Maxwell's puzzling demon
BANGER · Short indie · 2024
Steam Deck PlayableThe verdict
BUY IT.
A BANGER at $14.99.
- Length
- 39h
- Value
- $0.38/hr
- Reviews
- 98% of 428 positive
Watch this gameOne alert when it goes on sale.
Buy now or wait
Next discount: likely in the Winter Sale, Dec 17 to Jan 4. Calls like this were right 83% of the time in a backtest over 70 weeks.
Discounted in each of its last 8 seasonal sales. Last cut ended 9 days ago.
- Next sale
- Winter Sale, Dec 17 to Jan 4
Sources: IsThereAnyDeal, Valve.
What drives the score
How to read this
Grades run S to D, read from the buyer's side. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
About the game
"Thermodynamic" puzzle where Maxwell's demon does work of block-pushing. Deal those hot blocks with cold blocks so that the demon doesn't get burnt.
Minimum specs
Minimum on the Steam store: any, 102 MB of storage. Windows only.
The value story
It has been discounted 13 times in the 2 years tracked here. The median cut across all of them is 25 percent, about 11 weeks apart. Today it is at full price, and its last discount ended 9 days ago.
Against its own genre it lands in the top 1 percent on value. It is pricier than 93 percent of its genre, and better reviewed than 99 percent. Among the games that feel like it, Hexologic ($1.24, scores 93) beats it on value, while it beats Patrick's Parabox ($19.99, scores 74).
$43.40 is where it would stop being a BANGER.
More about Maxwell's puzzling demon
None of the 307 Steam-purchase reviews sampled here come from buyers who refunded the game, sampled from reviews written January 2025 to August 2026.
The drop-off
56% start to 1% rarestNo achievement in this game marks the ending, so there is no finish rate. The curve runs from the most-unlocked achievement to the rarest, and its shape is where players stop. Steam global achievements
Players
- Players online
- 5 when we last checked, on Sep 28, 19:55 UTC
Player counts from the Steam Web API.
What players say
If you're new to puzzle games, I do not recommend this. Otherwise, if you're an experienced puzzle game enjoyer, you should absolutely play it. Maxwell's puzzling demon is one of the most well designed games I've ever played. The way puzzles interact with each other is insane. It's also really hard, so be warned, although the game lets you skip a significant number of main levels to reach the ending. The first world...
2 more reviews
The puzzles are well-designed, but the game seriously needs key remapping and controller support.
Take a look at my playtime, and then take a look at the game's graphics quality. This should tell you everything that you need to know.
Steam reviews, mixed to its ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
No data upstream: critic score (Metacritic).
Cite this score
Maxwell's puzzling demon scores 92/100 on the BANG Score (a BANGER) as of Oct 19, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/2770160/maxwell-s-puzzling-demonReviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Sep 29, price as of Oct 19. A number here look wrong? Tell me and I will check the inputs.