If The Sims had adorable forest sprites instead of disaster humans it would be Shroomchitect

Shroomchitect is a game about a bunch of lil' forest folks living in a nice big mushroom, with a vibe portfolio encompassing The Sims, Dwarf Fortress, and adorable 3D pixel art.

The stars of the game are little Kirby-looking spirit friends named Shroomies, who need your help getting settled in their new mushroom home. Shroomchitect is a deliberately low-stakes game, so the Shroomies won't die if you don't attend to their every need or anything - but they will get visibly bummed out, which may be worse.

The Shroomies have bars that represent their current hunger, social, energy and purpose needs, and just like The Sims, the challenge comes from improving their lives while also keeping them happy in the here and now. Or you could just watch them camp out under the shelter of the mushroom cap for a while before you start worrying about what to do next.

Shroomchitect is very pleasant to behold, with a low-res art style that marries Minecraft-style block naturalism with bright and cheerful pixel art, and a nice and chill downtempo soundtrack. It's meant to be a small game, but it's just big enough to include a photo mode for capturing those precious fungal moments.

The new game is the latest monthly project from Patreon game development trio Punkcake Délicieux, though you can also pick it up on its own from Itch. It's an intriguing business model for a team of independent developers to try (though Punkcake is very up front about getting the idea from Sokpop, a Dutch game development collective) and we'll definitely be keeping an eye out for their future creations.

Make sure you check out the latest incarnation of Steam Next Fest, which is running right now, if you want even more indie goodness in your life.