New Steam Horror Game Gives Point-and-Click Puzzles a Perfect Memory Twist

A new indie Steam release titled Am I Nima is changing everything I once knew about point-and-click horror games. Releasing on November 27 on Steam, Am I Nima is a puzzle-solving game with a core mechanic inspired by memory loss. While I am just as big a fan of point-and-click puzzle titles as the next person, I admit that they can get quite formulaic. Often, backdrops give way to hidden items or puzzles that need solving, and that’s pretty much it. Players point and click aimlessly without any real stakes in mind. Luckily, Am I Nima is here to shake things up.

The HO! Games title is turning the simplistic genre on its head with a refreshing and spine-tingling horror element and an added mechanic that I have yet to see from any other game in this genre. Am I Nima is quietly proving that point-and-click games, while simplistic in nature, can be just as impactful as flashy big-budget titles. The game is impactful and frightening, with high-stakes narration and detailed set pieces that make players feel like they’re inhabiting Nima’s world with her. Added aspects offer fans of the genre something new and unique while drawing in hesitant naysayers who haven’t tried their hand at point-and-click titles up until now.

In Am I Nima, Players Must Prioritize Exploration and Brain Mapping

Am I Nima makes its amnesia plot line its greatest asset, utilizing it to inform gameplay mechanics that set the game apart from any other point-and-click title on the market right now. Setting the stage for her trials, we meet Nima, a young girl who wakes up trapped in a basement by her mother, Anabelle Lee, of all people. Bewildered by the situation she finds herself in and with no memory of how she got there or who she is, Nima must search for clues in her surroundings, familiar but distorted. With gathered clues at her disposal, Nima must convince her mother that she really is Nima, her daughter. Beyond searching for environmental clues, Am I Nima utilizes a unique brain mapping system to jog her memory.

This standout mechanic sees Nima gathering words, storing and combining them in a brain-shaped menu off to the side. These words, when combined, can create other words that are utilized to converse with Nima’s mother, earning her trust if utilized correctly. These words are used to form coherent sentences about a Nima this current Nima doesn’t recognize or recall. For instance, if a player clicks on pencils found on her desk, Nima will recall chewing on said pencils, earning the player the word Disgust. If players click on her discarded science homework, Nima remarks, “I wish I could be the powerhouse of the cell,” and players earn the word Science. Words combined make new words. For example, the words Work and Knowledge make Mom. Each word made or collected can be found on a sidebar neatly organized for a player’s use.

Words gathered are also used to properly interact with Nima’s environment and can also dredge up important memories from the past that can be used to inform Nima’s current situation. How did she get here? Why did she lose her memory? All these questions can be answered through utilizing that nifty brain map. This mechanic adds a new layer of intrigue to the simple point-and-click genre. The point-and-click aspect is used to further jog Nima’s memories, which, in turn, urges players to explore the basement they’ve been stuck in. Words created also help the player understand Nima’s current situation and her relationship with her mother.

Players are physically piecing together memories by combining words to create meaning. Nima’s survival heavily depends on the player’s skills and exploration. It’s an immersive addition that I felt made me sympathize with Nima further, as I was forced to inhabit her situation. I too was just as lost as Nima was. Both the player and Nima are in this together, finding out information as we went to piece together the full puzzle. At the end of the available demo, I was beginning to wonder if I really was the girl Nima’s mother knew, or something else entirely. Am I really Nima? I was torn between finding out the truth of the matter or staying blissfully unaware in order to appease Nima’s mother. Safe to say while point-and-click puzzle-solving games can get formulaic, Am I Nima is anything but.

Point and Click Games Don’t Need to Be Boring or Cozy

Check Out Am I Nima on Steam

Am I Nima serves to point out that puzzle games don’t have to fit into the “relaxing” boring narrative that I have seen time and time again from modern entries. It is another medium that developers can utilize to make their wildest and weirdest gaming dreams come true. There are no rules for how a genre should look or be played. So many times I’ve seen point-and-click titles fall under that cozy category. While there is a time and place for cozy and calming point-and-click games, I want something unique that’ll stick with me long after I have beaten the game.

Point-and-click games came from humble 2D beginnings, but since the genre was new, developers wanted to play around in the uncomfortable, breaking ground on brand-new territory. There was a heavy focus on action-adventure in the point-and-click world at first, with entries like Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, the Quest for Glory series, and The Secret of Monkey Island / Curse of Monkey Island games. Developers got weird with the medium, venturing into horror and mystery, given that the point-and-click medium meshed well with puzzle-solving and clue-finding.

Entries like Fran Bow, Sally Face, Tiny Echo, and Sanitarium all came about thanks to the devs trusting their instincts. Wacky and weird was wonderful to witness, straying away from the norm. That’s why we have titles like Am I Nima available today. Similarly wonderful and strange, today we have titles like Hypnospace Outlaw, The Longing, and Servant of the Lake that feature impactful stories and memorable characters that manage to accomplish all of this in a stripped-back format like point-and-click. Simplicity does not equal boring, nor does point-and-click equal cozy. Point-and-click titles can be anything and manage to accomplish the same, if not more, impact as larger-scale games.

Systems

Released

November 27, 2026

Developer(s)

HO! Games

Publisher(s)

HO! Games, Outersloth

Number of Players

Single-player

Steam Deck Compatibility

Unknown

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