What do Baldur’s Gate 3 and The Sims have in common? As a fan of both titles, calling them “sandboxes” feels like an Olympic stretch, but technically, I’m not wrong. The award-winning RPG and the genre-defining life-sim thrive on their own distinct virtues. Baldur’s Gate 3 is a story about downtrodden adventurers, body horror, and moral rot; the kind of story that asks you to bare your soul and still expects you to fail. The Sims, on the other hand, invites players to play with life in all its domestic absurdity: scandalous romances, broken sinks, and the occasional cursed imaginary friend. In tone alone, these games couldn’t be further apart.
Both, however, have carved out irreplaceable corners of my heart. When I want a game with great building systems, The Sims is where I go. When I crave companionship, adventure, or emotionally catastrophic dialogue options, Baldur’s Gate 3 is my refuge. I’ve never expected those worlds to overlap. Frankly, I wasn’t sure I wanted them to.
But a recent announcement has shaken that certainty. Somehow, there’s now a cozy game that marries the gothic hunger of Baldur’s Gate 3 with the home-renovation charm of The Sims. It’s called My Eerie Lair, and its premise is as unsettling as it is irresistible. As of now, all I can do is count down to Q3 2026. And, of course, run (not walk) to wishlist it on Steam.
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My Eerie Lair is an Upcoming Cozy Game On Steam That Marries Baldur’s Gate 3 and The Sims
My Eerie Lair is Bad Vices Games’ latest project set to release in Q3 2026. It is a furnishing game with a dark twist as you help a vampire revamp his decrepit castle. It’s The Sims stripped of its safety net and reimagined through the seductive, darker lens of Baldur’s Gate 3.
At first glance, its artwork, gameplay, and cohesive aesthetics present a refined and heavily stylized cozy game that one may pick up casually. But a closer look beckons a potential player with an incredibly fresh premise and a challenge they simply cannot back away from. This title features:
- Story mode: Story mode brings My Eerie Lair’ s romantasy to life. It allows players to experience Victor’s efforts to woo Mary across every room. As they progress in story mode, players unlock additional rooms and, hopefully, win Mary’s heart.
- Vast Library of Furnishings: If you think no two rooms can be the same, you are correct. In My Eerie Lair, customization is almost endless with thousands of items to make a brooding castle come to life.
- Endless Personalization: Miss The Sims’ color wheels? You’ll be able to heal that loss with My Eerie Lair. You will be able to manipulate color and scale to ensure Victor’s castle is precisely how you want it to be.
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This romantasy stars predator and prey: Victor, a vampire, and his human captive, Mary. Victor has kidnapped Mary to make her his bride. However, Mary, who is rebellious, clever, and sarcastic, resists his advances. Naturally, because this certainly isn't the most palatable way to begin a game's love story in the 21st century. In an attempt to win her heart, Victor has undertaken a renovation project to turn his brooding castle into the love nest of Mary’s dreams. With each level, desire grows. And with each renovation, so do the chances of winning Mary over.
Furnishing sims don’t often have compelling premises. Rather, they rely on the face value of their gameplay to address a cozy gamer’s need for creation. My Eerie Lair would likely have attracted a fan base by labeling its cozy furnishing game as spookier than usual. But the extra mile was given. My Eerie Lair immediately stands out amongst its peers with a fresh premise that feels incredibly timely in the age of Booktok fantasies and Baldur’s Gate 3 romances. And that's only one of the reasons it's the perfect game for me.
The Sims and Baldur’s Gate Fans Can Rally Behind My Eerie Lair
My Eerie Lair feels like the unholy love child of Baldur’s Gate 3’s gothic romance and The Sims’ life-management chaos. For Sims fans, this game’s attention to home customization and teased relationship dynamics will feel instantly familiar. For Baldur’s Gate 3 players, the morally grey decisions and vampiric allure will hit that same sweet spot of danger and desire. It’s absurd, slightly unethical, and completely captivating. Basically, it’s what would happen if Build Mode met BG3 Act 3’s vampire spawn crisis.
The Pale Elf-Sized Elephant in the Room
As a cozy gamer with a love for all things spooky, I was intrigued. As a Baldur’s Gate 3 fan, I paused. But as an Astarion fan, I raised my eyebrows at what My Eerie Lair was doing.
Anyone who has undertaken Astarion’s romance in Baldur’s Gate 3 knows three things: he’s dangerous, charismatic, and has a secret soft spot when he’s in love. My Eerie Lair seems to tap into that same allure: the tension between beauty and brutality, between autonomy and desire. Victor, like Astarion, is a handsome vampire with taste, charm, and an unsettling air of devotion. And while Astarion’s ending is up to the player, My Eerie Lair dares to focus on the discomfort of captivity dressed as courtship.
On a less serious note, My Eerie Lair asks, "What if players had an Astarion dating sim?" And that, for many fans of the pale elf, is a great question to ask in a post-BG3 world.
When Sims-Like Systems Go Dark
At its core, My Eerie Lair is a decor-driven sandbox game that leans fully into its darker aesthetics. It’s a relaxing, gridless furnishing game where you transform an ancient castle room by room. There’s no management or penalty system, only the delight of creation, like in The Sims. Players can experiment with thousands of objects, freely adjusting scale, color, and lighting to evoke anything from gothic romance to decadent despair.
For players who prefer the artistry without the angst, Endless Mode offers pure design freedom with no narrative strings attached. The result is an experience that feels like The Sims’ Build Mode took a semester abroad in Curse of Strahd’s Barovia.
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My Eerie Lair Is Perfect for Me As a Lover of Baldur's Gate 3 and The Sims
I love The Sims for its creative escape, and I love Baldur’s Gate 3 for hitting me like a truck. My Eerie Lair teases to offer both: the meditative joy of decoration and the narrative depth of gothic romance. It’s a game that understands that there can be airiness in contradiction; the way something can be dark yet soft, both playful and tragic.
And maybe that’s what makes it irresistible for a dark fantasy enthusiast like me. My Eerie Lair feels like it was built for players who can spend hours in character creation before diving into an emotional spiral over a vampire’s moral compass. It’s for those who crave control, yet can’t resist a story about losing it.
So yes, I’ve already wishlisted it on Steam. And yes, I’ll probably spend as much time agonizing over the castle’s sconces as I did over Astarion’s approval rating.
Baldur's Gate 3
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 96 /100 Critics Rec: 97%
- Released
- August 3, 2023
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Larian Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Larian Studios
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- RPG
