Townscaper review | PC Gamer

Of all the places I lived growing up, I’ve a particular fondness for the seaside town of North Berwick, waking up a stone’s throw from the rolling waves and screaming gulls, salty air wafting through winding streets. Going back these days breaks the illusion a little, mind—the town’s been further gentrified into a resort, and you can barely move for tourists at the height of summer. Fortunately, Swedish developer Oskar Stålberg’s Townscaper recaptures the magic of exploring an endless series of quaint ports and seaside villages, one tile at a time.

Townscaper isn’t a game so much as it is a virtual toy. A kind of Lego set for building picturesque, cobbled villages as cosy or as sprawling as your imagination desires. No complex traffic, power or infrastructure management here—just left clicking to place a tile (a street at water level, a brightly-coloured house anywhere above that), and right clicking to delete it. Really, that’s all there is to it.