Co-op Ikea Furniture Assembly: Höme Improvisåtion

As someone who has committed to assembling an awful lot of Ikea furniture in the near future, I am delighted by Höme Improvisåtion [official site]. It's a free game about putting together flat-pack furniture, and even has local co-op so you can tackle the task with chums, but is delightfully free-form. While I'll be stuck puzzling over slots, tabs, and washers, Höme Improvisåtion has easy snap-together parts and doesn't really care what your furniture looks like as long as you use every part. It's quite satisfying, with solid clicks and controller rumbles as your Frankenfurniture takes form.

Höme Improvisåtion plonks boxes off bits into your nice tidy lounge (laminate flooring, obvs) without instructions, giving only a few seconds to see on the box what it's supposed to look like. You pick parts up individually, rotating them, then can lock any tab into any hole. The game takes over and ensure it gets in easily, but once it's in, it's staying there.

Once you've used all the bits, you can place it somewhere in your lounge, and another box drops in. And then several boxes at once. It's a fun construction kit, and probably a terrible mess with friends. It supports up to four players across keyboard and controllers.

Höme Improvisåtion is one of the - oh my! - 5,443 games created during the Global Game Jam over the weekend, made by Aj Kolenc, Jessica Jackson, Colton Spross, and Josh Faubel. The free download for Windows and Mac is over here.

I find a cathartic pleasure in going "No, long flat wooden bit, I don't care if you think you are part of a table, I SAY you go on this lamp." Assembling furniture incorrectly to spite Ian Ikea. I bet you're reading this, Ian.