Refund is a single-player grid puzzle game. The rules fit in one sentence: every coin you spend can be refunded — but a refund never just returns money. Each receipt rewrites your position, your resources, or the map itself, in its own particular way.
The core mechanic: receipts
The most basic paid tile is the footprint tile: leaving it costs coins and hands you a receipt that records the direction of that step.
Refund the receipt and you step backwards, against the recorded direction — and no wall can stop that step.
You can back straight into a wall and stand where normal movement will never reach. That is the answer to a surprising number of these puzzles.
A refund always returns exactly half of what you paid. Every "spend now, refund later" carries a real cost — which is why every coin must be counted.
When to spend, when to refund, and in which order — that is the whole solution space of every level.
Level titles
Every level title is hand-written by the author: hints, rambling, dinner plans, and some genuine scams. And one useless but delightful rule —
the title of level N is exactly N words long (N characters in Chinese and Japanese). It holds in all 15 languages, except level 50, which is simply a thank-you.
About refunding this game
Of course, you may also refund
Refund itself at any time — even if all you wanted was to experience one complete refund.
If this game's refund rate ever reaches 95%, I shall declare it "Overwhelmingly Positive".The systems
Fans cost coins to use and blow you across the board in a straight line — the only safe way over the void. Fans take refunds too: the same gust, blown backwards.
Pins: pay as you leave one and it becomes a record point; refund its receipt and you teleport straight back to it, from anywhere on the map.
Clocks are savepoints for YOU: a refund rewinds your position, coins and receipts to the moment you wound the clock. The map stays as it is.
Cameras are savepoints for the MAP: a refund rewinds the board to the snapshot, while you stay where you are. Combine both and the two timelines stay strictly independent.
Plus multiplier tiles, coin-zeroing tiles, loose coins and the lethal void — 50 levels introduce new pieces chapter by chapter, then keep recombining the old ones.
The budget is the puzzle
Clearing a level takes exactly one thing: reach every ★.
The real constraint is money. On almost every level the starting coins sit right at the optimal solution — one expense too many, and the last star quietly drifts out of reach. Solving a level means reworking your spend-and-refund order until the books balance.
Quality of life:
- Unlimited undo, redo and restart — experimenting is free;
- Every level ships with a verified official solution, replayable once you clear it;
- Stuck on a level for 20 minutes? A portal opens in the corner and lets you skip it.
Features
- 50 handcrafted single-player puzzle levels
- Refund steps that back you into walls, pin teleports, clock/camera dual savepoints, fan rides
- A verified official solution for every level
- Unlimited undo / redo
- Full controller support, with hints that switch between keyboard and gamepad automatically
- Interface and all level titles localized into 15 languages
- 11 Steam achievements + Steam Cloud saves
If you like puzzle games with few rules and deep combinations, welcome to Refund.
