A review key was provided by Catoptric Games.
Imagine, if you will, a game where you’re tasked with keeping the extremely demanding inhabitants of a budding township satisfied with their limited space, wrapped in a cute art style and lo-fi beats to chill to as you play God. That’s “Pile Up!” in a nutshell.
Pile Up! is a relaxing city-builder that can be enjoyed casually, where your objective is to build up your community and provide them with basic amenities such as water, electricity, and heating. Even the park is an amenity you have to properly allocate, lest your citizens get upset with you. (Imagine wanting to touch grass, am I right?)
But that’s just the basics. When you first start out, you get housing and amenities factories to slowly build up your island town and let it thrive. The challenge comes in the form of the island’s limited space, coupled with increasing demands from the citizens, because as your town grows, you very quickly realise that certain amenities just don’t mix.
As you progress, you’ll slowly realise that your island is beginning to look like something out of a dystopian nightmare. The failure to feed the beast can lead to a riot, which is amusing to think about as the inhabitants are stuck on an island in the middle of nowhere. I guess in some cases, beggars really can be choosers.
But that’s also where the fun is. Similar to real life, you’ll have has a lot of future planning to consider when placing your houses, factories and/or amenities. Add in the random nature of which block you draw with each turn that you have (yes, you have to place the blocks in your hand to end the turn) to place, and it becomes both challenging and fun to figure out what to do with that piece you just got, albeit a tad frustrating but totally justified.
Aside from the regular game mode, where you are tasked with managing your town as mentioned above, there’s also the endless chill mode, which is almost sandbox-like; and a harder challenge mode, which is more or less the same thing but with more restrictions. The game also features various other platforms and starter islands for which you can begin your city, though the regular island is still a personal favourite due to its quaint charm.
Pile Up! was recently fully released on 23 July, 2025. Personally, it’s a game I don’t regret getting and feel like I will come back to every so often to chillax or play with the lives of my citizens. Definitely a game I would recommend to my friends to just casually enjoy.
This article was contributed by TJ. Check out the game on Steam.
