Shiny Happy People: to a T
Having straight arms is not easy, but this game makes it fun.
‣ to a T
From: uvula LLC, Annapurna Interactive
Platforms: PC
Release: 28 May 2025
Genre: Narrative adventure
Steam Page • Demo Video • Developer Site
Simple, and yet animated and delightful.
Teen, our hero, is not like other people. Her arms are permanently stretched out to her sides, making her look like a human T.
Get it? to a T? The name is a play on her disability, but also how something can fit to a tee, meaning it fits perfectly. Don't worry if you didn't catch those themes. There's a pretty catchy song about it in the game. And it's not the one the giraffe sings about making bread and sandwiches. Yeah, this is a pretty unique game.
You play as a teenager, starting on her 13th birthday. You can customise your character. You can also name her and her pet, but I stuck to the defaults, so she is called Teen and the dog is Dog.
But don't let these bland names fool you. to a T is a rare type of game, one that does its own thing, breaks all the rules, and yet still comes out as remarkable.
Most games have challenges that get harder or stack as you progress. But this game elevates mundane tasks into fun moments. Wash your face. Prepare and eating cereal. Brush teeth. Walk to school. But they are all done with a character whose arms do not bend. It's strangely entertaining and engaging.
Let's take brushing your teeth as an example. Teen needs a very long toothbrush to match the distance between her hand and face. Dog helps her put toothpaste on her brush. Then she brushes her teeth, takes a mouthful of water, rinses, and spits it out.
You direct all of these actions in some way, whether it's tapping buttons so Dog can dispense toothpaste or rotating the controller's right stick so Teen sloshes water inside her mouth.
Simple, and yet animated and delightful. Some tasks are very silly, while others give you a sense of accomplishment. And they can be elaborate. At the very end of the demo, you discover that Teen can fly! Well, sort of. If she spins really fast, her arms start acting like a helicopter.
The demo ends right after this discovery, leaving one to guess how far it will go. Yet, there are collectible coins on some of the roofs of her seaside town, suggesting some type of arcade platforming. This game has a wide array of mini-game surprises for players.
It also has hints of mystery and darkness. Teen's mom is a single parent, and she agonises over telling her daughter about her father, from whom she might have inherited her peculiar arms.
There's also a theme of bullying as some kids pick on Teen. These moments don't threaten to ruin the game's colourful, childlike atmosphere. But they give dimension to Teen and her world. And if it feels like things might be getting serious, there's the music.
📽 Demo Snapshot: Let’s eat breakfast!
to a T has a catchy pop theme song that erupts soon after you start playing. It flashes to future moments in the game and introduces players to a trio of singers who can break the fourth wall (Teen does as well). There are also fun dialogue moments. The characters speak unintelligibly in mumbles and noises as a way to cross cultural and language divides with their emotes and facial expressions.
These design choices make the experience feel universal. The developer's Japanese roots are very obvious, yet anyone can enjoy this game intuitively. It's fun, silly, and a little serious all at once. There's even a theme about how a disability can make one seem different. But this isn't a game with a message. This is a game that happens to include a message.
Foremost, it's about being fun and nice—in the developer's words, who made the beloved cult classic Katamari Damacy. It turns out his real passion is to design playgrounds. That's what to a T feels like: a playground hidden in a thoughtful story and interesting world, where even pouring milk is more fun than it has any right to be.
to a T releases on 25 May 2025 on Steam.
Explore The Game with Youtube Chapters:
📽 00:55 A strange dream
📽 02:27 It's an intro song!
📽 04:00 A day like any other
📽 04:50 Breaking the fourth wall
📽 07:02 Let's get dressed
📽 08:34 Hey, it's Mom
📽 09:40 Washing our face
📽 11:25 Breakfast time
📽 13:50 Brush those teeth!
📽 15:41 Teen doesn't feel like school
📽 18:23 This town has a chorus
📽 19:00 Walking to school
📽 20:21 Stop for a sandwich
📽 20:54 Run to school!
📽 23:10 It's a scary place
📽 24:29 After a hard day
📽 26:29 What's Dog up to?
📽 27:54 The giraffe song!
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What you said about "designing a playground" is such a good way to describe some of the best experiences I've had in games!!
There's elements of discovery, surprise, and freedom in that word...and if I think about it, all the games I keep coming back to have those elements in them (Breath of the Wild was the first game that popped into my head).
Wishlisted!! Thanks for putting this on my radar!