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‘A universal human story’: Clean Start’s thought-provoking tidying sim tells immigrant’s tale
Clean Start is an upcoming house-tidying simulation game that follows Lena, an immigrant domestic cleaner supporting her family from an unspecified western country. Polish developer Serious Sim uses the familiar cosy-cleaning genre to explore migration, language barriers and the personal lives hidden within clients’ homes, aiming to encourage greater compassion towards people working abroad.
Players clean and rearrange homes while learning unfamiliar words through conversations and environmental interactions, and by locating objects with sentimental or dramatic significance. Artist and designer Katarzyna Haptaś drew on relatives’ experiences of working overseas in the 1990s, her grandmother’s migration to America, and research into immigrants seeking work in Poland, including people displaced from Ukraine.
In short
- Clean Start turns a cosy tidying game into an immigrant’s story.
- Players learn language and uncover clients’ family secrets.
- Its creators hope it fosters compassion for migrant workers.
Explained simply
Migrant domestic cleaners move to another country for work and send money home to support their families. Their jobs often take place inside private homes, where they may have little chance to practise the local language or share their own experiences with the people who employ them.
Clean Start is being made by Polish studio Serious Sim and follows Lena, a cleaner working abroad. Its creators drew on family histories and research into migration, including the experiences of people displaced from Ukraine. The story connects everyday work with wider questions about language, family and how people understand one another.
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