Every item has a story.
Miniatures released on November 14, and after being nominated for several awards across the past two years I’ve been desperate to see what all the fuss is about. I get attached to objects pretty easily. If I see a little ceramic creature in a charity shop or if I look at a soft toy too long, there’s a high chance it’s coming home with me. Miniatures taps into this feeling and turns it into a heartwrenching narrative-driven story game reflecting on childhood memories, and now I’ve got an even deeper emotional attachment to my collection of trinkets.
The game takes you through 4 different ‘modes’ depending on which pretty boring object you pick from the wooden box at the beginning. Select a screwdriver and you’ll be assembling a piece of flat-pack furniture, or select a toy and you’ll be feeding a lizard. At first, they’re basic everyday objects, but the scenes that play out give them a new lease of life and show that even the mundane has a story tucked behind it. I don’t know how Other Tales Interactive has managed it, but I quickly became emotionally attached to these simple items and now I can’t look at my collection in the same way.
Thought-provoking storytelling aside, it’s a visually stunning game. Even though its design seems simple at first, when you delve into the four different game modes tucked away, detailed worlds begin to unravel. It’s not just me who thinks so either: Miniatures won an award for best upcoming game art style at Digital Vikings in 2024, the visual design spotlight award at IndieCade 2024, and the Wings Award at A MAZE in 2024 (not to mention a clutch of other nominations.)
I think the colour palette used is one of the most intriguing parts of Miniatures’ design, since it revolves around quite cold tones like blues and greys rather than painting its nostalgic storytelling in warm colours. The colours alone helped to create this feeling of something not quite being right, and I felt overwhelmed with an unnerving sense of something going wrong for the majority of the experience. But this feeling didn’t stop me from wanting to race through each story to see what the next had in store.
The only downside of the game is its length. Just as I felt like I was getting stuck into Miniatures, I was already on the final puzzle. It’s the kind of game that makes you want more, but you don’t want any of the sections it already features to be any longer. I’d love for there to be a second game, or something along the same vein released in the future, but after the 4 years it took to develop this one I can’t imagine a sequel coming any time soon. Instead, I’ll just have to stare at all the obscure items I’ve collected and wonder what stories they have to tell.
If you’ve been desperate to find a game that brings life to objects you’ve always had lying around your house and tells stories that bring you to tears, then Miniatures is worth picking up. It’s by no means a timesink, taking only 30-45 minutes to complete, but if you’re like me and want to go through a rollercoaster of emotion as quickly as possible, it certainly makes the most of such a short amount of time.
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