Tiny Glade: A Relaxing Gateway Game Before Our Shire Adventures
2025 has already been…. let’s say… hectic? Insane? The worst? Another world event day after day? Yeah, games that require no brainpower sound like a nice escape. But, while we wait for Tales of The Shire to launch in March to save us with cozy Hobbiton, there is one game I recently picked up that will give us that feeling of starting anew. Because you will have a fresh glade to build upon in Tiny Glade.
A Tiny Synopsis
Tiny Glade is a single-player builder game that lets you, in the developers’ own words, “doodle” whimsical castles, cottages, and ruins in a small glade in the woods. That’s all there is to it. You can just go to town with your creations. Make vine-covered buildings and build towers that replicate Disney’s Rapunzel. ANYTHING! This game is just the perfect sandbox to unwind and create. It’s every cottagecore lover’s dream game.
Mechanics to help build your Tiny Glade
When you start up the game, you’re given a set of glades to pick out to build upon:
Summer
Autumn
Olden
Flowery
Winter
Daily theme
The game comes with a couple of options to build with. Structures, from basic blocks, towers, fencing, or walls, can be used and customized to any size as you see fit. Once you build a block, you have the creative freedom to shift it, make it wider or taller, move it around, turn it, etc. You can also use the eraser to make your structures more like ruins, little by little, if you would like. There are windows that, if placed at certain points, turn into doors. You can create little ponds with the water tool, grow wildflower beds, and place some more trees if you think the forest around you isn’t enough. Finally, the terrain tool allows you to lift the terrain if you believe the glade is a little too flat. Maybe you’ll launch one of the little sheep roaming around and see them fall slowly with their little umbrellas.
The base given to you when you pick the daily theme on February 16th, 2025
What makes this tiny builder the perfect escapism
This game asks nothing of you. No taskbars to complete to unlock new tools and features. There is no leveling up involved. There are no challenging quests you must take or payments to a greedy tanuki in order to expand your home (Sorry, Animal Crossing). The full game is available to you from the start. You are greeted with the sounds of peace, nature surrounding your ears, and a little ASMR with brick sounds as you build, the rustle of leaves when you plant, and the sound of the earth moving below you as you lift the ground. You don’t need to worry about anything as you create; it’s but endless peace.
One of the cottages I created using the game’s daily themes in previous image. Built a little cottage inside the ruins provided as a base.
My perfect escapism and also an artist tool
I’ve heard of this game for a long while, but I never got a chance to play due to my old PC not wanting to function. But after finally getting a Steamdeck, I feel stupid not getting one soon JUST to place this game. As someone with high-functioning anxiety who gets overwhelmed easily, this game is now part of my daily routine to unwind. I enjoy working on new creations with daily themes provided by the developer. I love seeing what others create and post in the community section on Steam. It’s just been so healing to my mental health in just a few weeks of having the game. I highly recommend this game to those who just want a little bubble to relax and turn off the brain and recharge. I recommend it to artists, too! It’s a nice tool to plan out your little cozy environments! I plan to use it for that purpose down the line. I think I’ll just be playing this game for a very long time and building so many cozy cottages.
The game is available on Steam and was developed by Pounce Light.
Any similar games that you know of?
Do you know of any games similar to Tiny Glades? I would love to know in the comments below! Let me know also if you’ve played this game and your thoughts! Thanks for reading!
