Chicory: A Colorful Tale and TOEM both ask you to look closely at the world. What you do with what you see is different. In Chicory, you use a brush to add color and solve puzzles. In TOEM, you use a camera to take photos that help people.

The quick choice

  • Pick Chicory if you want to paint places, try different colors, and use paint to change parts of the world. It also has a story about a missing artist.
  • Pick TOEM if you want to explore places, meet people, and solve their problems by taking photos.

These are both adventures with things to solve. Chicory is about making marks on the world; TOEM is about finding a useful view for a photo.

Chicory: paint and change what you find

Chicory: A Colorful Tale starts in a world that has lost its color. You pick up a brush and can paint on places around you. The developer says paint also helps you solve puzzles, reach new areas, and help friends.

A color wheel is open above a painted forest path in Chicory: A Colorful Tale.
Choose colors and paint the path in Chicory.

Chicory also lets you collect clothes, plants, and furniture. If you want to change how your character or places look while following a story, it offers more than a blank coloring page.

Part of a black-and-white town and forest has been painted with bright colors in Chicory: A Colorful Tale.
Paint can change how a whole area looks.

Try painting one small area first. Then look for a puzzle or place where color changes what you can do. The brush is a tool for both art and progress.

TOEM: take photos to help people

TOEM: A Photo Adventure gives you a camera instead of a brush. You travel through hand-drawn places, talk to characters, and take photos to solve their problems. The developer describes its puzzles as things you solve with the camera.

A camera frames a character riding a motorcycle in TOEM.
Use the camera to frame a subject in TOEM.

Start with a request from a character and look around for what they need you to photograph. This fits someone who likes exploring and noticing small details more than changing the color of a scene.

Which one fits you?

  • I want to make the world colorful: Chicory. Its brush can paint many things you pass.
  • I want to help characters by taking pictures: TOEM. Its camera is the main puzzle tool.
  • I want clothes and furniture to collect: Chicory lists both among its extras.

If neither kind of puzzle sounds right, our cozy games list covers other ways to play.