Be a tiny brutalist

Genres are multiplying at the rate of black mould. The survivorslikes, the tidy-uppers, the gamblotrons - they spread beyond our control. I enjoyed that library game. Now I vomit at the sight of clutter in a screenshot. This era of PC games is the equivalent of that time you casually told your mum you like figs and now every week she shows up with another 1kg bag of figs. Dried figs, rehydrated figs, fresh figs, figs with roguelite elements, figs with character customisation. Please mum! No more figs!

But sometimes a genre grows quietly and gently, far from the slopweeds. The sandbox building game has yet to sicken me. Townscaper, Tiny Glade, and Sandcastle are toys of cosy architecture. But what if you wanted a toy for harsh architecture? Here you go. Tiny Brutalism is $5 and will have you feeling like... like... okay, look, I don't know famous architect names and every time I write about brutalism I have to go look them up. I thought László Tóth was a real person. Anyway, this little videogame about building blocky concrete shapes is good.

It's straightforward. Pick a plot size (8 x 8, 12 x 12, and so on) then plant down concrete cuboids with some click 'n' drag action. Add slopes, steps, windows, overhead wires, doorways, and harsh halogen lightbulbs. For colour, sprinkle a few trees in the background, grow vines on the walls. Forget about function or purpose and enjoy just doodling and noodling with the good grey hard stuff.

As with other games like this, much of the fine detail - railings, pillars, and other embellishments - will grow out of your major shapes organically. The feeling I get from these games is that of being a gardener. You plant a block and see what grows. Approached with even basic understanding of composition, it's pretty much impossible to make something that looks bad. Also this is brutalism. Looks ugly? It's meant to be like that. Take a screenshot with photo mode.

My biggest complaint is that the fog is way too harsh. Even on its lowest setting it drowns all the colour away from the vegetation unless you're zoomed right in. If you're looking from a wider view, everything is effectively forced into a black and white filter. Given that plants are what adds life and contrast to a lot of your creations, it's a pity you can't take good distant photos that demonstrate this. It did recently get an update that adds a first-person walkabout mode, though, letting you sorta parkour around in your creations. It's not exactly Vholume, but still, neat.

Anyway, there you are, another cheap toy to keep you occupied while you pretend to do your taxes or whatever it is computers were designed to do. Of course, the best concrete in games is still the result of our Quake mapping muckers when they huff a bag of cement dust and go on another brutalism bender. I will not take that title from them.