Tiny Glade

It's hard to dislike autumn. This is not a declaration of love for this upcoming colourful season, but it is still a starting point for the feeling that can easily be applied to Tiny Glade. Even though you can choose between different seasons and a special theme that changes regularly, the overall atmosphere is one of pure autumnal cosiness. It's basically a very simple game, a kind of stripped down The Sims meets Minecraft with stunning graphics, it's a very simple set of building blocks that, while inviting you into something that's easy to pick up, becomes the game's biggest drawback after a while.

In Tiny Glade you construct small houses, towers, walls, fences and decorate them with trees and flowers, but there isn't really much actual building. Everything is ready-made, using little templates that you adjust in height and length, and yes, you can change some colours and such on the buildings but everything is extremely simple. I do like how the game adds in small details like benches, a ladder, and some other things depending on how you model your buildings, and it's possible to vary and try out quite a lot despite its simple setup. It's cute to see a chair randomly appear because you put a window in a certain place or how a window gets curtains because you adjust its position.

It should be said here that there are no goals at all in Tiny Glade. You build and that is all. The space you have is quite small, but you can squeeze quite a few buildings into the space if you want to create a small neighbourhood or a small square, for example. It's easy to realise that the only limit to what and how you can build is your own imagination, however, this is quite limited by the fact that the game gives you very few tools. Granted, I don't really think it's a big disadvantage when it comes to the infrastructure suite but rather more about extra detail. There is only one kind of tree and you can only use a single kind of flower, and although the look varies a bit depending on where they are placed and what time of year it is, this is the bit I find most difficult to introduce variety. Another thing that is too rudimentary is the modelling of the landscape. You can raise and lower and thus create some changes, but it's often larger areas that are made to be changed and there's a severe lack of intricacy. I would have liked more detailed control over rock and soil instead of it being as predetermined as it is now.

Tiny Glade is beautiful, very beautiful in fact. It's fun to see how the graphics engine, in real time, paints what you place but it's also very comforting from a purely technical perspective. Unfortunately, the music is very lacking in character, but thankfully it's possible to create your own soundtrack from available atmospheric tracks. The way the game looks is one of the biggest pleasures here and this also leads us into the game's photo mode, which is absolutely magnificent. Once you've created a nice place, it's a lot of fun to go around with the camera and find good angles, adjust the depth of field and then capture the perfect shot. Whilst I love photo modes in games in general, it was a particularly good feature here. The game flows very well with no technical mishaps at all and I found myself starting the game sometimes just because it was so pleasing to look at.

Despite limited tools, I like that it's possible to create personalised projects. An idea can be born and a few minutes later you're off to realise it. For example, I had an idea to make a small castle with a wall and some houses outside and from being a small picture in my head to becoming a reality on the screen, it went lightning fast. It also becomes so beautiful to look at and then to find perfect angles with the photo mode. For me, this became a game to return to rather than sit in front of for an extended length of time. Sure, I could find myself getting lost in its charm and simplicity but after tinkering for a little while I usually felt satisfied only to want to try something new a day later.

In many ways, Tiny Glade's strengths are also its weaknesses. Of course, it's a very difficult balance to strike because it's easy to wish endlessly for more things. At the same time, I really wish there was a bit more to the flora options and better abilities to change the landscape and introduce greater intricacy in the terrain. However, these small flaws do not prevent Tiny Glade from being a little gem in many ways that I am convinced that those who want to build small cute scenarios can have incredible fun with this game.