Review: MakeRoom Lets You Decorate Creative Spaces

Unlike many entries in this genre, MakeRoom does also feature what you could consider a “campaign” of sorts, as you can also opt to visit MakeRoom Island. This is, as the name suggests, a small landmass with a number of specific rooms in need of sprucing up. Each one will have a theme, such as one for a vampire, a spy hideaway, a gamer room paradise, a home cinema, or so on. The little house mascot on the side of the screen will make requests. Some of them will limit you. For example, the first request in the vampire room is to remove windows. But when you get to ones like “add two lamps” and “I want a cat,” you get more options to do what you want. The downside is, these “challenges” only take a few minutes to fulfill and aren’t as intensive or detailed as I’d hope.

I’m a big fan of all these divisions. In some ways, it does almost feel like three different types of experiences. In the furniture creation section, you’re actually in a “workshop” space with a number of different types of object parts and designs. You pick colors for things. You arrange it all. It’s very hands-on and tactile, with some really detailed possibilities. MakeRoom Island is honestly among my favorite parts of the experience, since you do have a sense of direction, but still the freedom to experiment. And of course the general sandbox is lovely as well, especially once you have played around in the other two modes and started to get an idea of possibilities. I just wish the MakeRoom Island part was as rich as the furniture creator and general sandbox.

I would have appreciated, though I get could be due to technical limitations or other factors, is more varied room options. We can choose from the back of a truck to make a camper, a room in a building, or an outdoor space. While we can adjust walls or flooring and the range of tools mean we could make residential or professional spaces, I did feel a bit limited. I wished I could have had more room or extra opportunities for deciding on the way the blank palette looked before we started setting up. Because since there are limitations on how small something can get, we can’t just make everything teenier for different types of forced perspectives.

There are two major problems I encountered with MakeRoom. The first is while it is possible to layer items, select colors, duplicate items, and really make a number of adjustments to refine each scene, it isn’t always convenient or easy. I’d kill for an undo button or options that made it easier to arrange, flip, and fine-tune furniture and accessory placement. There’s no quick undo button. You need to rearrange or find the delete again to adjust. I’d have appreciated an option that would let me toggle between multiple items when clicking in a section with a lot going on, like a bookshelf, table, or bed fully decked out with sheets and accessories. I will note that the UI is easier to navigate on an actual PC, as opposed to a handheld gaming one, due to the title being designed with mouse controls in mind.

The other thing that gets in the way of my really relaxing with MakeRoom is its lack of precision. It’s an issue not only when playing on a handheld gaming PC like a Steam Deck or Lenovo Legion Go, but came up when I used a laptop and mouse. There are times when it is quite difficult to place things perfectly. Especially if you are trying to go through some cleaning up sections in the levels or engage in some layering. Getting into certain positions is a little limiting, and sometimes even the cleanup tools might not help with cobwebs if you aren’t clicking things just right.

MakeRoom is one of the better room decoration diorama options out there, offering more and looking better than something like My Cozy Room. The bargain price paired with the diversity of items is quite nice. I also appreciated that, for those who might draw a mental block for their next creation or want to get a grasp on things, there are levels with certain goals and restrictions. I do wish it was a bit more precise or offered more UI features. But if someone plays on a PC, then they might be okay since the mouse controls will be on their side.

MakeRoom is available for PCs via Steam.