Fangtopia is a scarily delightful puzzle city-builder that I could probably sink my fangs into for a few hours

A bit of creepy crawly, low-key city building? Ah, go on then. October and Halloween might be behind us, but Fangtopia is a puzzle game stroke city builder that still feels appropriate for late autumn. Having had a go with its demo, it’s deceptively simple, in fact it felt so simple I wasn’t entirely sure if I was doing anything at all. But when it clicked, all the pieces fell into place resulting in a pleasantly chill time.

The game is tile based, each tile having six sides, all of which are rotatable. These tiles come in different flavours, like forest tile, or a mountain tile, a wheat field tile, a village tile etc., you get it! And then some of these tiles mix and match those traits, hence why they’re rotatable. You only have a certain amount of these tiles in what is essentially a deck of cards, though I hesitate to call it a deck builder, it’s more just that each tile you’re able to place is random from one move to the next. Placing certain amounts of tiles next to particular landmarks that crop up then add more tiles back into your deck, so you can keep building your little island.

Once you build up your little island, classic monsters like werewolves, yetis and the like crop up and they do their own thing. You know, monster stuff. One of my favourite aspects was that you could build your own little spectral trainline too. It was mostly for the aesthetics, though (I think) also helps you gather tile resources, but really I was just in it for watching the ghost train navigate its way along the path I set for it.

It reminded me of Lego Loco, an old simulation game where you build up a town and train network for minifigures that my dad would leave me to play obsessively at his work to keep me distracted. There’s something so delightful in building up a quiet corner of the world with not particularly high stakes, a quality I think comes through quite nicely in Fangtopia. Worth a punt, whenever it comes out! You can wishlist it on Steam and try out its demo in the meantime.