Toy town
When it comes to island-building game Townscaper, it’s the little things. We plonk down colourful houses, and mathematical magic works to shape them into a place that looks lived-in. In one click, Townscaper creates a balcony with a tower viewer pointing out to sea. In another, we extend a cottage – and the game places a tiny pair of wellies outside the new front door. We rarely set out with a plan, instead following the game’s lead in search of fresh delights.
Perhaps is the latest in a line of what late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata once termed ‘non-games’:, DS synthesiser , and Jeff Minter’s player-controlled light show among them. Or maybe it’s something else altogether: Shedworks co-founder Gregorios Kythreotis recently tweeted that he feels it’s “a new kind of ‘architectural exploration’ game about discovering the hidden configurations of spaces available behind the algorithm.” In either case, it is doing phenomenally well – when we talk to creator Oskar Stålberg, is about to hit 100,000 early access copies sold in just over two weeks.
