It has a life of its own, in a town that never stops growing. You're its friend: drop in, and take the controls.
The playtest is on. Bring your Smol!
Every Smol arrives the same way: down the gangplank and onto the quay, with nothing but a letter. No home yet, no plan. Just a town up over the harbour, and a dog who's very pleased to see you.
There's room here for every Smol, and yours is welcome.
While you're here,
Every Smol can do everything. Take a tool off the wheel and go and bother some wildlife.
Fishing rod
45 fish in the ponds, the canal, the lake, the falls' pool and the sea: some only at odd hours or in the rain, a few told only by rumour. A big one fights. Hold to reel it in, ease off when it runs, or snap!
A few of the 45 fishtap one
Build a campfire anywhere outdoors, cook a catch with a fruit and flip it in the gold. The dish helps its hobby for an hour: fish notice your float from further, bugs let you creep nearer, rare ones most. And the fruit does something silly that everyone can see:
a happy humhiccupsa warm glowa springy stepsleepysqueaky feet
Away for the day? Your Smol has a favourite hobby of its own, and spends its days at it. More hobbies on the way!
What's it all for?
Archie has a case for every fish, bug, fossil, shell, crab and find in town. The whole town fills it, one first at a time.
Golden carp.
Rare
Given by Smol #1234, day 14.
Coelacanth.
Legendary
Given by you?
The Museum is the whole town's. Bring Archie a kind it hasn't got and it goes in the case with your name on its card, and the day. After that, he still loves one from you: it goes on show, and the card counts you in.
Archie: “There. A new card in your name. The town will remember it was you.”
Every kind there is, as the game has them: 129 the Museum takes, a few of them secrets. Tap one to peek.
45 fish
They swim in the tank on the back wall. Tap a case to peek.
0 of 45 peeked at
Everything you've caught, counted, in your pocket, and every one a story to tell.
The town sits on an island with a wild side, opening up as the town grows. Every place leans to catches of its own, so where you go matters. And the first time your Smol gets somewhere new, it says so.
Go with a Smol who's…
Whisperwood
Shady groves past the canal, and a climb from them up onto the crag.
Tumble Falls
Row up the river's gorge to the falls, and fish the pool. Say hello to the duck.
The highland
Up on the crag: heather, bent pines, a tarn, and a bench and a cairn at the lip.
Ember Peak
A volcano, fast asleep, a trail up its flanks through the heather and pines.
Kingfisher Lake
Fish of its own, a jetty and numbered pegs, and something old that bites at a grey dawn.
Gull Rock
Gull Rock, Picnic Isle, Lighthouse Skerry: row out, pull the boat up, and dig the beach.
And the canal, the shore and every beach, with more of the island to come.
Hop in off a pier, the quay, a beach or a boat, and swim. Climb back into the boat, or out onto the sand, soaked through and dripping all the way home.
There's a hole among the roots of the old tree on Thimble Common. Jump in. Someone lives down there, and once a day, his cauldron makes you a little something.
Its traits make it someone: a temperament, a quirk, a way of talking, a favourite hobby and place, a fear and a dream. It has opinions. Once a day it tells you the one thing it'd like to do ("Ooh, a gift for the Museum today?"), and it's delighted when you do it. You're the friend who drops in.
Fishing at dawn, rowing out from a pier, flying a kite on a breezy day, a walk under its umbrella in the rain, errands near home, an afternoon beside another Smol. Anyone in town can stop and talk to it. Pop back soon after, and you pick it up right where you left it.
Every day its own, out where everyone can see, and lots more on the way.
The first time you drop in each day, it's where its day ended. It tells you about it, hands you anything it caught and a tip that's true. Meet a few Smols, and press Next to hear the rest.
A page of its journal for every day you play: its own days first, then what it made of yours. Day 1's page is the ferry over. It keeps the memories that matter, a first catch, a gift to the Museum, an opening, and brings them up when they fit.
Day 1 · the first page
I stood at the front of the ferry the whole way over, wind in my ears, clutching my letter like treasure. It says Smolville has room for every Smol there is. Every one! Including me!
And on the quay, a dog. A TALKING dog! Biscuit, he's called, and he gave me enough for a rod from Bramble's counter. Next: a fish for Bramble's window at the General Store. Then a tent. One day, a house with a red door!
Smol #44, dramatic
1 of 4
It steps off the ferry with nothing but a letter. A day's wage buys a tent on a plot in Driftwood Camp. Build it on to a cabin, then climb the town's housing market, one rung at a time: half the home you leave comes off the next, and an estate is about 90 days of play away.
A day's wage: 10 BUILD
It starts with one crate, Bramble's. The bedroll's extra.
Never sold Smol to Smol: the town sells its own empty homes. Moving up leaves the old one for whoever's next.
Birch sends what you buy home, and you set it out yourself. Five bars fill as you do (Comfort, Beauty, Light, Flow and Heart), pairings top them up (a light by the bed, a seat by a light, a rug under something…), and your Smol tells you how it feels. Get it happy and a rosette goes up by your front door.
Up the ladder, Birch makes masterpieces (a marble fireplace, a grand aquarium, a claw machine) and a rug woven for each season, a few days a month. Repainting is free.
Visitors sign your guest book by the door:So cosy!Love the rug!Thanks for having me!
Tap the floor to set it out, tap a piece to pick it up. Mats go under things.
There's always something going up: the morning one's paid off, the next sign's up. Your Smol's BUILD is what builds it. Back a building, and it pays you back twice over.
Every area the town opens is earned: pay off enough projects and the land comes up out of the sea.
A quay and a plaza, the founding six round it.
Cottages in their gardens either side of the old town, and Picnic Isle comes up in the bay.
Over the canal: row houses, Swan Reach's manors, the Great Park, Whisperwood, and Tumble Falls up the river's gorge.
Every district gets one of its own: a windmill, a lighthouse, an observatory… and up on the Heights, Ember Peak.
Apart from the founding six, everything in town is built by Smols, together: a Music Shop, a Theatre, a Bakery, a Pizzeria, a Hat Shop, a Bandstand, a Greenhouse, and lots more.
Tap one to turn it over. There's lots more round town, and more opening as it grows.
It's multiplayer: everyone plays in one town, live. A Smol wearing its face on its name tag means a real player's there, waving back. And when they're off, their Smol stays in town, living its own day.
Say something:
A wave gets waved back, a high five slaps on both screens. Always cozy.
The lamps come on along the street, the fireflies come out one by one, and down by the water there's a float bobbing in the moonlight. Some fish only bite after dark.
What's about once the sun's gone down. Pick one up.
Fireflies come out over the grass at night, blinking round the trees.
The town at night: windows and lamps aglow, quiet and cozy.
Sit on a bench on a clear night and Stargaze. Shooting stars cross low over the sea, the same moment for everyone in town.
Smolville is being played right now, and built as it's played: new hobbies, shops, homes and lots more on the way. Bring your Smol and come and play, and tell us what you find.
Smolville is for Smols. Your Smol is who lives there: its own personality from its traits, its own opinions, and a voice of its own. You're the friend who drops in.