Tinykin

Developer: Splashteam | Publisher: tinyBuild | Release Date: 2022 | Genre: 3D Platformer / Adventure / Collectathon | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam

Tinykin is one of those games that looks immediately familiar but quickly develops its own identity. At first glance, the tiny colourful creatures following the protagonist around make comparisons to Pikmin almost unavoidable. In practice, however, this is much more of a relaxed 3D platforming collectathon than a strategy game. There is no combat, no need to protect the Tinykin from enemies, and no pressure from timers or day cycles. Instead, the entire game is built around exploring enormous household environments, solving light environmental puzzles, collecting just about everything in sight, and figuring out how the different Tinykin abilities can be used to reach new places.

Players take control of Milodane, or Milo, a researcher from the distant planet Aegis who is searching for humanity’s true origins. His investigation leads him to Earth, but instead of finding a thriving civilisation, he ends up stranded inside a suburban house seemingly frozen in 1991. To make matters even stranger, Milo is now absolutely tiny, while the house is populated almost entirely by intelligent insects who have created elaborate societies within its various rooms.

Milo soon encounters Ridmi, one of the local inhabitants, who introduces him to the mysterious Tinykin and a device that may provide a way home. The machine requires several components scattered throughout the house, so each major room essentially becomes its own self-contained adventure where Milo must help the local insect population before obtaining another part.

The story is lighthearted for most of the game but intriguing enough to provide a reason to keep exploring. The insects worship or revere a mysterious human named Ardwin, who appears to have been the former owner of the house, while nobody seems particularly bothered by the fact that humans have completely disappeared. The truth behind Ardwin, the house, and why everything appears to be stuck in the early nineties gradually becomes clearer, and the final revelations are surprisingly ambitious compared to the otherwise carefree tone.

The actual gameplay is where Tinykin shines. Each major room of the house functions almost like a miniature open world filled with platforms, collectibles, side objectives, NPCs, shortcuts, and hidden routes. Because Milo is microscopic, ordinary household objects become enormous landmarks. A couch turns into a towering mountain, bookshelves become multi-level platforming challenges, and a bathroom can feel like an entire district.

Exploring these environments is simply really fun. There is an almost constant temptation to ignore the current objective because something else has caught the eye on the opposite side of the room. A suspicious ledge might lead to a cluster of pollen, a hidden Tinykin egg, a letter, a candle that can be lit, or one of the optional side quests required for full completion.

The game contains several large areas, including City of Sanctar, Foliana Heights, Waters of Balnea, Lands of Ambrose, and Celerion Park, with the Chrysal Workshop serving as the main hub between them. Each takes place in a different part of the house and has its own theme, inhabitants, and primary objective.

City of Sanctar is built around a living-room style environment with its own insect religion and architecture, while Foliana Heights transforms a greenhouse into a sprawling vertical jungle. Waters of Balnea turns the bathroom into a surprisingly elaborate aquatic settlement, Lands of Ambrose makes the kitchen feel enormous, and Celerion Park uses a bedroom as the basis for an amusement park filled with race tracks, decorations, and toys.

The sense of scale is excellent throughout. Tinykin consistently finds ways to turn mundane objects into meaningful pieces of level design, which gives exploring the house a wonderful sense of discovery. Even after spending an hour in one room, it is easy to spot some distant shelf or corner and realise that an entire section has somehow gone unexplored.

Milo himself is pleasant to control. He can jump, glide using soap bubbles, and eventually use a soapboard to quickly skate across the environments and grind along suitable rails. The movement is simple but responsive, and gliding makes platforming forgiving without removing the satisfaction of reaching somewhere difficult. 

The Tinykin are the other half of the movement and puzzle system. They are discovered inside eggs scattered throughout each room and immediately begin following Milo once freed. Five main varieties appear over the course of the game, each distinguished by colour and purpose.

Pink Tinykin are exceptionally strong and can carry objects far larger than themselves. They are used whenever Milo needs to move something heavy, transport a component, or complete one of the larger environmental objectives. Watching dozens of tiny pink creatures march away carrying a huge household object remains amusing even after seeing it repeatedly.

Red Tinykin are explosive and can be thrown at breakable barriers, blocked passages, or candles that need lighting. They disappear when used, although fresh ones can usually be found nearby when the game expects explosives to be required.

Green Tinykin stack vertically to form ladders, allowing Milo to reach high ledges that would otherwise be impossible. They become especially valuable during the later stages of exploration because many collectibles are deliberately positioned just beyond normal jumping range.

Blue Tinykin conduct electricity and are used to create electrical connections between devices, while yellow Tinykin link together to form bridges across gaps. These abilities are introduced gradually, ensuring that each new room adds another layer to how previous environments can be approached.

Despite the obvious resemblance to Pikmin, the similarities are mostly visual and conceptual. Tinykin does not require managing a vulnerable army or worrying about creatures dying in combat. The Tinykin are essentially living puzzle tools and collectibles that automatically follow Milo around without requiring constant supervision. There is no combat at all, which gives the game a remarkably low-stress atmosphere.

This absence of combat is one of the game’s greatest strengths. Every obstacle exists to be explored or solved rather than fought. There are no enemies waiting to interrupt platforming sections, no boss encounters, and no health bar demanding attention. Milo can still fail by falling too far or landing in water, but checkpoints are generous enough that this is rarely more than a minor inconvenience.

Instead, progression comes from helping each room’s residents and gathering the components required for Ridmi’s machine. Main objectives often involve elaborate chains of smaller tasks, such as restoring power, moving a large object through several areas, or assembling some absurd contraption from household items.

Optional activities are everywhere. Players can collect pollen, complete side quests for museum artefacts, deliver lost letters, light candles, and locate every Tinykin, Pollen is by far the most plentiful collectible and is scattered absolutely everywhere. It is arranged along obvious paths, hidden on high ledges, tucked beneath furniture, and placed inside corners that initially seem pointless to explore. Collecting enough in each area earns improvements to Milo’s bubble glider, allowing him to remain airborne longer.

This creates a satisfying feedback loop where exploration gradually improves traversal, which in turn makes further exploration easier. By the final areas, Milo can glide for long enough that crossing spaces which once looked impossible becomes trivial.

Finding absolutely everything is where Tinykin becomes considerably more challenging than its relaxed presentation might suggest. There can be hundreds of pollen pieces in a room, and missing one tiny cluster means repeatedly searching areas that have already been explored. Likewise, locating the last few Tinykin can become surprisingly difficult when their eggs are hidden on an obscure shelf or behind some scenery.

The game does provide counters showing how many Tinykin and collectibles remain, which is invaluable when going for 100%. However, there is no detailed map showing their locations, so the final cleanup still relies on careful searching. 

The lack of stronger fast travel is probably the biggest weakness. Players can quickly return to the central Chrysal Workshop, but travelling directly between individual rooms is more cumbersome than it should be. The workshop connects everything logically, yet late-game cleanup often means repeatedly returning there, moving to the correct floor, and entering another vent simply to check one remaining collectible.

This becomes particularly noticeable when chasing 100% completion. Once a room has been thoroughly explored, there is little challenge involved in reaching it again, so forcing players through the hub each time feels unnecessary. A simple room-to-room fast travel menu unlocked after completing an area would have made cleanup far smoother.

Thankfully, traversal within each room is excellent. The soapboard makes covering large distances quick, and rails provide convenient shortcuts across otherwise awkward sections. Milo can summon the board almost instantly, which means there is very little reason to walk slowly once an area has opened up.

The game later received a free Challenge Update adding twelve time-attack races, with both a Small and Great race available in each completed room. Winning these challenges unlocks ten outfits for Milo, which can then be equipped from the menu. These races add some welcome post-game content and give the excellent traversal mechanics more opportunity to shine.

The main story itself remains fairly easy. Environmental puzzles usually make their solutions clear through nearby Tinykin colours and obvious objects, and there is rarely more than one sensible approach to a problem. Experienced platforming fans are unlikely to become stuck for long.

This simplicity is not really a flaw because Tinykin is built around exploration rather than challenge. The reward comes from figuring out how to reach some ridiculously high shelf or discovering an entire hidden section behind furniture, not from repeating difficult jumps dozens of times.

The visual design contributes enormously to this appeal. Tinykin mixes two-dimensional character sprites with three-dimensional environments, giving everything the appearance of an interactive cartoon. Milo, the insects, and the Tinykin are flat animated figures moving through fully modelled rooms, yet the styles blend together surprisingly well.

The character designs are especially charming. Tinykin themselves communicate almost entirely through expressions and little noises, while the insect inhabitants range from sophisticated beetles and religious zealots to scientists, workers, merchants, and theme-park employees. Each room has its own society and conflicts, which makes the house feel like a genuine miniature civilisation rather than merely a set of platforming levels.

The traditionally animated cutscenes are another highlight. New Tinykin varieties are introduced with wonderfully expressive sequences, while important story moments use the same clean cartoon aesthetic. These scenes give the game considerably more personality than its modest technical requirements would suggest.

The environments are packed with nostalgic little details from the early nineties. Toys, VHS tapes, electronics, furniture, food packaging, and household decorations all contribute to the sense that the house has genuinely been frozen in 1991. Even players who are not interested in collectibles may find themselves inspecting shelves simply to see what the developers placed there.

The soundtrack is equally strong. Composer and audio director Alexis Laugier created music that changes to suit each room and occasionally adapts depending on location or progress. The result is a score that feels far more elaborate than expected from such a relaxed platformer.

Each area has its own musical identity, ranging from playful orchestral themes to more whimsical electronic pieces. The music complements exploration extremely well and rarely becomes repetitive despite spending long stretches in individual rooms.

Sound effects are just as charming. The Tinykin chatter and march around Milo while performing their tasks, machinery springs to life with suitably exaggerated noises, and the insect inhabitants communicate through stylised vocal sounds rather than traditional spoken dialogue. 

Controls are excellent with a controller. Movement, jumping, throwing Tinykin, gliding, grinding, and using the soapboard all feel responsive. Tinykin selection is also handled elegantly, making it quick to switch between colours without interrupting exploration.

The camera generally behaves well despite the highly vertical environments. There are occasional moments where furniture or scenery blocks the view, but these are rare enough that they never seriously undermine the platforming.

Replay value depends largely on how thoroughly the first playthrough is completed. Someone who simply follows the main objectives can return to collect missed pollen, letters, museum pieces, Tinykin, and other optional items. The free time trials provide another reason to revisit completed rooms, and Steam includes 43 achievements.

Anyone who reaches 100% on the first run will naturally have much less incentive to immediately start again. The Tinykin locations, puzzles, and story remain unchanged, and there are no alternate character builds or branching routes. This is very much a game about thoroughly enjoying one large adventure rather than replaying it indefinitely.

Tinykin invites obvious comparisons to Pikmin because of the little colour-coded creatures, but mechanically it is closer to classic collectathons such as Banjo-Kazooie. The Tinykin function more like traversal and puzzle abilities than an army, while the real focus is on exploring densely designed environments and finding absolutely everything hidden inside them. 

The absence of combat also gives it a wonderfully relaxed identity. There is nothing constantly chasing Milo away from some interesting corner and no punishment for wandering off the main path. This makes Tinykin particularly enjoyable after playing more demanding games where every unexplored area is potentially filled with enemies.

Overall, Tinykin is an exceptionally charming collectathon that understands how enjoyable exploration can be when simply moving around feels good. Its enormous household environments are packed with secrets, jokes, optional objectives, and clever uses for ordinary objects, while the five Tinykin varieties continuously expand what Milo can accomplish.

The game is easy, and the puzzles rarely demand much thought, but neither feels like a serious weakness. Tinykin is more interested in curiosity than challenge, and the lack of combat allows the wonderfully designed environments to remain the focus from beginning to end.

Fast travel could certainly have been better, particularly when cleaning up the final collectibles, and finding the last few pollen pieces or Tinykin can become tedious without a more detailed tracking system. However, these are relatively small complaints in a game where we repeatedly found ourselves exploring every shelf and corner simply because doing so was fun.