Hello everybody! I'm very glad to announce that LOK is now officially completed and released!

LOK is a book of mind-bending word-search puzzles. The goal of each puzzle is to find Lok keywords and use their special effects to black out all cells in a grid. On top of that, you must also figure out most of the rules by yourself, deducing them from the carefully crafted sequence of more than 90 puzzles, contained in the main storyline, 2 expansions and many off-page enigmas. The result is a deep and rewarding experience with surprising twists and insights.

The puzzle book is available as a physical book (get it here) or as a free PDF (get it here). The official page, where you can find everything, is here.

The physical book is in limited edition. It is spiral-bound, numbered (1-100) and it includes a transparent sheet that can be placed over any page and drawn on with a dry erase marker. Solving puzzles on paper is the way that LOK is meant to be played.

It took me 7 months (January - July 2022) to make LOK and it was honestly one of the most enjoyable creative processes I've ever had. The specific feeling that appeared in my mind back in January more or less perfectly translated into the physical product that I now hold in my hands. Along the way, there were many kind and helpful people who playtested, offered insights and inspired, shaping LOK into the best it could be. They are already mentioned in the book, but I want to list them here as well: Nataša Vodopivec, Stephen Lavelle, Katelyn Delta, Raindrinker, Mark Willis, Patrick Traynor, Elyot Grant, D. Teuber, Wilhelm Su, Artur Kirkoryan, Igor Zuber, Andrej Pervanje, Jelena Rusjan and Miran Rusjan. During the development, I also discovered a great Discord channel called Thinky-Puzzle-Games with many like-minded folks that are probably all better at puzzles than I am, haha. I feel like I was surrounded by just the right bunch while creating. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

What now? Now that I have a product, I will try to place it in front of people as efficiently as possible. I have no illusions of making money with LOK, but I'd like for it to be seen, played and hopefully enjoyed by at least the most dedicated and gourmet puzzle enthusiasts in the world. I already see it in the purchases that came in overnight: only one fellow Slovenian bought the book so far, but surprisingly many foreigners from all over the globe. This feels like a good beginning. If anyone has any idea how to reach even more like-minded people, please let me know!

I'm treading lightly. LOK is extremely dear to me, more than any musical album, fiction book or board game I've made so far, and I don't want to screw up its introduction into the world. Sure, it could simply be another game out there, forgotten in about a day or two after release and that's OK - I've had my fill with it when creating it. But honestly? After so many one-and-done projects that I kind of abandoned after their release, I feel like I would gladly return to LOK and work on it again and again, growing it. I already think about making more expansions. I already think about making a sequel and how would it look. I talk with a fellow game developer Raindrinker about porting it into a video game. I sketch little LOK puzzles made out of random words or names while bored, seeing if I can solve them. It's a very comfortable and grateful system to create in :)

So, you're all welcome to take a look at the book if it is something that would interest you!

I wish you all a great day, Blaž