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Imagine an idyllic vacation. Where is your mind wandering? Tolkien’s idyllic glade? Maybe a terracotta hut in a dusty desert? After living in a small town all your life, you yearn for a bustling city apartment surrounded by neon advertisements and walled gardens. Summerhouse is an intimate shoebox world that provides an outlet for such architectural fantasies, allowing players to meticulously craft living spaces that match their vision of the perfect escape.
The antithesis of Grand Design, Summerhouse is a pixelated playpen, an extravagant game for the kitschy, quaint, grand or unknown. You don’t have to worry about budgets, foundations, or planning permission. Developer Friedemann’s hazy, pixelated world will suit your tastes.
“Summerhouse nurtures your inner inventor.” Photo: Friedemann/Future Friends Games
Before donning your metaphorical helmet, choose one of four vibrant spots, including the foothills of a snow-capped mountain or the borders of a metropolis. Once in the field, we skim through the Microsoft Paint-like side menu, which includes windows, doors, and decorations.
Summerhouse is so astonishingly ignorant of physical geometry that his blueprints gather dust on the pavement. Line a tiled roof with a white picket fence like a medieval parapet, or reuse a vending machine as a door. The burden of choice that always overwhelms me when playing city-building games melted into quiet contemplation as I built a house made primarily of mailboxes in an arid valley.
As you arrange the building blocks of your summer house in an inspired manner, you’ll occasionally see cameos from cute characters and new objects that embody your cozy concept. But this is not something to work towards or plan for. Rather, Summerhouse nurtures your inner inventor and allows you to stumble upon progress. This approach lends itself to the game’s warm, welcoming atmosphere, and once you’ve developed a thriving space, it can take the form of a gentle diorama that you can sit and admire, much like in David OReilly’s game.
Mountain.
“A beautiful homage to my past.” Photo: Friedemann/Future Friends Games
With the push of a button, a crisp moonlit night transforms into a hazy, sun-drenched morning. He also liked to whip up a storm of atmosphere reminiscent of a wild Queensland camping trip or a summer barbecue gone wrong. She can explore mini-kingdoms in every state as if she were on a year’s worth of vacation. Summerhouse was the most powerful moment, recontextualizing my actual summer vacation memories. Some of the houses I built were beautiful homages to my past, others were twisted monsters of Escher-esque geometry, but I still fell in love with their tortured abstractions.
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Relaxing is not easy for me. I can’t sit still to save my life. Still, we enjoyed the tranquility of the summerhouse. I used the construction of my house as an opportunity to organize and rearrange my mental filing cabinet, to keep my hands busy and my mind wandering. With its minimalist feel and clicky sounds, Summerhouse is sure to take the frustration out of your day. It’s a thought-provoking addition to the cozy gaming cabal that is slowly conquering my hard drive.
Source: www.theguardian.com
