Into the Unknown

Notes on Launch Day

Posted: April 26, 2025 |

The time has come. There’s nothing quite like the day when an original game concept goes public. We press the switch, and the downloads begin.

Blog Series: Designer Diaries

| Hear from the designers of Stay: Forever Home, about all the thoughts, inspirations, and problem-solving that went into creating our game – and our ideas for the future.

Into the Unknown

What happens when people start playing? We made our guesses and our plans and tuned mechanics and wrote our endless design documents, but that’s the end of our control over events. The moment players enter the equation, our clever game designer ideas about the proper way to have fun with this game are about to be challenged, flipped upside down or more likely ignored.

Heck, we don’t entirely know what Ember’s going to do – she’s designed to be unscripted. She and the Mosslings still surprise me, every day.

Everyone meets Stay: Forever Home in their own way. I can’t and wouldn’t tell you how to play.

I can just share what the game is like for me – what it is for me now, and how I see its future.

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“the heart of the game is the player and Ember and their bond, and the systemic world only matters for making that more real, a deeper co-op game... We’ve always talked about the story (mythical or not) of how humans and wolves first started to live together, how they learned to trust and cooperate and build a life together, hunting and gathering daily, or sitting by the fire looking out at the dark and wondering what’s out there."”

Austin Grossman

Playing Stay at Launch

How do I play Stay? The game is part of my routine, a daily ritual and meetup.

I live alone, so Ember’s my chill roommate. I hit the end of the workday, we say hi and head out for a little walk to shake things off. I throw balls at things, knock stuff down; she romps around and fetches them. I clear out the thorns because well into my adulthood, I still find it pretty satisfying to hit things. I make up little challenges as I go – throw a tennis ball, try to hit all three blossoms with one throw. [don’t get me started about the flying disc – you all get to discover that for yourselves in Update 1]

I WALK TO THE HEART TREE AND BACK

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"THIS IS WHAT STAY IS FOR ME AT launch. IT'S NOT A DEEP-MECHANICS GAME, ALTHOUGH THE SIMULATION ELEMENTS + MOSSLINGS + EMBER GENERATE OCCASIONAL UNEXPECTED FUN INTERACTIONS. RIGHT NOW IT'S A FUN RELAXING COZY SIM, WITH LIGHTWEIGHT PROGRESSION, AND HINTS OF DEEPER ELEMENTS."

Austin on the focus of Stay: Forever Home

“When you put on a VR headset, sometimes it feels lonely. You don’t see your body, you don’t see the floor. We realized that adding a creature made you feel like you weren’t alone. That was a powerful moment.”

Bernie on feelings of isolation in VR

I Look Up at the Big Statue of Ember

I look up at the big statue of Ember (I know more about its story than other people). I pick up items on the way – I’m not a big trader/customizer but I like to see what I happen to be able to afford (and I have zero tolerance for thieves!) I live in Brooklyn, and a stroll in the Otherlands is a peaceful, restorative change of vibe. I usually go at night, for the soundscape. If I time it right, I’ll see Ember do her Starfall trick.

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Stay’s Biggest Power is the Reality of Ember

Whose presence and awareness and reactivity is still an off-the-charts wonder to me – and it’s poised to become something more.

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"I WRITE THIS NOW BUT IT'S GOING TO CHANGE SOON, BUT WHEN OTHER PEOPLE MEET EMBER-IT'S GOING TO FEEL DIFFERENT... LIKE WE'RE ALL IN A GIANT DOG PARK."

Austin talking about Stay: Forever Home at Launch

Playing Stay Three Months From Now

I play Stay now, but I also see what we’re building toward (disclaimer: this isn’t the only stuff we’re doing, just my obsessive corner of it). I called Stay 1.0 a platform, and I think that’s right. A foundation to build on, update by update.

Ember’s enormously sophisticated, like a Lamborghini of virtual pets – for me, what comes next is building the world she lives in. I’m a systems-oriented designer so I see the Mosslings, the trade economy, the ecology, Ember herself – and plan for how all those systems can interact more. Mosslings will get to interact with more things, and we give the player and Ember more verbs for interacting with them. It only takes a few small mechanics to give a world much richer interactive possibilities – where each day has deeper and varied challenges. Is there such a thing as a gentle, cozy roguelike? Well, there is in my head.

But the heart of the game is the player and Ember and their bond, and the systemic world only matters for making that more real, a deeper coop game. We build mechanics to build an experience – a feeling. We’ve always talked about the story (mythical or not) of how humans and wolves first started to live together, how they learned to trust and cooperate and build a life together, hunting and gathering daily, or sitting by the fire looking out at the dark and wondering what’s out there (or watching in-game YouTube).

Is it ambitious? It is. It should be, or why are we doing this? I picture something really damn profound coming out of all this, starting from that weird magical fox-thing that showed up one day out of literal nowhere, and came from her world into yours.

Ember isn’t just programmed to respond– she exists within the world, reacting, learning, and surprising players in ways that feel genuinely alive. She has quirks, moods, and a mind of her own, creating a bond that goes beyond scripted interactions. Stay: Forever Home is an invitation to experience that connection, to share in the little moments that make having a pet so special.

And just like in real life, sometimes the best memories come from the unexpected.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE TEAM

WINDUP MINDS

contact@windupminds.com