The cozyLord of the Rings-inspiredTales of the Shireallows players to go fishing, host parties, befriend their neighbors, grow crops, and decorate their own hobbit hole. The development team at Weta Workshop, all hugeLord of the Ringsfans, put careful work into makingTales of the Shire’shome decoration system feel fully realized and robust and the game features dozens of collectible decoration items inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien’s books and life.
Game Rant spoke to game designer Catherine Booth, who outlined the home decoration feature’s “complete freedom” philosophy, the choice to focus on aesthetics inspired by the books rather than the films to create a lore-accurateMiddle-earth, and more. She expressed her excitement to see this feature come to life when the game launches in 2025, and the entire team eagerly hopes thatTales of the Shireplayers will share their decorated hobbit holes online.This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Triumphs and Challenges of Tales of the Shire’s Grid-Free Decoration System
Q: WasTales of the Shire’sdecoration feature something that was present since the beginning, or did it get added partway through the game’s development?
Booth:I’ve been on the project for about half the length of it existing.Home decorationwas definitely here before I started. I can’t speak to what came first in the order of things, but I can tell you that home decoration has been around for a really long time.
The game mode itself is treated quite differently to how home decoration is handled in a lot of othercozy games. For us, it’s almost a completely separate game mode—it’s very seamless for the player, but it’s so embedded. When you go to have a shared meal, for example, you’re sort of accessing the home decoration mode at the same time, and it’s entwined in quite a few different places. It’s been around for a long time, and it’s definitely been an area of the game that’s really important to us to beef out for the players to enjoy.
Q: As the game developed, were there any major changes made to home decoration mode?
Booth:I think the biggest thing that I’ve seen is just the breadth of different items that have eventually been achieved. Even though I wasn’t the designer of the system itself, I’ve been in touch with all the decorations that you’re able to get in the game at various points: deciding what goes into it, deciding what all those items will be called, and especially deciding how you get all of those different items. They’ve been across my plate almost the whole way through the time they’ve existed.
It’s mostly been about expanding what you may get. I think, for the most part, at least since I joined, we have pretty much nailed down how we wanted this system to work for the player. We wanted to have a grid-free placement system, which means that you’re not locked into snapping your items to a grid in your own hobbit hole.
It’s very free in terms of allowing you to place things where you want to place them on a contextual basis, so paintings will always snap onto the wall, and cups will always snap onto your table. If you want to then move them over to a side table or a bench, they’ll go where they need to go. It feels accessible and easy for the player to handle without feeling constricting like agrid-based network.
Q: The grid-free system is not something you see a lot. Was it always grid-free, or is that something that changed along the way? Have there been any challenges when creating a grid-free system?
Booth:There are certainly challenges with making it grid-free. I can’t speak to whether it existed from the outset, but I have a feeling that it did just based on the way that we do stuff atWeta Workshop. We often come at creative problems with completely fresh, out-of-the-box perspectives, rather than being specifically directed by what other games have already done, so I suspect this has been around for a while.
In terms of challenges that we’ve had, I mentioned putting a painting on a wall. Becausea hobbit hole is circular, we don’t have square rooms, so making sure that our paintings or things that go on the wall snap nicely onto the wall without clipping through it. That’s been a challenge for our artists to handle in terms of what kind of wall decorations we can give you. That’s probably the biggest one that comes to mind.
It’s very free in terms of what you may stack on top of each other. We’ve obviously had to make decisions about, “How can you stack this up? Does it make sense for you to be able to stack things on top of this item or that item?” I think, from the design perspective, the thing that really sticks out to me about it is that it feels to the player very much like it makes sense. There are no moments where you’re like, “Oh, but I wanted to stack that.” Everything that you want to do you can pretty much achieve.
An Aesthetic Inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien’s Books and Life
Q: In terms of aesthetics, how much did you choose original designs versus the look of theLord of the Ringsbooks and movies? Is it a blend of original and Tolkien?
Booth:It’s very much grounded inTolkien’s books. We’re very much inspired by the aesthetic of the time that he grew up in, even prior to the age he was when he wrote the books. What he would have had around him growing up—because we know that was really a huge inspiration for him when he was writing about the Shire. It was about his childhood, it was about his upbringing, it was about being in nature.
We were inspired by the things that would have been surrounding him at that time. That sort ofmid-century, early 1900skind of aesthetic, even going slightly further back. Woody, homey, rustic—all those kinds of things have inspired us. We’ve focused on what the books are giving us, trying to bring forth that feeling, but in a variety of different ways so that if the player has different aesthetic ideas, they’re not locked into, say, brown wood. There are lots of different places they can go with that.
I really like how the art team has managed to achieve all of those different options and make them feel very different while staying within that sort of scope of, “What wouldTolkienhave experienced when he was writing this?” It’s our take on a historically grounded, source material-grounded inspiration.
Q: Weta Workshop is based in New Zealand—are there any New Zealand-inspired decoration items in the game?
Booth:I don’t want to spoil any items, but [I can share] an anecdote. A major bit of my job has been working out how the players are going to get all these different decoration items. I remember that early on, when I was prototyping one of these rewards, I picked up a random pot that we knew we were going to be able to give out to the player, and the name of the pot was—I think it’s a Temuka pot, and I was like, “What’s Temuka?” I asked the team, and it’s a real-life pottery style that is grounded inNew Zealand.
It was really cool that we’ve been able to put in a little of our cultural history and background and pop it in there in a way that makes sense in terms of the aesthetics. That’s still something that I’m pretty proud of, that there are little pieces of us that are in there.
Q: Now, I know you can’t spoil too much, but will I be able to put the One Ring in my hobbit hole?
Booth:Nope! We’ve been very careful about our references to the One Ring because of where the game is set. We’re setting the game after the events ofThe Hobbit. That’s happened, Bilbo’s come back to the Shire, and the vibe is that all the hobbits are like, “Oh, whatever. You just went on some weird trip. Came back really rich.” That’s all. That’s their level of caring about it, which is really appropriate forThe Hobbit.
Then, because the events ofLord of the Ringshaven’t taken place yet, we didn’t want to make any references tothe One Ring. We’ve really made sure that there are no plot holes or weird inconsistencies going on, that it works for the time.
Tales of the Shire’s Decoration Items Can Be Earned Through Various Game Mechanics
Q: I know that food is going to be a huge part of the game because meals are so important to hobbits. How do meals work with decoration inTales of the Shire—can you cook a meal and then show it off?
Booth:When you set up ashared meal with your hobbits, you have to kind of go into home decoration mode just before that. That’s kind of what’s happening on the back end.
For each of themeal items, there’s a giant, shared platter version of the meal, and you can switch to a smaller portion of the meal as well. When you go to set up your shared meal, you can put down your placemats, your cutlery, and your cups, and decorate your table. Each of those meals kind of acts like a decoration item at the same time. You can definitely have a look at all your little items that you made.
Q: Cooking is one of the ways you earn decoration items as a reward, right—what are some of the other methods you can use to unlock more decoration items?
Booth:We’ve got a bunch of different quests and different tales that you can do throughout the game. Not just your main story but also our little side tales and our relationship tales with each of thehobbit NPCsthat you can hang out with. In almost all the game systems where you could achieve a reward, there’s often a decoration coming through there as well.
We have lots of decorations and lots of ways to achieve them. They come through your rewards for yourtales, side tales, relationship tales, and obviously through the shop as well. You can go shopping for your decoration and furniture items. We have a couple of different NPCs that you can get them from, and if you want to just go and buy them, that’s fine too! Say, for example, you really liked the chair from a particular decoration set—you can get it again. You end up with two or three or however many you want. It’s not like you’re [limited] to one chair, so there are tons of places that the decoration items come from, in terms of how players can achieve them.
Q: Would you say there’s a collection element, as well, with different pieces being categorized as part of a set? Like, if a player wants to collect every piece of a particular set?
Booth:Yeah, it’s very much like that. With the hobbit hole, we’ve got the main area that you get from the outset, but, through progressing in the game, you can add on to your hobbit hole and add on to your garden space as well. There’s so much room for you to be like, “Okay, this room is going to be for thisdecoration collection, and I’m going to make the whole room that theme.” You can definitely do that. Throughout the different decoration item sets they all have some distinction, so you can really flavor different rooms and different spaces in whichever way you like.
As the designer, I’ve definitely been mindful of the fact that players are going to want tocollect the sets. Each set has a matching sort of “completion level.”
Q: Do you and the team have any particular favorite decoration items inTales of the Shire?
Booth:Yeah! Something I think is really cute about this game is that each of the decoration item sets is kind of inspired by one of ourhobbit friends. You’ll meet a character, and they’ll each have their own decoration set, which is super cute, and they’re all quite distinct from each other. There are also some unique items that you get through different quests that you can display in your little hobbit hole as a trophy.
For me, my favorite decorations are thelighting items. We have this really cute single candle stand, and it’s not quite a chandelier—it’s kind of like a floor lamp—but it’s a candle. It’s hobbit-y. I love collecting them. Whenever I have an opportunity to find a lighting item, or if there’s one in the shop, I pick it up. I love how we’ve managed lighting inside the hobbit hole. It’s my favorite.
Tales of the Shire Players Can Expand and Show Off Their Hobbit Hole
Q: In terms of the hobbit hole, do you start out with a hole of the same size and that’s always the amount of space you have, or can you expand it?
Booth:We’ve got rooms that you add on by progressing through the game. You’ve got your main area with the kitchen, and your bedroom, and living area off to the side, which you’re able to see in previews. Then, while progressing, you can add on different rooms. It’s the same way with thegarden—you start off with one garden area, and you can add on more as you progress.
Q: Are you looking forward to fans showing off their home decoration creations on social media? Is that something you guys will be encouraging?
Booth:Absolutely. A fun fact about home decoration is that it doesn’t actually pass time when you’re playing because we really wanted to make the game ascozy, low-pressure, and low-stakesas possible. We wanted the player to really just get stuck into home decoration without worrying about what else is going on in the game. Maybe you’ve set up a shared meal, and that’s happening tomorrow, but you don’t need to worry about that because you can spend literally however long you want doing home decoration.
A lot of the time when I’m playing the game, I’m playing it to do something and have time progress. I don’t get to play around with home decorating nearly as much as I would like to. That means that when I get to see the artists or other members of the team showing off the cool room that they made, it’s always so cool to see how different it is compared to what I would do.
It’s quite addictive to sit there, tidying up your hobbit hole, putting things back where they’re supposed to go, and switching them out for the set that I like. Then, when you see someone else have their take on it, it’s like a different game—like, what’s happened here?
I think that players are really going to love putting their touch on things, customizing it to the way that they’d like to have it, and then sharing. Because we do have aphoto mode, it’ll be super easy for them to go ahead and be like, “Check out my rooms! Check out what I’ve done! Look at the progression that I’ve got—I’ve got this giant hobbit hole, and I’ve got all these rooms, and this expanded garden.” I definitely think that it’s going to be on folks' minds. It serves our audience. They love photo mode. They love decorating, love the colors—that sort of maximalism, and then sharing it with people.
Q: Overall, how would you describe the aesthetics of the decorations? Would you say “cottage core,” or “clutter core,” or something else?
Booth:Like I said, it’s really grounded in the inspiration, the time frame that Tolkien would have been mindful of when he was conceptualizingthe Shireand describing it. We’ve definitely been true to that. There are sorts of different directions you can take in terms of color, in terms of style, but we’ve tried to keep things as consistent as possible.
There are a few different decoration sets that branch out a little bit from that. Without giving away too much, there are a few sort of “outlier” sets that are quite different from that, which people are going to love because they’re different. Then there’s the sort of more traditional, hobbit-corecottage-core, but with different color stylings and fabrics and things like that, that you can use to differentiate your rooms, so there’s that variation. I think people will be really stoked by just the breadth of different items.
Q: I know there’s a physical Hobbiton in New Zealand. Did you guys visit it at all during the process of developingTales of the Shireor use it for inspiration at all?
Booth:I can’t speak for everyone, but I know that we’re all die-hard super fans. A lot of us have been toHobbiton. They only recently, in the past year or so, opened the interior of a hobbit hole, so previously, even if they had gone to Hobbiton and had a look at it by the time we were doing this work, they wouldn’t have been able to go inside a hobbit hole anyway. It is definitely grounded in our imaginings of what the Shire looks like, based on the books and based on what Tolkien would have seen, and I know that our art team has done a ton of research into other aesthetics that they want to bring in.
I know that for the art team, the Arts and Crafts movement was really big in terms of their inspiration. There was tons of research and concept art that we developed ourselves, and that’s what drove us forward. Even though a lot of us have been to Hobbiton and love it, and it’s been a help in conceptualizing things, for interiors, clothing, and the way thathobbitswould have lived, that’s all come out of our minds and how we’ve interpreted the source material and how we’ve been inspired by other movements and elements.
Q: Anything else you’d like Game Rant’s readers to know about home decoration inTales of the Shire?
Booth:Don’t forget that you can decorate your garden space! You can bring most of your items outside. There’s obviously indoor furniture sets, but there’soutdoor furnitureas well. You can have your deck chair and stuff. It’s really fun to see people in that “Wow!” moment where they’re decorating indoors, and then you just go, “Okay, I’ll pick up that rug and just walk outside.” It’s completely seamless, so that’s a fun tidbit.
Anything can go in any room. You can have your bed in the kitchen if you want. There are a few exceptions, like a garden bed can’t go indoors, because your plants need to grow, but I think that’s kind of the extent of it. As long as it makes sense in terms of the world. You can put your table outside. You can evenput your bed outside!
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