Miniatures Review
Other Tales’ Miniatures is an artful collection that wistfully explores childhood imagination.
Miniatures. (Credit: Other Tales)
Today marks the release of Miniatures by developer Other Tales, a collection of four short adventure games that explore childhood imagination, each with a certain degree of darkness. The stories are only connected by the theme; each is a distinct short experience with its own gameplay and art style. While I enjoyed some more than others, they’re all beautifully made, charming, and magical.
Miniatures. (Credit: Other Tales)
The first one I played, The Paludarium, is about a latchkey kid who imagines a jungle taking over his house as he reminisces about building a terrarium with his dad. The game’s art has a clean look, with everything rendered with blues, greys, and reds, occasionally with thin black lines. There’s a certain sadness to it that begins to lift as the kid’s imagination seeps into reality.
Miniatures. (Credit: Other Tales)
The second was The House of the Moon, my least favorite of the four, though still a great experience. It’s about a young girl who goes on a journey to search for her mother, who has left with the moon. This one is more linear in terms of player interaction. It plays out like a storybook, complete with text on the page. The art style is painterly and textured.
Miniatures. (Credit: Other Tales)
Then I played Familiar, a game about a family assembling a flat-pack cabinet. It felt like an interactive animated short, made in a style reminiscent of animator Bill Plympton’s sketchy pencil work. This was my favorite game of the set because of its familiar situation and shifting tone.
Miniatures. (Credit: Other Tales)
The Last Sand Castle is the most whimsical game in Miniatures. It feels like a toy as you point and click within the scene, solving small puzzles to help tiny creatures living in the sand to put on a concert. It felt lighter compared to the rest of the games and was a nice change of pace. The ending is rather poetic and left me thinking.
Miniatures is an excellent exploration of childhood imagination. It distills its different aspects of joy, sadness, darkness, fantasy, and more into unique, visually compelling games. It’s short—I finished it in around 40 minutes—but well worth checking out.
Miniatures is available now for PC (Steam) and Nintendo Switch.
Overall Score: 8/10
Played on: Steam Deck
