stars Stacked Books spine solution

• Updated Pump Bottle visual to remove red cross symbol in Seeing Stars First Aid Kit puzzle

• Updated Books 2 colour hint to match drawn style of other hints

• Updated Good Tidyings Stacked Presents hint to feature ribbon colour

• Trim Plant Daily Tidy will no longer render severely overlapping leaves

• Sumo Group and Sumo Digital removed from game credits as affiliation is no longer

• Blocks placed in the edge columns of TupperwareTower will no longer snap back into tower if removed by perfectly horizontal drag action

• Background objects no longer appear in front of the tower in TupperwareTower

• TupperwareTower blocks will no longer be able to be left with tilt if tapped while tower is shaking

• No longer able to interact with loose blocks that were placed above a completed line in the moment between ascension transition and auto-falling blocks in TupperwareTower

• Cat no longer appears in front of held loose blocks in the TupperwareTower

• Added a fallback for rare occurrence where a level was solved without unlocking the next on the Level Select. Game will now auto-unlock next level on Level Select if previous level has completion data

• Cats ornaments in Cupboards & Drawers Nested Boxes level will no longer become non-interactive if experience collisions that push from the inside to the outside of the cabinet

• Slowed down music effect from Record Player level will no longer persist into the Pause Menu if Sharp Pencils level was completed, then another level was selected via Level Select in the Retry Menu

• Level gameplay music will no longer persist over top the moody piano finale of the Wilted Flowers level if completed quickly

• Objects loose inside drawers in the Seeing Stars Material Drawers puzzle will no longer be pushed to the front edge of drawer when drawer is shut

• Stacked combs in the Seeing Stars Combs drawer solution will no longer experience inconsistent visual sort order when other objects become placed

• Transforming combs in the Seeing Stars Combs level can no longer get into reversed logic state where the drawer solution will only solve if they are open

• Stacked objects in the Inside Fridge level can no longer become disconnected if an object lower in the stack is moved while a stacked object is snapping

• Tap to Hold functionality will now auto-release tappable objects in the Radial Dance Party

• Ladybugs in the Radial Dance Party can no longer have their rotation skewed with rapid clicks

• No longer possible for a trophy in the Cupboards & Drawers Trophy Cabinet to land on the shelf of a cupboard that was closed while the trophy was falling

• Spice Jars Daily Tidy will no longer generate jars with start order matching a completion order

• Objects in the Buttons and Sorting Items Daily Tidy will no longer exhibit false negatives if had been pushed into a compartment from a separator

• Completing the Wet Paw Prints level with Tap To Hold active will now auto-release the held cloth

• Wet Paw Prints level will no longer transition to a blank screen on completion of last phase

• Cupboards & Drawers Junk Drawer puzzle will no longer allow solve by stacking stamps

• Earplugs in the Cupboards & Drawers Junk Drawer puzzle now enforces earplugs to be placed in alternating orientation as indicated by the notches in their compartment

• Items in the top and bottom drawers of the Cupboards & Drawers Sewing Box puzzle will no longer be moved to the top of the box and become non-interactive after level reset

• Fixed game wide issue where objects placed in front of an occupied placement position and the previously occupying object was removed from behind, the object could appear to be in placement position, but not registered as such

• Black Tack in the Tacks level will no longer become stuck if moved quickly between the middle targets

• Stars in the Telescope Daily Tidy will no longer start in a placement position

• Telescope Daily Tidy will no longer repeat the same constellation

• Telescope Daily Tidy icon updated to be able to appear on white part of the Daily Tidy icon effect

• Effective cleaning area of cloth in the Wilted Flowers level now scales will resolution

• Middle stem in the Trim Plant Daily Tidy will now render symmetrical static leaves, to avoid confusion

• Improved fit in the Batteries Daily Tidy

• Fixed sort inconsistencies in the Cupboards & Drawers Pantry level, where items in the narrow lower shelves could appear in front of objects on the floor

• No longer able to grab Tea Cups from behind a Jar in the mid-right compartment in the Cupboards & Drawers Tea Cabinet level

• Flame type will no longer mismatch burn direction in Candles puzzle

• Upward and downward slopes no longer count as separate solutions in the Candles puzzle

• Eased slope solution tolerance in Candles puzzle

• Icons in the Desktop Computer level will no longer shift on load

• Light effect in the Lamp level will pause animation if Wiggle Effect setting is turned off

• Added a little more interest to the collisions from cat swipe at the end of the Pasta level

• Objects will re-snap and straighten if picked up and dropped without being moved from position

• Reduced controller vibration intensity and duration across the board

• Improved stability of the Post-it Notes layout in the Desktop Computer level

• Controls “View” in the Settings will now detect and show diagram for active controller style for common controller types, instead of displaying a generic controller

• Overlap detection of symmetry objects in the Shells, Seed Pods, Clover, and Symmetry Daily Tidy is now more reliable and will indicate invalid overlap state when snapping

• Stamps in the Stamps puzzle (and Daily Tidy) will no longer experience placement false negatives if other Stamps are placed upon an Envelope that’s overlapping

• Paint Tubes will no longer wander when placed above or below an open drawer in the Cupboards & Drawers Craft Supplies level

• Clocks will no longer collide and tilt awkwardly on vertical separators in compartments of the Cupboards & Drawers Clock Cupboard

• Constellation connecting lines in the Telescope now abide by the Wiggle Effect setting

• Wipes in the Seeing Stars First Aid Kit now exhibit collisions with other objects

• Increased the minimum number of envelopes generated in the Stamps Daily Tidy

• All chapter titles in the Archive now appear consistent size and style in Polish language

• Fixed an issue where drawers wouldn’t swap on handle hover if an object was picked up from behind the handle

• Smoke of the extinguished match in the Candles level will always go upwards

• Stacked objects no longer exhibit erratic stack positioning when being picked up or snapping

• Stack base objects can no longer be rotated when stacked

• Creams in the Medicine Cabinet will no longer float above shelf if entering target from a distance

• Removed an invisible grab point at the base of the Medicine Cabinet

• BBQ lighter will no longer jitter if placed on the drawer edges in the Cupboards & Drawers Junk Drawer level

• Cupboards & Drawers Cat Interludes now support Quick Select

• Reestablished adjacent placement requirement in Breadtags Daily Tidy to match design of base level

• Fixed erratic cursor behaviour when pushing scroll left or right in Level Selects

• Circles in the Radial Dance Party “Cat Pet” sequence no longer appears ovals on extra wide screens

• Music will no longer cut out with rapid sound effect triggering

• Volume of musical flourish at the end of the Wilted Flowers level now abides by music preference

• Interactive areas of objects in the Symmetry Daily Tidy now match between object and its partner

• Fixed silent error that could occur if Vines level is reset as the cat paw is swiping

• Corrected sorting issues in the Paw Prints level

• Rug in Paw Prints level now supports Cursor Assist

• Added shadows to objects in the Paw Prints level

• Title and Pause menus now support left/right DPad to iterate vertical list

• Drag SFX will no longer persist in the Microscope level if the scroll field is dragged then the zoom control is quickly interacted with

• Fixed placement position of top shard for the shell fossil in Cupboards & Drawers Fossils level

• Updated icons in the Retry Menu for 4k

• Seeing Stars Bookshelf level will now clean up books that are visually out of place on solve

• Eggs in the Something Eggstra Egg Hunt level now appear in front of the carton when held, and will no longer exhibit visual clipping if Carton is moved over a loose Egg

• Stackable objects in the Medicine Cabinet and Cupboards & Drawers Tea Cabinet now drop at a more consistent rate

• Snap SFX now sounds for all snapping placements

• No longer possible to see a flash of the Daily Tidy star behind icon as the letter is opening

• Improved load for Cupboards & Drawers Sewing Box level

• Improved performance when dropping objects in a cluttered drawer

• Seeing Stars Whistles level will no longer solve and attribute to the wrong solution

• Removed visual artifact that could be seen in Reflected Candle in the Mirror level

• Removed visual artifact that was left by the cat swipe in the Trim Plant Vines level

• Last interacted toy will no longer fall through floor upon completion of Seeing Stars Cat Eyes level

• Improved rendering of DLC title screen theme elements at resolutions other than 1920x1080

• Removed visual artifacts that could be seen extending from the corners of the shelf in the Seeing Stars Bookshelf level during transitions

• Fixed Quick Selection position for the Pea Pods in the Cupboards & Drawers Lunch Tray level

• Quick Select will no longer select Trays or Boxes beneath other nested Trays or Boxes in the Cupboards & Drawers Lunch Tray and Nesting Boxes levels

• SteamDeck: Corrected the glyphs for the shoulder buttons on the SteamDeck controller diagram

• SteamDeck: Improved performance of Clock level

• SteamDeck: Missing images in the Credits now appear properly when game is set to Turkish language

Hey everybody,

We’ve seen that you have been asking about what to expect from A Little to the Left this Summer, and we’re pleased to finally tell you about the free Packed Update, coming June 26th! 

We’re introducing new levels, modes and improvements, all neatly packaged into our final major update. It launches later this week on PC, Mac, Switch, Xbox and PlayStation, and mobile versions will also receive the free update very soon.

Key Features:

• 3 new drawer levels.

• 1 new Daily Tidy.

• Daily Tidy streak tracker.

• Daily Tidy hints.

• Colour Assist Mode.

• Shuffle mode.

• Zooming and panning.

• Improved Performance.

• New badge selector.

• Our last big update. 

This will indeed be the final update for A Little to the Left, as we move onto new gaming adventures. We will share more thoughts in a post on June 26th, but for now, we want to thank the wonderful ALttL community for your support over the past three years. We hope you enjoy this final package of features and fun.

Thank you for playing!

Annie, Lukas & Rookie the cat

• auspiciously crumpled toothpaste tube
  
• off-season glow-in-the-dark vampire teeth
  
• perfectly normal flat head screwdriver
  
• seemingly misplaced ice cream cone