| Tiny Glade | |
| Released: | 23 September 2024 |
| Developer: | Pounce Light |
| Publisher: | Pounce Light |
| Platforms: | Windows |
| Genre: | City-builder, cosy, sandbox |
| Modes: | Singleplayer |
Tiny Glade is a cosy, sandbox city-building game 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.
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.[1] [2] Although players construct buildings in panorama mode, they have the option of viewing them in first-person mode.[3]
Pounce Light is a two-person Swedish indie studio which is both the developer and the publisher of Tiny Glade.[4] Initially released as a free demo in June 2024, it received a lot of attention during its pre-release stage becaues 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.[5] The title was also the fourth most-played and the second most watchlisted demo in Steam's 2024 Next Fest[2] [4] and was also nominated for the best self-published indie game in the Golden Joystick Awards in August 2024.[6] The full game was released on 23 September 2024 for Windows.[5]
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. Rock Paper Shotgun pre-release review described the game as cosy, charming, and creative, but also noted the limited nature of the demo.[8] For the full release, the same outlet stated that "it feels like we've been here before" and compared it with Summerhouse, another diorama builder.[9] Meanwhile, PC Gamer described the game as "unwaveringly orthodox", as "everything is awash in a pleasantly low-detail pastel goodness that begs desperately to be loved".[10] IGN found it to be a sweet spot that "a small slice of flow state to pamper your brain" and makes "the real world seem very far away".[3]