Townscaper, reviewed

Our take

Townscaper calls itself more of a toy than a game, and it is right. You click on open water and a block appears; click next to it and the two join into a house; keep going and you have streets, arches, stairs, gardens and bridges, all fitting themselves together without you planning any of it.

There is no goal, no money and nothing to unlock. The pleasure is in watching something tidy and colourful grow under your mouse. You choose the colours of the walls, and that is about all the control you need.

The link here is to the free early web build on the designer's own site. It is an older test version, it needs a desktop browser and it downloads about 56 MB the first time. The finished game, with more tools and saving, is sold for PC, consoles and phones.

A first sitting

Start with a single row of houses along the water, then build one tall tower in the middle and watch how the town reshapes itself around it.

Where to stop

Stop when you would happily take a picture of what you made. Then take one, because the web build is a test version and we would not count on it keeping your town.

Worth knowing

The web build does not run on phones or tablets. If you love it, the full version is the one to buy; the link on this page is the free one.