Tiny Glade

Tiny Glade is a cosy sandbox city-building game where players can construct castles, ruins, and other buildings from the medieval era. It was developed and published by Swedish indie studio Pounce Light and was released on 23 September 2024 for Windows and Linux.^[1][2]

Tiny Glade
Developer(s)	Pounce Light
Publisher(s)	Pounce Light
Engine	Bevy
Platform(s)	Windows Linux
Release	23 September 2024
Genre(s)	City-builder, cosy, sandbox
Mode(s)	Single-player

Gameplay

Tiny Glade is a cosy sandbox diorama builder. It does not include any sort of traditional challenge, and the players are given the freedom to do anything with the tools at their disposal. The game has a medieval theme and allows for building castles, ruins, cottages and so on.^[3][1] Although players construct buildings in panorama mode, they have the option of viewing them in first-person mode.^[4]

Development

Tiny Glade was developed by Pounce Light, a two-person Swedish indie studio.^[5] Initially released as a free demo in June 2024, it received a lot of attention during its pre-release stage because it had reached over 800,000 wishlists on Steam.^[2] The title was also the fourth most-played and the second most watchlisted demo in Steam's 2024 Next Fest^[1][5] and was also nominated for the best self-published indie game in the Golden Joystick Awards in August 2024.^[6] The full game was released on 23 September 2024 for Windows.^[2]

Reception

On its release in September 2024, Tiny Glade received 'mixed or average reviews' on Metacritic with a score of 74 out of 100.^[7] It's considered to be a cosy game by various critics.^[1][2] Rock Paper Shotgun's pre-release review described the game as cosy, charming, and creative, but also noted the limited nature of the demo.^[8] For the full release, the same outlet stated that "it feels like we've been here before" and compared it with Summerhouse, another diorama builder.^[9] Meanwhile, PC Gamer described the game as "unwaveringly orthodox", as "everything is awash in a pleasantly low-detail pastel goodness that begs desperately to be loved".^[10] IGN found it to be a sweet spot that "a small slice of flow state to pamper your brain" and makes "the real world seem very far away".^[4]

Accolades

Year	Ceremony	Category	Result	Ref.
2024	The Steam Awards	Sit Back and Relax	Nominated	[11]
2025	BAFTA Games Awards	Technical Achievement	Nominated	[12]