Game: DESOLUS
Developer: Mark J. Mayers
Publisher: The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild
Genre: First-Person Puzzle
Released: October 15, 2026
Price: $19.99
Platform: PC (Steam, Xbox), PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch 2
🕳️ How we reviewed it: on PC, via Steam. DESOLUS launched on October 15, so we’ve also noted what its first players are saying, including fans who’ve followed it since its festival demos.
1Solo Developer
~13Years in Making
7Regions
2–4 hrsTo Beat
$19.99Price
🏰 Know this first: one person made this, and it took more than a decade. DESOLUS is the passion project of Seattle developer Mark J. Mayers, who also worked on Outer Wilds and Manifold Garden. He’s been building it for close to 13 years, and it has shown at festivals including an exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. It’s published by The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild (The Bridge, Tumblestone, Cozy Grove). It’s $19.99 on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Switch 2, it’s Steam Deck Verified, and it’s short: most players finish in 2–4 hours.
🕳️ A City Torn Between Past and Future
An enigmatic cataclysm has fractured reality, opening portals that lead to other times. Explore the past and future versions of an expansive Gothic city, and manipulate black holes to solve Escher-like puzzles. Travel back and forth through time to make the city’s architecture whole again.
Activate holograms to move massive portals between floors of crumbled cathedrals, and traverse structures that only partially exist in one time. Partner with the city’s mysterious guardian to stop a cataclysm that threatens to merge past and future, and save Desolus from complete annihilation.
Myst’s mystery, Portal’s spark, and a cathedral full of black holes.
Some games feel like they were made by a studio of a hundred people. DESOLUS was made by one. After close to 13 years in development, Mark J. Mayers’ first-person puzzler finally arrived with gorgeous Gothic architecture, portals that swap between two eras, and a quiet piano score that does a lot of heavy lifting. It’s short and gentle rather than brain-melting, and the story is cryptic, but it’s one of the most striking-looking puzzle games of the year.
Our verdict: “Desolus delivers mind-bending Escher-like puzzles wrapped in stunning Gothic architecture that demands your attention.”
Bending Time and Stone
DESOLUS has no enemies, no bosses, no death and no timers. It’s just you, a fractured city, and a set of tools for reshaping it.
🌀 Two Eras at Once
Portals overlay a frozen winter world and an ember-lit one. Look through them and you’re seeing another time.
🕳️ Black Holes
Use black holes to move architecture between eras. Pull a staircase out of the past and place it in the present.
💠 Holograms
Activate holograms to shift massive portals between the floors of crumbling cathedrals.
🪞 Seven Regions
Progressively harder areas, including the Mirrored Garden with its light-powered locks and time-space rifts.
Ridiculously Beautiful
🏰 Looks Like a Big Team Made It
The visuals are the headline. Players keep calling it gorgeous, and one admitted they couldn’t believe it came from a solo developer. One fan who first saw it at PAX said it stopped them in their tracks and called it eye candy on a big 4K TV. Another said the cathedrals reminded them of their university’s historic libraries. The portal tech is the real showstopper: watching the winter and ember eras overlap through a doorway never gets old.
The UI stays almost completely out of the way, which one player loved because nothing pulls you out of the world. Performance is strong too. One player held a steady 120fps, another said it runs well on Steam Deck, and Valve has rated it Steam Deck Verified.
Piano, Footsteps and Silence
🎹 A Melancholy, Meditative Trip
The soundtrack is all acoustic piano by Kyle Landry, and it’s the most praised thing about the game after the visuals. As one player put it, only footsteps and a melancholy piano follow you as you explore the empty castle, with a frozen disaster hanging literally above your head. Another praised it as proof that music doesn’t need complicated arrangements to be memorable.
Fans of Myst, Riven, Portal and The Talos Principle will feel at home, and several players made exactly those comparisons. One said they hadn’t felt that “THAT IS SO COOL” magic since Portal.
Where It Stumbles
⚠️ A Few Cracks in the Cathedral
1. It’s short and gentle. One player finished two full playthroughs in under four hours, and HowLongToBeat puts the main game plus extras at around two. The puzzles are intricate but rarely brutal, and spatial-reasoning pros will move fast. Another player simply wished it were longer.
2. Button-pressing puzzles. One detailed review pointed out that your only way of interacting with puzzles is pressing buttons, so it’s possible to stumble into solutions by fiddling. Often, the main challenge is seeing all the moving parts at once.
3. A cryptic story. The narrative is simple but delivered in flowery speeches, and you’re never quite sure how literally to take them. One player also found the dialogue text sometimes moves too fast.
4. No map. The city is big, and one player wanted a small map in the corner. The same player felt some crystal surfaces and reflections looked a little unfinished.
5. Rare crash. One Linux player had the game crash their KDE desktop once.
♿ Already Patched for Remapping
On October 18, an update added full key and button remapping for keyboard and controller. One player says they were able to remap the controls for their accessibility controller. DESOLUS also has full controller support, five accessibility features listed on Steam, and support for 29 languages.
Things to Know
📋 Before You Buy
• $19.99 on Steam · also in the Puzzle Adventure Masterpieces bundle with Outer Wilds, Manifold Garden and The Talos Principle: Reawakened
• PC (Steam and Xbox), PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Switch 2 · Windows and macOS on Steam
• Steam Deck Verified · full controller support · 16 achievements · Steam Cloud
• Short: about 2 hours for the main game and extras (HowLongToBeat), and up to 4 for a slower pace
• Minimum: Windows 10/11, Ryzen 5 2600X or Core i7-6800K, 12 GB RAM, RX 5700 or GTX 1070, 4 GB of storage
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
| The Good |
The Bad |
The Ugly |
| Gothic GrandeurGorgeous, Escher-like architecture. |
Short RuntimeTwo to four hours and done. |
That Black HoleIt never stops hanging over you. |
| Portal TechTwo eras overlapping in real time. |
Cryptic StoryFlowery and hard to pin down. |
— |
| Kyle Landry’s PianoMelancholy and memorable. |
No MapEasy to lose your bearings. |
— |
| Runs GreatSteam Deck Verified, 120fps reports. |
Gentle DifficultyPuzzle veterans will fly through. |
— |
The Verdict
DESOLUS is a remarkable achievement for a single developer. Its Gothic city is stunning, its time-shifting portals are a genuine “how did they do that” moment, and Kyle Landry’s piano turns the whole thing into a solemn, meditative trip. The puzzles build on each other well, introducing ideas and then combining them without ever feeling cruel.
It isn’t long or especially hard, the story is more mood than plot, and $19.99 for a few hours will give some players pause. But as one player put it, it’s greater than the sum of its parts, and every piece feels crafted with care.
The honest read: if you love Myst, Portal or Manifold Garden, or just want a beautiful, peaceful puzzle game for a quiet evening, it’s worth the trip. Just know it’s a short one.
For more game reviews, check out our full reviews section.
Score Breakdown
Visuals & Architecture9.5/10
Performance & Steam Deck8.5/10
Final Score
8.0/10
DESOLUS — Mark J. Mayers
A solo developer’s Gothic masterpiece in miniature.
Related
