TinyKeep

About

"TinyKeep is a single-player historical role-playing game with ingenious gameplay and masterful graphics. Players, starting as a freed prisoner, must escape a procedurally generated dungeon filled with monsters and traps. Survival requires strategy and stealth, using the environment to outsmart enemies and progress through the dungeon. With permadeath and randomized layouts, each playthrough is a unique challenge."

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

64%

Audience ScoreBased on 304 reviews

gameplay23 positive mentions

grinding7 negative mentions

The game features randomly generated dungeons, providing a fresh experience with each playthrough.
The art style is charming and the sound design, including voice acting, adds to the overall atmosphere.
The gameplay encourages strategic use of the environment, allowing players to utilize traps and enemy interactions.

The controls can feel unresponsive and clunky, making combat frustrating at times.
The game lacks depth in terms of character progression, with limited weapon variety and no inventory system.
Permadeath can be punishing, as dying means starting over from the beginning without any saved progress.

gameplay
86 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
64%
9%
The gameplay of this title has received mixed reviews, with many players criticizing it for being overly simplistic, repetitive, and lacking depth. While some appreciate the initial fun and charm, they note that the mechanics quickly become stale, with clunky controls and a lack of engaging features. Overall, the game struggles to provide a compelling experience, often feeling generic and unpolished despite its potential for enjoyable moments.
- “The gameplay is fast and frantic, yet simple, giving it a very adrenaline-filled arcade type feel.”
- “The core game is very solid, with attractive graphics, fast-paced gameplay that's just challenging enough to keep it interesting, traps and monster AI just complex enough to be both dangerous and useful, a pleasant soundtrack, and engaging voice acting.”
- “It's an honestly fun game with its own charm that will definitely pay back in hours of gameplay.”
- “Gameplay loop is block, attack, stutter, killed during framedrop, restart.”
- “There are numerous tiny annoyances that make gameplay unpleasant, notably the jarring camera rotation speed, the too-small drops from lazily-designed enemies, the samey environments, simplistic gameplay, clunky controls that make avoiding or getting free from traps a chore, etc. There are no interesting features to justify plodding through randomized brown mazes.”
- “The gameplay is not exciting enough to get me through it each time.”
graphics
64 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
45%
50%
5%
The graphics of the game are generally described as cute and charming, with a distinct art style that appeals to many players. However, some reviews note that the visuals can be basic or simplistic, and there are issues with performance, such as stuttering and awkward controls. Overall, while the graphics are often praised for their aesthetic appeal, they may not be enough to compensate for gameplay shortcomings.
- “Love the art style and it's a lot of fun to explore the dungeons and find all the easter eggs while leveling up.”
- “The art style is unique, the environments and enemies are very cool and well-animated.”
- “The graphics are cute, and the models are fairly simple, but the lighting and textures fit perfectly - the graphical style fits the gameplay very well, in my opinion.”
- “The graphics are fairly basic and the physics behind controlling the character are a bit wonky, but otherwise this is a decent enough game.”
- “Having only resolution and 'graphics quality: good, bad, best' options for a PC game is pitiful.”
- “This game stutters no matter what graphic setting you have when running at 120hz.”
story
25 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
16%
72%
12%
The game's story is presented through extensive text walls and revolves around a basic dungeon escape narrative, featuring a prisoner and their cellmate, Maggie. While some players find the story immersive and engaging, particularly through character interactions and voice acting, many criticize it for being shallow and repetitive, with a lack of meaningful plot development as the procedurally generated levels lead to a monotonous gameplay experience. Overall, the story serves more as a backdrop to the hack-and-slash mechanics rather than a compelling driving force.
- “Overhead dungeon crawler roguelike with some semblance of a story where you are trying to escape with your cellmate of 6 years and you can choose to help them or... not.”
- “The story is so immersive I swear I thought I was actually my character and when my head got impaled by a huge spike for the 10th time and I took 1 damage I swear I really felt my character's mild discomfort. Also, your best friend Maggie is there for you the whole game giving you all sorts of useful advice like how to beat the fiery bat demon while you're questing through the great plains, and you feel like she's a real person when you're talking to her while at base camp with all your other companions that you freed from the prison at the start of the game.”
- “Voice acting is decent and a nice way to stay engaged if you want to have a story in a game.”
- “The whole story is given in the form of text walls.”
- “And although the levels are randomly generated, the story (and thus the objective of each level) remains the same and starts to get stale pretty quickly.”
- “There is almost nothing to keep you engaged in the environment, and that includes the weak story that exists.”
music
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
54%
23%
23%
The music in the game is generally well-received, with players noting that it complements the environment and gameplay effectively, though it may not stand out as particularly memorable. The soundtrack is described as engaging and fitting for the game's whimsical and adventurous tone, enhancing the overall experience without being intrusive. Additionally, the voice acting is praised, contributing to the game's charm alongside its appealing graphics and fun gameplay.
- “The music is also fitting to the environment and the action levels.”
- “Also has an engaging soundtrack with music that suits each level environment and doesn't disturb the feel and excitement you get from leading pea-brained enemies into traps.”
- “The core game is very solid, with attractive graphics, fast-paced gameplay that's just challenging enough to keep it interesting, traps and monster AI just complex enough to be both dangerous and useful, a pleasant soundtrack and engaging voice acting.”
- “The music score isn't anything special either.”
- “Okay music.”
- “Tinykeep brings a new whimsy to the oft-dark and foreboding PDL subgenre; this is Dark Souls meets Disney, with the tactical attack/defend combat of the former, and the cute and quirky art and music of the latter.”
replayability
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
42%
33%
25%
Overall, the game's replayability is mixed among users. While some appreciate the random generation and fast-paced gameplay that offers a degree of replay value, many feel that the lack of variety and depth in the dungeons limits long-term engagement. Players suggest that while it can be enjoyable for short sessions, it may not hold up for extended play, with some recommending waiting for a sale if replayability is a key factor.
- “As aforementioned, there are a number of reasons replaying won't get old; the dungeons do change upon replayability.”
- “It's still a good game to waste some time, and the random generation keeps a little bit of replayability.”
- “This is a great wake-me-up game; fast-paced, replayable, and can be completed in an hour.”
- “In my opinion, it's an 'okay' game, but I do not recommend it: it aims for replayability (rogue-like), but falls short on providing enough fun, variety, or something new when entering the same-looking dungeons over and over again.”
- “The replay value is nonexistent.”
- “First and foremost, this game doesn't have much replayability.”
humor
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is characterized by its dark and quirky elements, reminiscent of indie titles, and is complemented by a lighthearted approach that doesn't take itself too seriously. Players appreciate the comedic breaks amidst the gameplay, such as humorous character interactions and amusing sound effects, which enhance the overall experience. The game's charm is further highlighted by its cute aesthetics and entertaining rogue-like mechanics, making it a delightful choice for fans of humor-driven games.
- “I like the humor of the game and how it doesn't take itself seriously.”
- “Punctuating the journey at various points are events which offer a humorous welcome break from the endless death and skeleton macaroni soup that you are helping to create.”
- “It provides hours of entertainment, it's funny, you kill lots of really annoying things that sound like the Sims, and your best friend is Scottish!”
grinding
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessively tedious, often feeling like a chore as they collect gold from enemies and navigate obstacles. The need to repeatedly start from the first level to gather resources leads to a frustrating trade-off between boredom and increased difficulty. Additionally, the presence of farming mechanics undermines the intended challenge, further contributing to the sense of monotony.
- “My biggest gripe was that it felt insanely tedious to collect gold from every enemy, especially when other bodies ragdolled, preventing you from moving around the room easily.”
- “Starting the game from the first level is a boring chore, grinding and collecting every single coin waiting to have enough to activate some altars, while resuming at successive levels makes the game harder, so the game turns into a kind of trade-off between unfair difficulty and boredom.”
- “Once you know the strategy for each floor, you're just grinding away to get it done.”
atmosphere
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
17%
33%
The atmosphere of the game is highly praised, with users noting that it effectively immerses players through engaging voice acting, sound effects, and thoughtful design elements. The inclusion of a compass enhances navigation without detracting from the experience, contributing to a cohesive and captivating environment.
- “It reinforces the atmosphere and you don't spend time reading instead of running.”
- “Great voice overs, acting, and sound effects create a fantastic atmosphere.”
- “Amusing quotes and many nice atmospheric touches.”
- “It reinforces the atmosphere, and you don't spend time reading instead of running.”
- “Thankfully, you have a compass for this sort of thing in your HUD. While it helps keep track of health potions and other items you may need to return to later, it adds to the atmosphere of this game.”
stability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Overall, users report a generally stable experience with the game, noting minimal major glitches or hang-ups. However, some players have encountered minor annoyances and glitches, suggesting that while the game is mostly stable, there are occasional issues that could affect gameplay.
- “It is important to point out some annoyances and glitches I've seen as well.”
- “I found no major glitches or hang-ups to worry about, and enjoyed the bit of time I put into this game.”
- “As for the environment, I would not describe it as buggy.”
character development
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The character development in the game is highly praised for its charming art style and character design, complemented by excellent voice acting and sound effects, creating an engaging and visually appealing experience.
- “Everything about it is charming, from the art style and character design to the great voiceovers, acting, and sound effects.”
- “The character design is charming as hell.”
- “Beautiful gameplay and character design; love it!”
optimization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's optimization has been criticized for causing stuttering issues, which detracts from the overall experience, though some players feel that the low price mitigates their frustration.
- “I was lucky to get it for $2.75 CAD, or otherwise I'd be a lot more annoyed at how limited this game is, along with the stuttering problem.”