The new home bought with a 35-year mortgage turned out to be in an apartment building ruled entirely by its board chair. Political sim RULES OF RESIDENCE, where players join the building's management board and rewrite its rules, launches on Steam in 2027

The new home bought with a 35-year mortgage turned out to be in an apartment building run single-handedly by its board chair.

Toydium Inc., based in Tokyo, announced the political simulation RULES OF RESIDENCE on September 7, 2026. The protagonist is a first-time mother who gets elected to the board of her new building’s management association — the body through which residents decide on the building’s rules and repairs. She can choose to go along with the board chair’s way of doing things to keep the peace with other residents, or resist and try to change the whole system. That choice reshapes the building’s rules themselves.

The game unfolds in weekly turns, with each turn representing one week for the residents. As a board member, the protagonist can personally take only one action per week, but problems keep piling up in the building faster than she can handle alone. So players allocate a limited pool of resources — residents, information, and funds — to different issues, drawing on residents’ cooperation to work through them. Outcomes are decided by dice rolls, and the game has multiple endings.

According to its director, RULES OF RESIDENCE examines distortions in modern society and centers on how a diverse range of people can live together within the same community.

The game is planned for PC via Steam, targeting a 2027 release. A specific date has not been set, and no demo has been released yet. Even so, there will be a chance to try it sooner: Toydium, founded in 2019, will bring a playable demo of the game to TOKYO GAME SHOW 2026, running September 17 to 21 at Makuhari Messe. The playable demo will be available at two locations, including the Indie Game Area; a booth will recreate an apartment building’s entrance and superintendent’s office. Visitors will also be able to try the company’s earlier title, Gift.

Language: English
As of September 7, 2026