A literal rocket scientist quit her job to make this cozy city builder full of adorable gourd people

Chill building games are having a bit of a moment right now and the cozy game enjoyers are eating good. With that Tiny Glade release date looming next month, I'm so glad that I didn't get swept away and miss out on the adorable pastel city builder Gourdlets. Folks, you can decorate the inside of the buildings. I'm going to be stuck in this game forever. It's so much more detailed than I remember from the demo I tried last year, which makes total sense now that I know a rocket scientist quit her job to make it.

As with some of the other popular cozy building games of late, Gourdlets isn't a game you can win or lose. You don't even have any money to manage because «we tried explaining capitalism to the gourdlets but it made them feel too tired,» its tutorial says when I first load it up. Same, little gourds. Instead you use a whole toolbar of terrains, trees, decorations, houses, and more to build an island in any size and shape you like for your tiny gourd people.

That's what Gourdlets has that so many players were begging for in the likes of Townscaper and Tiny Glade—little characters living inside their creations. Where Tiny Glade has buildings that procedurally react to what you create, Gourdlets' reactivity comes from its super cute citizens. Your Gourdlets will interact with the things you build: fishing on docks, working on farms, or riding a big Ferris Wheel. It's not just a diorama either, Gourdlets mature the more they interact with things and you can spend a lot more time managing their lives than I'd expected.

As they mature, Gourdlets contribute experience that you can use to call the «parcel train» which drops off new furniture items that you've not unlocked in the catalogue yet. You can name each of your Gourdlets, follow them around, and choose their outfits in the Town Ledger too. When decorating inside a house, you can determine which Gourdlets are allowed to enter, the background music and ambient sounds, and a dress code. Yes, a dress code. You