Valheim is a multiplayer sandbox survival game by Swedish developer Iron Gate Studio in which players take on the role of vikings that are fighting for their right to enter the halls of Valhalla in the afterlife. They do so by defeating the evils that stalk Valheim, the fictional tenth realm in a world inspired by Norse Mythology. Players are placed into the world of Valheim with nothing, given almost no direction, apart from a few hints from Odin's trusted ravens, and are expected to survive, build, conquer, and flourish.
In a massive game like Valheim with a plethora of activities to do, players usually begin forming groups based on the different things they start to prioritize in the game. For example, there are combat specialists, or people that are focused primarily on the combat in the game. There are miners and crafters, those that wish to simply find the rarest materials in order to craft the most legendary equipment. And then, there are the builders, who are primarily concerned with creating the most impressive, outlandish, extraordinary structures, buildings, monuments, and pieces of art within the game as physically possible.
Ever since Valheim came out, players have been building incredible things in the game. One of these builders, YouTuber Mythic Builds, has taken up the Tiny Home Challenge, in which they are required to build, as creatively as possible, the smallest possible home. As with any challenge, there are rules. There is no digging allowed. The ground floor must be 3x4 standard floor tiles (6x8 meters), fireplaces are allowed to extend into an external alcove, 1 extra floor is allowed, which may jetty out to a 4x5 floor space, and materials are restricted to the game stage. The video below shows the full building process.
Mythic Builds completes his building in creative mode, stating that this allows viewers to best see exactly where everything is placed and the nuances of layers and such. Valheim does not have an official creative mode - just some console commands that make building much easier, allowing players to fly, infinitely repair without a workbench nearby, and even instantly kill any enemies that come by.
Valheim's specific genre is very popular and many existing franchises are making their debut into the survival crafting genre. For example, The Lord of the Rings franchise sees its first real survival crafting game in Return to Moria, coming to PC in the Spring of 2023. All games approach the genre and its mechanics in slightly different ways, but Valheim has consistently allowed players to create magnificent structures.
Though no true creative mode exists in Valheim, it still has a robust and nuanced building system that allows players to build massive, ornate, intricate structures and really immerse themselves into Norse Mythology-based viking culture.
Valheim is available now for PC and will come to Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S in Spring 2023.