‣ Tiny Glade
From: Pounce Light
Platforms: PC
Release: 23 September 2024
Steam Page • Demo Video • Developer Site
Be sure to pat the sheep.
When I was a kid, I would cheat in SimCity. If you held in shift and typed FUND, you'd get a bunch of money. This hack was the closest thing I could get to a sandbox builder. Even today, the majority of building games require a balance of managing resources, forward planning, and trying not to bankrupt yourself. Fortunately, there is a growing niche of free-form cosy builders where you just doodle your way to design greatness.
This sub-genre has a few standout titles, like the lovely SUMMERHOUSE and Townscraper. But they'll need to make space because there's a real juggernaut emerging soon, a game that could overshadow the genre and point its way forward. And like all good cosy games, it's delightfully cute and tiny. Even the name is cute and tiny—Tiny Glade.
In Tiny Glade, you doodle castles. You can make weathered ruins or palatial estates with simple strokes of your mouse. For example, you use the wall tool and drag it along, creating a worn barrier full of character. You then decide to make it taller, so you grab the top of the wall and pull it up. That looks good, but it needs some kind of archway. No problem—draw a path in the ground. When it reaches the wall, an archway appears.
Add some lanterns to give it light. Is the archway too small? Pull at the top edge. But our wall looks lonely, so add a building. Using the building tool, drag out a box to create the main structure. Let's add a tower: the tower tool lets you push and pull its height and diameter. The path tool adds a few doors, and the window tool adds, well, windows.
Not happy about the placement? Just grab whatever bugs you and drag it into place. Maybe merge some elements. The structure will change dynamically. You can even raise or lower the ground, and the whole setup will follow suit. Once you feel you have something worth preserving, jump into the photo mode, tweaking day/night time, light angles, and get the best snaps of your rustic creation (even walking about on the ground in first person). Be sure to pat the sheep while you're there.
The developers describe their game as doodling castles, and that's exactly what Tiny Glade delivers. If you're expecting a game with purpose, you won't find it here (or anywhere else in this sub-genre). The point is to mess around and see where your creativity takes you.
Tiny Glade works well through two mechanisms. It really expresses the dynamic reactive nature of this style of gameplay. The structures respond to everything you do, so you never feel like you're making a mistake, and they spontaneously add embellishments such as farm tools leaning against walls or ivy creeping up the facades.
It also rewards experimentation. For example, combining windows can change their styles. Dragging a tower into a square building might spawn a folly balcony. The gameplay videos show off some other tweaks, such as manipulating wall segments. I was tempted several times to re-record the gameplay video after watching footage of others playing the demo. There is just so much to discover, and it's all beautiful to look at (not bad for a 2-person dev team using a proprietary engine).
📽 Demo Snapshot: Starting a new design
The dynamism and experimentation are the staples of cosy doodle design games. Casual meddling leads to discovery, enriching your design pallet with more choices. Whimsical choices create surprise beauty while expanding your game's horizon.
Tiny Glade has been stirring excitement (and with over 80,000 followers on Steam, it's destined to be a hit). For good reason: this is a very slick and polished expression of cosy design's best qualities. It may be tiny, but Tiny Glade will be a big deal for cosy doodlers everywhere (and SimCity cheaters like me).
Tiny Glade launches on 23 September 2024 on Steam.
Explore The Game with Youtube Chapters:
📽 00:19 Let's start building!
📽 01:02 Placing a building
📽 02:24 This needs a door
📽 04:28 Raise that wall!
📽 05:38 A few windows
📽 10:05 Starting a new design
📽 12:18 Blending buildings together
📽 14:00 Adding an archway
📽 17:50 Rearrange the windows
📽 25:32 Let's walk around
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