MakeRoom - Review

MakeRoom

Steam/PC

8/7/25

Kenney/Wholesome Games Presents

Reviewed by ScrambledAshton

Room building sandbox games are something I personally find a lot of joy in, so when looking at everything MakeRoom had to offer, I thought I was in for a good time, and I was right… well, mostly. There is a lot to love about MakeRoom: its lovely art style, its color palette, and the vast bulk of the gameplay. However, I wonder if the game leans too much into community creations and needs its players to give it a boost after launch.

MakeRoom is a cozy room builder that has you creating dioramas of varying sizes that either meet the requirements of the ‘guided requests’ or let you run wild with the sandbox. There are over 1000 objects (including some corgis and cats) that can all be sized up or down, have their colors changed, and be placed wherever you like within the space. Spaces which you can also customize the floor plan of, change the wall and floor texture and color, and stick doors and windows wherever you fancy. 

The game consists mostly of making rooms, as one would expect, in whichever way you can possibly imagine, with the furniture allowing for relative creative freedom into which kind of room, garden, or campervan you’d like to make. There are lots of great bits of furniture to use in a whole variety of ways in your builds, with kitchen counters with cupboard doors that open, allowing you to stash food and utensils away for a more alive feel and clutter that allows you to decorate every space you make. 

The best way to get started is to complete the 11 ‘guided requests,’ which function as a quasi-tutorial, telling you about various items, how to use them, and in turn unlocking one additional item per completion of each room. I do wish, however, that there were more of these requests or that perhaps they were slightly more developed, as most of them could be completed in no time at all and never felt particularly worthwhile outside of the item you would unlock at the end. Once you’ve finished those requests, there is only the sandbox mode to be completed, and as someone who struggles at times to find the creativity to just build whatever I can think of, I didn’t stick around much longer after I had built a few bits and pieces. It would be great to see the developers, Kenny, implement an idea we’ve seen in other sandboxes, like Tiny Glade, where every day/week there is a prompt within the game to give the community something to build all together and share with one another online. It gives those builders who need some direction a reason to keep coming back once they’ve played through the requests. 

On top of the room building, there is also a designer tool which allows you to create pieces of furniture that you can then go on to use in your builds or share with the community via the Steam Workshop for other players to utilize. The design tool is probably great for people who are good at 3D modeling, but I personally struggled when I first attempted it. There is no tutorial for the mode, and I wonder if implementing a mandatory first build (similar to the guided requests) would be good to make it a bit more accessible. 

The design tool has a whole host of objects that can be used to create new items, bases, pillows, legs, and other bits and pieces to use to your heart's content with a variety of tools that do let you make anything you want, though I will say the rotation tool is great but occasionally doesn’t let you use one axis if you’ve already utilized another, which can be frustrating. Though it would actually be nice to see that tool in the building section of the game, especially when you’re using the clutter and decoration.

The music design and visuals are absolutely wonderful; it has the perfect cozy aesthetic, and the music helps make the building such a nice experience. The lighting in each room can be adjusted to different times of day and temperatures, which can make for some very lovely pictures of your creations. The color palette, soft focus, and selection of furniture items (and adorable animals) are really gorgeous and allow for some lovely builds that you can share with the community (or just keep for yourself).

I am never going to complain about another room builder or a cozy game like this hitting the market because I will spend a lot of my time haphazardly plonking furniture down, thinking I am doing a good job. However, I do think MakeRoom will benefit from its community building furniture, creating challenges for themselves, and sharing their creations with one another, as right now, it doesn’t feel super fleshed out.

I am sure someone with more creativity than me will be able to make some really wonderful things, but I did feel somewhat aimless in my playing once I reached a certain point. Perhaps if I had been better at the item-building part of the game, I would have had more to work with, so I shall have to wait until some other wonderful players upload their crafts for me to play with. 

All of that is to say, MakeRoom earns itself a Bronze Genie Lamp.

GOOD