Hidden In My Paradise – PC Review

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From the developers of A Tiny Sticker Tale, Ogre Pixel brings players their latest game. A cozy hidden-object and decoration game delightfully named Hidden in My Paradise. Releasing on Steam and Nintendo Switch on October 9th, the game retails for £8.99. Nintendo Switch players can also enjoy a 15% off offer on the eStore till October, 15th.

Designing Your Own Hidden Paradise

Finding hidden objects? Fun. Designing a mini paradise with various types of animals and hiding objects? Fun and adorable. Hidden in My Paradise might be the hidden gem of games missing from your Steam library.

A beach themed wedding with various different animals all sat down awaiting the bride and groom.
“What a beautiful wedding!” said the hamster-maid to a froggy-waiter.

Gameplay

Hidden in My Paradise is an isometric, hidden-object, and decoration game. Players see the world through the two main characters – Laly, a photographer, and Coronya, a fairy. Two delightful characters that assist you on your journey throughout each level. The main objective is to find all the hidden objects from a list of items. Sometimes these lists are even themed. For example in Level 7 – Hide and Seek where the task is to find all the animals.

Beyond the hidden-object aspect, there are two other objectives. One is locating all the fairies hiding around the area, which involves searching for extra glowy items with shimmering stars. Giving the item a nudge and moving it around the area will release the fairy, earning players a paw print. Players can move any object in a level and completely re-arrange everything to their heart’s content. The other objective uses Laly’s photography skills to recreate snapshots. Players must find all the items in the photo, decorate small spaces to match the photo, and then take a picture.

Completing all three tasks earns you coins, tickets, and paws, which the latter uses to unlock more levels and biomes. There are four different biomes within the game – forest, beach, farm, and city. Each has their own corresponding assets when buying items from the shop too.

The game has two types of in-game currencies, coins, and tickets. The coins can be used in the shop to purchase assets for the sandbox mode. Whilst the tickets can be used on the in-game gacha machine. Try your luck and see what assets you unlock!

A screenshot of the game Hidden in my Paradise. It shows a gacha machine ball opening up and revealing items such as a bottle, a water well, a deer and a tree
Risk-free gacha machine – Big money!

Hidden Gem

The sandbox mode is a great way to get involved with the community gamers who also play Hidden in My Paradise. In this mode you can download, play, and rate levels. Players can also use the assets they unlocked in the main game to design their own cozy, paradises. Players who enjoy the design aspect of Animal Crossing will find this a breeze, as decorating options are endless!

For the achievement hunters out there, there are 15 Steam achievements in total. The majority of these are earned by completing the main levels and the extra objectives. Other achievements are earned by getting involved in the online community, whether it’s creating and uploading a level or trying out other players’ levels.

Some tips to keep in mind are to look out for the treasure chests that hide behind trees and in houses. Players can also receive help from Laly and Conronya if they can’t find an item, simply by clicking on the item in the list. This doesn’t cost any coins or tickets, which is a great feature as it doesn’t punish players who might struggle. Highly recommend players to pet all the animals you come across, as they deserve it but you also earn coins – win, win!

A screenshot of the game Hidden in my Paradise. You can see a cluster of animals in the woods. There are frogs, lizards, hamsters, a turtle and axolotls.
Behind the scenes of a Thumb Culture staff meeting.

Graphics & Audio

I played Hidden in My Paradise on PC using Steam for this review. I found no issues with frame rates, however, there were visual glitches on beach levels. These caused some of the palm tree leaves appear to be floating off of the main branch. It is a minor bug that doesn’t take away from the game and can be fixed by moving the item.

Two features in the game allow players to create comfy vibes such as changing the time of day between morning, evening, and night, as well as using filters to create fun effects. Initially, I thought the filters were included to give players more creativity and fun aesthetics. After reaching out to the Ogre Pixel team on Twitter, they confirmed these filters actually held two purposes. One to offer different aesthetics but secondly to also assist players who have different colour blindness requirements.

We found that some people with colourblind had trouble playing in a level where they had to find different flowers with the same shape but different colours, so they played with the grayscale filter or the one with yellows and purples and it was easier for themOgre Pixel

Screenshot of the game with the filter that has inverted colours.
An example of one of the filters in Hidden in My Paradise, the inverted color filter.

A fun detail is the art style. Objects appear as if they were drawn and coloured with crayons. This gives the game an overall childlike and cute visual appearance.

In terms of the soundtrack, there is one tune that plays in a loop that’s a mix of a soft guitar and piano, which fits the overall theme of the game, thanks to Majo Félix, the audio director and composer. The audio also lowers depending on what time of day the player picks, which is a nice touch to make things more sensory-friendly.

Players can also adjust the volume for different audio tracks, allowing them full control over the audio and visual experience of the game and designing it to their sensory needs.

Longevity

Depending on your playstyle, you can complete the game over a weekend, however, it’s the sandbox mode where most players may spend the majority of their time. Players who enjoy world-building, decorating, and creating challenges for others will find that this is where they thrive. It is important to note that you have to play the main levels to earn the coins and tickets. These are used to unlock the assets for sandbox mode. The objectives are quite easy to complete so it won’t take players much time to have a full library of assets.

Several accessibility options open the game up to more players, which is always amazing to see in indie games. Being able to adjust the music and lighting to suit my mood and create an environment to relax in on a rainy, Sunday afternoon was fantastic. Parents looking for games with simple controls and a PEGI 3 rating for their children may enjoy this as a fun introductory experience.

Final Thoughts

Hidden in My Paradise is an adorable hidden-object game that offers bite-size challenges and encourages players to express their creativity through the main levels and the sandbox mode. The objectives are fun and keep you engaged. I even forgot I was reviewing a game whilst playing. I was so completely immersed in trying to find all the fairies!

In terms of improvements, the only thing that came to mind was currency related. I do wish that the currency was used for other reasons than just buying assets. I would have loved to see different themed outfits for Laly and Coronya. Or even have been able to buy different types of pointers, for that added customization. I would also love to see a design challenge mode, where players have to match a certain theme but not be constrained to the exact items/positions as in the snapshot challenges.

Hidden in My Paradise is an essential purchase for fans of light challenge cozy casual games, and so I award Hidden in My Paradise the Thumb Culture Platinum Award.

 

Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.

Big thanks to the Ogre Pixel for answering my questions about Hidden in My Paradise. Want to keep up-to-date with all the gaming news? Check out Charlotte’s latest article on Super Puzzled Cat.

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