Piece by Piece (2026)

What a delightful little game full of lovable NPCs! I just hit 100% achievements, though I think I have a few more item stories remaining to uncover. [Edit: It wasn’t immediately obvious to me, but another 30-40 minutes or so and I reached the end cutscene and credits!] Piece by Piece is a game that you could play in either a lengthy (5-6hr) sitting, or break into little half-hour to hour-long bits while you listen to a podcast or watch something cozy, like Gilmore Girls. :) This is mostly a shopkeeper game consisting of repairing broken objects in the form of 3D puzzles that you can spin around. The animal NPCs are charming and humorous, really well-written, and each object they bring for repair entails a small story as to the item’s significance. Some objects must also be scrubbed clean, and some also require paint jobs. You will also be able to unlock sales tables to paint blank objects. There’s some VERY LIGHT farming in the form of growing your own paint berries, and there is quite a bit of shop decor to unlock. There aren’t any time-limits, so there’s no need to rush around the store for fear of losing customers. My only nitpicks would be that very rarely, a puzzle piece would be a bit difficult to properly fit. And also, the paints are a bit expensive to buy, given that they don’t last long (I was in the monetary hole on a few of my overzealous projects!). [EDIT: The devs have heard our cries! :D A recent patch purports to address the painting economics!] Regarding the painting, there is no wrong answer in this game, however. So you can splatter, dot, stripe, scribble, or fill as desired. There are even toggles for which zones to paint on each object, if you are a perfectionist. Piece by Piece launched with a green Steam Deck Verified checkmark and it fully deserves that checkmark! Absolutely flawless controls and super cozy experience in handheld. A really sweet game full of endearing characters, warm smiles, and even tidbits of life wisdom. An easy recommend if you enjoy relaxing games that feel thoughtfully crafted for a curated experience.

A cozy shop/restoration game. Basic gameplay loop where you rebuild, clean and sometimes paint various broken objects and keep your store as cozy and welcoming as possible with various features to give you a larger tip. It's nothing remarkable, but a nice enough game in the "wholesome slop"-genre. There are some slight jank when you rebuild the items and there where some minor bugs here and there, but nothing game breaking. Not sure about the longlivity of the game, you can 100% it in about 4 hours and then there isn't that much left to do. But sometimes a couple of hours is all you need to get out of a game. I guess updates can expand on it like Trash Gobiln did, but even if they don't, I'm more than happy with what I got out of it. . Got this together with the other "Piece by Piece" game that released almost the same day, mostly because both devs where having fun with the weird coincidence on reddit.