Tiny Glade is a surprisingly deep game that actually does not have very much gameplay in it at all. Players are given a set of easy-to-use tools and are tasked with building pretty much anything they want. Developer Pounce Light actually describes the different landscapes that players will build upon as dioramas, like those shoebox ones that everyone had to make back in elementary school, but I never got that vibe while playing. To me, it seemed more like I was building fantasy dream homes, villages and castles.
There is no real gameplay in Tiny Glade, which might be surprising for some players. When I first started playing, I was trying to design defensible positions like I do in strategy titles. I was laying the foundation for multiple walls and fallback positions, moats, gatehouses, killing fields and more. And if that is what a player wants to do, then that is fine. However, I eventually realized that no enemies would ever come to wreck my happy Tiny Glade home. With no monsters or barbarians at the gate, I eventually settled in and started to concentrate on just trying to beautify my land.
Even so, playing a game with no goals, even a casual one, is an odd experience. Casual titles like Dorfromantik or even Station to Station have systems or points to collect, win conditions or something like that. In Tiny Glade, your only goal is to exercise your creativity and build the most amazing places that you can. And while gamers who are used to playing within systems and striving for a win might at first think that a title like Tiny Glade might be a little boring, it’s actually strangely addicting to be given such freedom to create outside of any rules or objectives other than having a nice time.
There are currently four backgrounds that players can choose from when starting their construction. There is a summer, winter and autumn environment and then also a flowery one that’s fantasy or storybook like in nature. All of the backgrounds are relatively small in terms of their buildable area, but there is more than enough space to make some pretty detailed houses or castles. Each one also has some nice little extras.
For example, in the summer landscape, when you build a pond, not only will fish start to swim around in it, but eventually ducks will fly in and make it their new home. Little touches like that help to make the world of Tiny Glade seem alive. Day turns into night as you play too, with torches automatically lighting and windows illuminating and glowing out into the darkness, adding yet another pleasing touch and an element of artistic beauty to any scene. There are also quite a few options to color in constructions and give them character, with everything from ivy-colored medieval stones to modern-looking bricks available.
The tools themselves are pretty easy to use. They are grouped into logical areas like walls and windows, and there’s trees, flowers and roads. Selecting the tool you want lets you build that object. To construct a wall, all you have to do is select the correct tool and then drag your wall around to where you want it to go. If you mess up, you can simply hit the back button and try again. Once constructed, you can then select that wall and make it bigger or smaller. It’s all very intuitive and just about anyone should be able to build some nice-looking places with very little practice.
The one slight negative is that there are a ton of hidden features with the tools that are never explained. For example, there are little things like dragging windows together to make bigger ones. And there are some advanced, hidden techniques like using the roof of a cottage-type building to construct a bridge over water as there is currently no dedicated bridge tool. Tiny Glade does a lot of things automatically for players, like building an archway through a wall whenever a road is placed against it, but there is also a lot more complex functionality that can only be learned by trial and error.
If you are able to master the tools, there is a lot that you can do in terms of making a detailed build. One fan of Tiny Glade was able to build all of Rivendell from The Lord of the Rings, proving what can be done once all of the little nuances of the toolset are discovered.
My own personal skill with Tiny Glade didn’t approach anywhere near something like that Rivendell build, but I did very much enjoy my time with it. Playing Tiny Glade is extremely relaxing, and even those like me with limited artistic skills will probably be pretty amazed at what they are able to come up with. I built a small tower home surrounded by a walled garden with a duck pond and colorful flowers that became a little private paradise that I would really enjoy seeing in real life.
Gamers looking for a way to unleash their creative side should give Tiny Glade a try. At just $15 on Steam, there is a lot of value to be had, especially for artistic folks who enjoy creating brilliant and fascinating places. As Tiny Glade aptly demonstrates, not every title has to be competitive or action-packed to be successful. It’s the ultimate free-form building simulator where the only goal is to have a nice time while bringing those verdant landscapes, majestic castles, cozy cottages and rustic villages of your imagination to life.