Design
How games work underneath: mechanics, systems, and why a loop keeps you playing.
-
What Is an Apartment Management Game? Tenants and Rent
The four verbs that define an apartment management game, the shapes it gets confused with, and which one on Steam is worth buying first.
-
What Is a Chess Deckbuilder? Cards, Mana and Runs
A chess deckbuilder plays cards onto a board instead of moving a fixed army. The four card models, what mana is for, and the four you can play on Steam.
-
The Psychology of Completion: Why Unfinished Games Nag You
A 2025 meta-analysis of 59 studies found no memory advantage for unfinished tasks, but a 67% tendency to resume them. What that means for game progress bars.
-
Why Game Music Is So Memorable: The Neuroscience
The widely cited Sheffield 40% game-music recall stat has no source. What peer-reviewed memory research actually shows, and why agency may matter more.
-
10 Games Set in Ordinary Places That Became Extraordinary
Papers, Please is set at one desk in a border booth and won the IGF Grand Prize. Ten games where an ordinary setting generated the mechanics, verified on Steam.
-
Why Nostalgia Works So Well in Video Games
Nostalgia was a diagnosable disease from 1688 into the 20th century. Loneliness triggers it, and retro pixels are optional.
-
Unpacking vs PowerWash Simulator vs Grandma Left Me a Building
Unpacking, PowerWash Simulator, and our upcoming Grandma Left Me a Building relax you in different ways. A design comparison, honest about which one is ours.
-
Flow State in Games: Why You Lose Track of Time
Flow is the state where hours vanish into a game. Here is the science behind it, and how games like Tetris, Hades, and Stardew Valley engineer it.
-
10 Games That Tell Their Whole Story Without a Single Word
Ten games that tell complete stories with zero dialogue, and exactly where each hides its narrative: architecture, animation, objects, color, and sound.
-
Why Do We Get Attached to Game Characters?
The psychology of NPC attachment: parasocial bonds, four peer-reviewed studies, and the design levers that make players care about game characters.
-
A Short History of Management Sim Games
The history of management sim games, from Utopia in 1981 and SimCity to Two Point Hospital, plus where a modern apartment sim like ours fits in.
-
Cozy Games With the Best Stories
Six cozy games where the writing is the reason to play, from Spiritfarer to Venba, plus one character-driven cozy sim in development at Overbaked.
-
What Makes a Good Roguelike?
A good roguelike rests on meaningful runs, real variety, and readable deaths. Here is what separates a great roguelike from a merely hard game, with examples.
-
What Is a Cozy Game? A Definition and Short History
A cozy game emphasizes safety, abundance and softness over challenge: low-stakes, usually non-violent, relaxing. A clear definition, short history, examples.
-
Why Are Deckbuilders So Addictive?
Deckbuilders hook you with synergy, variance, and variable reward. Here is the design and psychology behind the one-more-run loop, and where Hellmate fits.
-
What Makes a Good Management Sim Fun?
What makes a management sim fun, not just busywork: meaningful tradeoffs, real stakes, characters over columns, teaching difficulty, and legible feedback.
-
Why Restoration Games Are So Satisfying
Restoration games satisfy because effort becomes visible: the endowed progress effect, the reward of the changed object, and how we use the loop in our sim.
-
What Games Get Right (and Wrong) About Being a Landlord
A fair look at what games get right and wrong about being a landlord, from The Tenants to Landlord's Super, plus how Grandma Left Me a Building handles it.
-
Is the Cozy Game Genre Growing? What Steam Data Shows
Yes, the cozy game genre is growing: 543 cozy-tagged games hit Steam in 2025. Here is what is driving it, and what it means for a small studio like ours.
-
Cozy Management Games Compared: Stardew vs Two Point
How three cozy management games compare: Stardew Valley's calm farm, Two Point Hospital's comedy, and our own chaotic apartment sim, on design not a scorecard.
-
Inheritance Games: Why We Start With a Ruin
Why do so many games start with an inheritance? From Stardew Valley to My Time at Portia, why a grandparent's run-down farm is gaming's favorite opening.
-
Why Are Cozy Games So Relaxing? The Science
Cozy games relax you for real reasons, not laziness: they remove time pressure, rest your attention, and meet basic needs. Here is the psychology behind it.
