MyDear.exe is now available on Steam and the Epic Games Store, inviting players into an old computer full of folders, passwords, letters, photographs and small reminders of a life shared by Ellie and Lucien. Created by Bordeaux-based Falling Leaves Studio, the game is described as an interactive love letter from a husband to his wife rather than a sprawling adventure built around combat or high-score chasing.
It is priced at $7.75 USD, with regional pricing potentially differing, and has a 40% launch-week discount. The developer estimates a playtime of around two hours, positioning it as a concise, self-contained experience for players looking for a story-focused PC game rather than an open-ended time commitment. It also joins the wider slate in today’s PC game releases.
A “Foldervania” built around an old desktop
Players take the role of Ellie and explore the contents of an old PC through a deliberately recreated, Windows XP-inspired operating system. Falling Leaves Studio calls the structure a “Foldervania,” a playful spin on the Metroidvania label. In this case, the central idea is not a map of interconnected caverns or castles. Progress instead happens through directories and desktop-like navigation, with documents, media and folders forming the space to investigate.
The term suggests a nonlinear structure: players are expected to search through a computer’s contents, locate points of interest and make connections between pieces of information. That matters because the PC interface is not merely a visual frame around the game. It is the setting and the primary means of discovery. Files, pictures, notes and letters are presented as parts of Ellie and Lucien’s history, turning the act of clicking through a machine into an act of piecing together a relationship.
The fictional operating system aims for easy navigation, despite its nostalgic desktop inspiration. That distinction is useful for anyone who hears “old PC interface” and imagines an intentionally awkward retro-computing simulation. The supplied details describe a carefully rebuilt fake OS, so it is an interface designed for the game’s exploration rather than an actual legacy system or software-emulation exercise.
What players will find in MyDear.exe
MyDear.exe combines several styles of interaction within its compact format. Alongside exploration, the game includes puzzles, password-decryption mechanics and lighthearted minigames inspired by older games as well as the characters themselves. The result appears designed to move between reflective discovery and more playful moments rather than remaining solely a document-reading experience.
- Folder-based exploration: Search an old computer’s directories in a nonlinear format.
- Personal archival material: Discover letters, pictures and notes that serve as collectible memories.
- Puzzles and decryption: Work through password-related obstacles to access more of the PC and its story.
- Retro-flavored minigames: Take on deliberately silly activities inspired by retro games and the characters.
- Full voice acting: Ellie and Lucien are both voiced.
The collectible material is particularly important to the premise. These items are narrative discoveries, not physical collectibles and not necessarily an invitation to complete a large checklist. Letters, photographs and notes are the evidence through which the game builds its portrait of the couple. In a story about revisiting a life through a computer, that format gives ordinary digital objects emotional weight: a saved picture or forgotten message can function as both a gameplay find and a fragment of memory.
Password decryption, explained
Password decryption is one of the game’s stated mechanics, and the wording is worth unpacking. In everyday computer security, decryption refers to converting protected or encoded information back into readable form with the correct method or key. In a game context, it generally means solving clues or puzzles that reveal a password, code or route into restricted content.
Related coverage includes MyDear.exe Launches on Steam and Epic Games Store.
MyDear.exe does not provide technical specifications for those puzzles, so players should not assume the game requires real-world cybersecurity knowledge. What is established is that passwords and decryption are part of its path through the computer. The thematic fit is clear: files are not all immediately available, and gaining access can make the search itself feel like an unfolding conversation with the past.
That design can do more than gate progress. A password prompt asks a player to stop, inspect available details and test their understanding of the material already uncovered. In a game centered on photos, correspondence and mementos, the likely value of such an obstacle is the connection it creates between memory and navigation. The relevant clue may sit in a document or image that initially seemed incidental, making attention to personal detail part of the experience.
A smaller game with a specific emotional focus
Falling Leaves Studio characterizes MyDear.exe as cozy and short, celebrating the life of Ellie and Lucien with love and humor. Its approximate two-hour runtime is a practical expectation worth emphasizing. The game is not being presented as a vast desktop simulation full of endless apps or a long-form role-playing game. Its focus is the time spent exploring one relationship and the digital traces left behind.
That scale may be especially appealing to players who want a complete narrative experience in one or two sessions. It can also make the nonlinear folder structure less intimidating: the purpose is to encourage curiosity and personal discovery without demanding dozens of hours of system mastery. Full voice acting for both main characters adds another layer to that intimacy, giving Ellie and Lucien a presence beyond the text, photos and documents the player encounters.
There is also an intentional contrast at the heart of the setup. Windows XP-style desktop visuals often carry immediate associations with early home computing, cluttered hard drives and familiar file-browser routines. MyDear.exe uses that visual language for a contemporary personal story. Rather than treating nostalgia as the entire point, it uses an old-machine aesthetic as a container for memories: the computer becomes a place where a relationship can be explored one folder at a time.
The studio behind the game
MyDear.exe is Falling Leaves Studio’s first game. The Bordeaux, France-based developer includes a former game director and producer of The Rogue Prince of Persia. That background identifies experience in game development, but MyDear.exe itself has a notably different stated shape: a short, cozy, personal puzzle-exploration game rather than an action-focused project.
For a first release, the concept is unusually centered on a single interface and a tightly defined emotional setting. Its individual systems—minigames, locked files, documents, voice acting and exploration—are all positioned in service of Ellie and Lucien’s story. Whether players come for the old-PC presentation, the puzzle layer or the promise of a compact narrative, the essential proposition is the same: a digital archive becomes the route into a shared life.
Where to play and what to expect
MyDear.exe is available now on PC through Steam and the Epic Games Store. The listed USD price is $7.75 before the announced 40% launch-week discount, while local pricing can vary by region. Players should expect a roughly two-hour experience with nonlinear folder exploration, personal artifacts to find, password-based puzzles, retro-inspired minigames and voice work for Ellie and Lucien.
It is a deliberately modest proposition, but one with a distinct premise. MyDear.exe transforms the familiar rituals of opening folders and chasing down forgotten files into its storytelling language, making the old computer itself the place where humor, affection and remembrance are waiting to be uncovered.
