
ShantyTown is a relaxing diorama-building game about finding beauty in everyday chaos. Bring new locations to life, stack your urban buildings high, and fill each little nook and cranny with your own touch. Try your hand at shaping a cozy little town that is unique to you.
Modeled estimate, not a reported figure. How we estimate →
About
Get ready to build upwards, fill the smallest gaps, and find clever ways to place light sources or decorations that breathe life into every corner.
This is a world where every balcony, interesting poster, and plant tells a story. And you’re the one organising it!

This game is inspired by my love for densely built cities around the world, which is why I packed in 20 distinct locations for you to explore, each with its own mood and identity.
Be it the warm glow of the Hotpot Casino, the charmingly cramped spaces of the Marshlands Pipe, or the solitude of the Lighthouse, every space gives you a new perspective.
How you place things together is entirely up to you.
Upgrades are available for larger structures like buildings and gates, but they’ll need a bit of care to reach their full potential. By providing light, utilities, and decorations, places like shops, apartment blocks, or gates can evolve into detailed spaces. Completing an upgrade unlocks new objects and decorations, giving you even more ways to shape the town.
When you finish a location, frame the shot, take a pic, then add it to your dossier before moving to your next blank canvas.

Each location presents a unique set of objects and a limited space to build within. Whether it’s food trucks, neon signs, or industrial smokestacks, players must carefully fit everything together to create a dense, living space that feels right.
This is a casual game through and through. There are no wrong answers here. Remember to make each placement personal, and every messy little corner adds to the charm.

With ShantyTown's added Creative Mode, you have unlimited building options with every unlocked location and item that you've acquired throughout your journey through ShantyTown. Stack buildings hide, wide, and in any direction. We've also included a Blankspace with an enormous sandbox space to design custom towns and shops to your heart's desire.
Design custom creations with no restrictions whatsoever.

Unique decorations across every map
Discover each location’s story as you build
A warm, relaxing soundtrack crafted by vaporwave artist Macroblank
Optional goals to guide your creativity
Peaceful, atmospheric scenery to unwind with
In-depth camera settings to frame your creations
Hidden objects waiting to be found
No time or pressure. Please, enjoy everything at your own pace.
Genres
Stats
All-time low is the lowest price we've recorded for this game since we started tracking it.
Languages: English, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish - Latin America, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Serbian
Engagement
Hours played at review time, across 43 reviews with recorded playtime.
Reviews
Themes across 43 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
Reviews
10/10 would replay a 2nd time, wait, already doing it... more maps please!
I really enjoyed this game! There were a few things I found annoying (like being unable to move windows after you place them), but overall it was a very charming campaign. I have not started playing the creative mode as of writing my review, but I look forward to playing around with the cute set pieces with even less restrictions! I would replay the campaign again, but will definitely be in creative mode for a while. There is a good amount of creative freedom and quirky decor to make each build unique. 10/10!
This one is an excellent alternative to city builders with intricate mechanics and, nightmare fueling stakes, and massive scale. ShantyTown is also able to pull of a less formal decorator that invites imperfections and layouts that can make a little or as much logical sense as I want. The level objectives aren't oppressive and I often find myself completing the mission on accident. Looking forward to more support and added content.
Hope this game gets more levels. Id buy it on sale cause its pretty short.
The art style and music of this game fit together perfectly, and the amount of detail in these models, whether it be from tables to warehouses adds another level of immersion. The amount of different building objects that exist in this game allow for endless creation and variety in creating stackable cities, or night life neon flats. Only complaint is that the camera gets slightly buggy when more and more objects are added to the map. Otherwise, 10/10 experience. Highly recommend, even if not on sale.
일단 번역해주신 한무테 님 왕감사 절 올립니다 (__) 너무 자유도가 높은 건 머리 아파서 못하는데 적당히 순서대로 옵젝 꺼내서 대충 붙이기만 해도 알아서 어울리게 적용해주고 퍼즐 요소도 있어서 업그레이드 하는 재미도 있어요 사물마다 더 다양한 종류가 없어서 아쉽지만 나중에 다한 거 보면 뿌듯해요 ㅎㅎㅎㅎ 휘뚜루마뚜루 대강 꾸미기 좋아하시는 분들은 좋아하실 거 같아요
10/10 cozy game
[h1] Why you should or should not play ShantyTown [/h1] [b] Before You Read [/b] [i] Every review on my profile is based on my own personal experience with a game. My opinions aren't facts, and you're not expected to agree with them-and that's perfectly okay. My goal isn't to tell you whether you should like a game. Instead, I try to explain what worked for me, what didn't, and who I think the game might appeal to. Constructive discussion is always welcome, but please remember there's a real person behind these reviews. Respectful disagreements are encouraged; insults, hostility, or personal attacks are not. [/i] [b] What is ShantyTown? [/b] In this game your job is to revamp different areas of this new interesting world that has some different forms of interesting advertisement. [b] Quick Pros [/b] ✔ Satisfying progression system ✔ Unique mechanics ✔ Easy to learn controls ✔ Beautiful environments ✔ Strong visual style ✔ Detailed world design ✔ Smooth animations ✔ Creative art direction [b] Quick Cons [/b] ✘ Limited content [b] Initial Thoughts: [/b] -"I like this whale sign. I want one irl." -"What is this thing, I like it, I would have it as a pet, a walking advertisement? Cuteee." -"I really like how much freedom I have and that I can make this as messy or as neat as I want." [b] Beginner Player Friendly? [/b] Yes, I would argue this game is beginner player friendly. The controls are simple and everything is explained in the beginning tutorial of the game. [b] Game Play: [/b] In this game your goal is to revamp different areas on the map that you are working on. Build apartment complexs, but make sure they have all their needs and requirements met while also improving the general areas through decorating or advertisements which will increase the homes 'value'. This game is almost like a puzzle game in the sense that you are given a limited number of pieces and have to figure out where something goes before you will be able to get more. Explore all the different areas this game has to offer and figure out where every piece fits in this shanty town. [b] Graphics: [/b] The graphics are very simple and nice, there isnt to much crazy going on it suites the game very well. The buildings and decorations themselves are adorable and have a cartoony but realistic vibe making decorating fun and somewhat complex at the same time. Different objects actually have different designs and if you find yourself having a hard time of finding one you want all you have to do is right click your mouse and a different design of the same item will pop up. I believe that this game could run on lower end stystems. [b] Community: [/b] This game is farely new and not much of a community has formed yet, however, everyone seems to be very friendly and approachable in the steam forums and a few youtubers have made videos regarding this game that you could potentially check out for a helping hand. [b] How long can you play? [/b] In this game I already have around 2 hours and almost have completed the first map. I am unsure if there is more then one area as of yet so if there is only one map I will have completed this game in less then 3 hours. However if there is another map I can see the potential of having a few more hours of game play. There is also a free sandbox mode included in this game which makes it easy to have a bit more fun and a bit more game play if that is what you are into. [b] My Opinion: [/b] In my opinion this game is super fun and I really enjoy decoration style games that have a bit of a twist. I hope they add more content to this game in the future, like more decorations, maybe even the ability to decorate with animals (like making farms and such), or even just more of a painting style tool. I think however if you enjoy creating your own towns, you may enjoy this game. [b] Overall Review [/b] ★ 8/10 - A fun game where a balancing act can become your entire life. ✘ [b] Active Online Multiplayer [/b] [i] (meaning people will interact with you in game) [/i] ✔ [b] Family Friendly [/b] [i] (meaning friendly to all ages) [/i] ✔ [b] Solo Playability [/b] [i] (meaning you can play by yourself if preferred) [/i] ✘ [b] Cross Compatibility [/b] [i] (meaning you can play with friends through other consoles.) [/i] ✘ [b] In-App Purchases [/b] [i] (meaning you can buy things after buying the game i.e DLC's) [/i] ✔ [b] Controller Compatible [/b] [i] (meaning you can play this game with a controller) [/i] Enjoyed this review? Follow [i] Basement Broadcast[/i] for more Reviews, Rants and Replays! https://store.steampowered.com/curator/46018670/ [i] Any major edits that are made with this review will be added here: [/i]
Nice game...however I have one request for the developer, please add a drop down list that enables us to buy or get any last minute items needed to complete a buil;d even though we have completed the missions for a location. I just completed the marshlands pipes but was unable to complete a shop by a single decoration unit.. please enable me to at least select something and get the last piece to complete...pretty serious OCD here...
There's nothing about this game I don't love, except that it needs even more challenge maps. I would happily pay again for even more maps to play.
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Trends
Concurrent players on Steam, sampled daily since tracking started.
Audience
Estimated from the language of this game's reviews — a proxy for where players are, not official Steam demographics.
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