Shown at Frosty Games Fest 2025, Canvas Street is the debut title from Apartment 809 (aka Soup Group International), a two-person studio made up of architectural designer Leura Smith and software engineer Katsumi Yoshida. This charming sim puts you in the shoes of a budding architect, guiding you step-by-step through the process of designing homes for a wide variety of clients.
It’s still early days and the visuals shown are just the foundations but what’s clear already is Canvas Street’s clever blend of creativity and realism. You’ll decorate interiors, design layouts, and shift between immersive 3D walkthroughs and puzzle-like 2D plan views. It’s giving The Sims meets real-world design briefs.
At its heart, Canvas Street is a game about the joy of design, made by people who live and breathe it. Leura and Katsumi, who run their studio out of Naarm Melbourne are building something that feels both personal and practical, giving players the creative tools to design homes while learning the flow of architectural thinking.
While the first glimpses may be brief, the project already shows huge promise for those of us (like me) who are really into this sort of design but certainly don’t have the qualifications for it (me, again). This looks like a game for fans of gentle sims, design games, or anyone who’s ever dreamed of becoming an architect.
Canvas Street is currently targeting a 2026 release on PC on Steam, with support from Screen Australia.
