Great zoom, chill BGM. Most of these cats aren't exactly hidden; I found two just by clicking in the right place while only meaning to drag the screen.

In Case Files: Behind Closed Doors, you play assistant to Detective Martin Ruiz on the murder case of one Daniel Murphy.
The suspects are his next door neighbor, Janice, his partner, Emma, her ex-husband, Charles and Emma and Charles' daughter, Rebecca. Because Daniel had been abusive towards Emma in the past, all of them have a valid motive for killing him.
Your job is to watch Martin interview each of them and steer him in the right direction when he reaches out for guidance directly.
The problem is in how quickly the game reveals itself to be formulaic. Watch an interview, pick up a call from Martin, choose whether or not you think the suspect is telling the truth (or point out how obviously they're lying), watch a follow-up, pick up a call summarizing the progress. Rinse and repeat until the very end.
I will admit I looked at a guide and spoiled myself on who the killer is (like a grade-A buffoon), but having completed the game now, I'm not sure I would have been much more intrigued by the story had I not done that. Deciding whether or not a suspect should be pressed on a subject or finding a contradiction just to watch someone else do the pressing and presenting just isn't all that fun.
This has been done better, like in Her Story, where the interviewer is out of the picture, allowing the focus to be fully on the suspect, whose personality and demeanor make you want to piece the story together, or even in Detroit: Become Human, where you're the one interviewing a particularly tricky subject.
There's also no comedic relief to be found here whatsoever, not even accidentally. Don't get me wrong, neither abuse nor crime are funny, but ever since games have featured FMV, there's been humor to be found in woefully underdeveloped technology, ridiculous narratives and bad acting (or better yet, absolutely Chewing The Scenery™️.)
Case Files: Behind Closed Doors sidestepped all of that for… what? The ability to move around in a 3D space? That doesn't seem like a good trade-off to me.
I do, however, have to compliment it for implementing the option to skip any and all calls or videos at will, no waiting required. You don't even have to have played through the game to unlock it! (That's one for the "I thought I was paying for a game, not a movie" crowd.)
There's also an option to turn on assistance with spotting contradictions… but it's impossible to progress without pointing out a contradiction correctly and the amount of evidence does not change throughout the game, so you're always free to try out all the combinations you can think of if you weren't paying attention.
In short: if you've been thinking about playing this one, STOP! I can name at least 5 other FMV games you'd be much better off playing instead.

I first played Coffee Talk back in November 2022. Replaying it now felt like meeting old friends again.
Admittedly, I was in a rush to complete it, so I didn't re-read the short stories.
I did, however, waste an hour trying to idle it for the latte art achievement without realizing the game window needs to be active.
Oddly enough, I feel like I get the sense of community present in these games now more than I did when I first played the sequel last year. That, and I would never pass up an excuse to make myself some delicious coffee.
I got the key for this game from a friend I've since lost touch with. They're not on BLAEO, but wherever they are, I hope they're doing well.

Series so long, there's only one entry.
I got this one for cheap because I like the concept of animated jigsaws and I've only played one other game like this on Steam. There are only five images available in this one, but don't let that fool you: with five difficulty levels, there's a lot of time to be spent completing everything.
Speaking of completion… the images are minimalistic pixel art, which works fine with lower piece counts, but as the piece count increases, the player's misery is bound to deepen.
The color palettes across the images are limited, which means one will likely leave huge chunks of things such as the sky and clouds to be solved last.
Furthermore, all pieces are cut perfectly identical, which makes placing the aforementioned single-colored chunks one long trial-and-error sequence.
As opposed to Pixel Puzzles Ultimate, the behemoth of jigsaw puzzle games on Steam, here you can connect pieces outside of the grid.
(Then again… every game that lets you do that is that much better than PPU.)
However, the more pieces you connect outside of the grid, the slower moving them will be. And if you accidentally cover up two or more pieces on the grid, that's it! The game won't let you shuffle them because they're connected. You'll have to edit the relevant file yourself (luckily, there's a handy guide on what to do available on the forums) or redo the entire puzzle. That is an annoying oversight, no matter how "minimalistic" or "complete" the game is. I've also read a review from a player who claims the game won't register a puzzle as complete if multiple pieces are placed last - this may or may not have changed, as I've had to edit one of my files to reset a couple of pieces and experienced no issues afterwards.
Either way, this one's definitely not recommended for colorblind players.

A simple puzzle game in which you make your way through over 50 dioramas of doors, each with their own distinct theme. If there's a theme or aesthetic you can think of, it's probably been used here.
Though at least some of these themes are meant to allude to your backstory, the story is hardly the driving force here. All of it is told through the scrolls found within each level, so one might not even really experience it if they don't care to look for them.
In every level, there's a dynamic hint system, as well as an option to skip puzzles. Neither comes with penalties, so you can breeze through the game if you wish to do so.
I found most of the game unchallenging, but I skipped a handful of puzzles, especially near the end when I started getting a bit lazy.
Oh, and my internet went down during one of my sessions, so there's about an hour and a half of playtime that got lost to the void.

Yeah, I bought this game for myself, what about it? My friend has given me a lot of games as it is over the years and I wasn't going to ask for this one.
There's emphasis put on this being "an experience you can gift a friend", but really, that's just for show.
After you accept the gift (which you can always refuse to do), you meet Sergio Spellbound, who proclaims himself to be the first virtual DJ/entertainer/something else I already forgot, which is objectively not true. Still, he did show up to get you partying, so you might as well go along with it.
In 21 minutes, I've completed the game three times, but I don't think that makes it worth the three bucks. I hope this "GamesAsGifts" franchise it supposedly belongs to doesn't develop further, 'cause there's plenty of regular games that can make for great gifts already.

Step into the shoes of Kate Reed, a ghost story writer starved for inspiration who receives a mysterious invitation to a seance. One thing leads to another, and soon enough, Kate enters the House of 1000 Doors.
I don't know that there were enough doors in this game alone to warrant the title, but I get it: doors constantly appear and disappear within the house, so that's the name it got. I'm not interested in spiritualism or the occult outside of fictional media, but the way this game's presented it, I thought the House of 1000 Doors was a real urban legend for a second there.
I've not played many HOGs outside of Artifex Mundi's catalogue, so it's harder to gauge quality given that bias, but this game was great. Some of the minigames were entirely new to me and nothing can beat the satisfaction of finally getting the key item needed to discover something still hidden a good few screens back. Also, an official walkthrough is included with the game, so you never have to look to external sources for help.
That being said, there are some QoL issues I hope got rectified in following entries, such as the need to open the journal to access the map (far as I'm concerned, most HOGs know to keep them separate) or exiting close-ups being finicky (sometimes I play so fast, I don't care to click exactly on the X.)
I'm also sad to report that repeating HO scenes don't gradually clear out of the objects you found earlier. I know this is probably to make it easier on the programmers/avoid obvious bugs or softlocks, as is leaving all close-ups unlocked, even when no longer needed, but still.
Plot-wise, I think the sculptor's story is surprisingly dark. I'm also glad that Kate decides not to stay in the House, 'cause that would have been crazy.

I'm just gonna assume this story isn't supposed to make any sense unless you're Russian… and even then, you still might not get it.
You're Kirill, a long-haired anime fan (aka the worst kind of person you can be as a man, apparently.) Your brother, Shrapnel, is a hooligan, and your dad is someone important in the government. As you go about your day, things get more and more crazy.
Also, Doc Brown is there and at one point, he takes you to the past to get cheaper vodka and you get stuck there for a bit. I almost can't believe they didn't throw in more random movie references to make it make even less sense.
The BGM is mostly made up of what I can only assume are Soviet radio broadcasts. The grandma sprite from Russian Horror Story is used here as a cleaning lady. I guess drawing babushkas ain't cheap.

This one's sort of a spiritual successor to PowerWash Simulator, though from an unrelated developer.
As the name suggests, instead of powerwashing, you start a spray painting business. It quickly becomes apparent that it's hard to improve upon perfection, though, so Spray Paint Simulator finds a way to introduce shortcomings in dire need of a fix.
There is more introductory prep here with masking and removing certain parts of the job, which makes sense in context and is a paid task on top of spray painting. However, I don't understand why the biggest bundle of paper and the biggest bundle of tape aren't equal to each other. All that does is just make me keep buying more tape, and since I'm in the store already, I figure I might as well get some more paper, forgetting about the leftover rolls from the previous purchase.
Having to get the spray tool from the store and place it in the environment before getting to work every single time is also a PITA and frankly unnecessary. The only advantage the second spray tool has over the first one is its battery life, all the other stats are considerably lower. Huh? I thought this was supposed to be an upgrade?
Instead of equipping different types of nozzles at will in the inventory, you can choose to toggle between vertical spraying, horizontal spraying and a concentrated stream a'la the 0 degree nozzle. There are no extensions for the spray tool, making work with tall objects and big spaces tedious and unsatisfying.
Speaking of big jobs, while the scaffolding variety is nothing to complain about, I found it oddly annoying to interact with them.
In PowerWash Simulator, it's always kind of a funny thing when I try to climb with an extension on the washer, because it just makes sense that it would get in the way of that. In Spray Paint Simulator, though extensions aren't a thing, climbing the scaffolding feels slippery and seems inconsistent.
I don't know if there's something I'm missing, but it didn't feel as simple as "look up to go up, look down to go down" and I'd have trouble unsticking myself from the ladder to arrive at a height of choice. This made jobs like the bridge and Zach-Bot more annoying than they need to be.
Zach-Bot especially feels too big for how far up the game will let you climb using even the tallest scaffolding and I feel like I fell off of it more times than I fell off of all PowerWash Simulator jobs combined.
Also, the camera angle in the ending timelapse is sometimes set in a spot from which parts of a job are very obviously impossible to see. And if you pick up a job you started in a different session, the timelapse will only factor in the progress you made in the final session.
Did I mention you have to save your progress for a job manually? That is just a sad design choice I'm unable to explain.
Spray Paint Simulator parroted even the concept of a town with a punny name and a colorful cast of locals. Problem is, they don't talk to you as much, and when they do, it's not nearly as interesting. Clients only remember to thank you for finishing a job by the time you start the next one. The secret letters also feel like they're trying too hard to be quirky and random.
If you're considering getting this game for co-op purposes, beware: there are only seven jobs available as of now and for some inexplicable reason, you have to complete them to be able to replay them in co-op mode.
I hate to be slamming a game that should appeal to me this much, but it's only a month old, so there's a lot of time for improvement.

In tomorrow is my birthday, on a summer unlike any other, best friends Petal and Bios decide to escape their hometown by way of a long walk.
You're in control of Petal and have the choice to go forward or return home at any point. Between the objects Petal and Bios encounter on their walk and the transitions connecting each location to the next, the story gradually reveals itself in all its ugliness. I've almost forgotten about the existence of the "denpa" subgenre, which this game advertises itself as, and rightfully so. The hand-drawn character sprites and the MS Paint items and UI are in stark contrast with the photographic backgrounds. The sound design is moody, perhaps even grimy. The transition clips are deliberately low quality.
tomorrow is my birthday has its own, strong voice; perhaps it's not one suited quite to my tastes, but nevertheless, I appreciate it. While this story may not be anything like mine, when I discovered it, I knew I had to play it on the right day.
After all, it's not often you can say "tomorrow is my birthday."

Viridi is as casual and relaxing as it gets; it's just you, your flowerpot and the seedlings you get from the nursery by checking in every week. (I never managed to figure out if that resets based on when the new week starts or when you open the game.)
Plant the seeds, water them and watch them grow as you check in every few days. You can even sing to them if you'd like! (I don't know how much that helps…)
If you're looking to wind down and unleash your creativity, you can create a beautiful flowerpot by buying more seeds; if you're just here for the completion, feel free to throw away any and all plants as soon as you've unlocked their achievements.
I've been playing this game on-and-off for 7 years now (mind-blowing), and now, just like that, I'm done… I think I might even miss it one day.