Indie cozy games are a big part of our family’s video gaming. And Toem is one that everyone but the cat enjoyed and that’s probably just because she doesn’t have opposable thumbs.
Many indie cozy games have a strong emotional core, some serious feels after you dig a little. A Short Hike is built on Claire’s relationship with her mom and Lil Gator is about the title character’s relationship with his sister. Even Unpacking unpacks the story of the unseen protagonist.
Not Toem! You are just a cute little Arthur-like critter (you know, an aardvark that doesn’t resemble an aardvark in any way) who is going around taking photos and helping people. Wheeeee!
Seriously, the level of sweet, lowkey joy in Toem is pretty high.
While there is a goal, to find and photograph the titular phenomenon of the Toem, the game is really about exploring the black-and-white, hand drawn world of the game.
Your photographer has been sent off into the world by their nana who has also given them their antique camera. You travel to each new area by bus. But you don’t buy bus tickets with money. No, you earn them by getting stamps from helping people out.
And it is a world of quirky, individualized inhabitants. All sorts of strange but always friendly creatures. Toem is not just a harmless world but an uplifting one. It’s a quirky world but one that makes you feel welcome.
Smart phones have made amateur photographers out of all of us. Toem is a celebration of that. Toem takes something that so many of us do all the time (photography), something that might already be a game in a way, and makes it own game out of it.
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