Review: Twinkleby Feels Like Decorating Dollhouses 

Ever since Unpacking released, we’ve seen a surge in cozy games about interior decorating and arranging. This also meant branching off into titles that feel more about calmly arranging places so they look nice and like places we’d want to photograph and visit, such as MakeRoom. Might and Delight’s Twinkleby fits comfortably in that space too, given we’re basically setting up what look like dollhouses for little characters due to the art direction, though it’s a little slower and less robust at launch than other titles.

The concept behind Twinkleby is rather simple. We head into a sky that is filled with an archipelago of islands hidden among the clouds. Initially, there’s not much there. We get some initial furniture from Molligan’s Antiques and are set to a small island with a tiny, one-room house on it. However, after putting that initial furniture into it, a Neighbor character flies in, docks, and makes it their home. After singing a song with no lyrics to us briefly, we end up with enough points to unlock a new area. And so we go from island to island, decorating homes to make them inviting for more neighbors so you can keep doing this.

Twinkleby is a rather simple game without any major demands or challenges. When you come to a new island, you’ll be tasked with making homes attractive. If you do, new characters will stop by and move in. If you don’t like who showed up, you can kick them out and hope someone different shows up in a little while to take their place. You can alter the weather and seasons and see different times of day. There are no task lists. You place pieces in ways you find pleasing, then wait. Don’t like arrangements of anything, including houses? Pick them up and drop them into oblivion to make them go back into your inventory.

It’s very freeing. However, it also does require quite a time investment due to how slowly things can move. You need Stellars to purchase furniture, which are acquired by getting characters to move in or by grabbing them like the Starbits that drop in Super Mario Galaxy. Sometimes chests can fall from the sky with items you can use. Items that have fallen, like the aforementioned Stellars, do seem to just hover in the sky if you don’t immediately grab them. So it isn’t like you need to constantly be on the alert. You can focus on decorating instead, then go look and see what might have fallen while you did.

There are just two downsides to it all. The first is that I would have liked a wider array of options for decorating. There’s an adequate lineup, but I did find I was reusing a lot of bed and accessory options. It would have liked more available. Especially since the prices are pretty reasonable in Molligan’s Antiques. Might and Delight did add a Halloween 2025 patch that included some event items, “twinkly” versions of neighbors that are like the equivalent of shiny Pokemon, and house options. So this is an issue that could be fixed over time.

But the thing I’m not sure might be fixed is the pacing problem. Twinkleby is incredibly relaxed. But I’ve found that once I got to the latter parts of the game, I noticed it would take me less time to decorate. Which would mean I’d spend at least 10-15 minutes just waiting with the game open for someone to move in or for enough Stellars to accumulate so I could buy more items or move on to new objectives. 

I will say that it It is nice that we can access parallel islands to create new variations. So if someone is really getting into Twinkleby, you don’t need to destroy what you’ve already created to do more decorating. More opportunities come up once you finish with spots.

Twinkleby is a very low-stakes sort of decorating game that moves it its own leisurely pace. You set up houses. You watch the little folks wander around and use the objects inside. They sing for you when you do a good job and they’re happy. I do wish there was a little more to it, in terms of challenge and available items. It is charming enough, if you feel you need another decorating sim on your slate.

Twinkleby is available on PCs.