Pumpkins is like the retirement phase when creating Sims.
The game explains to you in a text tutorial at the beginning that every city you visit in Pumpkins has no money and the little humanized pumpkin creatures are happy no matter what you build for them. “We tried to explain capitalism to the pumpkins, but it tired them out too much. So you don’t have to worry about managing money or resources,” the text says.
Learning the game is a breeze. I played on a Windows PC and the tutorial introduces you to a column of buttons, each with its own function: the build menu brings up a small catalog of objects you can use to build your town; ‘Bulldoze Objects and Fences’ lets you tear down things you’ve built. It probably took me five minutes to boot up the game and start working on building a small town square for the little ones.
You play the game from an isometric view that you can rotate 90 degrees to view your pixelated creations from different angles. Little touches, like a switch that lets you draw straight lines with decorative tiles or the ability to edit the number of tiles you want to place when creating a path, make creating the crispy pixelated paths and objects super satisfying. Many items – like benches, buildings, and cobblestone paths – come in a variety of rainbow pastel colors right from the start, with no sanding required. I was able to Candyland
True to its promise, you can really dally around and do whatever you want. The game uses a system where you seemingly invite pumpkins into town as many times as you want. (The game didn’t stop me, but I imagine there’s a limit at some point.) You don’t manage the pumpkins, so you can sit back and build while the creatures play and grow up. Once you have more mature pumpkins, you can unlock more items.
I started by designing a town square, but I didn’t enjoy that as much as designing some nature areas, so I moved on to designing forest campsites with glowing animals, mushrooms, and pathways lit with fairy lights. I didn’t feel like the game encouraged either style of play – whether I chose to build a more formal town or build nature areas.
According to the studio’s Steam page, it’s AuntyGames’ debut game, and it’s an absolute gem. Whether I’m taking a moment to admire a pumpkin watering a garden or finding the perfect spot for a seashell on the beach, I’m obsessed with this sleepy little sim.
Pumpkins was released on August 24th for Windows, Linux, and Mac. The game was tested on Windows using a pre-release download code provided by Future Friends Games. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These have no influence on editorial content, but Vox Media may receive commissions for products purchased through affiliate links. More information on Polygon’s ethics policy can be found here.
