Once you've chosen a character, and either made a new name for it or left the default name in place, your little homunculus will wander about its new home, checking it out in satisfaction. Clicking and holding anywhere on the screen will allow you to pan the overhead isometric perspective. Clicking and holding on the character itself will let you move him/her about. As you pass over various household objects with a character in hand, the running status report at the bottom of the screen will update with "So-and-so sees the object" -- where "object" is whatever you're hovering over. Dropping the character on top of a given object will cause the character to interact with that object. Setting them on top of the garbage can, for example, will cause them to take out the trash. Dropping them on top of a loose sock on the floor will cause them to put that sock in the washing machine. There are a number of objects to interact with in the house, and proper management of the house is the key to success.

At the same time, it's also important to get your character to do its job, whatever that may be. Each job has its corresponding place in the house; being a mail-order cook, for example, means that the character must be in the kitchen to work. Many of these characters are pretty lazy, however, and refuse to do their jobs without assistance from you. To properly motivate characters to do what they should requires your near-constant supervision, and the usage of the Scolding Glove and Praising Glove.

This is akin to the way feedback is given in Black and White. If you see a character doing a task you think is worthwhile, you'll click on the green Praising Glove in the left-hand column of objects and click on the character. That tells him that doing that task is good, and they'll then supposedly do it more often. In the same way, the Scolding Glove is meant to dissuade the character from doing things you don't want them to do. Ultimately, this sort of hands-on interaction is something you'll either love or hate, and the rest of the game kind of requires that you love it.