My Sleepy Dog

Everything in the little scene starts bare in My Sleepy Dog, just a dog curled on the floor and an empty corner, and the first placement is usually the bed itself, since the blanket and pillow choices that follow need somewhere to sit. Dragging a round wicker basket into the corner instead of a flat floor cushion changes the whole feel of the space before a single toy gets added.

Furniture options sit in one panel, soft furnishings in another, toys and props in a third. Pieces include a woven basket bed, a quilted blanket, a fringed floor cushion, a squeaky rubber bone and a small potted plant for the corner. Most of it layers the way a real dog nook does, a blanket folded inside the basket, a cushion propped against the wall, a toy tucked half under the blanket's edge.

The part that separates this decorating game from a plain dress-up screen is that the dog itself barely changes, curled in the same sleepy pose the whole time, while every choice you make reshapes the space around her instead of her body. A round ends once the corner is full and the dog is tucked into a finished little nook, more a diorama than a portrait.

Layer the blanket inside the bed before adding the cushion, since a bare basket looks unfinished next to a cushion propped on its own. Match the toy color to the blanket instead of the walls, because a bright toy against a plain floor reads better than one lost against patterned wallpaper. Leave a little open floor space near the bed, since a corner crammed with every prop tends to hide the dog instead of framing her.