Hocus Focus

I'm ~10 hours in to the game, and I'm at Level 12. A lot of that time wasn't doing anything, so gaining levels was faster than the time makes it out to be. But I play this game -- like I do all games of this nature -- like a game. (I blame my anxiety. I have to unlock everything before I can use the productivity features meaningfully.) This game rewards near-twitchy game play. Set the number of Pomodoros to 1, set the number of minutes in a Pomodoro to 1. You get 30 EXP for every finished set. They don't reward the long-play. You get no meaningful experience or gold for just having it open and using the various features. Speaking of gold, I have no idea how to get gold, so it feels like prep for a pay-to-win setup. "Get all you need to customize for low-low price." Standard game stuff, so treat it like standard game stuff and only do essential customization. They reward completed Pomodoro _sets._ Do you get any EXP based on the number of minutes? I don't think so. I think it is _only_ completed sets. So... you just need to play with the rules they've provided. 1 minute Pomodoros with only 1 pomodoro in each set. It'll skip the break for you. I can have it open in the background and mindlessly click the One Minute, No Break, "Pomodoro" and when that is done I'll have 30 EXP. It doesn't take long to level up. I hit level 13 just during the time I've written this review. (As in I had just advanced to level 12 when I started writing it.) Again, though... they don't reward productivity. They don't reward the long-game. Once a minute you've got to click! But it is cute with nice sound tracks. It is _huge_ so I have no idea how much content is really there. Still, being cute is good enough. So I just figured out how to edit my review. Update: The fastest way to gain EXP is to use the Tasks. You get 25 EXP for every checkbox. You can check a box without naming the task. So fill the page with "New Task" tasks, check every available checkbox, then delete the task and do it again. Steam says I've played 11.7 hours, and I'm now Level 30. I'm now 13.4 hours in to the game, and I've unlocked all the locations. I just hit level 68. On second thought... I've uninstalled the game. They don't have an AI policy on their game page, so they're probably using it in a way they don't want to admit. They can rightfully say they have hand-drawn graphics while also being embarrassed about GenAI music. There is a _lot_ of music, and it is mostly credited to one of their devs. Is it AI? I mean, chill lofi music isn't particularly hard for humans to create and it is probably even easier for theft machines to steal something with that likeness. One of their devs posted an anti-AI thing to their forum, but... Steam makes it easy to have an official "how AI was used in this game" stance on the game page and the lack of this makes me wonder.