Is This Seat Taken (PC) Preview

Sometimes a simple concept is enough for hours of enjoyment. A lot of games focus on complex experiences with lots of moving parts, and that has its place. However, Poti Poti Studio has gone with a simple concept that provides a satisfying experience.

Is This Seat Taken is a logic puzzle game with a very simple gameplay loop. All you have to do is seat people in the correct spot in relation to other people. For example, if you are seating people on a bus, some people will want a window seat, some people will want to sit on the aisle, etc.

These sorts of seating arrangements make up the levels in Is This Seat Taken, with each level providing a different setting and (usually) different criteria for seating arrangements. The demo provided this week was only about 5 levels long, 6 if you count the secret level (I won’t tell you how to get it), but there is a lot to enjoy here.

Aside from the logic puzzles, there is upbeat music, a cute art style, and a curious little storyline sprinkled in each level. On top of that, if you perfect each level, it seems like you’ll unlock more content at certain intervals. I’m sure the full game will also provide a variety of other twists and turns we haven’t seen yet, but I’m very pleased with what I’ve seen so far.

The developers have mentioned that Is This Seat Taken (and its Demo) is Steam Deck ready, and this feels like a perfect sort of game for a road trip or a commute on the bus. However, the PC controls (keyboard and mouse) work fine, since everything can be done by clicking.

If you’re looking for something to tickle your brain a little, Is This Seat Taken will scratch the itch nicely. This is especially true if you enjoy brain teasers and other such things. I felt like it was oddly reminiscent of Level-5’s Dark Cloud series, which required you to place homes in locations based on the desires of the residents.

Weird, deep-cut references aside, I’m eager to see what the full release of Is This Seat Taken entails. We don’t have a release date yet, but hopefully, it’ll come out this year. The Steam page says “To Be Announced,” so I’m sure the developers are still trying to figure out where they sit in terms of a release schedule, pun entirely intended.