I’ve been following Town to City for a little while now, since it was showcased during a Wholesome Direct a while back. Now, after having some time with it, I’m eager to see how people feel about it. With Town to City releasing tomorrow in Early Access, I have to admit that I am a bit impressed by the offerings so far.

Town to City puts you in the role of an unnamed protagonist who has decided that city life is too bleak and disgusting. As anyone would, the protagonist leaves their home behind to start a new town, with the hopes of taking that town from a small hamlet to a bustling metropolis over time.

The first thing I noticed as I began to play Town to City was that the game is entirely gridless. You can draw roads and place buildings however you like. In fact, this extends to things such as decorations too. Decorations like flower planters or pots can be placed on windowsills, and light posts can be moved close to doors so that they will turn into hanging lamps.

It is a deep level of customization that most city-builders don’t even consider, which is excellent in my book. You start out by fending for your villagers’ basic needs, but over time, you’ll need to research other buildings like better commerce stalls and things like clothing. The slow build of the game’s mechanics, without any sort of fail state, helps to maintain the cozy vibe.

The only real “failure” of your town is that if you don’t fill the townspeople’s needs, it just slows down the town’s development. If you don’t have enough resources, new families won’t move in, and you’ll just need to wait for your town to grow enough to meet the needs of new people.

Not only can you free-hand roads, you can color the ground to make things like paved areas, dirt areas, and more. Right now, Town to City’s bright spot is its creativity, and that’s what drew me in to start with. As far as Early Access goes, I think Town to City is in a good spot.

According to the Steam page, Town to City’s state is as follows: “The game’s mechanics and structure are in a near final state (perhaps with some small balancing refinement needed with community input!)[,] so the main changes between Early access and 1.0 will be the addition of content.”

The development team intends for the Early Access period to not only take the previously mentioned community input into account but also add content. This includes a new town with its own unique mechanics, additional decorations, buildings, other items, and more. If I had to toss in something from my own personal wishlist, I’d ask for holiday-themed items. Let me make (legally distinct) Halloween Town, or a snowy Christmas Village, ya know?

The development team has also said that they aren’t sure how long the game will be in Early Access, but the time will be somewhere between 6-8 months. They also mentioned that the Early Access version contains about 75% of the game’s final content, though I think that there is plenty of room to grow. Town to City, as a concept, offers lots of elements and creative freedom, so I hope the developers feel that same freedom when making it.

I really like Town to City so far. I’ve played about 10 hours, just leisurely taking my time and building, both in the main mode and in sandbox mode. If you want a cozy city-building game, this is the perfect, low-impact vibe for you.

A PC Preview copy of Town to City was provided by Kwalee for the purposes of this review.

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