Character House Beginner Guide: What To Do First
A first-session plan for Character House Desktop Companion: install the free demo, build one character, pick a desktop mode and learn the right-click menu.
Character House - Desktop Companion is a desktop pet with an idle collection loop, made by Yinengjie and playable today as a free Steam demo. Your first session has four steps: install the demo, build one character, choose a desktop mode, then right-click the character to open the controls. The first goal worth chasing is a single level-up, because that hands you a skill point for unlocking an expression.
What you are actually installing
The full game is not out yet. The store page for the main release still says the game is not available on Steam, with 2026 as the only release window. The demo has its own store page and arrived on 16 September 2026.
That matters because everything below describes the demo build. Where the full release changes something, this wiki says so instead of guessing.
The app itself is not a window you play in. Once it runs, your character is drawn on top of your own desktop, next to your icons. The official description puts it plainly: the character sits with you as you work, syncs with your keystrokes, or watches from a corner.
Step 1: Install the demo and launch it
Open the demo page on Steam, choose Download, and let the Steam client install it. The store page lists 512 MB of free space as the minimum and 1 GB as the recommended figure, so the download is small.
Windows needs Windows 10 at minimum. macOS needs version 12 Monterey or later. Both platforms are listed on the store page with their own requirement tables.
If the download button is missing, check the store page as it appears in your own region rather than a cached copy.
Step 2: Build one character, not a perfect one
The first thing the app asks you to do is build a character in its studio. Do not spend your first hour here. Pick a skin tone, a face you like, one hairstyle, and a basic outfit, then save.
You can come back and edit later, and the studio is deep enough that a “finished” character is a trap for a first session. The full walkthrough of the part categories, the colour picker and the ID card lives on the character creation page.
Step 3: Pick the mode that matches your work
The store page names three on-screen behaviours, and they matter more than any cosmetic choice:
| Mode | What the character does | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Standing Mode | Stands in place, and wanders off from time to time | Watching it move while you take a break |
| Sit-in-a-Row Mode | Sits at a desk and types along with every keystroke you make | Working or studying with company |
| Hiding in the Corner | Sits at the screen edge and stays out of the way | Long sessions where nothing should block the screen |
If you are about to do real work, pick Sit-in-a-Row or Hiding in the Corner. Standing Mode is the one that walks around, which is charming and occasionally annoying.
Step 4: Learn the right-click menu
Right-clicking your character opens the control menu. In the demo these entries are:
- Setting – opens the character’s configuration panel.
- Auto walk – toggles whether the character wanders on its own.
- Always on top – keeps the character above other windows, which is exactly what conflicts with full-screen games.
- Launcher and setup – the app-level launcher and setup entry.
- Switch monitor – moves the character to another display.
- Size – scales the character up or down.
Turn Auto walk off first if the character keeps drifting over your work. If you play games in full screen, get used to toggling Always on top, because the developer added a fast taskbar shortcut for it after players reported the clash.
Your first milestone: one level-up
Interacting with the character builds up a counter, and the counter eventually levels the character. On a level-up the demo tells you that you earned one character skill point and points you at unlocking an expression.
That is the loop: use your computer normally, interact with the character, level up, spend the point on an expression or a pose. The reward and expression page explains the full path, including what the purple gems buy.
What to expect from the first hour
The demo is generous with customisation and light on hand-holding. Expect to spend far longer in the studio than you planned, and expect the character to occasionally sit somewhere inconvenient until you learn the menu.
Two things the demo does not do yet: there is no in-game way to switch the typing counter off, and there is no Linux build. Both are covered in more detail elsewhere on this wiki.
Next steps
- Build a character properly: character creation guide
- Choose and tune your desktop layout: desktop modes
- Understand the loop and the counter: rewards and expressions
- Something broke: black screen fixes
Related Articles
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Character Creation in Character House: Parts, Colours and Limits
How the Character House character studio works: the part categories, the colour and gradient tools, the ID card, and the limits players keep running into.
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Character House Desktop Modes: Standing, Typing and Corner
The three Character House desktop behaviours compared, plus the right-click settings that stop your character blocking your work.
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Character House Rewards and Expressions: How Progress Works
How the Character House idle loop works: offline rewards, what the gems buy, how levelling grants skill points for expressions, and how two characters interact.