starrygardengames

[starrygardengames]

Townscaper Review

Townscaper is a city building game with no goals, achievements or story, just a place to let your creativity take over. 

“Townscaper is an experimental passion project. More of a toy than a game. Pick colors from the palette, plop down colored blocks of house on the irregular grid, and watch Townscaper's underlying algorithm automatically turn those blocks into cute little houses, arches, stairways, bridges and lush backyards, depending on their configuration.” (https://www.townscapergame.com)

Townscaper can be played across multiple platforms including android and iOS, the only major exception I found was the PlayStation systems. The game costs around $8 AUD with slight variation depending on what platform you buy on. There is also a web browser version that is free to play.

Before the rest of this review I want to get into a few disclaimers that will affect my personal review of the game:

I have only played this game on the Nintendo Switch and so my review will be from the experience I had while playing on this system.

This is also not my first impression of this game as I have had this game for a while.

I do not remember how much I paid for this game as I like to buy new games to try when they go on sale and because of how long I have had the game.

All videos and screenshots used in this review are from my own game play unless otherwise labelled.

Finally, my experience of playing this game will be different from yours and I would love to hear what your experience of this game was.

And now I am going to start with my biggest disappointment of this game, which is that there is absolutely no accessibility setting or features for Townscaper on the Switch. Which means that some disabled gamers will have to make their own accommodations and changes to the game if they want to experience this game.

A small disclaimer reminder that I have only played this game on the Switch and therefore do not know what it is like to play on other platforms. Where the game may have accessible options or if a disabled gamer has a setup that makes this game accessible to them. That being said I believe that all games no matter the budget should be accessible to disabled gamers across all platforms that it is available on. And that if you are not able to make the game accessible on a certain platform that you either do not release it on that platform, explain why you have made that choice, and guide disabled gamers through accessing the game. Or you work with disabled gamers and game developers to find a way to make your game accessible. And that it should never be up to the end user to find ways to make the game more accessible to them.

I like to start with an overview of the accessibility of a game so that disabled gamers can make the decision on whether reading the rest of my review is worth their time. It is also hopefully to remind game developers and others in the industry that if you are not making your game accessible then you are not making a good game.

Townscaper’s visual style is that of an old European seaside town, even though you could build something the size of a city. It has a wonderfully large colour pallet to create anything from a rainbow village to an imposing marble citadel. The visuals of Townscaper are truly magical and a standout feature of this game.

Video description: A thirty second clip showing basic gameplay from Townscaper. Starts with a small plot of land already placed and then scrolling through the colour selector on the right of the screen and stopping at a bright lime green. Then making a building that is two floors high and in the shape of a Y when viewed from above, part of the first floor of the building is then removed to create an archway.

The basic controls are very simple and easy to learn. There are only three controls for this game, A to add land/buildings, B to subtract land/buildings and up & down on the D-pad to change the colour of the buildings. There are also controls for the camera placement, however I think that is something that is specific to each player. Townscaper throws you directly into the game with a few blocks already placed to help you get started. This allows for player discovery, exploration and pushing the limits of what can be created. While I greatly enjoy that I had to discover everything for myself, that also includes how to access the menu. And while I have experience using and playing on the Switch and could figure out how to pull up the menu, it would be helpful if the game had a small pop up for the players who need it.

While Townscaper offers absolutely no story from the game itself this opens up to endless possibilities for you to create your own story built around the city/town that you create. There are so many interactions that are there for you to discover by playing around with the configuration of the buildings and land, such as arches appearing when you remove the ground level of a building, or grassy courtyards when you completely enclose an area of ground. Throughout all of my playing I haven’t been able to find them all, which is something that makes the game brilliant and one that I enjoy playing.

There is no permanent background music for Townscaper, only a little when you start up the game. This is something that I find odd as the feeling of this game is supposed to be a calm and relaxing experience, which could be greatly enhanced through the use of background music. This game does include sound effects, such as when you place or remove a building/land, and also with the general environment such as disturbing seagulls when you change the layout. So unless you turn the sound off you are listening to the sound effects without any background music, which I find a little bit disjointed. I think that Townscaper could benefit greatly from having some background music, but the lack of music does not wreck the game experience.

You can easily change the lighting, essentially the time of day during different parts of the year, to create the exact scene that you envision. You can also change the visual mode to make it more simple (without colours or detailed shading). I find this helpful if you only want to focus on building instead of being overwhelmed with all of the other details. The other changeable settings are from a more technical angle, which are limiting the fps (frames per second) rate to 30 and toggling the anti-aliasing on and off.

Townscaper is a game for people who want the feeling of a colouring book but elevated. To feel accomplished in a piece of art that you have created. It can be a short mindful activity to give yourself a quick break or an hours long artistic endeavour. It could also be a brilliant tool for TTRPG gamers to design cities and towns for their campaigns. As the controls for this game are some of the most basic - which is a good thing in this case - that I have ever played, this game is perfect for non-gamers and people who want to get into gaming.

In conclusion I have really enjoyed my time playing Townscaper creating my own little towns and cities. A quick reminder of the disclaimers at the beginning, my experience is not your experience and therefore we may have drastically different views and that is okay. In fact I think that it is a good thing. For a game that is only around $8 AUD (with a free browser version) and is available across multiple platforms I think that it is a good value game that you will get a lot of entertainment out of. It is a visually beautiful game, that while it doesn’t have its own story that does not detract from the experience. All of that being said it is not an accessible game for a lot of disabled players, and that if disabled players wanted to enjoy this game they would have to implement their own access needs. Which is really disappointing as it shouldn’t be on the end user to make a game accessible to them, it should come already accessible.

In these reviews I hope to give people the information to decide if a particular game is something that they wish to play. I hope that this review has done that for you. I would love to hear about your experiences playing Townscaper and what you enjoyed or disliked about this game.