![]() Basing roughly half of the game on real-world locations helps to ground the more outlandish conditions. ![]() On the other hand, I don’t think I could enjoy a game that was just about UFO crash sites and dinosaur parks. It needs silly ideas to balance out the chore of unlocking the Eiffel Tower. Tinytopia wouldn’t work as well as it does if it was just a clear interpretation of a municipal planning tool. To say that there’s more value to be found in one style of level or the other would be ridiculous, as they go hand-in-hand. From building casinos in the desert to balancing a town on a seesaw, the variety of challenges is important to the longevity of play. Too much of one style would quickly become as repetitive as the gameplay, and there wouldn’t be any interesting creative situations to look forward to. The balance between the more straightforward and the nonsensical levels is an important part of what makes this title work. The premise for each level is different each time, bouncing between real-world places and absurd fantastical scenarios, which helps to keep the schtick interesting much longer than it should. The twist in Tinytopia is that buildings can be upgraded through specific arrangements and everything is shrunk down to exist on a coffee table. This conceit isn’t going to be foreign to anyone that has ever played a SimCity or RollerCoaster Tycoon you’re just a simple character, looking to create the greatest cities of all time. Players are put into the role of an unseen “Mayor,” who has complete control over what buildings get placed and where they end up. Either way, it was an interesting try.3) GRAPHICS/AUDIO – JUST TOO CUTE STORY – CHAOTIC AND QUIRKY But this isn’t that, and I don’t think the Devs intend it to be. I would love a city game, where along side managing a city, you had to manage weird geography and disasters by doing crazy stuff, like leaning buildings onto each other. I just think that so far the concept sounds better than the execution. If you still think this sounds cool, or if you just wanna blow a city up for a few minutes after the game refuses to continue, download it. Image: MeNic GamesĪs always during the Steam Game Festival, this was just a demo and by a fledgeling studio. No where is there wild physics shenanigan’s. You build houses so you can get people, and build stores so they can get jobs. Physics games are fun because they’re unpredictable and often lead to wild explosive situations, which isn’t how this game plays either. This game has no grid and makes you throw building willy-nilly, sometimes breaking your city in the process. City builders are great for people who want to be precise and get into the nitty gritty of civic planning. But conceptually, I worry that this wild idea forgets what makes the two concepts that it mixes great in the first place. I can also understand a lack of polish and game breaking bugs. See, this is a demo, so I can put aside things like weird UI that doesn’t have an immediately obvious way to start a level(see image). The physics base draw of the game though is that if you place buildings wrong they may fall over, destroying them selves and injuring the people inside. And that’s about all the game will tell you. ![]() Tinytopia is exactly that, a physics based city builder that replaces building upgrades in sim city, with the act of placing buildings on top of other buildings, and watching them morph into the upgraded forms. You’d ask me why I thought this would be a good idea. For instance, what if I told you that I had a physics engine game, mixed with a city builder. However, some concepts do absolutely nothing for each other. When this sort of genre mixing goes well, it brings out the best features of both concepts. And obviously it worked well enough for them. For instance, Fall Guys(I refuse to add Ultimate Knockdown) is a mix of the Battle Royale genre, and obstacle course TV shows, like WIPEOUT. It is fairly common practice, to come up with a game concept, by mixing two other concepts. So why am I talking about it? Well… it’s concept was interesting. When it comes to the Steam Game Festival, this is one of those weird ones that doesn’t really pop, or immediately grab attention. Hell, it broke so bad when I played the demo that I couldn’t even finish the first level. Frankly this game looks like an interactive ad for a phone game.
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