When you play so many games in the indie space, it isn’t unusual to get stuck in trends where titles try to iterate on a game enjoying some success, but thankfully there are also plenty that chart their own path. In the case of Tinkertown, the vibe is somewhere at the intersection of a survival-oriented life sim, given its focus on resources and crafting, and an RPG. The result, to some degree, ended up feeling like a top-down version of Terraria in several ways, with you building yourself up and then venturing out into new biomes in search of new challenges. I just wish it was firing on all cylinders.

To start out, you’ll be somewhat on your own, needing to do some exploring and experimenting to collect your first key resources which you’ll use to start on your path to success. I suppose consistent with its more sandboxy nature, the assumption here is that you’ll be familiar with survival and sim games to some degree, so you won’t be getting much in the way of hand holding or guidance, you’ll just need to trust your instincts and work some things out on your own. Once you’ve gotten yourself suited up, and have built up a starting base of operations, your focus will then move more into exploring, hitting dungeons, and trying your luck in new areas.

What you’ll discover is that the world around you can be a dangerous place, and that you’ll need to continue to gather resources and craft new gear to keep up. Given the fact that the support for combat is pretty rudimentary, more often than not what’s going to determine your success is the degree to which you’re prepared. If you’re not suited and booted with sufficient armor and a worthy weapon, you’re going to be spending a fair amount of time simply running away and hoping to make your escape. At times this ends up making the experience feel like a grind to get together what you need, but depending on what you’re looking for, that may not be an issue.

In theory the ability to play with others would help to alleviate some of the strain of some of these challenges, but my experience with trying to play the game online was spotty at best. Multiple issues with errors before even getting started, or in the midst of things took an element that could have potential and made it unclear whether for the moment it’s fully where it needs to be. That leaves a game that has some potential, and a flavor all its own, but that still doesn’t feel completely ready for prime time.