I don’t feel that it’s all that different from other puzzle games, especially those in the genre like Shenzhen I/O or EXAPUNKS, but even in general considering things like Sokoban or Gentoo Rescue. I’m down to have that discussion: what is a game? To me, “gameness” requires a player, and at least one of a win-condition or a lose-condition. So Tetris would be a game (with a player and a lose-condition, but no win-condition), but Conway’s Game of Life would ironically not be a game (failing both criteria). Here you get multiple levels with both win-condition (progress) and “lose”-condition (try again) with a goal of “exploration”. What criteria would you add to (or remove from!) that notion of game?