Darcy Maunder

Tiny Glade has been sporadically popping up on my social media for the past couple of years and immediately won a place in the slightly muddled ‘games to watch’ list I keep in my head. The charming art style, fantasy/medieval theme and satisfying animations quickly set it apart from other building games I’ve played, and I found myself excited to give it a try. When the demo came out, I spent some time messing around making wizard towers and cutesy cottages and generally enjoying the atmosphere. I then promptly proceeded to forget the game existed until May 2025.

Almost a year after its initial release, Tiny Glade has proven itself to be extremely popular, with ‘overwhelmingly positive’ reviews from thousands of players on Steam. It resurfaced again in my mind when my friend and I were hunting for something relaxing to play, and we decided to give the full game a go. Ten hours of building later, I’m here to enthusiastically tell you why this game is now one of my all-time favourites.

What is Tiny Glade?
The two developers behind the game (Anastasia Opara and Tomasz Stachowiak) intended for it to be a ‘stress-free’, ‘feel-good’ diorama builder that reacts as you create. Every tweak and change you make is complemented by the environment, making the glade feel alive. The way it responds makes it seem much more personal than other building games, as if you’re actively breathing life into what you’re designing. Dragging a window to ground level makes a door, drawing a path up a cliff forms rocky steps and placing banners close to one another makes bunting! Of course, these are only a few of the tricks and somewhat hidden mechanics that you pick up along the way; there are far more that, in my opinion, are more fun to discover yourself.

What makes it special?
Construction mechanics aside, the game features an enchanting soundtrack, smooth and fluid gameplay accompanied by a refreshingly uncomplicated UI, and ridiculously cute animals that accompany you as you design your glade, though they might get a little annoyed if you place a building on top of them. Tiny Glade is also gridless, meaning objects aren’t restricted to certain positions, giving you more freedom for placement than you’d find in Minecraft or The Sims.

While Anastasia and Tomasz are the sole developers of the game, the team also includes Olda Tilset (music composer) and Martin Kvale (sound design). The sound design in particular is an area in which Tiny Glade excels. Sadly, I can’t accurately convey each of the sound effects in writing, but I can tell you that they are all immensely satisfying and greatly add to your enjoyment of the game.

During my time playing, I began making simple things, generally a single building with some flowers, ponds and maybe a cliff or two. It was a good stress reliever, but the game hadn’t fully won me over yet. The turning point came when my friend and I began to work together on a build over Discord, discussing ideas and eventually designing a whole village surrounded by a rickety stone wall, which he affectionately dubbed ‘The Cheese and Hamlet’. As we played, we came up with new ideas to utilise the mechanics, figuring out how to make balconies, bridges and lantern-lit streets that fit the vision in our heads. Each new success was weirdly exciting, and we got really hyped whenever we discovered another trick we could use in our designs.

Are there any cons?
As with any game, Tiny Glade isn’t perfect. On the surface, it’s fairly limited compared to other building games in terms of space and personalisation, and the ready-made look of the buildings can feel slightly creatively stifling. Negative reviews on Steam, though they are in a tiny minority, often describe the game as being ‘too simple’ and complain that there isn’t enough to do. While there are things I would love to be added to Tiny Glade, like a props library or the capability to decorate the interior of your buildings, I do feel that a lot of these reviews are entirely missing the point of the game.

Tiny Glade is designed to be simple. If you’re comparing it to a hyper-realistic building game with thousands of furniture items, wallpapers and varieties of the same potted plant, Tiny Glade is going to come up short, but that’s intentional. It’s a small area for you to relax, doodle and enjoy the aesthetics and atmosphere, not intricately plan the blueprints for a mansion with measurements down to the millimetre. The objects you place are automatically pretty because you’re not supposed to get bogged down with the details, just have fun with it. Competition, action and a healthy amount of stress have their place in gaming, but it’s not in cosy games, except for when you’re sprinting to get home in Stardew Valley before your character faints again.

Even with its limitations, the game has huge usage and potential. Aside from stress relief, you could make DnD maps, envision locations for a novel, or even roughly plot out a design for your dream garden. Certain objects aren’t ready-made, but if you spend half an hour learning the mechanics, you can make and personalise them yourself. The Community Hub on Steam is packed with player-made tutorials, references and supportive comments. There’s even a dedicated fan-made website, ‘Open Glade’, featuring pages upon pages of breathtaking creations. Players have managed to make hundreds of things that aren’t included in the base collection by combining different objects and getting clever. In the end, it’s only really limited by your own creativity.

Is it worth it?
Short answer? Absolutely. If you’re into cosy games, it’s well worth the small investment. When you’re looking for new things to play, there’s never any shortage of AAA studio-developed games with constant updates, mods and add-ons, but they often lack the detail and character you get with an indie studio like Pouncelight. Tiny Glade is clearly a labour of love for the developers; the community is listened to, and the updates reflect that. Also, any game that gives me cute sheep and ducks I can pat while I build is a win for me.

Tiny Glade on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2198150/Tiny_Glade/