Miniature Painter Simulator is… well, the name says it all, doesn’t it? This upcoming indie game promises the full experience of building and painting miniatures, but without the paint, or the miniatures. I’m probably not the target audience here, as my backlog of models is big enough to crush me to death should the shelf holding it ever tip over; but for the benefit of anyone with a healthier relationship to plastic, what does this game contain?
Miniature Painter Simulator (MPS) is a first person simulation of painting miniatures, which you probably already guessed. It has two play modes, a free play mode that lets you paint whichever minis you like, and a career mode as a commission miniature painter where your progress is gated by cold hard cash. You’ll need to buy miniatures, paints, and better equipment for your workshop, and then sell completed figures to commission clients or on the marketplace to maintain a steady income.
There’s a free demo of MPS on Steam right now, but as I own more unfinished miniatures than I can feasibly paint in one human lifetime, I haven’t tested it yet. From the trailer I get the impression that this will be more on the chill-out-and-relax end of job simulators, like Powerwash Simulator and House Flipper, rather than something with a stricter economy, like Farming Simulator or American Truck Simulator.
All that to say, I don’t expect clients to suddenly ghost you and leave you with a custom-painted army you have to sell at a loss on eBay. And since the Steam page says you don’t have to worry about gravity, there’s no risk of ruining a finished commission by tipping a pot of Nuln Oil over it.
MPS is part of a growing subgenre of sims that digitize expensive nerdy hobbies, like 2019’s PC Building Simulator or the 2025 and 2026 double whammy of Mech Builder and Mech Builder 3D. It’s the second game from Swain Games, the first being a Phasmophobia-like called DeathWatchers which was released onto Steam early access in summer 2024 and was last updated for Halloween 2025.
If you want to join in with a community of miniature painters, come and hang out in the Wargamer Discord community – we have a dedicated miniature painting channel, and we’re always happy to see work from new people. If you ever wondered how to get started with painting miniatures, we have a dedicated guide you can check out.
Source: Wargamer
