By: Krow Smith | @coffeewithkrow

During the first week of February 2024, Steam was having a celebration of upcoming games where they showcased hundreds of demos and many hours of developer live streams. They called it “Next Fest” and it was exciting to say the least! Playing all of the different demos was fun and my wishlist was much more bloated after it was all over. Though, there was one demo that I’ve clocked countless hours in and am looking most forward to its official release on 8 April 2024.

Spirit City: Lofi Sessions, the demo in question, is less of a game, and more of a tool for focusing with light gameplay. By that I mean you can create your own character (or make yourself) and there is a mechanic of discovering different “Spirits” to have as your work or study companion. 

However, the rest of Spirit City: Lofi Sessions is more passive, such as playlists of stream-friendly lofi music and cozy soundscapes (rain, birds chirping, etc.) to aid in your work or study sessions. (There is even an option to use their browser to play music from YouTube, but beware that there may be ads!) 

You can also make a to-do list and set a pomodoro timer, which is a popular concentration method that allows you to alternate between focusing and taking breaks.

You are able to change the time of day, effectively changing the lighting on-screen, as well as choose where your character or mini-me will be. Do you wish to read at the bay window? Perhaps you would rather work at the desk? By playing around with the setting, the time of day, and soundscapes, you will unlock more Spirits!

In the full game, you’ll have 20 Spirits to unlock (in the demo there’s only 5), a couple extra playlists to listen to with more on the way, and more personalization options to earn (such as room decor and making the Spirits different colors).

Spirit City: Lofi Sessions is something special and has truly helped me focus as I work. I’m even using it as I write this post! The atmosphere it creates and the tools it has to help keep me on track have been very effective and I find myself putting it on in the background even when I’m just scrolling through social media or relaxing.

I only have a couple of small complaints so far, things that seem like they’re fixable before the final product goes out or something they can correct with an update. 

One is that I wish I had the option to make the sky more gloomy. As of right now, in the demo, by activating the rain soundscape, it does affect the weather. However, it doesn’t change the lighting. So if you want some morning rain, it will be bright and sunny too. Hopefully, they will add more environmental options in the future.

Another issue I’ve been having is with the character creator. You can change the weight of your character to be more chubby, but I find that my character is back to being skinny the next time I open the game. I also notice that pink hair comes off more as purple in the environment, which is rather disheartening.

These are minor gripes to an overall great game though. They aren’t obstacles that get in the way of enjoying the atmosphere, they are simply hiccups that will hopefully be ironed out in the future.

9/10 I highly recommend this game so far! I encourage you to check out the demo to see for yourself. It’s fun, with just the right amount of engagement without being a distraction!