Windup Minds, the independent game studio composed of game industry veterans, has officially launched Stay: Your Forever Pet on Steam Early Access, and Stay: Ember’s Desktop Adventures on Windows PC via Steam.
According to a press release, players can “foster a deep, continuous friendship with Ember, a spirited and lifelike magical companion who lives both directly on their desktop screens and inside a whimsical virtual world of exploration and care.”
Stay: Your Forever Pet enters Early Access at $12.99. Designed for pet lovers and cozy gamers, it invites players to explore, forage, and grow alongside Ember: a fox-like magical companion with a mind of her own.
If you can’t bear to say goodbye when you close the game, Stay: Ember’s Desktop Adventures brings your Ember onto the desktop, napping in a corner, barking at your cursor, watching you work, and asking for the occasional scritch. Launching at $4.99, the companion app means you’re never alone when you’re staring at that e-mail you keep rewriting.
Stay: Your Forever Pet – Magical Pet Simulation on Steam Early Access
The press release asks players if you’ve ever wished you could bring your Nintendog into Animal Crossing, you’ll feel at home here and describes the experience as a whimsical, low-pressure world built entirely around you and your new best friend.
Together with Ember, you’ll spend your days foraging for resources, meeting mischief-loving Mosslings, and trading materials. There are already over 60 unique toys, outfits, and accessories to unlock, giving you dozens of ways to play with and customize your pet at your own pace.
“There are plenty of games players love; our team has been lucky enough to help make some of those games. We wanted to make a game that could love you back,” said Bernie Yee, CEO and co-founder of Windup Minds, in the press release.
“To really get the bond right, we spent a lot of time studying how people and dogs connect, even teaming up with canine cognition expert Professor Alexandra Horowitz. She reminded us that to a dog, ‘the person is always the most interesting thing in the room.’ That’s exactly who Ember is: a magical canine companion who is always genuinely happy to see you.”
Stay: Ember’s Desktop Adventures – Premium Desktop Companion
“Tamagotchi showed a generation that we could love something that only exists on a screen; lots of games told us that yes, you can pet the dog. Stay: Ember’s Desktop Adventures is what happens when you rebuild that idea with decades of NPC game AI. She has hunger, moods, and memories, and if you ignore her today, she might hold it against you tomorrow – just a little bit,” said Ben Vance, creative director at Windup Minds, in the press release.
Unlike static desktop widgets or conversational text chatbots, Ember is driven by the same advanced, dynamic NPC behvaiors and 3D animation from Stay: Your Forever Pet to live on your desktop with shifting needs like hunger, energy, and affection. She tracks cursor movements, and returns daily with free accessory envelopes, but respects active workflows by curling up to nap quietly when ignored.