I have a problem with productivity apps – or maybe it’s more accurate to say, productivity apps have a problem with me. It’s the classic ADHD productivity app cycle we all know and love. Come on, everyone say it with me now: I download a new app, use it perfectly for 1 – 2 weeks, then drop it like a hot rock the second the novelty wears off and therefore stops providing me with exciting new brain chemicals.

In case you haven’t pieced it together, that’s why this review is coming roughly a month after I started using Spirit City. Having received an early access key, I already knew my opinion the day it launched, but could that opinion be trusted? Would I even be bothering to open it in another week or two? Not to spoil the ending or anything, but I probably wouldn’t be writing this review if Spirit City had gone the way of all those other apps.

Spirit City: Lofi Sessions is the first release from developer Mooncube Games. Not that ‘game’ is really the term I’d use for Spirit City. Rather, Spirit City is a productivity app with strong elements of gamification. It can essentially be broken down into three segments for us to discuss: the aesthetic/ASMR elements, the spirit collecting, and the productivity. Let’s take this one at a time.

The first function of this game – not the most important function, but the one you’ll interact with first – is Spirit City as background décor. Players are given an avatar to be designed and dressed up. Mostly with normal human parts, but there’s a decent selection of demon horns, as well as elf and cat ears, to work with, too. There’s a fairly large selection of hairstyles (including good options for textured hair), a smaller selection of facial features, and a huge closet full of clothes to choose from (mostly of the comfy lounging variety, but not exclusively.)

It's all very cute, but I do have one major gripe with the character creator: the weight slider kind of sucks. It’s one of those ones where making your avatar fatter just gives them a bigger stomach and somewhat thicker limbs, and it doesn’t look great. The upper end of that slider is also not particularly large, so some players who want their avatar to look a lot like them will probably find this aspect lackluster. (This was not a huge problem for me personally, since my avatar is more of a goth catboy than an imitation of myself, but most people I’ve seen have styled their avatars in their own likeness.) It’s understandable that just enlarging the base player model would give less-than-perfect results, but I think if, in the future, Mooncube added a 2nd model with a larger baseline, that would be a welcome edition. (Some more facial hair options wouldn’t go amiss, either, but that seems to already be on their radar, since they added some in the recent 1.1.0 update.)

After you’ve made your avatar, you can decorate your room in a variety of options, from the floorboards and the wallpaper down to the drink (or cup o’ noodles) sitting on your desk. With some exceptions (like your wall decorations and the aforementioned drink/noodles) this does come down to just changing colors & patterns, but there’s still a satisfying amount of variety. Incorporating new options with more varied aesthetics somewhere down the line would definitely be cool, though, and given that they’ve already slipped a few new mugs and hairstyles in since launch, I hope the game sees enough support for that to continue and broaden as the year goes on.

So, once you’ve dressed your avatar up and picked a few basic decorations for your room, you can set them to work. Avatars can be placed around the room, with a few activities for each location – laying around in bed, knitting by the fireplace, typing at their desk, reading at the window, and so on. You’re also able to create a soundscape, with lo-fi music from an internal music player (or Youtube, via the built-in browser in that music player) and a variety of sound effects to choose from. Turn on your favorite of the four available music stations, then add in rain and thunder, a crackling fireplace, birds singing, or just white noise. The room will also react visually to your chosen sounds, with the fire turning on in response to the fireplace sound or the sky darkening and rain beating against your window with the rain and thunder sounds. Finally, to truly set the mood, you can change the time of day in your room – get that fire crackling on a blustery night to match what you’ve got going on IRL, or to satisfy a craving on a bright summer day.

This works really well! The music's good, the sounds combine to excellent effect, and it all makes for a very atmospheric, cozy experience. Myself and other streamers have even started using it as a background during our own productivity streams. Gone are the days of my plain green background - feast your eyes upon this catboy lounging by his rainy window with a book in hand as the lo-fi beats lull you into a sense of relaxed but determined productiveness.

All that to say, it’s all very pleasing to look at and listen to. But none of that is exactly the ‘game’ portion of Spirit City. Rather, that would be the spirit collecting part. Spirit City starts you off with a cute, three-eyed cat named Lenny as your first spirit companion, but there's many more to find, from dog to a spider made of yarn (my personal favorite besides good ol' Lenny.) A spirit companion’s job seems to be, mostly, just sitting around looking cute while your avatar works, which Lenny is very good at. More spirits can be unlocked by leveling up – which happens by finding new spirits, as well as by opening the game daily, completing items from your task list and doing timers (more on that later), and just leaving the game open – and can then be found and added to your list of available companions by completing some simple task. For example, the game might say that a certain spirit can be found during midnight thunderstorms, and what it’s asking you to do is set your room to ‘night’ and turn on the sounds of rain, wind, and thunder. Leave it like that for a few minutes, and a new spirit should appear to be collected.

It’s maybe a little overly simple, since I managed to collect all the spirits within a day or so of having the game, and level progression really slows down once you’ve caught ‘em all. It does serve its purpose, though, giving the early game a sense of progression and encouraging you to make a habit of its use. Since there’s plans to add additional spirits and introduce new ways to gain experience, I don’t consider any of this much of a problem.

By the way – leveling. It’s mostly something that happens in the background, and it has two primary utilities. First, you have to reach certain levels to unlock new spirits to collect. Second, leveling up grants you tickets you can use to buy new clothes and decorations. Otherwise, there’s not really anything to it, but it’s a nice little incentive to keep opening the game and work your way towards unlocking everything available to you, if you happen to be a bit of a completionist.

That’s all well and good, but when it comes down to it, everything I’ve just explained is a wrapper. Spirit City’s main use is in that third segment – it’s a productivity tool. A really good productivity tool! It comes with a built-in timer, a to-do list, a habit tracker, and a journal. I think Spirit City succeeds for me personally where other productivity apps have failed because it’s frictionless. It’s a desktop app, which is already a huge win for me. I do almost all my work from my desktop and rarely look at my phone throughout the day, so having to have it nearby to deal with a mobile app is one layer that prevents me from using them. To open it, I click one button in Steam, which itself I probably already have open. It has exactly the features I need to be productive, without any of the bloat I always end up ignoring, like mood trackers, daily inspirational (saccharine) quotes, or ‘tips for being productive!’ clearly written by someone whose brain just allows them to do things. Maybe those apps think if you just wanted a checklist and a timer you’d use a piece of paper and a watch, or the notes and clock apps on your phone. But I want something that looks nice, too! And I always lose that paper!

If you have ADHD, you know that to get anything done, you need to remove as many barriers as possible. Want to remember your keys? Give them a home to live in right next to the door. Want to remember those vegetables you bought when you went shopping this morning? Put them right at the front of the fridge where you have to look at them every time you open it. Want to actually use a productivity app? Put it where you do your work and make yourself look at it every time you open the program where you keep your video games. The absolute best thing I can say about Spirit City is that using it doesn’t feel like a chore I need to remember. It’s effortless.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2113850/Spirit_City_Lofi_Sessions/

Price: $11.99