For a week now, I’ve been devoutly playing this game called Redecor. It’s a home design game that’s not too bad of a starting point to up your interior designing skills.
Since MCO, my personal and work life has revolved around my bedroom and living room. The more I stay at home, the more time I have to get nit-picky about how the rooms in my house look, and what I’d like to change about them.
At the same time, I don’t want to do anything impulsive with real-world consequences.
My solution to this first-world problem? Play a game that will satisfy my urges and save my wallet.
How It Works
Every day, there will be 2-3 daily interior design challenges for you to complete in 24 hours. There usually is a small requirement for you to follow like including a stone table, floral rug, etc for these challenges.
Once in a while, you’ll be challenged to a Design Duel with another player to see if you can create a design that’s better than theirs.
You have gold and cash to spend on the decor you want to use for the challenges. Usually, you’ll be going up against around 10 other designs if it isn’t a Design Duel.
You earn money from every design you put out, but if you win a challenge, you’ll be rewarded with gold which lets you buy the better designs. Another way for you to earn money is to critique other players’ designs by voting on the best ones.
Didn’t Think I’d Get Hooked
When I first started, I didn’t have high expectations for the game. I’ve played similar design games in the past and none of them ever stayed on my home screen for more than a day.
For the most part, it’s because a lot of design games out there have a similar graphic style which is a little cartoony and feels like they’re meant for kids.
Redecor, on the other hand, has more realistic graphics, and that alone was what got my attention right away.
As the game has the element of competition, it also helps satisfy my competitive nature through the light-hearted challenges.
What I Liked About The Game
It’s Quite Impossible To Run Out Of Money
I like that I can play for as long as possible without spending on in-app purchases to get ahead of others.
While there are some decor and materials I’d like to unlock in this game, it isn’t really necessary because at the end of the day, if your design appeals to your critics, you can still win and earn rewards.
You do have to spend in-game cash on buying decor, though it’s hard to run out of it.
Gold is harder to earn, but it’s doable as long as your design appeals to the critics.
Just The Right Amount Of Challenges
One of the things I enjoy about this game is how low-maintenance it is with my time.
I just check in whenever I need a break from work to design a space and come back again for the next challenge. You won’t even be left hanging for what’s next because a challenge takes only 5 minutes.
So in a way, the challenges are enough to keep me refreshed and satisfied that I’ve completed something, while leaving me wanting more the next day.
Pinterest Number Two
Whenever I think about redecorating my room, my go-to site has always been Pinterest. Sometimes, I’d head over to IKEA to check out some of their showrooms to get inspired.
Since I’ve been playing Redecor, I doubt I’ll be looking at those two anytime soon.
The thing with getting inspiration from Pinterest and IKEA is that you usually get inspired by what’s already in front of your screen. When I play this game, I could mix endless possibilities of designs for a room without being limited by influence.
It’s almost like a playground for me to put my personality and preferences into a room since I have that kind of “money” to experiment with all kinds of designs.
What I Didn’t Like About The Game
Can’t Be My Best Designer Self
Though it’s easy to earn cash and gold in this game, you’re still gated in a way, with stars. Stars let you unlock different decor for you to buy with your gold and cash.
So while I have a lot of gold and cash to waste away, my lack of stars hinders me from unlocking more decor at times.
Winning a competition is the only way after in-app purchases for you to earn more stars. Right now, I only have 8 wins out of 61 designs, so you can see how slow it is for me to unlock all the cooler decor.
This is where the game gets annoying, because it felt like I rocketed in the beginning but am now approaching stagnancy.
However, to be fair, the game doesn’t have any advertisements at all, so I get the need to stress more on in-app purchases.
Requirements For Challenges
Most of the challenges have requirements like what materials they’d like to use, what kind of wallpaper they’re expecting, what vibe they’re looking for, etc. Sometimes, you won’t even have access to other decors other than the client’s picks.
As someone who isn’t into boho, floral and vibrant designs, I dread these challenges whenever I have to do them.
Moreover, because I don’t have enough stars, I can’t unlock the entire section of my client’s picks. So sometimes, I’m stuck with just 3 designs out of 15.
Suggestions On How To Improve
Despite the limitations that come with this game, I generally enjoy playing it because of how bite-size the challenges are for someone who isn’t an avid gamer like me.
However, if these limitations continue to bother me more than I enjoy the game, I’d probably quit it because who likes stagnancy in a game?
Rather than allow players to speed through the beginning, giving them high expectations, and then limiting their progress later, it’d be better if the game had better progress control.
One way to do this could be including more types of challenges other than the 2 they have now, which could help players pace themselves better and still find the game interesting.
- You can learn more about Redecor here, and download it on Google Play Store here, or Apple’s App Store here.
- You can read about more game reviews we’ve written about here.
Featured Image Credit: Redecor
