Gourdlets is like the retirement stage of building sims.
The sport tells you by way of a textual content tutorial at the starting that any city you make in Gourdlets doesn’t have any cash and the little anthropomorphized gourd creatures will probably be content material it doesn’t matter what you construct them. “We tried explaining capitalism to the gourdlets but it made them feel too tired, so you don’t have to worry about managing currency or resources,” the textual content reads.
Studying to play is a breeze. I performed on Home windows PC and the tutorial introduces you to a column of buttons, every with its personal operate: The construct menu pulls up just a little catalog of objects you need to use to construct out your city; the “bulldoze objects & fences” helps you to demolish stuff you’ve constructed. It most likely took me 5 minutes to start the sport and get to work making just a little city sq. for the little guys.
You play the sport from an isometric view, which you’ll be able to rotate by 90 levels to see your pixelated creations from totally different angles. Little touches, like a toggle that permits you to draw straight traces with ornamental tiles or the means to edit the quantity of tiles you need to place once you make a path, make building the crunchy pixelated paths and objects tremendous satisfying. Masses of gadgets — like benches, buildings, and cobblestone paths — are available a spread of rainbow pastel colours proper from the get-go with no grinding. I might construct the Sweet Land cottagecore city of my goals.
True to its promise, you possibly can actually putz round and do no matter. The sport makes use of a system the place you invite gourdlets to city, seemingly as many occasions as you need. (The sport didn’t cease me, however I think about there’s a restrict in some unspecified time in the future.) You don’t handle the gourdlets, so you possibly can sit again and construct as the creatures play and develop up. When you get extra mature gourdlets, you possibly can unlock extra gadgets.
I began with making a city sq., however I didn’t take pleasure in it as a lot as designing some nature areas, so I switched to creating forest campgrounds full with glowing critters, mushrooms, and string-lit paths. I didn’t really feel like the sport incentivized both method of taking part in — regardless of whether or not I selected to make them a extra formal city or deal with building nature areas.
Based on the studio’s Steam web page, this is the debut sport from AuntyGames, and it’s an absolute gem. Whether or not it’s taking a second to understand a gourdlet watering a backyard or discovering the excellent placement for a shell on the seaside, I’m obsessive about this sleepy little sim.
Gourdlets was launched Aug. 24 on Home windows, Linux, and Mac. The sport was reviewed on Home windows utilizing a pre-release obtain code supplied by Future Associates Video games. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These don’t affect editorial content material, although Vox Media could earn commissions for merchandise bought by way of affiliate hyperlinks. You could find extra details about Polygon’s ethics coverage right here.
