Same as with the game Chill with You: Lo-Fi Story recently, I really wish it were possible to give a neutral rating instead of being forced into this unsatisfying thumbs-up / thumbs-down system, because it distorts the actual impression, especially for games that don’t really lean one way or the other. In my opinion, the lack of rating nuance and the weak reliability caused by extremely short playtimes make the Steam system far from trustworthy. And that leads to artificially inflated positive or negative percentages, that don’t really reflect what people actually think. The frustrating part is that it would be so easy to improve. For example a game with 40% positive, 40% neutral and 20% negative, would give a very different and much clearer impression than one showing 67% positive and 33% negative. And honestly, I don't even know if I made the right decision here.
Back in the early 2000s, I started a slightly unusual beat project with a partner from Rotterdam (NL) who used to visit relatives in North and South Germany from time to time. We were heavily into artists like J Dilla, RJD2 and Nujabes, and at first the plan was to make instrumental trip hop beats with samples and cheap toy instruments. After hearing him play guitar, I said “Yo, let’s just make Lo-Fi Chill Hop instead” without having any idea that 20 years later the whole world would know those terms. These days millions of people all over the world listen to Lo-Fi music. It’s become more than just a genre, it’s a full-blown online culture and for many people also part of their everyday internet lifestyle, whether it’s for studying, working, relaxing, gaming or just scrolling through social media. Well no surprise that alongside games like TRIOS or TatuBall, more and more productivity and chill tools, with more or less appropriate music are popping up, and Lofi Haven is one of these joining the club. But let’s take it one step at a time.
What we have here is the usual setup, a music player, a few ambient sounds, a simple Pomodoro timer and a to-do list. In my purchase history it’s listed as Lofi Room, but it seems it had to be changed because the artist Bearmask (Barend Harris) who also plays drums in a stoner/doom band, already has a game called Lo-Fi Room, even though the final version isn’t out yet. Anyway, Lofi Haven is all about setting up your own cozy room or choosing from four preset ones. The idea isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but at least you don’t have to look at yet another character sitting at their work desk. And that's basically it, isn't it? Well, not really.
Screenshot: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3675522343
Right from the start, I ran into some troublesome bugs that had me this close to uninstalling and asking for a refund. I couldn’t get out of the in-game Desktop Wallpaper Mode and every time I tried to force-quit the game, a ghost frame would stick around that I just couldn’t get rid of. The only thing was restarting my computer, which was obviously not an "Oh happy day" feeling. Since then, I’ve been in regular contact with the developer and the problem seems to be sorted. He really listened to a lot of feedback, even brought back the demo after I suggested it and made corrections to the audio. A few things could still use some work. In my opinion, there aren’t any nice studio speakers on stands, and you can’t change the colors of everything, only some objects. I’m also not a fan of the headphones, would love to see something like Beyerdynamic, Shure, Sennheiser or even AKG-like ones. It would also be very cool to have acoustic foam for the walls, or a podcast mic? what about a turntable? And while we’re at it, nice thing that the cat has a litter box and doesn’t leave digital cat poop around, but a scratching post or climbing platforms would be awesome you know. It’d also be great if you could upload your own images and hang them framed on the wall. I did tell the developer that it’s important not to overload the game so it runs smoothly, but there are still a few really cool features missing.
Before I bought the game, I started a thread in its forum titled “Before I buy or can even try the game…” It was about the disclosure of AI-generated content. Unlike many other questionable devs on this platform, like SectorLab (FocusScape: Lofi Productivity) who refuse to admit using AI even though it’s obvious from the images and kept deleting every forum post, Meow Games (Lofi Haven) seemed to respond very openly and honestly. In their reply, which came the very next day, they disclosed the full list of music along with all sources and licenses, and also admitted that AI was used for the desktop icon as well as the translations. At this point, I can say the following about the music, some of the tracks are ones I’ve already heard in other Lo-Fi titles, which isn’t ideal but is still better than AI junk. I haven’t had time to check the entire list yet, but so far it seems legit.
To wrap things up, I want to address Meow Games directly once more, even though we’ll be in touch again soon anyway. I hope you had a nice holiday and there are a few things I’d like to ask even publicly so I don’t end up having to withdraw my review later on. You once said you wouldn’t mind showing me a work-in-progress screenshot from Blender of the artwork capsule, and I’d really like to see that. We’ve already found a way that makes it easy enough now for you to share. I’d also really appreciate it if you could either add an AI disclosure for the desktop icon on the shop page, or let me make a human-made icon for you instead, I’d even do that for free. If that's what it takes to get rid of this AI crap, then so be it. And one more thing, if I do end up identifying any AI-generated music after all, then I expect that to be properly disclosed on the shop page as well, or better yet removed entirely. Since I mentioned Nujabes (R.I.P.) earlier, and I hope you don’t hold any grudges against Japanese people, I’d like to close this review with a quote from him:
"There's a clear difference between something split by software and something cut by hand"
Edit (04/04/2026)
I might actually have to pull my review and write a new one that will probably lean more negative, or just delete everything, we’ll see. Either way, even though I’m still having generally good conversations with this one person from Meow Games, I keep noticing more and more things that don’t sit right with me. Still haven’t been shown the capsule image from when it was supposedly created in Blender and I don’t want to keep asking about it. There’s also been no AI disclosure added to the shop page, nor any statement about replacing the AI-generated desktop icon. Even worse, that AI logo has now been used in the updated capsule as well.
Even though I’m absolutely not a supporter of AI, I did make a few exceptions here recently. Mainly because I thought that if a game only had a few AI-generated images (even if they're still disgusting and awful) or it was used for translations, it could still be recommended overall, depending on the bigger picture. But that’s exactly the approach I’m now reconsidering, and I’ll very likely start ignoring or calling out anything in the future where I even see the slightest hint that AI was used during development or for content. So sick and tired of this crap!
