Misc. A Tiny Tale is an upcoming game for PC developed by Tinyware Games, a small Australian studio of three developers. What makes Misc. A Tiny Tale an interesting title is the fact that the game offers a series of platforming challenges and puzzles that leave it open to players to choose how to progress, considering they need to collect 8 out of 10 cogs in each chapter. Game Rant spoke to Michael Pearce, founder of Tinyware Games and developer of the game, who spoke about the importance of accessibility and allowing players to choose how they play.
The premise of the story in Misc. A Tiny Tale is that one night, there's an explosion that scatters all these golden cogs around the world, and the main characters, Buddy and Bagboy, set out on an adventure. The explosion is the inciting incident that pushes Bagboy out of his home, and he finally decides to leave to find new meaning to his life and get to know other tiny robots like him. Collecting the cogs and meeting new robots may seem like disconnected activities, but combined they both advance the story through different chapters – all while Buddy and Bagboy grow and change over time.
Misc. A Tiny Tale's Approach to Platforming and Puzzles
The puzzles and platforming mechanics of the game are not the only way for Buddy, the main playable character in Misc. A Tiny Tale, to collect all the needed golden cogs to pass to the following chapter. As a matter of fact, Misc. A Tiny Tale also features underground challenges, which are set up by a sort of reckoning robot below the surface level. Players will have to hop into a pipe and reach the underground, where the challenges mostly entail platforming puzzles akin to those of more classic games like Super Mario Bros. and Ratchet and Clank.
There's a lot of platforming, a few puzzles you'll have to solve, a little bit of combat as well. As you play you'll unravel the story of the characters and levels. Bagboy and Buddy call each other frequently, and that guides you through the story as well and give you context on what's happening.
While playing the challenges, players can experience falling out of the level. While there is no death in Misc. A Tiny Tale, if this happens the challenge will have to be repeated right from the start. This may seem punishing, and finding the cogs within the chapter is no easy task. They can be hidden or hard to reach, and this leaves it up to the players to decide what approach they want to have for progression. This system is a great way for completionists to advance through all of the base game and then come back to the parts where they skipped or the cogs they couldn't find, so as to get all the corresponding achievements.
Story Progression, Acceptance, and Growth in Misc. A Tiny Tale
Meeting all the various robots also makes up for a big chunk of the game. All of them have their own problems and different emotional states, and players will have to learn to navigate through that. Helping others and celebrating differences is what Misc. A Tiny Tale really is about, and that's what Buddy's journey, and especially that of Bagboy, truly means. While there are no clear "enemies" within the game, there will still be a bit of combat here and there, and Buddy's pin sword will come in handy also for some of those hard puzzles.
The way we've designed the game you can't necessarily die, but if you fall down in those challenges you'll start at the beginning, so it can be truly frustrating. That's the main side thing, and it's open about how you want to approach the chapter because in each of them you have to get 10 cogs, then go to the next one. There's 10 cogs to get, but you only have to get 8, so whether that means you skipped 2 cogs that you can't find or you skipped the underground challenge is up to you.
When players manage to complete a chapter, be it by finding all 10 cogs or at least the mandatory 8, there will be these little moments with Buddy and Bagboy who either talk about the way they feel or about what happened within that chapter. A narrated cutscene will play, and the story will become more immersive by the minute, not without its twists and turns. Overall, Misc. A Tiny Tale is a game about acceptance and diversity, one where solving puzzles and the other robots' problems are all part of a wholesome narrative.
Misc. A Tiny Tale is in development for PC.