I was starting to get bored of decorating in cozy games, but the demo of Twinkleby has reminded me that nothing needs to be picture perfect as long as you're having fun

I love a good comforting decorating game as much as the next person. I've sunk more time into dressing up everything from farmyards and homes to full islands than I could comfortably reveal. But I can't lie, over the last few months I have found myself getting bored of the routine of picking up and placing furniture in a desperate attempt to make something visually appealing. That's until I played the demo of Twinkleby, which reminded me that I don't need to make something picture perfect every time to still have fun.

Rather than being tasked with a huge amount of land, or an entire house to decorate, the demo of Twinkleby gives you a fairly small island to let your creativity run wild on. You're also given a selection of furniture and decor to place, including two small houses which you can decorate internally too. From the get-go, you can immediately place everything wherever you want. The only restriction is making sure it doesn't overlap with any other item you've already put down. Even that can be easily avoided since it's just as easy to move items around as it is to put them down in the first place.

With that said, you're only given a limited amount of each thing, with the opportunity to unlock later down the line when you've progressed slightly further and collected falling stars that land on your map while you're building your little world. Given the amount of space you're working with in the demo, you don't really want much more than you're given though.

Otherwise, you'll have random potted plants and bookcases scattered around. As much as I praise the freedom you're given to decorate wherever and no need to make things so visually appealing, even I wouldn't dare put inside furniture outside. Thankfully, among your items you're also given things like trees, bushes, and rocks alongside streetlamps, bridges, and park benches to decorate with rather than relying on household furniture.

The thing I loved most about the demo of Twinkleby is the fact you are decorating with a purpose. In games like Tiny Glade, I enjoyed the freedom but couldn't help feeling slightly off put by the fact I had no real reason outside of a sense of accomplishment to create something satisfying. You're not just doing it for your own pleasure. You will get visitors who want to live on your island and reside in the houses you've just meticulously crafted. Not only that, these visitors have needs they want you to meet too.

For example, the two visitors I had both arrived hungry, so I set up a picnic spot next to the river with enough food to hopefully satisfy both of my guests. Yeah, okay, this did also feature an entire roast chicken and a plate of what I assumed to be empire biscuits but you never know what someone is craving, and I wasn't given an entire menu of items to choose from so had to work with what I had. Before you judge me, both of my little visitors happily tucked in and enjoyed the meal.

But, as is the way with all demos, you're only given a small portion of the game and your experience with Twinkleby is capped after two neighbours have come to live on your island. Which conveniently, is just as I started to feel myself slip into the headspace of letting hours fly by as I carefully created my perfect island. You can't expand any further than the land you're given, and you will run out of furniture (if you don't run out of island first) if you keep playing past the wishlist screen. There's no denying that it has left me wanting more.

Unfortunately though, Twinklyby doesn't have a release date yet. The Steam page states a window of 2025, but it could be a while before I'm back to playing God and welcoming new friends to my gorgeously decorated islands in the sky. Sure, that gives me plenty of time to brush up on my feng shui knowledge to give myself a headstart on creating my next island. But until then, maybe I'll go back to my library of other games with a heavy emphasis on decorating to see if my skills have improved in any way.