Would you believe this simple "game" has improved my workflow tenfold?

I wouldn't have.

But it has. Maybe it's my mental illnesses, maybe it's the simplicity, maybe it's the charm, who knows, but this game is incredible. Definitely a second monitor game by far, but almost a must have for any sort of creative out there. The "game" part of this is collecting spirits, but what is the appeal after you've collected them all (which you can do it like less than four hours)? Well, it's got lofi music first off. Great lofi music actually. There's a couple of playlists built in that have various songs with a song controller that allows you to skip, loop, adjust volume and shuffle, so it's not like you're forced to listen to a formatted playlist everytime. All the music is royalty free so yippee! Streaming is a-go!

My favorite part is actually the sounds. There are a variety of sounds that you can turn on and adjust the volume to help you focus or relax. I LOVE thunder and rain sounds and you bet there's an option for those. It really just puts my head in the right mood and makes me feel productive. I think the devs will be adding more sounds in the future, but there's quite a good selection as is.

The spirits you can get are absolutely adorable. I change mine out every week simply because I cannot choose a single favorite (seriously, the arachknit is so frickin cute and I hate spiders, so that's saying something). Also the art style of the game is one of my favorites. I love this Genshin-esque art style and it just feels so nice and cozy.

The avatar customization is pretty extensive. I think the devs have said they're going to be adding a lot more stuff as time goes on which is super dope. The avatar is pretty androgynous which allows you to customize it however fem or masc you wish it to be. Also, they've got elf ears. That's an instant win in my books.

The room customization is also super nice. I absolutely love some of the options they have (which they plan to add a lot more) and have my room infested with flowers. It feels very nice and comforting. Also the design of the room itself is a really nice one that I have dreamed of having for a while (huge window that your character can sit in and read makes me super jealous). There's also lighting options that you can force change, or will just change based on the time of day which are super nice.

Now to the actual use of this game. For me, I find it extremely helpful to have my avatar on the second monitor, doing the same activity I'm doing. In some way, it makes it feel like I'm working with someone. If you have that thing where you feel more productive if there's someone else in the room also working on things, it kind of helps. There are various activities you can do and various places in the room to do said activities. What I really find helpful is the various mechanics. The to-do list is quite helpful for sitting down, getting work done, and fulfilling each task (you also get a daily task done bonus which adds a little bit more rewarding feeling to it). I don't often use the timer as I don't really give myself a set time to do things, but it has been helpful if I'm on a tight schedule and NEED to get something down and not burn myself out. It only goes up to 60 minutes, but you can have multiple sessions with tied in breaks between each one which is super cool. The habits tab is something that is VERY helpful for me. It helps me remember to take my medicine, water my plants, get some writing done at least once a week, brushing my teeth, etc. Just the sound it makes when you tick off a box is super satisfying and rewarding to me. For each task, it gives you the option to enable/disable for each day of the week. So if there's something you do every day, you have a box for it. If there's something you do twice a week or something, you can set those days. It's been really nice and helpful. Then lastly, there's the journal. Not much to say about it other than it is literally just a journal that you can write whatever. There are some prompts that you can choose from to get you inspired. All the prompts are the same and don't change everyday as I, for some reason, thought they did. But if you want to get into journaling or something, it's pretty helpful.

Another really cool thing about this is the window is completely resizable and doesn't mess up proportions. You can have this on your screen as a super tiny box without it ruining the aspect of the game and such. Also, it is such a low performance game that it is super nice to have running basically all the time when I'm doing activities like cleaning my room, or drawing, or writing. Tie to this to having Microsoft powertoys's ability to lock any window on top and it's super nice to have on the same screen on the margins of the doc I'm writing in.

I would recommend also joining the Discord because it's super friendly there and you can give feedback and suggestions to the devs. They're planning to add a lot more stuff to the game and I'm super excited to see what comes of it. I only have about 40 hours on the game, but it helped me so much get through my finals in my final weeks of college and now helps me organize the infinite free time I've found myself in.