They say only the boring are ever bored. Back in the day you’d have been lucky to have a wooden stick to play with – unless it was sunny, in which case you could have the shadow as well. Kids these days with their mobile phones… where’s the imagination? It’s here! In Townscaper, a game which publisher Raw Fury itself says has “no real gameplay”, and which will give you exactly as much fun as you’re prepared to put in.
On launching Townscaper, you will be greeted with a blank and boundless expanse of water. A list of color swatches hangs at the left of the screen and you have a cursor that moves with the left stick – but you are not prompted to do anything. After an hour or two of our testing, curiosity overcame us and we pressed 'A'. Well! Now things were getting interesting. With a plop, a small cube appeared in the water. It was a stone construction – a little seaside wall with a railing around the top. It was like something from a storybook and we pictured rosy-cheeked tearaways larking about and having their chips stolen by seagulls.
And that’s what this game does: Townscaper will take the merest of throwaway inputs and interpret it as a clever instruction to draft a delightful little village scene. It’s like a waiter congratulating you on your choice from the menu as if the gastronomic talent lies with you and not the chef.
We actually tried our best to make something ugly and meaningless but Townscaper was having none of it. Wiggling the stick around and mashing 'A' blindly, then tapping a finger dismissively all about the screen just made for lots of happy plop-plop-plops. When we opened our eyes, we had a piazza with a canal running through it, a pier with a little bench and a binocular, a row of pink seaside cottages with pot-plants on their doorsteps and a wacky tower on stilts that looked like a kindly wizard lived in it.
Next we tried 'B'. It unplops your cubes out of existence – which of course aroused an urge for demolition. But this magical toy is resistant to destruction. Just as slicing a disgusting worm in half leaves two disgusting worms, slicing a darling little waterside hamlet in half left us only with two darling little waterside hamlets. Removing parts of the town becomes a good way to create. Line up an attractive screenshot, use the lovely lighting controls to create a poetic sunset, say cheese and— hmm… that tower’s spoiling the backdrop. Sorry, wizard. It’s like pruning a hedge, but with undo.
With save and load for different towns and some graphics options to manage performance if you go more 'metropolis' than 'cul-de-sac', Townscaper is a very friendly little package. It can be fiddly to move your view around sometimes but it’s hard to get worked up about anything when you’re playing this.
Oskar Stålberg has made a charming and compelling toy for imaginative play. Anyone willing to project themselves into its worlds and tell stories to themselves as they build will have a great time (although young kids might need assistance with the controls). Raw Fury claim to care about “experiences and emotions” not “genres or mechanics”. If that’s where your priorities lie, too, then give Townscaper a shot.
Comments 23
I just have to disagree with all the cons:
I definitely liked Bad North (and their great update), so maybe I'll pick this up somewhere down the line.
I love a good city builder. I just bought Islanders and wished it was a bit more of an actual builder. This will have to wait a few weeks maybe, but I'll get it for sure.
Of course, it’s a very difficult game/toy to affix a definitive number to, but that’s why there’s an actual written review to go along with it. And what a delightful little review it is too. As colourful, light, and charming as the game/toy itself.
Speaking of colour, I notice the beginning of the review used the - gasp - American spelling of the word, while later making a reference to chips being stolen by seagulls, which seems a very British reference.
This is of no real consequence whatsoever, it’s just something I noticed.
Worms do not become 2 worms when severed, it becomes 2 halves of a dead worm.
Looks fun and worth it if you like art and diorama.
@milvus976578
1) also a joy (I had 500 words so decided to assume some intelligence on the part of the reader here)
2) more a matter of opinion than you seem willing to concede
3) sounds like we agree
Hardly warrants the “duh”.
@Maxz thanks for reading the review!
Interesting, but looks like it might get old very quickly? Would be cool if they release expansion packs with different building styles like modern glass buildings, brutalism, art deco etc.
@Arcade_Tokyo It’s not the first time I’ve come away quite tickled by one of your reviews! They’re often uniquely charming.
I think ‘charm’ is something some writers tend to deliberately avoid for fear of being thought insubstantial or ‘twee’. But writing with genuine charm requires a substantial amount of imagination tempered by a similar degree of restraint.
It’s one thing to write sprawling passages documenting your every thought, but to condense that down to something that highlights the key ideas requires just as much work.
There’s a real elegance in being able to write in a style that’s imaginative and expressive without being alienatingly eccentric or downright verbose.
So yeah, I think charm is underrated. So I’m always glad your writing is full of it.
@Maxz ok now I’m blushing! Thanks
Such a sweet sounding game but the dev name, ‘Raw Fury’ seems a bit out of sorts with it
Fun review, and sounds like a nice game. Sold.
This review encourages me to buy a game I was already interested in. It looks real good, and it seems like less stress than Islanders. But what about music or sound? Is that any good?
There’s nothing wrong with a good stick....
I will probably get it when will be in 90% sale.
You ARE able to build towns that feel radically different. Hit up some of the popular creations fromotjera on Pinterest for inspiration. :v
@czdjax
That will probably never happen as to chart in eShop game cannot be priced below $1.99
That is the best you can hope for until maybe when eShop is winding down
If next-gen is tied with this one, that might take more than a decade
I take it there are no touchscreen controls? It's all sticks and buttons?
@n0body there are touchscreen controls and they work just as well as the controller – I found myself naturally swapping between the two
@Arcade_Tokyo Thank you!
That's a buy from me, then!
@Screen that depends entirely on the species of worm, but most of the time half the worm will survive.
Looks like another wishlister one for discount. Sounds like it's for a pick up and play and breezy game session outing for the likes of me. Thanks for the review.
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