Tiny Glade is a cosy, sandbox city-building game (more specifically, a diorama builder) where players can construct castles, ruins, and other buildings from the medieval era. It was developed and published by Swedish indie studio Pounce Light and was released on 23 September 2024 for Windows. Reviewers have described this as a 'cosy game'.[1][2]
Gameplay
Tiny Glade is a cosy sandbox diorama builder. It does not include any sort of traditional challenge, and the players are given the freedom to do anything with the tools that are at their disposal. The game has a medieval theme and allows for building castles, ruins, cottages and so on.[3][1] Although players construct buildings in pan mode, they have the option of viewing them in first-person mode.[4]
Development
Pounce Light is a two-person Swedish indie studio who is both the developer and the publisher of Tiny Glade.[5] The game was initially released as a free demo in June 2024, which has received a lot of attention during its pre-release stage. This was due to the fact that it had reached over 800,000 wishlists (a feature that gamers use to get notified when the game releases or the price reduces) on Steam by June 2024.[2] The title was also the fourth most-played and the second most watchlisted demo on Steam Next Fest[1][5] and has also been nominated for the best self-published indie game in the Golden Joystick Awards of August 2024.[6] The game was then released on 23 September 2024 for Windows.[2]
Reception
The game has received 'mixed or average reviews' on Metacritic with a score of 74 out of 100.[7] It has also been considered to be a cosy game by various critics.[1][2] In Kiera Mills' June 2024 pre-release review, the game was described as cosy,charming, and creative. But she also mentioned Tiny Glade's demo being somewhat limited.[8] Christian Donlan for Rock Paper Shotgun states that "it feels like we've been here before" and compares it with Summerhouse, another diorama builder.[9] Meanwhile, PC Gamer says that the game is "unwaveringly orthodox" as "everything is awash in a pleasantly low-detail pastel goodness that begs desperately to be loved".[10]IGN finds a sweet spot that "a small slice of flow state to pamper your brain" and makes "the real world seem very far away".[4]
