Game: Boardwalk Builders
Genre: Casual, Simulation.
System: Nintendo Switch 2 (also on Steam (Windows))
Developer|Publisher: Studio Primitive | Flynns Arcade
Age Rating: EU 3 | US Everyone
Price: US $7.99 | UK £6.99 | EU € 7,99
Release Date: September 24th, 2026
Review code provided with many thanks to Flynns Arcade.
Boardwalk Builders – Down By the Pier
Boardwalk Builders is a cosy little management game that takes the simple idea of building your own seaside boardwalk and turns it into a relaxing evening experience. It is quite a departure from the sort of arcade-focused experiences I normally associate with Flynns Arcade, but sometimes it is nice to slow things down a bit.
A Trip To The Seaside
There is something about Boardwalk Builders that immediately brought back memories of seaside trips when I was younger. My grandparents used to live on the Isle of Wight, so trips to little seaside towns, wandering along the shops, arcades and promenades were a fairly familiar part of growing up. That seaside atmosphere is certainly present here.
Your job is to take a fairly humble stretch of beachfront and gradually turn it into a thriving boardwalk packed with shops, restaurants and attractions. You can sell everything from sunglasses and sea glass art to wood sculptures, while rides and restaurants help bring even more visitors through your doors. It is hardly the most complicated premise in the world, but that simplicity is part of the appeal.
Building Your Boardwalk
The main gameplay revolves around managing your businesses and making sure they are actually making money. As customers visit your boardwalk, your shops generate income, which you can then spend on new businesses and upgrades. You can improve individual shops to increase their revenue and how quickly they serve customers, while progressing through the game unlocks additional perks and ways of expanding your seaside empire. There are also stars to earn, which can be used to unlock further options as you progress like new shops and the ability to form relationships with local businesses.
One of the more interesting mechanics is combining businesses. Once you have the right shops available, you can combine them to create larger establishments capable of serving more customers and generating more income. Then these combinations can be combined again. In time you can build rides and restaurants, hire entertainers, run marketing campaigns and take part in themed festivals. Weather can affect demand too, so there is a little more going on beneath the relaxing exterior than you might initially expect.
Slow And Steady Wins The Race
One thing I learned fairly quickly is that Boardwalk Builders really doesn’t want you to rush. My natural instinct with management games is usually to see something available, think “I can afford that!” and immediately buy it. That approach doesn’t necessarily work particularly well here. Throwing money at everything as quickly as possible doesn’t always give you the return you might expect. It is much better to build up the basics, make sure your existing businesses are stable and then gradually expand.
That slower pace won’t necessarily work for everyone. There is a fast-forward button which may help the impatient a little. But it very much is a slow and steady wins the game experience. This is a game that works best when you approach it with a cup of coffee nearby and absolutely no intention of rushing anywhere.
Simple Controls
The controls are straightforward, and Boardwalk Builders supports touchscreen controls on Switch. I did find the touchscreen a little fiddly in places, though. I actually preferred using a mixture of touchscreen and buttons rather than relying entirely on touch. Using the buttons made things like moving around the boardwalk and controlling the camera feel a little easier. It is a small thing, but the hybrid approach worked nicely for me.
The game starts with a basic tutorial that introduces the fundamentals without throwing absolutely everything at you at once. From there, you are left to learn some of the more advanced mechanics naturally as you progress, which I appreciated.
Simple But Full Of Life
Graphically, Boardwalk Builders isn’t trying to blow you away with technical wizardry. It has a simple, cute pixel style that suits what it is trying to do. What I particularly liked was how much life there is around the boardwalk. You can watch people wandering around, visiting your shops and enjoying the rides you’ve built. There is a day and night cycle too, and occasionally you’ll catch little details happening around the boardwalk that make it feel more like a living seaside destination rather than simply a collection of numbers and menus. Look up into the sky, and you might even spot someone gliding past. It is nothing groundbreaking visually, but it has a nice atmosphere, and it works well in handheld mode.
Conclusion: I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside
Boardwalk Builders is a nice little change of pace from Flynns Arcade, and while it might not have the immediate arcade thrills I normally associate with the publisher, I enjoyed its more relaxed approach. The combination of building, upgrading and gradually expanding your boardwalk gives you enough to keep coming back to, while the seaside setting adds a lovely nostalgic touch for me personally.
It’s not a big innovation in the genre. However, sometimes you just want to build some shops, watch people wander around your boardwalk and switch your brain off for a while. And for that purpose, Boardwalk Builders does the job rather nicely.
Final Verdict: I Like It.
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