New cozy cleanup game looks made for Harry Potter fans – and it’s free to try

With just over two months to go until HBO's Harry Potter series premieres on December 25, developers Ivy Juice and SethMadDev apparently want to make the wait a little easier for fans with Cluttermancer: Tidy Up the Nightmare Alley. At least, that's the impression given by this new cozy cleaning game, in which players tidy up shops along a magical alleyway – as though it were designed specifically with Harry Potter fans in mind. Early Access begins on October 30, but the game can already be tried out through a demo.

In the titular "Nightmare Alley," several magical shops are waiting to be cleared of clutter. So far, the developers have showcased a wand shop, a bookstore and an apothecary. The apothecary features jars filled with mysterious contents, while books are scattered everywhere in the bookstore. The basic gameplay appears to involve walking through the shops from a first-person perspective, picking up objects and putting them in their proper places – and there are plenty of objects to deal with. Even the Early Access version is expected to feature more than 3,333 items.

Apparently, players won't have to sort every single object by hand. They can also use magic to help out. According to the developers on Steam, the "faster and better" players clean up, the more abilities they'll unlock. However, no further details about these abilities are available yet. Aside from that, Cluttermancer presents itself as a classic cozy game. Much of its appeal lies in the satisfying sight of a chaotic magical shop gradually becoming neat and orderly. Whether intentional or not, the footage shown so far captures the Harry Potter atmosphere remarkably well. Nightmare Alley could easily be mistaken for the gloomy Knockturn Alley from J.K. Rowling's wizarding saga, and the music featured in the trailer wouldn't sound out of place in an official Harry Potter game either.

In the already playable demo, magic fans can tidy up the first shop. Cluttermancer will launch into Early Access with three shops, with two more magical stores planned before the full release. According to the developers, Early Access is expected to last around six months. Pricing has yet to be announced.

The official trailer offers a first look at the gameplay: