As I sit to write this preview, news article, or what it really is, I’m trying to shine a light on a game from my home town. It’s 25 °C in my office, it’s too hot for Sweden, it’s horrible. Then I think about all the talented people in this town in Sweden, this little corner of a little country, creating such incredible works of art.
That’s the point of this article, and the point of this series of articles. For now, we’ll call it “Tea, Fika, and Indie Devs.” However, the idea of the series remains unchanged. I want to highlight developers in and around Skövde, Sweden. It’s a small town with a population of around 60,000 people. Yet, it produces some of the biggest games we know and love.
The image above gives you an idea of just how talented this town is. Taken in 2024 at the annual gaming convention, here was the unveiling of the Skövde Walk of Game. I wrote about that if you want to read more. The event honoured five games in particular that had achieved the following criteria:
- At least 3 million copies sold or at least 15 million downloads for a free title.
- The majority of the game must be developed in Skövde, with 50% of the total development time taking place in the City.
- Original IP. The game and its IP must be the sole idea of the studio.
So, with that explained, my goal here is to highlight the next game to appear on that list. My dream is to attend in 2025, 2026, etc, and one year goes by, “wow, look at them, I remember before they had a Steam page.” If I can do anything to push the signal onto smaller teams in the area, then I will.
Back to the point of today’s article, we have our first game in this series. Home Sweet Gnome appeared on my TikTok feed about a month ago, and I knew from the accent of the voice-over that I needed to do some research. Sure enough, the developer was Swedish. I told my wife, who is actually Swedish, that I was as pleased as punch. She then said, “Funny if they were from here,” and it turns out, they were. At that moment, I was reminded of the 2024 Walk of Game, and that I knew then I wanted to do more.
Interestingly, I had a similar thought in 2024 when attending DreamHack. I ran into the developer of Gori Cuddly Carnage. Despite being the only game I managed to check out, it also turned out they were from Skövde. But this time, on my own website, I want to do more.
Home Sweet Gnome – Charmed I’m sure
Before I even knew what the game was about, the initial trailer (linked above) pulled me in. The look, the feel, and the charm oozes off the screen. I don’t know who made it at the studio or how many people were involved, but hats off to you.
The video has 1.7k views at the time of writing, and I think we can do something to change that. I’m not one to say, “If you like X, you’ll like this.” But you know, once you see that trailer and browse the Home Sweet Gnome Steam Page (wishlist now please), it’s a game for you or not.
Look, if you’ve ever dreamed of opening a Bed & Breakfast or being a Swedish Gnome, then you’ll be fine. It’s a cosy 2D management game, full of Nordic folklore and cool characters.
“In Saga’s world, you can take things at your own pace! Dash through quests, pamper all your guests and collect every resource, or lean back and do things when you feel like it – play without pressure.” One bugbear with the cosy game genre is that they still try to have stress or things that pressure you as a player. Stardew Valley is great, but it’s still stressful. If I wanted to be stressed out gaming, I’d just play Looking for Raid content in World of Warcraft.
Home Sweet Gnome is still very much “Coming Soon.” But you can already see what’s coming, you can see the potential. I certainly can, and the developers seem like a great bunch.
So, again, head over to the Sweet Gnome Steam Page, wishlist it (it’s free, remember) and keep it locked on Geekmandem.com for more coverage of Home Sweet Gnome and other wonderful games from the local areas.
And if you are a developer from Skövde and you want to reach out (you can also be from anywhere in Sweden, I promise I won’t bite), then please reach out to me at David(at)geekmandem.com and let’s chat, and let’s get that game out there.
Thank you so much for featuring us! We’re so grateful for all the support!