/vr/ - Retro Games

((This picture is not a screenshot of the videogame, but the perspective is similar, aside from depth))

TL;DR, Retro 2D computer game where you manage a house and its inhibitants, with a vague similarity to The Sims, but probably made earlier.

I've been searching for this game for a long time. I played it maybe 12-15 years ago. Perhaps this will be the time I finally find the game.

It was a 2D sims-like game (though definitely not any iteration of The Sims, or even by Maxis), which showed a flat cross section of a 3-story house (not including the attic), as if you were looking at it from the street and someone chopped off the front half of the house with a horizontal line cut running parallel to the street.

There were a few (4? 5?) characters in the house which you could assign to do various things around the house, including work around the house and directing them to where you could play minigames. They could move left to right, and I think up and down floors.

Graphically, it was all well drawn in a cute, kid-like style with similar kidlike dimensions/proportions for all characters, even the adults. The animation was minimal and limited to the characters and objects directly being manipulated, if I recall correctly. There were either a number of different houses you could choose from, or you could customize and decorate the houses to your choosing.

It had quite a lot to do, and I think it was point and click but it may have had more controls than that, I don't exactly remember. I don't think it was based on a strict calendar/time mechanic like Animal Crossing, but I think days and nights were generally differentiated and would pass with various consequences.

If any of this rings a bell, and the game you're thinking of is a PC game made around 15-25 years ago, give me a shout, I really appreciate any guesses at all, I've been wanting to revisit this game for a long while. Thank you for reading.