A single-player creature simulation
You can't command them — only offer, comfort, redirect, and refuse. Earn their trust, and a lonely gnomelet becomes a village that thrives, struggles, and remembers how you treated it.
Free to play in your browser at app.gnomelets.com · Installs like an app · Coming soon to the App Store & Google Play.
Coax, don't command
There are no orders, and almost no meters. You read each gnomelet through its posture and mood, and act through simple verbs — never commands. Trust multiplies every one, so care comes first.
Set out food, a ball, a place to rest. They decide whether to take it.
Touch-and-hold to soothe. Patient comfort is how trust grows.
Beckon their attention elsewhere — a suggestion, never a leash.
Say no, and live with it. Every choice leaves a mark on the bond.
Feed and comfort from the first minute; gardens, festivals, and a shaft of divine light as the village rises. Every one is an offer, not an order.
Read them at a glance
Gnomelets never show numbers. Everything they feel surfaces as a little picture, a glow, or a pop-up — the only language the creatures have. Here's the whole vocabulary, in one place.
Moods & needs — a picture above the head
Wants food — set out an apple.
Wants a drink — a well or trough.
Low on energy — wants to rest.
Needs a wash — clean its space.
Wants company — another gnome, or you.
Everything's just right — your cue you're doing well.
Something's wrong — often a predator near.
In real trouble — needs care right now.
Auras & glows — a state around the whole gnome
You're soothing it (touch-and-hold). This is how trust grows.
Content enough to start a family — it'll soon split into two.
Drawn to the totem, or basking in your shaft of divine light.
Overcrowded and given up. Only patient comfort brings it back.
A brief scuffle between two gnomes — it passes.
Pop-up cues — brief signs that float up, then fade
Starving — hunger's critical; step in now. (💧❗ means parched.)
A home went up — the colony spent wood to build it.
"Wants a mate" — the hint tells you how to help
A partner's nearby — beckon them together.
The partner's unhappy — cheer it up first (feed, play, bless).
The partner has withdrawn — only patient comfort reaches it.
No partner exists yet — grow the colony first.
The one meter you watch
Love them too little and they starve.
Love them too much and they fade.
Both ends are ruin. Everything that matters happens in the narrow space between.
One quiet gauge rides above your village. Drift to either edge and the colony is lost. Hold them in the green long enough, and they cross a threshold few players ever reach — they begin to wake up.
Not just a quiet garden
Gnomelets is gentle, but it isn't safe. Day slips into lantern-lit night, weather rolls through, and a procedural score fills out as the colony grows. Keep them protected and in balance and they flourish; let it tip too far either way, and the colour drains from the world.
Sunrise, golden hour, nightfall and rain all pass in real time — and the score grows from a lone melody into a whole village's song.
A hawk by day, a fox at the treeline, an owl after dark. Raids are telegraphed — wave them off before they snatch a gnome.
A thriving colony is warm, saturated and full of song. Let its spirit fail, and the colour quietly bleeds out of everything.
A world that keeps going
The habitat runs in real time and keeps living while you're away — come back and the world has moved on without you.
One amber gnomelet, full of needs. Sustain genuine care and it settles, nests, and splits in two — the first of many.
Name your gnomes and watch them build: rough huts that grow into grander homes, a town square and well, farms, lanterns, a hearth they gather around after dark.
And then, one day, the village starts building something that isn't for them. It begins to watch the edge of the world. It begins to watch you…
Play like a native app
Open app.gnomelets.com in your browser, then install it. It runs full-screen, works offline, and keeps your village right where you left it — no app store required.
Don't see an install option? Make sure you're using the browser listed above — on iPhone, installing only works in Safari.
On the way
We're bringing Gnomelets to mobile app stores. Until then, you can play and install it straight from the web today.
Start with one amber gnomelet. Earn its trust, raise a village, and find out what it becomes — and what it makes of you.
Play Gnomelets