Picture this: you’ve had a long day at work. Nobody could agree on anything during meetings, you kept dropping your pen, your lunch was mediocre, and you couldn’t get to your car fast enough at the end of your shift. On your drive home, you start to wonder if overwork really will be the death of you.
How will you unwind when you get home? Make comfort food? Take a relaxing bath? Read a book? Or, maybe, you’ll play a video game.
No, I don’t mean Raid: Shadow Legends or Mario Kart (though I’m sure those are cozy games to someone). I mean Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing, games where the stakes are low, and you play at your own pace. There is no timer in the corner of the screen, and the repetitive nature of daily gameplay allows your brain to slow down.
About Cozy Games
Cozy games are a more recently emerged genre, usually developed by indie creators. These games’ storylines often focus on getting to know NPCs (non-player characters; anyone in the game that isn’t controlled by the player) or exploring the game’s setting. They’re ideal for curling up on the couch with a blanket and your favorite snack.
Games with a focus on farming and country living are particularly popular. There’s something incredibly satisfying about 3 hours slipping by as you water crops, mine for pretty gems, forage in the forest, and get to know your neighbors. You can cook with the fruits of your labors (combine a raspberry you foraged, some butter you made from a cow’s milk, and wheat you grew to make a pie!) and eat the dish for energy or sell it for better tools and a wider variety of seeds. Neighbors confide in you, and a sense of community builds as you help them achieve their goals and watch them interact with each other.
Related Content: If you enjoy the country-living vibe, you may enjoy these Cottagecore books
Too boring? Well, plenty of cozy games have a combat element. Some have monsters that lurk in the mines you visit to find gems. Others have you rounding up slimes (small, mostly harmless monsters usually found in the fantasy genre) for your ranch. Others still feature a turn-based combat system when you enter the forest.
If you’re the kind of person who loves a good mystery, some cozy games are built around detective stories. As you work through each mystery, you learn more about your character and the people around them. Or maybe you prefer learning game lore? Connecting dots to uncover the town’s hottest gossip is just as fun as solving a murder.
About Stardew Valley
All of these elements can be found in the paragon of the genre: Stardew Valley, a farming simulator. You, the player character, leave behind the big city and dead-end job at Joja Corporation (a Walmart clone) to take over the farm you’ve inherited from your grandfather in the titular Stardew Valley. Between cleaning the farm to plant crops, meeting the valley's residents, learning how to fish, discovering the town's hottest gossip (what exactly is going on between Mayor Lewis and Marnie 👀) and exploring the mines, there’s plenty to keep you busy. And that’s just the first year.
If you’re the kind of player who prefers your games to be easy, don’t worry. Stardew Valley also has an in-depth wiki with countless articles to help you with your gameplay. From learning what crops will make you the most money to what gifts each villager hates, the Stardew Valley Wiki has the information you’ll need. Get step-by-step instructions on completing any quest, find a guide for fishing locations, and learn the drop-rate for rare gems to make the most out of your gaming experience.
ConcernedApe, the developer of Stardew Valley, is constantly updating and adding new content, making the game perfect for replaying. Each new update is also free, but mobile and console (like the Nintendo Switch) take longer to release than PC. Just recently, ConcernedApe released an update that adds more dialogue for characters, a brand-new farm type that allows the player to start the game with two chickens, and (most importantly) you can now put hats on your farm cat or dog.
This game is popular enough that it’s even got an official cookbook.
The Official Stardew Valley Cookbook
Other Cozy Games
It's no surprise that Stardew Valley's success has spawned numerous clones (which, coincidentally, ConcernedApe encourages; his game is a clone of Nintendo’s Harvest Moon) that try to scratch the same itch.
Off the top of my head, here are a few games that jump on the Stardew Valley trend:
- Disney’s Dreamlight Valley-- a life simulator where you restore a valley full of your favorite Disney and Pixar characters to its former glory
- Field of Mistria-- a recent entry with a 90s anime style that’s currently in beta where you help restore a town
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons-- a game that got so many of us through those initial Pandemic Quarantine Blues as you establish an island
- Coral Island-- literally Stardew Valley but make it a tropical setting; also you can catch bugs now
My only critique of Stardew Valley is that it’s not a beginner-friendly game. It assumes a basic understanding of video games, which can make it intimidating to new gamers. For the novice gamer, I’d recommend Disney’s Dreamlight Valley or Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Both will still give you the cozy game vibe, but they’ll also give you clear instructions on how to move your character and interact with the world around you.
The genre itself, however, is an easy entry point for people who don’t normally play video games. The low-stakes, take-at-your-own-pace gameplay allows for stress-free familiarization with your console of choice's controls. The thematic trends of the genre encourage engaged gaming that involves more than just shooting at targets (Call of Duty) or driving recklessly in stolen cars (Grand Theft Auto). Even if you find yourself bored by the cozy game genre, you’ve still gained the basic skills needed to explore other genres.
If you’ve made it this far and still aren’t convinced, that’s fine!
Maybe you’ll enjoy these cozy books, instead.
What You Are Looking for Is in the Library
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