$9.99PANELKI Shovel snow, save for a way out
Work as a handyman in a procedurally generated northern city and earn your ticket to a new life.
Is PANELKI worth it?
PANELKI is worth it if…
- you want a low-pressure game to switch your head off and shovel snow for an evening
- you like atmospheric walking and exploring more than action or deep systems
- you enjoy simple, repetitive tasks that slowly build toward a goal
- you have a friend to clean entrances and throw snowballs with
- you find a strange comfort in snowy, post-Soviet cityscapes
Screenshots
Better with someone beside the shovel
The city is lonely work, so bring a friend. Online multiplayer lets two of you clean entrances, screw in light bulbs and erase graffiti together, or settle the shift with a snowball fight once the real jobs are done. The one rule the game gives you is a good one: do not lose sight of each other. In a blizzard at night, between identical panel houses, that is easier said than done. It turns a quiet chore loop into something shared, and honestly, digging out a buried car is funnier when someone else is holding the second shovel.
An endless city that never repeats
The open world is built from procedurally generated pieces: roads, garages, schools, playgrounds and, above all, panel houses. Each one is generated outside and in, so no two buildings are alike, and the spacing between them gives the district a feel close to the real thing. You wander between courtyards with a shovel over your shoulder, past kiosks and snowed-in cars, and the city just keeps going.
Snow is the whole job
Snow is not decoration here, it is the work. Dig drifts out of entrances, uncover buried cars, clear roofs before the weight does damage, or ignore all of it and stack a giant snow tower instead. Better shovels, found in basements, let you move more snow faster. You can also build snowmen, and the basement stores a carrot for exactly that. The digging is simple and repetitive on purpose: it is the kind of task that occupies your hands while your head goes somewhere quiet.
Weather, cold and the long night
Dynamic weather and a full day/night cycle set the mood: heavy blizzards after dark, quiet snowfall at noon. The cold is not just scenery. Stay out too long and you start to freeze, so you duck into an entrance or a basement to warm up, and you can switch the heating on down there too.
What should you know before starting?
Can you play it with a friend?
Yes, there is online multiplayer. You can split the chores, clear entrances together, or have a snowball fight when the work is done. Just stay within sight of each other, because the city is big, the weather turns, and finding someone in a blizzard between identical panel houses is its own small quest.
What is the cinematic mode for?
You can stop anywhere, raise the camera and frame the harsh northern view, with plenty of image settings to set the mood of the shot. Every screenshot on the game's own page was taken with it. The camera has a practical use too: photograph a house from outside once all the work on it is done, and the picture earns you in-game money.
