Mr. Figs from Joe Reynolds combines Bomberman’s explosive chaos with puzzle-solving precision in a top-down adventure featuring a squid-like protagonist on a mission to destroy the lab that created him. After four years of solo development, the demo is live on Steam, offering 30 levels of challenging action-puzzle gameplay that will test your timing, strategy, and patience as everything kills you in one hit.
- Why a 34-Year-Old Developer Spent 4 Years Making This
- One Hit Kills and 60+ Levels of Pain
- Bomberman Meets Puzzle Design
- The Cute Squid Guy Who Narrates Everything
- The Living Demo Philosophy
- No Release Date But Development Continues
- What Makes This Stand Out
- Who Should Try the Demo
- FAQs About Mr. Figs
- Conclusion
Why a 34-Year-Old Developer Spent 4 Years Making This
Joe Reynolds describes Mr. Figs as the game he would have been obsessed with as a child. Now 34, he poured four years of solo development into creating a love letter to the classics that defined his gaming childhood: Bomberman, Super Meat Boy, The Binding of Isaac, and the puzzle-solving elements that made games like Braid so memorable. This is not a nostalgia cash-grab from a major studio. This is one person building the game they wanted to play, working under the publishing banner TheGoodGameFactory.
The core concept is simple but compelling. You play as Mr. Figs, an adorable squid-like humanoid created through tragic experimentation. Armed with nothing but explosives and maybe a few tentacles, you navigate treacherous dungeons, ethereal caverns, and scorching lava pits. Your ultimate goal is dismantling the very laboratory that brought you into existence. The story provides just enough motivation without getting in the way of the gameplay.
Reynolds specifically wanted to recapture the feeling of playing Mega Bomberman on the Sega Genesis, particularly the campaign mode rather than competitive multiplayer. That single-player story-driven experience from classic Bomberman games gets combined with modern difficulty design borrowed from Super Meat Boy and the exploration elements of The Binding of Isaac. The result is something that feels familiar yet distinct.
One Hit Kills and 60+ Levels of Pain
Mr. Figs embraces old-school difficulty through its one-shot death system. Everything kills you instantly. Touch an enemy, walk into fire, trigger a trap wrong, or get caught in your own bomb blast and you restart the level. This sounds brutal, but Reynolds designed levels to be short enough that death never feels like you lost 20 minutes of progress. Each stage presents a discrete challenge that you can retry immediately after failure.
The full game plans to include over 60 basic levels spread across four distinct areas. The demo released in July 2025 contains the entire first area with 30 levels, giving players a substantial preview of what to expect. Beyond the basic stages, the game includes secret challenge rooms and boss battles that require mastering all the mechanics learned throughout regular levels.
Secret levels hide behind missing bricks in walls. If you notice a gap where a brick should be, walking into that section reveals hidden areas usually containing useful items or additional challenges. This exploration layer rewards observation and curiosity, encouraging players to examine each level carefully rather than just rushing to the exit.
Bomberman Meets Puzzle Design
The Bomberman influence is obvious but not slavish. You carry bombs that you can place and detonate to destroy obstacles, enemies, and environmental hazards. However, Mr. Figs layers puzzle-solving onto this foundation in ways that classic Bomberman rarely attempted. Levels become spatial puzzles where you must figure out the correct sequence of explosions to clear a path forward.
Interactable hazards and traps fill each stage, creating environmental challenges beyond just enemies. Pressure plates, moving platforms, destructible walls, and various mechanisms require timing and positioning to navigate safely. The combination of self-placed bombs and environmental dangers means you are often engineering your own escape route while simultaneously creating your own obstacles.
The difficulty curve takes a sharp upward turn as you descend deeper into the game. Early levels teach basic mechanics in relatively forgiving contexts. Later stages assume mastery and punish hesitation or imprecise execution. Everything you learn in previous levels carries forward, and you slowly begin recognizing patterns almost instinctively. That said, impatience still gets you killed constantly no matter how skilled you become.
The Cute Squid Guy Who Narrates Everything
Mr. Figs himself serves as more than just a player avatar. The character narrates as you progress, providing personality and context to the journey. This commentary adds charm without becoming intrusive or repetitive. The squid-like design gives the protagonist a distinct visual identity that stands out in screenshots and trailers, making the game instantly recognizable.
The aesthetic leans into an ethereal, slightly unsettling atmosphere that contrasts with the adorable protagonist. You explore ruins and remnants of the experimentation that created you, uncovering secrets about your mysterious creator and the inventions left behind. The environmental storytelling through level design complements the direct narration from Mr. Figs, creating a cohesive world that feels intentional rather than just a series of disconnected challenge rooms.
Boss battles punctuate each area, providing climactic tests of everything learned up to that point. These encounters presumably require pattern recognition, precise timing, and creative use of bombs in ways that regular levels do not demand. The demo includes at least one boss fight that gives a taste of how these showdowns differ from standard level progression.
The Living Demo Philosophy
Reynolds describes the Steam demo as a living demo, meaning it receives regular updates, remains subject to changes, and evolves based on user feedback. This approach treats the demo as an ongoing conversation with potential players rather than a static marketing sample. Bugs get fixed, balance gets adjusted, and features get refined based on what early players experience and report.
The demo supports both Windows and Linux, making it accessible to a broader PC audience. Reynolds actively encourages feedback through multiple channels including itch.io comments, a dedicated Discord server with a demo feedback channel, and a GitHub page for direct bug reporting. This transparency and accessibility characterizes the solo indie developer ethos where community input genuinely shapes development.
For players who get truly stuck due to bugs, Reynolds included an F9 debug key that advances you to the next level. However, he emphasizes this should only be used when genuinely blocked by technical problems, not as a skip button for difficult content. The game is designed to be experienced in order, with each level teaching skills needed for subsequent challenges.
No Release Date But Development Continues
The full version of Mr. Figs does not have an announced release date. Reynolds mentioned the game might need another 1-2 years of development before it is ready for final launch. This honest timeline reflects the reality of solo game development where feature completion, polish, bug fixing, and content creation all fall on one person without the resource acceleration that teams provide.
The good news is the demo shows a game that is already playable, enjoyable, and mechanically solid. The core loop works, the difficulty feels challenging but fair, and the visual identity is established. The remaining development time likely focuses on completing the final three areas, adding remaining bosses, implementing additional secret content, and polishing rough edges based on player feedback.
Reynolds actively posts development logs tracking progress toward the Steam release. These updates provide transparency about what is being worked on, what challenges have emerged, and how feedback from demo players influences design decisions. This regular communication keeps interested players engaged during the long development cycle and builds anticipation for the eventual full launch.
What Makes This Stand Out
The indie game space overflows with retro-inspired action games and Bomberman-likes. Mr. Figs differentiates itself through its specific combination of influences and its commitment to challenging but fair difficulty. The one-shot death system borrowed from Super Meat Boy creates tension, while the exploration and secret-finding from The Binding of Isaac adds replayability. The Bomberman foundation provides familiar mechanics that most gamers understand intuitively.
The solo development angle also generates goodwill. Players appreciate supporting individual creators pursuing passion projects, especially when those creators engage directly with their community and show genuine care about player experience. Reynolds is not hiding behind corporate PR. He is personally responding to feedback, fixing bugs, and shaping the game based on what people actually want.
The length and scope are also appropriate for the development reality. 60+ levels across four areas with bosses and secrets represents an achievable goal for a solo developer while still providing substantial content for players. This is not an overly ambitious project promising hundreds of hours of procedurally generated content that will never ship. This is a focused, intentional game with clear boundaries and realistic scope.
Who Should Try the Demo
If you grew up loving Bomberman and miss games built around that formula, Mr. Figs is explicitly designed for you. If Super Meat Boy’s tough-but-fair instant-death challenge appeals to you, this applies similar philosophy in a top-down context. If you enjoyed The Binding of Isaac’s exploration and secret-hunting but wanted more deliberate puzzle-solving, Mr. Figs might hit that sweet spot.
Conversely, if you prefer games with forgiving difficulty that let you brute-force through challenges, the one-shot death system will frustrate you. If you need complex narratives with deep storytelling, the light environmental narrative might feel insufficient. If you want long campaign experiences that last 30+ hours, the planned scope will seem too small. Different games for different audiences, and Mr. Figs knows exactly who it is for.
FAQs About Mr. Figs
When will the full version of Mr. Figs be released?
There is no official release date yet. Developer Joe Reynolds mentioned the game might need another 1-2 years of development before the full launch. The demo is currently available on Steam and itch.io with regular updates.
How long is the Mr. Figs demo?
The demo contains 30 levels from the first of four planned areas in the full game. Depending on skill level and whether you hunt for secrets, the demo provides several hours of gameplay. The full game will have over 60 basic levels plus challenge rooms and bosses.
What platforms will Mr. Figs be available on?
Mr. Figs is confirmed for Windows and Linux on PC. The demo is available on Steam and itch.io for both platforms. Console versions have not been announced.
Is Mr. Figs really made by just one person?
Yes, Joe Reynolds has been developing Mr. Figs solo for the past four years. He handles programming, design, art, and all other aspects of development. The game is published under the banner TheGoodGameFactory.
Does Mr. Figs have multiplayer?
No, Mr. Figs is designed as a single-player experience. While inspired by Bomberman, it focuses on the story-driven campaign style rather than the competitive multiplayer that series is known for.
How difficult is Mr. Figs?
Mr. Figs features one-shot death mechanics where anything kills you instantly, similar to Super Meat Boy. However, levels are short so death never means losing significant progress. The difficulty takes a sharp upward curve as you progress deeper into the game.
Can I provide feedback on the demo?
Yes, developer Joe Reynolds actively encourages feedback through multiple channels including the game’s itch.io page, a dedicated Discord server with a demo feedback channel, and a GitHub repository for bug reports. The demo is described as a living demo that evolves based on player input.
Are there secrets to find in Mr. Figs?
Yes, levels contain hidden areas accessible through missing bricks in walls. Walking into these gaps reveals secret sections usually containing useful items or additional challenges. The game rewards exploration and observation.
Conclusion
Mr. Figs represents the best of solo indie development: a focused vision executed with care, community engagement that shapes ongoing improvements, and honest communication about development realities. Joe Reynolds spent four years building the game he wished existed, drawing from classics that defined his childhood while adding modern difficulty design and puzzle elements that create something fresh. The free demo on Steam provides more than enough content to determine if the challenging one-shot death gameplay appeals to you, and the living demo philosophy means your feedback can genuinely influence the final product. For players who miss Bomberman campaign modes, appreciate Super Meat Boy difficulty, and want to support passionate solo developers, Mr. Figs deserves your attention. Just remember that the adorable squid protagonist carries enough explosives to kill himself instantly if you are not careful, which seems thematically appropriate for a character trying to destroy his own birthplace. Download the demo, prepare to die repeatedly, and discover whether you have the patience and skill to help Mr. Figs complete his explosive journey home.