While many people traditionally look to their games for thrills, the ever-growing cozy gaming movement has more than proved there’s room for simpler and quieter experiences as well. Summerhouse absolutely falls into that category, delivering no thrills but instead a pretty simple set of elements that will ultimately serve as building blocks for constructing your own structures, whether trying to make some grand sort of mansion or spreading out to piece together a small town. The whole point is really that this is your sandbox and you’re free to experiment with it as you like. 

The first order of business is simply choosing the locale you’d like to build in, whether the city, on the sea, or even in the mountains. From there you'll simply get to scroll back and forth in the space to find the spot you want, and then start plunking down elements. While many of them are simply pieces of buildings, there are also options for doing things like some simple landscaping, adding signage, and other generalized basics. While the selection of objects of each type isn’t all that extensive, as you play you’ll continue to unlock at least a limited set of new things to play with.

Aside from the pretty meager selection of elements to work with though, the game’s biggest problems are tied to the awkward controls, and a real lack of any meaningful direction. I get it, the goal is to give people something to toy with as they choose, but that doesn’t mean that some fundamental explanations of how to interact with this world would put the player’s personal choices in peril. Quite honestly, a follow-up issue is that even once you work it out, they’re simply not very well implemented. Worse, the experience feels more like a tech demo or coding exercise than a game, and it doesn’t take long to simply be bored with it. The thing is, as other pretty simple games in this generalized vein like Townscaper or Dorfromantik prove, smart design and creative ideas can still be delightful and surprising without needing to sacrifice a cozy feel.