TOEM

In the game, the player assumes control of a young photographer who must ascend a mountain to witness a phenomenon known as "Toem". As the player character progresses, they will visit numerous Scandinavian towns and cities that are filled with non-playable characters (NPCs), who will ask the players for help. Gameplay primarily revolves around helping the locals by solving various puzzles using the player character's camera. Players explore the game's world from a top-down perspective, though it will shift to first-person when the player is taking photos.

Players earn stamps by helping NPCs, and they can ride on a bus and progress to the next area once they have collected a sufficient number of stamps. The player character's outfits can also be customized.

Toem is the debut project for Swedish independent game development studio Something We Made. The project was conceptualized in 2018 by university students Lucas Gullbo and Niklas Mikkelsen. Both studied in the same university and were enrolled in courses about video game development. The two submitted an early prototype of Toem to a local game competition named Game Concept Challenge, and won.

They were awarded 50,000 SEK from the competition, and using this fund, they joined an incubation program and established their own company to further work on the game. While Gullbo and Mikkelsen were responsible for the game's development, the team collaborated with Rumsklang for the game's audio, and Jamal Green and Launchable Socks for the game's original soundtracks. Independent game publisher Popagenda helped the team to market the game in order to reach a larger audience. The game had a budget of US$183,000.

Toem received generally positive reviews upon release according to review aggregator Metacritic. Critics frequently compared the game's core concepts to A Short Hike, an adventure game released in 2019. The team won in the Best Debut category at the 18th British Academy Games Awards. It was also nominated in the Excellence in Audio category at the 2022 Independent Games Festival Awards, though it lost to Inscryption.

5 stars out of 5, writing, "Overall, Toem is a wonderful photography-focused experience, with easy-to-use controls, chill lo-fi beats, and an interesting world full of charm and whimsy to explore." Destructoid praised the design that encouraged player experimentation and felt that the game excellently executed its ideas, stating, "There is no design here that is questionable, no idea that feels unfinished. This is simply a well-crafted jaunt through a charming world." Eurogamer gave the game its "Essential" rating, proclaiming that Toem was "a reminder of what video games can be - what else they can be", and gave heavy praise to the title's in-game camera functionality, color scheme, and the intricate environment with intimate characters.