Wilmot has gone home from the Warehouse but now has a lot to Work Out

Before the announcement of Wilmot Works It Out Richard Hogg and Hollow Ponds already had an electric track record, to say the least. From Keita Takahashi-inspired chaos of Hohokum to the melancholy of I Am Dead  and the mediative bird wrangling in Flock. 

The team's latest game, published by Usual June developer Finji, is Hollow Ponds' first direct sequel - starring the overworked warehouse manager of Wilmot's Warehouse once again. However, it isn’t a traditional sequel in many ways. While Wilmot’s Warehouse could become quite stressful - as you tried to order your deliveries before customers arrived and demanded similar products in bulk - Wilmot Works It Out is all about how our square-shaped hero unwinds after a long day at work.

At the beginning of each day, a delivery woman will drop off the next mail-order puzzle set that Wilmot has signed up to receive. While the existence of a human-looking woman raises all sorts of upsetting questions about just what kind of lifeform Wilmot, the real hook here is that she constantly seemed preoccupied. In fact, this postal worker is so out of it, she keeps mixing up puzzle sets giving extra pieces and pieces for the next (or previous) day’s puzzle.

Once you unbox your mishandled goods all the pieces of your puzzle (and some pieces of other puzzles) are laid out in front of you. From there the game is very simple and you just shift these pieces around in the confines of your front room until all the pieces lock into place and you can hang your artwork on the wall. 

As the game progresses, the puzzles will get more and more jumbled and once you fill up the wall of your front room you’ll move into different parts of your house which may have even less space for you to move yourself and puzzle pieces around in. During all this, some very relaxing bossa nova/waiting room music plays.

It doesn’t seem likely that Wilmot Works It Out will expand beyond an admittedly simple loop and we doubt the delivery woman subplot will develop into a grand world-spanning conspiracy. However, as it stands, just like Wilmot, we are looking forward to using this chill puzzler as a relaxing way to unwind after a long day.

Lexi Luddy

Contributing Editor

Lex Luddy is a freelance writer and journalist. She has written for Vice, Fanbyte, PLAY Magazine, Gayming Magazine, Push Square, startmenu and more. She can be found on BlueSky @basicallilexi.bsky.social talking about Like A Dragon, Kirby, and queer representation in media.