Once Upon A Tile

I loved the demo of this game and looked forward to its full release, but it feels unfinished, buggy, and lacking in features. First, the performance: In a couple hours of *attempting* to play this game, it's crashed three times, hangs up frequently when placing tiles, and freezes and stops responding while on very long loading screens. I timed the last one, it took 3 minutes 27 seconds to load and looked for a while like it was just going to crash. For the design and gameplay: I love the gameplay loop, however this is a roguelite that drags you through the tutorial every single time you restart. It gets tedious quick, and I could find no option to skip it. I'd guess once you pass the first area, there won't be a tutorial, but I haven't gotten there yet and I don't know if I will at this point. Additionally, this tutorial negates any stat boosts you've gained from leveling in normal play, which makes it still more tedious. The pathing is odd as well. If you place a tile that connects in two different places, you still only move to the beginning of the placed tile, and don't continue further, which caused me to lose my earned bonuses on 'find the exit' levels for not 'reaching the exit' when I placed a tile that should have pathed me over to the exit. I'm not even sure if these levels can be successfully completed with all bonuses in the current state. In one instance when I did this, the game froze after placing the tile, and then my character took a completely different path than the one indicated when I'd placed the tile, one that accounted for the multiple paths created by the way they linked. Additionally, there are zero options outside of volume and fullscreen/windowed. No accessibility options, no options to change graphics settings. When you're inside a run, there's no way I could find to double check what kind of challenge you're on or to look back at the map path, nor is there much of an interface to look at character details or perks during a run. Moreover, the movespeed is not very fast, and there is no way to change that speed, which feels incredibly stifling for someone who expects a 'rogue-lite' to be relatively fast-paced. I'm not one to write many critical reviews, and honestly, the core of this game is absolutely lovely with a puzzle-based gameplay loop I'd happily spend hours on. However, in its current state I can't do that without the game crashing, hanging up, or spending more time on loading screens than it takes to play the level. Once it's had a couple patches this could be a classic, but it's not there yet.

[h3]A intriguing tile laying puzzle game featuring adventurous anthropomorphic animals and mysterious curses.[/h3] First of all, even though this game has been released, the achievements are yet to be implemented properly. So if that is a dealbreaker for you, be aware. Once Upon a Tile is a lightweight and simplistic dungeon building game where you, as one of the 4 varied heroes of critterdom, place tiles, advance, collect resources and defeat various opposition hindering you from exploring the realm. You begin each map with a deck of tiles, and each tile you place has a diverse set of forms and values connected to them such as armaments, mystical powers, monsters, traps and other familiar dungeon tropes. Your task is to survive the ordeals while avoiding to trap yourself in the ever labyrinthine forms and shapes of the corridors you leave behind. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3481818515 This game is a roguelike, of sorts. Your character is upgraded temporarily each run by adding increased chances of better loot, higher baseline stats as well as gathering gold that can be used in between runs to improve upon your characters by investing in gear and talents. The game's characters are unlocked by playing and have unique flairs with the variations in their talents. For example, Yara, the starting character, is a lovely little rodent that really encapsulates the gorgeous artwork surrounding the characters, however, in game it is more of a simplistic board game style representation of a pawn wandering across the map. Overall the graphic representation is fine and works perfectly for this kind of game. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3481818269 Now, as I stated earlier this game is released, but it feels like it could use some more seasoning to truly shine. The gameplay has quite a few layers to it, but after a few runs I began to feel it was a bit too samey for my taste. The challenges are separated into three different scenarios, where two of them are basically the same, with the exit somewhere in your deck of tiles. The last scenario is the one I liked the least. In this one the exit is somewhere on the map and you need to first draw a path that connects to it, and then, on top of that, have a tile left that you can place behind it to make the character actually enter the portal. It feels weird, convoluted and is heavily dependent on RNG. You can mitigate this by various powerups that let you see tiles in advance, but it can still be hard to deduce what are needed. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3481818645 [b]Conclusion:[/b] This is a cautious, but hearty, recommendation from me. I really like parts of this game, the artwork is stellar, the core mechanics are great fun and I really like the tactile tile laying. However, there are quite a bit of bits and bobs that feel like they need a bit more polish. Pathing is wonky at times and has made my character stroll into traps despite it being a free path next to it, no achievements as of the writing of this review and a general sense of repetitiveness after a few hours. That said, this has the core of a great puzzly game that I really want to see more of, and I do hope that the developers continue to support it and stick to adding new contents and ironing out bugs. [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/] Follow [b]IndieGems[/b] [/url] for more reviews like this one. [/quote]

It's very nice! Even if a little rough around the edges. The core mechanic here is that you connect dungeon pieces together and the character will move in to the closest tile on the piece. The character picks up items they walk over and fights (or takes damage from) on encounter tiles, so fitting pieces to pick what you might walk over first / later / preferably never adds some depth. Also the music is very good!

A fascinating tile puzzler who's cheery visuals bely a sense of eerie unease, Once Upon a Tile is a simple yet captivating experience. Carefully laying down tiles to escort your little forest creature seems simple enough, but if you aren't thoughtful in your placement it's very easy to find yourself doomed by your own hubris. There isn't as much going on within the runs to differentiate them in the way a rogue-lite like Slay the Spire, but it's better to think of this more like a puzzle game like Dorfromantik. With that comparison, the four characters and their subtly different upgrade trees and play-styles do a wonderful job of making your many runs exciting and varied. Under is best girl, more love for ratties! The only two cons I can think of are: most of the achievements currently seem to be broken, and sometimes when there are multiple paths to an objective, the game will just straight up lie to you about the path your character will take. It can be very frustrating to make what the game told you is the perfect play, only for your mouse to decide hey, I know I told you I was gonna pick up that sword... but these three traps, tho...

Once Upon a Tile's gameplay is a great mix between relaxing puzzle games such as Dorfromantik and more adventurous dungeon crawlers. It has adorable graphics (the mouse is very cute!) and plays great - also on the Steam Deck. An awesome game I had the pleasure of playing at a conference before and definitely recommend now that it's here on Steam!

This game plays with building your own dungeon instead of traversing an already existing one, which is quite fun and refreshing! Overall, a cozy roguelite puzzler with cute little mice!

[h1]Relaxing but challenging mix of rogue lite elements and strategic puzzle gameplay.[/h1] [h1] [/h1] Normally I am not a great fan of rogue lites or puzzle games. But this game got an undeniable fascination that almost resembles Civilizations "just..one..more..round..." :D I just wanted to place one more tile, get another treasure or weapon point and try to max out my run. So in order to keep it short, here my pros and cons : [b]Pros:[/b] [list] [*]Unique and engaging gameplay using the tiles mechanic [*]Fresh dungeons and replayability via procedural generated dungeons [*]Different characters with different abilities and their own story [*]Interesting mix of strategy, relaxing and luck.. Its just intriguing :3 [*]The story does not win an Oscar but the voiceovers are pretty good [*]The music and sounds are really catchy and give the right atmosphere [/list] [b]Cons:[/b] [list] [*]If you die you have to replay the tutorial mission. No dealbreaker but a bit annoying [*]Sometimes frustrating when you dont have a matching tile [*]No way to fast forward or speed up the movement of the hero [/list] [h2]TL;DR Once upon a Tile is a cute, little puzzle game to relax, enjoy the ambience and tinker till you get the perfect run. [/h2] Can only recommend it ! <3

Love the puzzley challenge! And the graphics are lovely.

Very unique puzzle rougelite, where you build the dungeon instead of traversing it, while making sure to not block off future space and escape routes. I only played for a couple of hours, but there seems to be plenty of content left with multiple heroes and areas. The farytale vibes in environment and music are also pleasing and make it very cozy!

Fun little roguelike puzzler that keeps you thinking but isn't too darstardly difficult!