Virtual Cottage is a game developed and published by DU&I in late 2020. Wether you are studying for a test last minute, or editing a Youtube video, Virtual Cottage is the app for you. With music from some of the most underrated lo-fi hip-hop artists in the world and soothing atmospheric sounds, Virtual Cottage is the perfect study tool for anything and everything!
In this short simple and easy to follow Steam guide, I will show you how to set-up and personalize your very own Virtual Cottage.

To open the application for Virtual Cottage, simply go to your Steam library after downloading the app. On the left of the page you will see a list of your downloaded games, apps, and other softwares. click on Virtual Cottage, then click the green button that says "play".
Once the app loads, I recommend clicking the button in the top right with 4 arrows to fullscreen the application.

When you first open Virtual Cottage, you will be greeted with a torn piece of paper titled "Welcome to your virtual cottage". It asks you: "what do you want to focus on today?" and "for how many minutes?" there is also an option for an alarm to go off after your set time has ran out.
I personally recommend simplifying your focus topic to something like "researching" or "writing" so that you don't feel the need to go back and change it every couple minutes. Once you have filled out this menu, you may hit the blue button that says "CONFIRM".
If you want to write a new one or reset the goal however, you can click the redo arrow right next to text counting down till your time is up.
To go along side this, in the top right of your screen you will see an icon of a piece of paper with a bullet point list drawn onto it. If you click on it, a list will pop out at the bottom left corner of your screen. Here you can write down Ideas of what you want to be working on within your study time.

One of the hardest parts about trying to do anything productive for me is keeping track of time, and that's why the clock and timer are super useful parts of your Virtual Cottage. Once you have written down your goal and timeframe, you will see how many minutes you have left to complete your goal.
In addition to this, there is a clock in the very top right corner of your screen which you can switch between an AM/PM or 24HR clock, whichever works for you. Finally, there is also a pause button in the very top left if you ever need to grab something or have a snack break.

Virtual Cottage has an amazing catalogue of some of the most underrated lo-fi hip-hop producers in the entire world! You'll soon grow to love these amazing artists as you study with Virtual Cottage; there is nowhere else on the internet with a better lo-fi chill playlist than here.
To start playing the incredible music, head over to the bottom of the screen. There you will see three things: A play button to play/pause the music, a shuffle icon to skip to another song, and a slider to control the volume. fiddle with these things a bit, until you find what you like.
If Virtual Cottage takes up too much of the RAM on your computer, you may want to look at the Spotify playlist that I have created which includes all of the lo-fi beats from Virtual Cottage here.[open.spotify.com]

One of my personal favorite aspects of Virtual Cottage, the atmospheric sounds are amazing! Too set the mood in the back of your music, you can listen to samples soothing raindrops, beautiful snow sounds, strong but relaxing wind, and a nice warm fireplace.
To select your sounds, go to the right section of your screen. You will see 4 icons, each with a slider of their own. From there you can choose which sounds to play, and how loud/soft they are. This gives a whole other layer to the atmosphere of your Virtual Cottage.
Please note: you cannot play the rain snow or wind sounds at the same time, only one of them and the optional fireplace sounds.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my Steam Guide, I've worked hours on this. DU&I is currently working on a new game "Dogs Organized Neatly", you might want to go check that out :)