When I’m previewing a game yet to be released, it’s rare that I don’t want it to end. But with Tinykin, I simply couldn’t pull myself away.
Scheduled to release on PC and consoles this summer, Tinykin from Splashteam and TinyBuild casts you as a tiny spaceman, stranded on an oversized Earth. Taking place inside one normal-sized home, the world you’re set to explore is huge to Milo, your protagonist. One living room becomes a sprawling metropolis, stretching in all directions. Good thing you’ve got a few tricks up your sleeve to help you get around.
Taking a leaf out of the book of the likes of Pikmin and The Wild At Heart, Milo can command an army of tinykin – small creatures that have a variety of uses. Pink tinykin can carry large objects, while red ones explode on impact, blowing up whatever they make contact with. Milo himself can also jump, glide, and get around quickly on his ‘soapboard’, making traversal in Tinykin‘s overgrown world a lot of fun.
In the full version of the game, Splashteam promises more types of tinykin, expanding their usefulness. What’s neat is that you don’t have to waste time pressing buttons or scrolling through a wheel to select the correct type of tinykin; simply aim, and the game automatically selects the right type of tinykin for the job at hand. It’s the sort of small touch that doesn’t sound much on paper, but in the flow of the game, it goes a long way in making it a more pleasant, fluid experience.
In fact, just about everything in Tinykin is a pleasant experience. From the gorgeous visuals to the open, exploratory gameplay, this is the type of game I can see myself losing hours in. The visuals immediately won me over; Milo and his tinykin companions are hand-drawn 2D characters placed over a well-realised 3D world; the result is something rather special. And whether you’re climbing up a cat’s scratching tree or exploring the dusty, murky depths of underneath the sofa, you’ll find plenty of things in the world to make you smile. This is a living, breathing world where cute little bugs have matchboxes into beds and corks as barstools. They’re ingenious little buggers, really.
I’ve only had my mitts on one level of Tinykin, in which I explored every nook and cranny of a living room. The overall goal is to find components needed to craft a device that will ultimately help Milo get back to his home planet, and those components are dotted around the house. But while exploring each room, you’ll find other quests to complete, various collectibles and currency to pick up, and dozens of characters to meet and engage with. This isn’t the sort of game you can simply run through; its sprawling, interconnected world begs to be explored. And you’ll want to, because it’s all so lovely.
Watch us play through the first 30 minutes of Tinykin’s demo build in the video below:
I’m genuinely excited to play more Tinykin, and if you’re a fan of platforming, light puzzles and adventuring, then I daresay you should be too. The preview may have been short, but it’s convinced me that this is something special.
Tinykin is set to release on PC and consoles this summer. We’ll have more on the game closer to release.
