A new puzzle game is out for iPhones and iPads called Monument Valley. It’s not your average puzzler, either, it’s a brain-bender that uses visual tricks that make no spatial sense, very much like the drawings, lithographs and mezzotints of MC Escher.

In fact, it’s such an homage to Escher’s work, that I imagine he would – quite literally – break down and cry had he been able to play it.

That’s because just like Escher’s work, Monument Valley explores the concepts of architecture, spacial awareness and infinity in incredibly clever ways.

Your goal is to guide a young princess, Ida, through each level by manipulating its architecture, which moves when you tap it. But the architecture is designed in such a way that while it lets Ida move through it when arranged in a certain way, it’s conceptually illogical a lot of the time as it’s not strictly three-dimensional. Brain-bender, indeed.

It’s up to you to figure out how to rotate elements of each level’s architecture in order to get Ida to the exit, and even though she is arguably the game’s focal point, the real star of the game is the levels themselves.

There are only ten levels to get through, but each one has been hand-crafted with care, skill and precision by a team of people who very clearly care deeply about the concept. Monument Valley won’t take very long to finish, apparently – Wired says it will take anything between one and two hours to complete – but the journey is quite spectacular, and well worth taking.

If you’re interested, Monument Valley is out now and will cost you just R43.99 on the iTunes store (grab it here).

Since a video makes it a little easier to understand what this game is about, see the official trailer below.