The smallest details in dioramas are what catch your eye and capture your imagination: the tiny shrubs at the quiet corner of the building, the empty park bench tucked behind a building, the squawking seagulls that gather along a miniature sea coast. You wonder about the lives behind the architecture, and how they come together to form these peaceful landscapes. Such are the tiny, empty scenes you can spy in the virtual toy and minimalist game Townscaper, which lets you build wonderfully quaint little towns by just clicking—or tapping away—on your screen. There are no goals to achieve or grand quests to undertake: just you, an infinite stretch of waters, and endless possibilities.
And now you have no excuse not to give Townscaper a go, if you haven’t already—there’s a free demo that you can play on your browser right now, so go do it. I’ve just spent an hour fumbling around, and the demo seems largely similar to the full version of the game. You begin by choosing the colours of your structures from an assortment of gentle hues, and just lay your bricks away, one at the time, on the still seas. The bricks will marvellously click together for you with a satisfying plop. That’s how Townscaper works its magic on you: before you know it, you’ll have an entire city laid out for you, filled with cathedrals, suburbs, courtyards, and lighthouses.
What’s remarkable about the Townscaper experience is how tranquil its building experience is. There aren’t any resources to mine or manage, nor many other considerations to keep in mind. There are few, if any rules to follow, although the game’s algorithmic magic may whip up several shapes and roofs that you won’t expect to see. But tucked within its myriad grids and bricks are plenty of secrets to discover. How do you build a stairwell between two structures? How do you construct a rooftop garden? Can you build a floating island? The joy is in discovering these hidden nuggets of architectural knowledge, and then using your new-found skills and trickeries to construct intricate and sprawling seaside villages.
These deliberate decisions to leave players some room for discovery, rather than just offering them the simple means to lay down bricks, is what keeps Townscaper so invigorating. In this sense, Townscaper draws more from traditional games that encourage exploration—like that of Minecraft and even No Man’s Sky—where the player is meant to unravel more about this universe in the midst of their construction and tinkering. Perhaps it seems like a bit of a stretch, but isn’t the freedom to create and manipulate structures, to uncover the rules of this virtual landscape and breaking them, and to craft fantastical, unworldly buildings more game-like than Townscaper’s initial premise of a digital toy?
Plus, the colourful, architectural wonders of Townscaper are just immensely gorgeous. And it’s more than just a collection of walls, bricks and greenery; it’s a canvas for your imagination, deeply malleable to your whims. You can only wish that you could take a short vacation in these whimsical cities.