Cozy, sweet, tiny– that is how we would describe the video game Twinkleby. It is an adorable decorating game kindly sent to us for review by Might and Delight. It’s hard to describe it outside of those words as it is essentially that. You decorate in video game format.
Of course it’s a bit more complicated than that but at it’s core, you decorate things as you like. On little floating islands. For tiny little people. Posh people. In elegant gowns. Handlebar moustaches. Trousers. That sort of thing. Pompous little creatures. They’re a little too full of themselves at times. But more on that later. There’s a bit of a story but it’s nothing particularly complicated or something to take too seriously. Just a cute way to keep the game cohesive.
You arrive at a floating archipelago and are told that you can decorate homes and islands and you’re given a simple inventory of decor. A bed, a bookshelf, a table, etc. You spend some time fiddling around with the controls for several minutes before the game really starts. The controls are a bit clunky. The camera is controlled by the right stick, but also the left stick at times. The right stick kind of spins the island on an invisible axis and the left is a cursor. If you select an item, the cursor allows you to point at where you want to place items and sort of snaps them to a grid. The grid isn’t intuitive and it’s hard to place items exactly where you want them and sometimes you just decide that it’s close enough and move on. In order to pan the camera you have to use the bumper buttons, the left bumper/left stick for left and right, and right bumper/right stick for up and down. The system just feels clunky and off. Granted, this review is mostly based on the Steam Deck layout (but even keyboard and mouse feel a little strange). It’s not something that really affects gameplay in and of itself, but you feel like no matter what you do the camera is just a bit off from where you want it. It feels as though you are decorating but someone else is controlling the camera.
The gameplay itself is easy. It’s a simple loop of placing items, buying items, gaining currency and unlocking new islands to decorate. This cycle repeats in a fun and predictable manner, with some occasional surprises here and there. The layout of the menus are easy enough to understand, and navigating your inventory is efficient. It’s exciting to see new items when you unlock them and you’ll find yourself strangely happy to see a tiny tea set or new colors of wallpaper. It’s not at all a graphical powerhouse but this is a game that wants to be cozy, inviting and fun. You’re decorating tiny houses for tiny people, your kitchen doesn’t need to have photorealistic sandwiches and physics engines. All it needs are tiny food items so you can make your dream kitchen, with sconces on the walls, cabinets up high, delicious food on the table… You get the idea. It is your house. Do what you want with it.
The tiny inhabitants that live on your island will use the decor items. They’ll sit outside if the weather is nice, they’ll go to bed if it’s dark or sit down to enjoy a cup of tea in the morning. The inhabitants need to be happy and you need to do your best to keep them happy, which usually just means to decorate to your heart’s content. This is a part of the game that feels at odds with the goal. Your job is to decorate your house when suddenly, a tiny posh person throws their bag on the island dock and expects free reign of your house. The little jerks don’t mean to be rude, they’re just entitled. You do have the option to stop them from arriving but that’s no fun.
You have the option to evict anyone at any time by throwing their bag off the island, at which point they’ll throw a tantrum, cry for a moment then hurl themselves off the edge of the sky islands. They do carry umbrellas and are assumed to land safely, but it is pretty hilarious and we repeated the process a few times until we felt that the person was worthy of the home/island.
The game does a great job of being cozy. You can control almost everything in the world, including the time of day, the weather, the seasons and you can flat out start from scratch should you decide to. All you do is throw things off the island and they’ll return to your inventory. It’s a simple system but at times it feels a bit cumbersome as you have to individually pick items (most of the time). Items that stack can all be picked up at once and thrown at once. So if you want to throw the whole house off the island, you can get it all returned to your inventory at once, but if you made a beautiful garden outside where nothing is stacked, you’re out of luck and must throw each item out one by one.
Overall, Twinkleby is less of a game in the traditional sense and more of a relaxing experience. The game has a few random events and there are definitely progressive steps to take from island to island. The game can be taken at your own pace. You can spend hours working on a single island or you can do the bare minimum to get to the next island. You can revisit any island and you can add or take away items. Maybe you’ll have a beautiful kitchen upstairs but now what do you do with the bedroom? It’s all about the details and the game strives to help you take a break and just live in the moment. Where the real world can be busy and chaotic, Twinkleby is a quiet respite where you can play house and just create a cozy area to relax. Or you can take great pride as you evict everyone and anyone in sight and watch them all bawl their cute little eyes out.
Sushiball Games 