Cozy Video Games: A New-ish Way to Hygge
Written By: Grace Mintun
September 27, 2024
Via UnsplashAs someone who plays video games not only as a pastime but also for a job, I have found that cozy games are some of the most fun to play and the best for my mental health. When I started gaming as a child, I played the Lego: Harry Potter and Lego: Star Wars games with my dad, because they were fun to run around and collect things and no gore was involved. I played Style Savvy, Petz: Dolphin Encounter, and Cooking Mama as a middle schooler, and Epic Mickey and Wii Sports Resort as a teenager. I took a break in college, but my partner helped reignite my love for gaming with Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Animal Crossing: New Horizons during the pandemic. Fast forward a few years later, and I’m now live streaming video games as a job and my focus is cozy games.
What’s a cozy game? As defined by Wikipedia, “A cozy game is a video game genre that emphasizes non-violence and relaxation. Initially derived from the life simulation genre, cozy games commonly include activities such as gathering and growing plants and nurturing other characters. They often have open-ended goals that encourage self-expression.” Cozy games refer to how you feel while playing it rather than what the game itself is. Whatever makes you want to curl up in a blanket with a warm cup of tea and coffee, makes you feel relaxed, and like you’re interacting with a warm hug is a cozy game. It isn’t limited by the confines of art style or color palette or even soundscapes, because what elicits a “cozy” feeling within you is different for everyone. “Hygge is a word in Danish and Norwegian that describes a cozy, contented mood evoked by comfort and conviviality,” as defined by Wikipedia. Hygge and cozy games go hand in hand. Hygge is about creating cozy times and spaces for yourself, and cozy games are a way to do this.
Via UnsplashThe reason I’m only using the word “cozy” is because “comforting”, “wholesome”, “stress-relieving”, or “relaxing” can be reasons you consider a game cozy, but those definitions are not the same for everyone. Some people say that cozy means no stress and no stakes. I don’t agree. That may be what some people find not cozy, but it is not what all people define as not cozy. There’s a lot of semantics, but the underlying current is that a cozy game is just whatever cozy means to you. That coziness can be based on the narrative, the style, the topics, and a slew of other things. And all of those things are valid. We’re not here to yuck each other’s yums. We’re here to give games that people may find up their cozy alley and let their own warm-fuzzy-feeling-meter figure out what games fit that category for them.
According to Howl, a fellow Twitch streamer and friend, they say, “It's really nice to have games where there aren't a ton of things to stress over. I like being able to just relax and explore, have cute interactions with characters, or just collect and arrange things in peace. It's a lovely stress-free break from reality that I really enjoy. Most importantly, the environment being beautiful and the music being orchestral or peaceful, but also other design aspects like things being cutesy, pastel, or even nostalgic (think 8-bit like Stardew [Valley] or from a timeless series like Legend of Zelda) will make a game feel cozy to me.”
Imagine video game genres as a huge world. Let’s say first person shooters are a huge country, racing games are a state, arcade games are a city, and they are all interconnected with this web of roads that represent different playstyles, art, and themes. There are hard borders defining some, but there are still ways to travel between them. In the past, game types have been more cut and dry, black and white, with little gray areas or wiggle room. As gaming gets more and more popular, now we’re starting to see little towns pop up of smaller types of games. Along that same thought process, cozy games are not a destination, but rather exist at the crossroads of different genres, play styles, art, and themes. There’s a little bit of cozy games everywhere you look, rather than going to one specific area to find all the cozy games there are.
Since cozy media is defined by how it makes someone feel, it’s hard to pinpoint what exactly cozy media isn’t. I tend to think cozy media isn’t about hurting others, or looking for a rush of adrenaline. There are also games that combine coziness with a little bit of action to mix up the monotony. But even when this is the case, the enemies are usually avoidable, there is no blood or gore, and it’s not the whole purpose of the gameplay. It’s not all a snooze-fest in cozy games; there can be action. Action just isn’t the main focus. One of Howl’s favorite games is Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild because “[it’s] a good combo of cozy and action”. Cozy games aren’t the types where you’ll want to throw a controller in frustration (although not getting things to line up just right in A Little To the Left, an organizing game, may cause you to mumble an expletive or two). It isn’t about timers or boss fights or how many kills you can get. It’s more about mindfulness, exploration, and evoking a feeling of being at home and yet having adventure at your fingertips.
Referencing back to our “imagine gaming as a world” example, cozy can be in almost any genre. For instance, there are first-person shooters that are cozy games because instead of shooting bullets, you shoot water, and your “gun” is a vacuum to vacuum up cute slimes (Slime Rancher and Slime Rancher 2). There are escape rooms that follow a storyline of a woman becoming a botanist in the 1800s and taking care of her plants (Botany Manor). Games where you learn ancient alien languages (Chants of Sennar). Some where you’re the owner of a plant shop and having run-ins with the occult and even some poison (Strange Horticulture). Running a cult of cartoon lambs and other animals all while dungeon crawling and fighting mightier demons (Cult of the Lamb) is yet another game. Landing in another realm while travelling the cosmos and having to explore this new world, collect items, level up, and fight enemies all while also trying to find your twin (Genshin Impact) is a game that combines coziness and action. Embody the legend of Baba Yaga with decorating a chicken legged hut, practicing witchcraft, and foraging for spell ingredients while having a slightly horror-esque vibe (Reka). There are matchmaking games with romance and interesting quirks (Love, Ghostie and Lakeburg Legacies). There are even some where you complete puzzles to escape police officers (Snufkin: Melodies of Moomin Valley). And even others where you put on different outfits to give you different abilities to explore an open world and collect items (Infinity Nikki).
“..cozy games are not a destination, but rather exist at the crossroads of different genres, play styles, art, and themes.”
The more “typical” cozy games have to do with adventure, exploration, farming, gardening, crafting, and simulation-like (sim-like) elements and are the backbones of the cozy gaming world. Here we have games like Stardew Valley, Sticky Business, Cozy Grove, Power Washer Simulator, Garden Life, Wylde Flowers, Fae Farm, Coral Island, Lake, Wax Heads, A Short Hike, Lil Gator Game, Valley Peaks, Mail Time, Été and the list goes on and on and on. They also can have any number of themes. Some of the ones I’ve seen and experienced are mental health, LGBTQIA, light and fluffy, deep and soulful, emotional, and spoopy (spooky but cute) to name a few. They also come in any genre, spanning adventure, sci-fi, fantasy, visual novels, hidden object, card management, board games, role playing games, hobbies, puzzle, story-rich, atmospheric, sandboxes, life-like, building, dating, and more!
Cozy games have different looks in art style and colors and don’t have a specific look at all! They can look a ton of different ways. They can have hand made/claymation-esque animation like Harold Halibut, Woodo, Tukoni: Forest Keepers, and Secrets of Plum Grove. They can be bright vibrant colors like Flock, Creatures of Ava, Ooblets, Townscaper, Mika and the Witch’s Mountain, and Little Kitty, Big City. Hand-drawn like Lost & Found Co., Diaries of a Teenage Exocolonist, Toem, and CLeM. They can be pixelated like Unpacking, Bandle Tale, Sun Haven, Chicory: A Colorful Tale, and Dave the Diver. They can look almost real like Postmouse or Supermarket Simulator. Some of Howl’s favorites are Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, Garden Galaxy, and Gourdlets. Some of my favorites are Genshin Impact, Strange Horticulture, Chants of Sennaar, Slime Rancher 2, Cult of the Lamb, and Disney Dreamlight Valley.
Do cozy games have to be wholesome? No, they don’t. There are entire movements that seek to platform and promote games that showcase comfort, coziness, compassion, uplightlifting, thoughtful, and hopeful topics, tones, and themes. But wholesomeness is not the end-all-be-all of a cozy game. You can have cozy games that are wholesome and wholesome games that are cozy. Cozy games can be NSFW or have dark humor and dirty jokes, they don’t all have to have the wholesome moniker.
Even though the games themselves don’t have to be wholesome, some games do wholesome things for your mental health. For example, the repetitive nature of some of the main genres in cozy games such as gardening, farming, and crafting is soothing for the brain and having to come back every day to do these tasks creates habits. In games such as the Sims, you have to take care of a digital character's needs and hygiene, which then makes the person reflect and want to keep up with their own. Taking care of animals, which is in another big chunk of cozy games, creates compassion, as it’s taking care of others. It makes us feel good to help other people and animals, and make them feel better. Our brains have a hard time telling the difference between video games and reality.
These games I’ve mentioned are non-exhaustive examples and I highly recommend you search some things in Steam (a PC gaming storefront) or the equivalent shop on your console of choice. A lot of those places have tags like cozy, wholesome, relaxing, etc. and you can further sort by art style, tone, theme, playstyles, and specific elements. New games are always being released and with cozy games becoming more and more popular as time goes on, there is a boom of them on the market in every genre and art style to tickle anyone’s fancy. There are also new games that are announced all the time so keep an eye out for those, as more and more cozy games are being made and released in droves.
Cozy media has been around for a long time (think Cooking Mama or Style Savvy on DS, Animal Crossing on the GameCube, The Sims on cd-rom, etc) but it’s had a resurgence since COVID. During the COVID-19 pandemic, people were able to pursue their hobbies, cozy gaming and cozy video games especially, because a lot of people turned to their computers or devices to keep them occupied when we couldn’t leave our homes. Since so many people felt out of control with the state of the world, they found comfort in cozy games that had predictable storylines, cute graphics, and engaging play styles that could be repeated over and over.
“Since so many people felt out of control with the state of the world, they found comfort in cozy games that had predictable storylines, cute graphics, and engaging play styles that could be repeated over and over. ”
Cozy media is at its core, relaxing, so people have inadvertently been using cozy games as a grounding tool. It makes you feel more productive than just scrolling on social media, and it provides an outlet that isn’t cluttered by negative opinions, thoughts, or devastating news. With a lot of games having online capabilities so you can play with friends from a distance, it also has a social aspect that a lot of people need. Being social in person is hard for some, but when you’re a character interacting with another person across the world through the same shared interest or streaming your favorite games on Twitch, it creates a camaraderie and bond that makes you feel not so alone.
While writing this, I felt so much impostor syndrome because I felt like I wasn’t qualified. Me, who’s played thousands of hours of cozy games, watched hundreds of hours more, and even plays games for a job. I thought one of my fellow twitch streamer friends, or even my partner was more qualified than I was to write about cozy games. But after sitting with it and realizing that cozy games are all about having fun and promoting kindness and positivity and exploring not only environments but also exploring compassion and empathy, that anyone who enjoys cozy games is qualified. Cozy games don’t come with a leaderboard of who’s best, and it’s antithetical with the whole premise of the games themselves. So I hope this guide gives you a reason to pick up a cozy game today. Whether it’s from the list or even a game we didn’t mention, we hope that you have a wonderful time exploring cozy games and find some new favorite media, and maybe even a new way to unwind.
Written by: Grace Mintun
About the Author:
A writer and Twitch streamer dedicated to promoting kindness and breaking down stigma around mental health and disabilities!
Additional Reading
June 15, 2023
Identity, Oppression, US Politics, Race
September 12, 2023
June 15, 2023
Check out our social media for more resources:
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cozy_game#:~:text=A%20cozy%20game%20is%20a,goals%20that%20encourage%20self%2Dexpression.
https://wholesomegames.com/
https://seabass-swordfish-cbee.squarespace.com/8-flower-picking-simulators-for-your-adhd-enjoyment
https://www.skillgym.com/2019/05/our-brain-doesnt-tell-the-difference-between-simulation-and-reality/#:~:text=If%20the%20simulation%20is%20realistic%20enough%2C%20the%20brain%20doesn't,gains%20in%20reflexes%20and%20automatisms.
https://medium.com/illumination/be-wary-your-brain-doesnt-know-the-difference-between-reality-and-imagination-ef10f8accb7f#:~:text=To%20put%20it%20simply%2C%20their,Scientific%20studies%20back%20this%20up.
Howl, https://www.twitch.tv/stitchcraftwithhowl
Pop Culture, Technology
Leave a comment