Gourdlets Preview

During the Wholesome Direct, we got to see a glimpse of an upcoming relaxing city builder named Gourdlets. This cosy title — which is being developed by (the adorably-named) AuntyGames and published by Future Friends Games and AuntyGames — has just one goal: build and decorate.

Truth be told, it doesn't take much more than that to sell a game to me because I could spend (and have spent) hundreds of hours just adding furniture and rearranging decor; that being said, I would be lying if I said the main hook wasn't the adorable gourdlets that inhabit the places you build. These lovely little buddies arrive at a steady stream through the train station (although you can turn this off to limit how many there are) and interact with the items you've placed down. This brings a ton of life to the areas you create because it's nice to just watch them wander around, sit on benches, and drink coffee; it’s kind of like a pet simulator.

While during the demo the number of buildings and furniture was limited, I still got to play around and make a cute little town and a green area right beside the station. And although the items for decorating inside the buildings felt more limited, I still got to furnish a bakery and watch the lil denizens sit around drinking coffee and eating cake. 

As for the actual hands-on creation, Gourdlets does a good job at making it quick and easy to build and rearrange things thanks to its numerous hotkeys to switch tools; this accessibility is further enhanced by the ability to play with a mouse, keyboard, or both. Everything is neatly placed inside a category to easily find what you’re looking for, and the items available in the demo are most definitely enough to create a tiny wholesome town of your own.

I look forward to the game's release, as the bit I got to play was very enjoyable: the colours and music are very wholesome and cutesy, and there’s something endlessly satisfying about building a cute little town block by block for those cute buddies!

If you like decorating and cosy titles, I think you should try out the demo for yourself. The game might seem a bit simple, but you really don’t need more when you can just sit and watch the little gourdlets live their lives! It will be a great idle game to just make the town and watch them go about it while you work.