#toem game

[tobiasrieper]

TOEM (2021) | Something We Made

[resha04]

The 5+1 games I play to get cozy

When the world feels too much and the days feel too fast and tiring, cozy games are (one of) the balm for the soul.

I personally love cozy games with medium-long length, and that have an underlying plot going on, even though it's just traveling the world to take photos. Here, I'll share 5 + 1 of such games, which are my favorite as of April 2024:

TOEM

You grew up listening to your Nana tell you about the legendary TOEM. Now, armed with a camera, a backpack, and your beloved old pocket radio, you go out into the world to find TOEM and take a picture of it (as well as snapping as many photos as possible along the way).

Cute, charming, and very, very cozy, I deliberately took my time playing it because I wanted the experience to last. (Also, when I couldn't progress past a certain point, the dev team was very kind to fix the issue – even though they've moved on to making another game.) It has quirky, adorable characters with quirky, adorable problems you got to help solve, and a variety of animals you can pet (my favorite is the monkey).

Night in the Woods

College dropout Mae Borrowski went home to find her dying hometown still as lovely in autumn as it's always been, but with something sinister lurking in the shadow.

Despite how I made it sound, this game is still very cozy. As Mae, you spend your days visiting your old friends, listening in to the townspeople's convo, stargazing with your old teacher, and visiting your mom at church, among a few, with the stunning background of Possum Spring in autumn. And don't forget the soundtrack!

Wytchwood

"Once upon a time, there lived an odd witch in an odd little house, at an odd little swamp."

You woke up, found a goat have munched through your grimoire, and discovered that you've made a deal with the aforementioned goat – a deal that you can't remember. Go out into the world, craft potions and items, and vanquish 12 great evils while being snarky about it.

As you can see in the picture, Wytchwood has amazing visual. The writing is witty and funny, it has an entertaining cast of characters and fun gameplay, and the music just immerses you more in its world.

Walking on A Star Unknown

(Screenshot by vgperson)

A pair of siblings, Fukurou and Eddie, were traveling the galaxy to fulfill their late mother's wish when they crash-landed on a foreign planet. The planet happened to be hosting a cooking festival, and the winner will get one wish granted by the Goddess. So what else is there to be done except participating and aiming for the win? If you happen to make friends and learn the planet's dark history along the way, it can't be helped, can it?

This is an old game but it has such a special place in my heart even after years. It's wholesome, relaxed, has a ton of fun side-quests and lovable npcs, funny writing, and a touch of dark – a perfect mix of my favorite things. Segawa (the creator) never failed to immerse me in their small but charming world. And I'm usually not fond of too much side-quests, but Segawa's is an exception: the side-quests involve the npcs, and I love the npcs.

You can find it here. Vgperson did an amazing job translating it and its pun-ny writing.

Farethere City

(Screenshot by vgperson)

Pigula, a little boy(?) with one eye, has always dreamed to open a general store. So when he moved to Farethere City, the first thing he did was looking for a vacant building to open his shop. And it just happened that there was one, in the downtown, which happened to be on sale at such bargain price! Nothing is suspicious whatsoever!

Again, despite my description, this is a relaxed, low-tension game. Another of Segawa's game, and also one that has a special spot in my heart. The dark tone is more prominent than Star Unknown, and it's arguably more horror than cozy game, but I still find it very comforting. It's wholesome – sometimes bittersweet, it has a cast of lovable characters, and it has enough mystery to hook you and keep you playing.

You can find it here. My enormous gratitude to vgperson for translating these games, and translating it with apparent love.

(+1) Melon Journey

(Screenshot from the game page)

You woke up after a stormy night, and couldn't find your friend. So you embarked on a journey to find him/her.

It's been a while since I played this game, and I haven't replayed it again, but I remember how much fun I had playing it and how I was a little disappointed that it ended so soon. Melon Journey is shorter than the other five, but it's very charming and very deserving of a place in the cozy games list. The visual is pleasant to look at, and I love the characters and their little – sometimes lovingly silly – problems, which we have to solve if we want them to give us info.

You can find the free ver here. There's a longer, paid version in Steam titled Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories :)

[theguardianace]

toem is a game that was made for me personally i think

[ID in ALT]

[frogdetective]

[hardcoregamer]

20 Amazing Games You Can Beat In One Afternoon

I imagine I'm not alone in this plight because adult life is relentless. So, in a bid to help all you reluctant grown-ups continue having profound and memorable gaming experiences, let's go over some of the best options when it comes to great games that you can beat in a single afternoon.

Check them out!

[crabsinvideogames]

TOEM: A Photo Adventure

One crab can be found atop a rock on the beaches of Stanhamn.

[flame-shadow]

Photographer Pals!

Two of the most recent games I've played have photography as a main mechanic, so I think the protags should hang out :)

[randomname-231]

Hi, back again with some games recommendations no one asked for !

So. My current obsession that I strongly recommend because it is one of the best game in the world no I’m not biased at all it is amazing okay trust me please help I have problems with this game :

SLAY THE PRINCESS

So, this game is a psychological horror game.

If you wanna play it, PLEASE, do not look up for any info about it. The less you know about it, the best your experience will be.

A normal lost phone

I won’t spoil but if you’re part of the LGBT+ community, you may feel some good feelings playing this game. Even if you’re not, it is a great game.

Behind the frame

Honestly, it’s a good story, good visuals,

TOEM

Just an amazing relaxing game.

One of those games where you can make you brain think without it being too much thinking.

REPO

Ingredients for a good REPO game : find the most stupid and funny people you have around you, scream, do random shit, have fun !

Did I talk about slay the princess ?

INSCRYPTION

A great game, tactical, satisfying and honestly great

Balatro

Warning ⚠️ : be careful, risk of high addiction (pleasegetmeoutofthisloopicantstopplayingthisgame)

Downwell

Just… fall

Super Magbot

Do you love Celeste ? Get ready to speed run this game, you’ll want it

Anyway anywho, here was the recommendations, bye !

[velvetwyrme]

pspspspsppsp. yall should go play TOEM, its currently 80% off on steam......... really cute game about photography !!

[chlo-t-99]

Small illustrations of the toem games 📷🦆

[perfectpinkprincess]

There is a special feeling finishing a game in the middle of the night

You're exhausted. The little bit of game left turned out to be a bit longer than a little past your bedtime. You're tired. You want to go to bed, no you need to go to bed. But you're almost done its so little left. And then you reach it. You did it you completed the game. And as you watch the final cutscene a wave of satisfaction goes over you before just getting to go to sleep.

[notsp1derman]

so, i ♡ lists: top 5 little indie games i adore

Not only of books lives a nerdy young woman! I also play a lot of games and, as a graphic designer, I'm fascinated by anything colorful and artfully composed. So, because my little crow brain likes to collect stuff, I collect things I like through lists!!

And where better to start than my ultimate gaming passion: cozy indie games. I've played some, not a lot, but enough to really like the genre, so here's 5 charming games if you want to start somewhere (in no particular order).

Oh yeah, I couldn't start this without making a shoutout to the OG cozy game, Stardew Valley, which catapulted me into this whole thing to begin with. Even after more than 360 hours into this game it still feels new, and the love ConcernedApe has for his creation is felt through every pixel art and dialogue. Definitely a classic for me.

Now, let us start!

TOEM

In honour of this amazing thing getting a sequel(!!!!) let's start with one of the most charming indie games I've played. In this game, you are a little creature that takes on a journey to snap photos and climb a mountain to experience "TOEM", whatever that could mean.

Through helping other beings and fulfilling requests with your photos, we are encouraged to take our time discovering every nook and cranny of various places, and to capture warm memories along the way.

TOEM is a very short but rewarding experience, great for casual gamers looking for a very low stakes adventure and completionist people that love to uncover every secret and achievement. The puzzles aren't hard but offer a nice challenge sometimes, too. God, I can't wait for the sequel!!!!

You can find TOEM on Steam, the Switch e-shop and other consoles.

A Short Hike

This is one of the quintessential cozy games, that is full to the brim with cuteness and the childlike wonder of exploring. In A Short Hike, you are Claire, a crow-like bird that wants to hike up to the top of Hawk Peak in order to get better cellphone signal. But the path is not easy, and as you explore the little island you're in, helping strangers along the way and collecting feathers to make you fly better and higher, you truly understand how a journey is not about its ending.

Amongst beautiful scenery, charming characters and a fantastic soundtrack, I wish I could get lost in this island and never come back to the real world. The only fault of this game is that it ends, but it had to end at some point. This one is also perfect for those who like to explore places and admire views, but there are platforming aspects that offer different challenges than TOEM. In my opinion, it's the perfect game to introduce someone new to gaming, with its calm atmosphere and forgiving controls.

You can find A Short Hike on Steam, the Switch e-shop and other consoles.

Coffee Talk

Now for a change of pace. Coffee Talk is also an amazing introductory game for those wanting to experience visual novels but aren't used to just blocks and blocks of dialogue. With great pixel art to make the plot even more palatable and a nice little minigame, we can fulfill our secret dream of absconding from our regular lives to buy a café and befriend our customers.

The story is simple but actually really interesting, spinning the magical realism and intertwining real-life issues in a really nice way, albeit very on the nose lol :v our regulars are from various fantasy races, like elves, orcs and such, and as we get to know them their struggles feel very real; it's so easy to get attached to them it's crazy. And as your café becomes a safe space for introspection and different problems, you too start to wish for a place like this in real life.

Coffee Talk episode 2 is also very good despite adding little in terms of game mechanics, but I find that formula to be very nice already, so it's a nice playthrough too.

You can find Coffee Talk episode 1 and 2 on Steam, the Switch e-shop and other consoles.

Wilmot's Warehouse

Our last two games involve organizing, but in very different ways. Wilmot's Warehouse is a very simple and square puzzle game with a humorous plotline: you are a very dedicated employee of an Amazon-esque platform, and your sole job is to organize the shop's goods in a warehouse and quickly attend to your other colleagues.

As you get through days of work and upgrades to help you in the warehouse, the game gets more and more chaotic. Some people find this game too fast paced and say they feel anxious playing, which is totally fair, so this might not be your jam. I can just speak for myself, but as someone extremely anxious, especially while gaming, Wilmot's Warehouse was surprisingly soothing. The learning curve was easy and the game encourages you to play more than a single time, so the pressure of the timer got overruled by the satisfaction of organizing boxes by color or by vaguely defined themes.

You can find Wilmot's Warehouse on Steam, the Switch e-shop and other consoles.

Unpacking

But if Wilmot's Warehouse is too much and reminds you of your day job, that's not a problem at all! Unpacking still gives you the joy of organizing but in a much more casual and story-driven way. Through a photo album we follow the growth of a kid into an adult in different homes through her life, organizing her belongings in their right places but also with our own personal way of organizing.

This window into someone's life through only their belongings is at the same time very personal and very universal, with a lot of nostalgia sprinkled in every book, plushy and coffee cup. Makes you want to revisit all the places that were once "yours", no matter how simple or small they were. What was important and not important, the person you grew into as the years went by.

Unpacking is a short game made for everyone, from the clean freaks that will organize every book by size and color to those who will put the diary below the pillow because they did so in their youth.

And with that, I finish this list! It was so nice revisiting games I've already played but weren't long or profound enough for a post. I love sharing my favorite experiences with people, so I hope any of you that finds this thing feel joy and warmth playing any of these games. Until the next one :)

You can find Unpacking on Steam, the Switch e-shop, other consoles and mobile devices.

[cadere-art]

TOEM by Something We Made

Toem is a cute little game about going on an adventures and solving fetch quests by taking pictures. There was clearly a lot of love put into it and it definitely has heart, and does not have any obvious flaws to me, but was also kind of mid. I'd rate it around 7/10. Fun enough, pretty short, but I didn't wish it was longer.

Honestly i just. don't really have anything to say about the game. The stylization works. The music is unmemorable but not bad. The quests are interesting enough and don't feel too repetitive or trite. I felt somewhat annoyed by the fact that, as you play (and especially as you read a walkthrough to find what the hell is it you missed), it becomes obvious that there's an order that if you'd had done things in that order it would've taken a third of the time and one tenth of the backtracking, which, to be fair, did feel typical for the sort of game.

I felt somewhat like I was not really the target audience for the game, and that I'd have liked it more if I'd played it at the same age I first played nintendogs. In this it felt similar to Carto and The Spirit and the Mouse.

[blueeyedrat]

Games I played in 2024.

Man, fuck this year. Here are some video games I felt like talking about, I guess.

(2023 ⇐ 2024)

ABZÛ

There are a few different throughlines to the games I played this year. One is that I delved deep into my backlog; games I picked up in a bundle or a Steam sale some 6 or 7 years ago but never found the time or the hardware for. There are a lot of them. Most of them were worth the wait. I've long since given up on the idea of playing every single game in my libraries to completion, but it's nice to have options.

Another throughline was seeking out shorter games. I've… had some trouble focusing on longer projects this year, so games that I could play in short bursts (like The Solitaire Conspiracy), complete in a few sessions (like What Remains of Edith Finch), or even a single sitting (like Dépanneur Nocturne) were useful for filling in the time. ABZÛ was the first, and ended up being one of the best. Simple but effective gameplay, immaculate visuals and music, and a lot of fish. It was only a couple hours long, but it was the best couple hours I played all year.

Pikmin 4

I played though Pikmin 2 several years ago and had a good time. Last year I picked up a used copy of Pikmin 3 at a convention on a lark, played through it, and had a good time. This year my brother got me Pikmin 4 as a gift, I played though it, and had an excellent time. There's a certain charm these games have that keeps bringing me back, and the most recent game showcases the best of all of them.

Splatoon 3: Side Order

Ahh, time sinks. I still play Sky on the regular, return to Animal Crossing every now and then, and even threw a bit of Eastward: Octopia into the mix. I completed many more loops of Cobalt Core, and more races in F-Zero 99. Over the summer I even found time for some long sessions of Civilization 6.

Splatoon 3 was another mainstay, but this year it reached the proverbial end of the line. The game is still around and I still play it, but like with Animal Crossing before it, the game has been "finished" in that peculiar way live service games are. What exists now will continue to exist, but everything they wanted to do with it is done. Thanks for playing, enjoy the reruns, see y'all in the sequel.

But if it had to end, the one-two punch of Side Order and the Grand Fest made for a good capstone — a well-crafted single-player challenge, and a spectacular you-had-to-be-there finale for the multiplayer side. I can say I was there at the beginning and there at the end, and I'm glad I was along for the ride.

Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers

Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart and its antecedents are a thing I've been vaguely aware of for a long time but never followed too closely, so the sequel was a welcome surprise. It offered an abundance of content and a robust single-player mode, and it's a free fan-made project, so I figured "why not" and gave it a try, and was subsequently hooked for a good month or so. Not everything clicked with me — it's way more mechanically complex than any other kart racer I've seen (I'm told that's part of the appeal, but I've never had the dexterity for it), and it can get frustrating very fast whether you're racing against the CPU or against other players. All the same I can't help but admire it. Ring Racers is a passion project that's as much a love letter to itself as anything that came before, and apologizes for none of it.

Patrick's Parabox

I'll always make room for puzzle games, and this was the standout of this year's lot. Sokoban games can range from "okay" to "clicks with me immediately and is an instant favorite" (Baba Is You et al). Parabox landed squarely in the latter category, occupying my brain for a good few weeks until I'd solved every last level. The different ways it layers puzzles on top of each other were fun to figure out, especially when it starts introducing new ways to "break" them, which it turn become additional layers of the puzzle. Highly recommended.

(Honorable puzzle mentions: The Pedestrian, Linelith, Arranger, Bonfire Peaks, 7 Billion Humans)

Epigraph

While Patrick's Parabox was the best puzzle game I played this year, Epigraph was the most unique. It's another game about deciphering a fictional language à la Chants of Sennaar or Heaven's Vault (which is to say, one that appeals to me specifically), but in a much more compressed form. The entire game consists of a single, very complex puzzle. You're given seven artifacts with undeciphered writing, and a couple paragraphs of notes to start you off, and that's all you get. From there, you have to unravel the language piece by piece, isolating individual words and phrases and meanings until you understand the bigger picture. That such a leap is possible at all is a testament to how well designed the puzzle is. Like I said last year, I want more games like this to exist.

One caveat: only being a single puzzle means there's functionally no feedback unless you've solved the whole thing, so if you've almost solved it, it can be difficult to figure out which part of your solution you need to fix. It's only a minor gripe that didn't detract from the experience overall; as it turns out, I felt the same way about the final puzzle of…

TUNIC

I've been sitting on this one for a while. It's consistently been at the top of my wishlist ever since it was announced all those years ago. I bought the soundtrack the day it came out, but I never delved into the game itself until this summer. Something about TUNIC always drew me back towards it. I knew it was a game I wanted to experience blind, and now that I've done so, it'll be a game that occupies my thoughts for a long time.

TUNIC, the adventure game, is good! A charming little title in the vein of the old Zeldas. Exploring the game world is fun and gives a very satisfying sense of progression, whether though finding new tools and weapons, opening new paths, or discovering hidden paths that were there all along. Fighting enemies and bosses is challenging, but not insurmountable. It does get kinda frustrating in the back half, especially the last boss. The built-in accessibility options make it much more tolerable.

All of this is tied together by TUNIC's central gimmick, an in-game manual pieced together page by page. Most of it is written in a script you cannot read, and it leaves you just enough information to intuit what needs to be done, but forces you to dig deeper if you want to learn the truth: TUNIC, the puzzle game, is a masterstroke. Much like all of those hidden paths and shortcuts, all of the information you need is placed in front of you even if you don't realize it. Decoding the cipher text, and understanding the meaning of the Holy Cross and the Golden Path (not even solving the puzzle, just realizing what the puzzle actually is), was the most satisfying thing I've done in a game in years.

TOEM

Some games are memorable for a particularly hard challenge, or a compelling narrative, or a perfectly crafted setpiece level. Some games are memorable because they're just really pleasant. No stress, no time limits, just vibes. Everything about this game puts a huge grin on my face — the music, the characters, all the places to explore and secrets to find and puzzles to solve. A week, a month, a year from now, I'll have a stray thought about TOEM, and my day will be a little brighter because of it.

I like this game a lot, y'all. Very much looking forward to the sequel whenever that comes out. Take a picture, it'll last longer.

(Honorable mentions from the archives: Storyteller, A Little to the Left, Freshly Frosted, Wavetale, Islets, Arranger)

Here Comes Niko!

While we're on the subject of pleasant games, this is another one I've been meaning to play for a while, and another one I enjoyed a fair amount. Looking back, TOEM and Niko! have a lot in common — vibe-centric games with 2D characters running around in a carefully crafted 3D world, carried by a charming aesthetic and cast of characters, with a core loop of travelling from town to town and doing various small tasks to make friends and help people out. The biggest differences are the genres (photography puzzle versus collect-a-thon platformer), the color scheme (minimalist and monochrome versus bright pastel)… and one more key detail.

I knew most of what to expect when I started, the soundtrack and the aesthetic and the platforming, but knew next to nothing about the story, which caught me off guard. Early on it hits you with a moment of "…oh," that lingers throughout the game as you learn more about what the protagonist is actually trying to accomplish. (At some point I want to write up a comparison of the narratives of Niko! and A Short Hike, but it'd be an entire essay in itself so I'll spare you the details.) I didn't go into Here Comes Niko! looking for pathos, but that's what it gave me and I think it was a better experience because of that. Kudos.

(Honorable mentions from the "I'll get around to this one eventually" list, that I got around to eventually: Going Under, Creature in the Well, Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap, Sonic Mania, What Remains of Edith Finch, RiME)

Anthology of the Killer

The best game of 2024. Like, unironically.

This comes from another developer (thecatamites) that I've been vaguely aware of as someone who makes interesting niche art projects, but only really knew about secondhand from other people, which was still enough to put it on my radar. And now, I cannot get this goddamn thing out of my head. It burrowed in months ago and has lived there rent-free ever since. At some point I need to introduce my siblings to this game because I just need to talk to somebody about it.

Anthology of the Killer is a lot of things. It's a collection of nine short narrative games that have been released over the past few years. It's surrealist horror comedy, and dances between all of those aspects whenever it pleases. It's a satirical take on history and modernity and art. It's a story about death cults and pop music fads. It's about just trying to get by even as the world around you gets stranger and more violent, or as you realize that maybe it already was. It's crude and bloody, and gets away with it by looking like it was drawn in MS Paint. It's a game where I can say something like "Heart is probably the best overall, but Flesh is underrated" and not sound like I'm losing my mind. It's the most well-written game I've experienced this year, and possibly any year.

"Aren't the stars pretty? Isn't it a nice night? Do you think the world is basically good or basically bad?" "Man, I just work here."

Who knows. Maybe 2025 will be better. Just gonna keep spinning the wheels for a while, see if it gets me anywhere. See y'all next year.

[l0re21]

toem !

[frogdetective]

Set off on a delightful expedition and use your photographic eye to uncover the mysteries of the magical TOEM in this hand-drawn adventure game. Chat with quirky characters, solve their problems by snapping neat photos, and make your way through a relaxing landscape!