Once Upon a Deed: A Cozy Fantasy Realty Sim

Every home is perfect for someone.

Coming to Steam · Early Access

The Kingdom Map of Buttercup Downs: little hex-tile villages, fields and a river floating under a storybook sky

Once upon a time…

You're the newest agent in the Kingdom of Hearthmoor. Mushfolk want it damper. A troll is tired of ducking. Ask the right questions, find each client's hidden need, fix up the home, stage it, show it, haggle kindly and stamp the Deed.

A cozy fantasy realty sim: every home is perfect for someone.

“Every home is perfect for someone. Finding who — that's the good deed.”

Bramble Thistlewick, your mentor

The first letter

Every client is a little puzzle with a secret.

A rabbit family needs a nursery before Frostwane, and only the right question will tell you.

Clover Mossbottom, a rabbit-folk mother in a yellow apron and a green dress

Dear Mr. Thistlewick — or whoever has the cart now. We'd like our first burrow, please. Two bedrooms, a proper kitchen, and quiet enough that Bean will nap. We've saved every crown since the wedding. Every single one.

Clover Mossbottom, burrowfolk

How a home finds its someone

Client Intake: Clover's letter, her portrait and the Hidden Need found: Bean is getting a little brother or sister

Chapter I

Find the perfect home

  • Read each client's letter and ask the right questions. Notice the little things they say, and uncover the hidden need they forgot to mention.
  • Weigh every listing on the Scrying Board against their must-haves, dealbreakers and nice-to-haves.
  • Visit homes in person and find out what the listing didn't say, like the damp in the cellar. Then decide what to tell your client.
Before and after: the Ta-da slider on a Damp-Proof Course. The walls are thrilled. The mushrooms are not.

Chapter II

Make it magic

  • Plan renovations on a blueprint and see them finished with a ta-da: damp-proofing, a vegetable patch, a spare room turned into a nursery. Or, for the right buyer, add damp on purpose.
  • Stage each room with décor to raise its Vibes (Cozy, Grand, Eerie, Wild and Arcane) until it feels like home to the person you have in mind.
A Showing: ten hearts, Clover Delighted in the nursery, and the reaction notes

Chapter III

Show it, haggle kindly, stamp the Deed

Give the tour, choose what to highlight and what to disclose, and watch the hearts fill. Haggle over tea, kindly. Then press the stamp. Every sale goes into your Deed Book.

The Kingdom Map: Mirewallow Marsh beside Buttercup Downs, a home picked and the coach times shown

Chapter IV

Grow Good Deeds Realty

Start with a little cart at Cart Corner. Earn your stars, take on bigger jobs and grow into a Village Office and then the Guildhall, with staff to hire, each with their own story.

From the scrapbook

More pages from Hearthmoor

  • Staging the nursery: the Vibe meters, Clover's wish for Cozy 6 or more, and decor to place
  • The Showing begins at the curb of a grassy hill burrow, and Clover is Delighted on arrival
  • The Deed Book page: the house photo, Clover, her thank-you words and Bramble's margin note

Screenshots from the game in development.

Listing-speak, decoded

Read between the lines

Hearthmoor's listings are written the way listings always are. Learn what the words really mean before your client does.

“Cozy!”
Small. Possibly very small.
“Charming”
Old.
“Storied”
Haunted.
“Rustic”
Musty, or the floor is soft.
“Natural skylights”
The roof leaks.
“Water feature throughout”
Ankle-deep.
“Vibrant community”
You will hear the tavern.

Signed and sealed

Cozy promises

  • No game over and no timers. Time only moves when you choose an action.
  • Cozy and Standard modes.
  • Play with mouse and keyboard or a gamepad.
  • Accessibility options, including reduced motion, text size, colour help and remappable controls.

Early Access

Part One of a bigger kingdom

Once Upon a Deed is a whole kingdom of homes and clients, and we'd rather finish it with you than guess what you'll love. We want to hear which clients made you laugh, which homes were too easy to sell and where a week dragged, while there's still time to make the rest of Hearthmoor better because of it.

Planned for later updates, not in the game yet: more regions of the kingdom and the rest of the story. Plans can change.

Coming to Steam · Early Access