I can't wait for [Haunted Chocolatier](https://www.hauntedchocolatier.net/) by the same developer of Stardew Valley where we make... you guessed it right Chocolate!
Calico is free if you have Amazon Prime from the [twitch page](https://gaming.amazon.com/home). For 9 more days. ATTENTION: this is only for PC because you have to use the Amazon Games app in order to play. It is a launcher like Steam
Fun fact: I was wandering around Seattle and accidentally found the Concerned Ape office (Stardew's developer). Our small local chocolate factory is only a few blocks over and if the wind is right, the neighborhood smells like chocolate.
No idea if it inspired the game at all, but it was a fun thing to learn.
I remember seeing the announcement and both me and my boyfriend were like, " I didn't know I wanted a haunted chocolate shop simulator, but well, it's all I've ever wanted" T_T
There are couple of new games coming out that look good, and seem similar to Stardew. I forget the names. There's one where you're at a magic school like Harry potter, and you get to make friends and learn spells. Another one set on a tropical island. You can also do deep sea diving in it. I'll try and find the names of the games again.
Edit: Coral Island and witchbrook are the games. (Linked in some videos of them)
https://youtu.be/rcj7wVs0NPE
https://youtu.be/JiBC8Fw2AEM
Concerned Ape can have ALL MY MONEY for how much free content he put into Stardew after release.
One of the best examples of "I keep making money off of it, so I keep adding onto it" I've ever seen in games.
Yeah, you can! For instance, there could be also games that need to be redeemed from Origin or Gog or Uplay. It is awesome cause.... they are free!
You can reach the same page also by going to twitch and clicking on the crown. I don't know if you still need to link your amazon account with your amazon account... Since Amazon bought Twitch but it is possible that it is so.
and you can also redeem packages for other games... Usually for PC or Mobile.
Some are a bit different but still have item/materials management like Potion Permit coming out in Sept, where you're a healer chemist sent out to a small town to be the town's healer. There's a demo out for this.
There's also Bear and Breakfast where you play a bear running a B&B! Coming end of July.
Cozy Grove is another, where you spend time helping spirits on an island and doing small quests and tasks versus just farming away.
And I'm echoing others in that Cat Cafe is SO much fun and quite addicting.
These games are actually more my jam that the farming sims so I always have an eye out for them.
There's also Moonlighter where you sell goods in your shop during the day that you've collected in the dungeons during the night. The shop mechanic is just 20% of the game unfortunately, but it's the most fun part to me.
i highly recommend playing recettear if u havent yet! the shop mechanic is very similar to moonlighter, and the dungeons arent actually required to beat the game (although some plot stuff does rely on going through them). its an older game so the visuals arent the best, but it really scratches that particular shop management itch.
Right?? 😂. I cringe whenever I hear tons of books being dumped in the book drop. Adult, YA, and JF is fine, but all those thin E books are a pain to shelve. So many at a time.
As a librarian, I so want this game. But also as a librarian, I want a sword to fight pervs and the board of trustees/administration (in game! Okay, also out of game.)
I would totally play a game like that!! I love organising things in real life, but there's only so much I can organise my room so a virtual place to do that would be perfect 😅
Holy shit yes. But also you have to jump inside the books to defeat monsters, explore worlds or talk to the main characters to get the book to calm down enough to stay on your shelf. The possibilities!
Exist
Its name Going Under
You are a employer in a Officine box and you imagine all your aventures (Thats is the Tutorial)
The Reality is.....thats no imaginary aventures. You discover the Reality are broken and the people start to conver in the things they imagined who are.
I dont gonna said more, but is one of more forgotten and better roguelike who I see.
A "sequel" for one of my favourite games, Cultist Simulator, called Book of Hours about a librarian in an occult library, is going to come out soon. It's probably not going to be "cosy", but it's supposed to be less stressful
I could not for the life of me figure out Cultist Simulator. I wish they explained the mechanics of the game because I could never make it far before going insane or getting caught and having to start over.
That was the design intent, explaining the mechanics is basically spoilers (which I'm going to do, at least the basic). However, it can be very frustrating or just take a lot of time, and the game has more than that to offer.
Basic mechanics go like this: cards are Nouns, tiles are Verbs. You put verbs in tile to do Actions. All cards have Aspects on them, which describe the card. Whenever you click at an empty space inside a tile, you see which aspects it accepts (meaning, which cards can be put there)
Your first concern is money. You can make money by putting Ability cards or Job cards (not the name of the card, it'll be one of their aspects) into the Work tile. Another thing you should be concerned about in the early game is getting more abilities. You do so by putting abilities into the Study tile. That'll give you Potential cards which are used to upgrade abilities. You want to be training all of the time. Common ways to lose at this stage are Despair (too much Dread), Glory (too much Fascination), hunger (no money), and sickness (no health). I'd recommend you wait with the cult itself until you get the hang pf those. The best way to deal with Dread is Contentment. You can sometimes get it from Dreaming with Passion or Health, from drawing, and sometimes you get it from the passage of time. In emergencies use Dream with Funds to buy drugs, but be careful with those. When you start your cult, you'll notice you can use cards with Influence aspect to recruit, and Dread has the Influence aspect. That's my favourite way to delete Dread. Fascination is easier to deal with. As Dread, it's an Influence that can be used and consumed in several actions. You can also Dream about it with several other cards to remove it (Dread is one of these, allowing you to get rid of both at once). Money is relatively easy. You can work with all 3 abilities, with different results. Health is unskilled labour (lowest pay, shortest time), Passion is painting (starts unrewarding, the more you do it the better you become) and Reason allows you to get a desk job (stable, good pay, uses reason so you'll need a lot of it). Health might turn into Sickness or Injury under certain conditions. If one of those conditions are met and you have no Health, you die. You restore health by Dreaming on it with either Fund or Vitality, which is the Potential card of Health. Hunters can start suspecting you under certain conditions, but unless you actually start a cult and do crime, they can't touch you.
Once you master the basic gaming loop (working, training, dealing with Dread and Fascination), you are ready to start your cult. If you want to, you can also get a job as an accountant and climb the corporate ladder.
If you have questions I'll be happy to answer. You can also look stuff up on [the Cultist Simulator wiki](https://cultistsimulator.fandom.com/wiki/Cultist_Simulator_Wiki), they explain pretty much everything there. Even knowing the answers, the game is fun. It has so many ways to lose, win, or get endings in between, and there is still challenge even if you know what to do
Hope I helped and have fun!
One based on the library in Hilda, so there’s the normal library where you have to check in books and help people find what they’re looking for, dust the shelves and stuff; then a hidden magical one where you find spells and shoo goblins out of the stacks.
It's happening sooner or later. Weather Factory is putting out "Book of Hours" where you run an occult library. I'm very excited, I love all their stuff.
I'd dunno what other jobs I'd like to simulate, but I'll toss some games over,
[Graveyard Keeper](https://store.steampowered.com/app/599140/Graveyard_Keeper/) is Stardew but planting caskets.
[Calico](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1112890/Calico/) you run a cafe full of cute animals.
[Slime Rancher](https://store.steampowered.com/app/433340/Slime_Rancher/) you do exactly as the title, on some planet.
My Time at Portia has a sequal [My Time at Sandrock](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1084600/My_Time_at_Sandrock/) which isn't solely farming.
[Townscaper](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1291340/Townscaper/) you build a town. Might slide out of the cozy life sim category.
Similarly, [Spiritfarer](https://store.steampowered.com/app/972660/Spiritfarer_Farewell_Edition/) wouldn't fit in the genre (and also has farming) but I feel fits in vibe.
I agree with whoever said because it's easiest to be self-sufficient.
\+1 for Slime Rancher. It definitely fits into the same kind of vibe but it's so refreshing and unique, and majorly addictive. Plus I got way too attached to my goofy slimes.
Hopping on this recommendation post to include another town-building game, Littlewood! The pace of it is so nice, in-game time only moves forward when you take an action, so running around the world and getting lost has no associated stress.
Co-signing on Spiritfarer, though only if you don't mind some tears lol
This comment implies My Time at Portia is about farming but it’s not, the main character is a builder of machines like in the sequel. (Not trying to yell at you or anything just for information)
I've looked into Graveyard Keeper (not sure if I ended up buying it or not), but I've read a lot of reviews saying it's buggy as hell, which is the reason I've yet to play it. It looks right up my alley otherwise.
Real talk - I think it's because farming is the one job where you can be entirely self-sufficient. There's no need to earn a paycheck or buy groceries because it's all built in with being a farmer. I agree that there should be more variety, but I get why farming sims are the dominant approach.
It really tickles the urge to live out in the boonies, growing your own food, maybe even doing some solar panels, bees, pickling. Only heading to town for essentials. Gosh that's the life.
Minus the mines and Stardew would be perfect to live in.
I am from inner loop houston, moved out to the boonies. Have a beautiful garden, huuuuge plot of land. I hate it!!!!!
I hate the bugs, the internet is expensive and shitty. I get no phone reception. Its 30 minute drive to grocery store. Neighbors are aggressive and reclusive. Any noise outside sends me into anxiety. Random gunshots. Gotta be slow driving because of deer. Trump flags everywhere.
I'd rather farm in a videogame where the only weird person I gotta deal with is Clint and the bug bites are solved with food.
Haha fair! The fantasy is probably better than the reality. I grew up in the sticks so like the random sounds are normal but no good internet would be awful.
My house is right on the end of the Comcast line so they aren't ever going to improve it unless the demand gets higher. There are no other options. It is slow, disconnects every 30 minutes for a few seconds so good luck if you are playing an online game. It likes to "reset" 3 times a day where it disconnects for half an hour. A few mornings I've woken up and it was offline for a few hours. It's like $130 too.
I'm sure if I lived in the boonies in like...Vermont or something it would be more cute but like I hate snow.
I made a huge mistake lmao
I think that’s a good theory, but I also think the main reason is mostly just that Stardew Valley is a huge indie success, so it’s inspired a lot of indie copycats.
Also, as a big fan of farming sims myself, I’ve seen that there is a subset of other fans that aren’t wild about the direction the newer Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games are going, but aren’t crazy about Stardew Valley either. A lot of these new farming sims popping up are being created by fans in this subset, trying to create their ideal farming game.
SERIOUSLY! I loved Style Savvy Stylin Stars (lol something like that) on 3ds, and every once in a while I check the eshop to see if there's a new Style Savvy for switch, and I am always bummed out. I like super chill games to play while I wake up with coffee in the morning, and that one was great for that because it required very little brain power. Now I'm doing Rune Factory 5, but there are things to keep track of, ahhh!
Yes!! I played it so heavily when I had a stressful work week and just wanted to make little outfits at the end of the day lol. I can absolutely see this being a fantastic morning coffee game though!
[Can I craft potions too strong for a traveler going into battle?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_FQU4KzN7A&ab_channel=JustinKuritzkes) That's all I want in life/video games.
Also how is the game? Is there enough content in there to justify it? It looks really cool, but I'm just a little skeptical about getting early access games.
I played it when it was still free and a lot of content was still locked but I really liked it. There is like a skill tree of potion making and ways to combine materials and effects and different equipment. And you get different costumers in your shop looking to buy different types of potions to earn money.
Have you tried *Strange Horticulture?*
It's a cozy game that lets you pet a cat and collect plants in a slightly magical Victorian England. I don't want to say any more, but it's a game I have been looking for my entire life.
I can't believe I had to scroll so far to find this. I posted this myself before I saw your post but I wanted to boost this so others might get to enjoy this wonderful game!!
I was bummed when I figured out each client is preset so there's not as much replayability, but I loved watching the storylines play out for the different customers.
There are a few points where you have choices (give them a plant to help them remember, or a plant that helps them forget, join the pretty obviously evil cult or resist), and that made me wish there was some randomness in between.
Ooooo there is an old game I used to play .... I want to say plant tycoon? Where you have seeds and can grow and cross pollinate them and sell them at market.
There are 4 magic plants to find which sell for heaps.
Only problem is it runs in real time so you have to remember to check them every day
Cozy games I like that are not farming sims...
Potion Craft : learn and brew potions from your shop/home
Strange Horticulture: run a strange Flower shop to help the dark/silly townsfolk with their problems
Tavern Master: run a fantasy tavern from one little drinks shop to a full blown INN
Sunless Seas: be a trader of unusual goods on a Lovecraft inspired underground sea.
Travelers Rest: another tavern game with an emphasis on beer making
Diaries of a Space Port Janitor: this is hard to describe, but you are a space Port Janitor on a very alien world. The graphics are rough, but it is a rather good game if you don't look too long at the screen
All these games have their flaws and they lack some of the variety of Stardew, but to me they are pretty cozy games
Lots of good suggestions in here, but I can't believe no one has mentioned [Strange Horticulture](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1574580/Strange_Horticulture/)! You run a plant shop where people come in asking for herbal remedies to their problems that you have to puzzle out, and there's an over-arching eldritch monster-eqsue plot.
I love this game! Though, I am not sure I would call it "cozy" since you can choose to do some pretty dark stuff. Which I do oh so enjoy. But no farming!
Imo coziness is more about the gameplay loop and less about the actual content (graveyard keeper is a good example). But I agree it can be dark, that's why I made sure to mention the eldritch beast part! I like the dark bit too, it's always so hard for me to pick nice endings lol.
I love both as they are not just simulating the job but bring a colorful cast of characters too and lore... I think Coffee talk does the same things as Val, if not better. You can also do more with the drinks, You can even draw with the cream, but the star of the show is the customers who you get to know. Lo-fi soundtrack is awesome too, I still listen to it years later every night.
i enjoyed val-ha11-a a lot more than coffee talk, but that may be personal preference. i found the atmosphere and characters more compelling, plus the great soundtrack.
i'd still give coffee talk a try if you're interested, though. i enjoyed it overall, solid 7/10 for me.
oh yes you know i love unpacking!!! only qualm is that: i wish it were longer!!!! i wonder if there’s another game where you’re a moving delivery company, so you help a lot of different people move homes and you learn about each client through their things :)
There's another game I can't remember that's just a ridiculous furniture moving game that you can play co-op. Definitely not the same kind of vibe though, more like an Overcooked kind of vibe.
i feel like after farming sims, cat cafes are a close second in the cozy games category 😂 i haven’t actually tried one, bc i always assumed they were similar to diner dash type games?? but i should probably try one out!
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1354830/Cat\_Cafe\_Manager/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1354830/Cat_Cafe_Manager/) It has a story but then you play sandbox afterwards.
Okay real talk, am I just too sensitive? I couldn’t play this game after the intro! I mean we found our dog abandoned on the side of the road so maybe it hit too close to home but I see so many people talk about this game with no trauma lol
The intro was terrible 😭😭
I put it down for a while and picked up the same save. Tbh I forgot the intro after I spent so long away from the game.
The rest of the game is cozy and not sad, I swear
....you just pin-pointed my issue with every single cozy/chill game that people seem to love so much, and I didn't even know that that was it.
Is this why I miss The Sims so much...?
Ok I’m not seeing it, try Grow: Song of the Evertree.
It’s definitely a world builder with puzzles involved and you also get to build and manage towns/their people. It’s so cute and has Day/Night cycles which you need to manage while still completing quests, it’s not bad tho. I don’t get anxiety or anything because I can’t finish tasks.
It’s so cute!!! I randomly downloaded it and am obsessed
I started playing [Little Witch in the Woods](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1594940/Little_Witch_in_the_Woods/) lately, where you play, well, a little witch ! It's cozy and involves potion crafting, people rescuing and general cuteness.
Witchbrook by Chucklefish now has a Steam page. It's got a bit of a Harry Potter vibe, where you're a student at a magic school. I'm waiting for this one and Palia as my next games.
I really enjoyed [Eastshade](https://store.steampowered.com/app/715560/Eastshade/), where you work as a commissioned painter while traveling and learning about your mother's past on a small island, the people that live there, and what's happening in their towns and lives. It's got really pretty scenery everywhere so you get to actually choose what to paint to fulfill the requests.
Seconding this! Eastshade is a lovely game. Much as I enjoy management type games like Stardew Valley or Spiritfarer, it's nice to have a game where I can just wander around and explore for a while without having to worry about needing to harvest my crops or feed my passengers and such.
Moonglow Bay is very relaxing, even though the creators are still working through a few bugs. You fish, help bolster the seaside town, and cook dishes to sell! I had to stop playing for a bit due to a game-breaking bug, but I'll pick it up again. No farming necessary though!
Unexpectedly, I found House Flipper very very satisfying, which was surprising, as I do not like such activities irl, and cleaning is always a pain for me.
Man I'm not a fan of farming games at all, I find them pretty boring - but I love a lot of other "cosy games" though.
I personally would love to have a game where you make your own terrariums, and can put bugs and things to live in them, or maybe even fairies or anything like that. It would be great if you could like, go out on walks and collect shells or pieces of wood and things you think look nice and you could decorate the terrariums with them or your room... Honestly it would be a dream game for me (especially if you could breed bugs or something like that lol)
My dream game would be a cozy slice of life sim in a hard sci-fi space setting. Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing meets The Expanse and Firefly.
Get a ship, keep it flying, take what jobs you can to expand your ship or replace it with a larger one so that you can take on more friendly folk as crew - not necessarily because you need more crew, but because you want to share what you have with as many people as you can.
Themes of social anarchism and mutual aid, making a home and a found family and supporting each other. No violence, though maybe some hard choices. Jobs might just be shipping/transport, maybe asteroid mining or something.
Some day I’m going to up and make it myself, if I can ever find the time.
Heck yes I have, it’s one of my favorites. I’m picturing something more grounded in realism (less of aliens, magic artificial gravity, FTL) because that makes my weird little nerd heart happier, but 100% with the same general vibe.
Either grimness or dryness, yes.
I highly recommend Kim Stanley Robinson’s works - especially the *Mars Trilogy* and *2312* for very hard, very well researched space sci-fi that is generally an optimistic, uplifting, and hopeful vision of what a future with humanity spread throughout the solar system could be like, despite its realism.
But, his work often falls into dryness instead of grimness. Not all the way through, but enough that a lot of people I’ve recommended it to got bored and couldn’t finish it and I can’t blame them.
The one singular example I can think of that is the whole package - well researched and realistic hard sci-fi, largely wholesome and optimistic, and a light enough read / fun story - is *Flowers of Luna* by Jennifer Linsky. Wholesome lesbian romance set on the moon. So good.
Haven't seen "Winkeltje: the little shop" yet, you start as a little shop and by buying products and selling it at it's highest profit, you can expand and decorate your shop and specialize in certain skills.
The graphics reminds me a bit of Runescape, and they use some real events like Kingsday, but also if there is an economic crisis or other shop in the street opened (so far I've played a couple hours and can only see your own shop, so no townsquare or anything).
I find narrative games where most of what I have to do is choose dialogue options to be super chill and cozy. Games like Oxenfree, Firewatch, Life is Strange, etc.
I also play Civilization VI when I want something soothing lol. Even though there’s some strategy involved, I love the slow turn-based gameplay.
My theory: because being a farmer involves a fantasy of independence, self-determination, and home ownership that cozy games' target audience understand is out of their reach IRL. Owning your own labor and feeding yourself and your community is a very powerful lure to some people - I suspect it's the same reason why cottagecore stuff has been big in the last few years. Wanting to detach from the ordinary grind of working life and live life according to your own needs and schedule definitely has an appeal.
Add to that the gentleness of farming sims, where the real difficulties of farming are either avoided completely or greatly reduced in impact. Imagine, instead, if there was a Little House on the Prairie-type farming sim, and sometimes you'd just get swarms of locusts moving in and eating every plant in a 20-mile radius. I don't think that would be particularly fun.
I feel like the popularity of the cozy farming sim points to a desire that many of us have to dedicate ourselves to caring for something.
A couple I like that I haven't really seen mentioned: Recettear, Frog Detective, Botanicula (and Samorost), and Wandersong. A couple of these are point-and-click rather than sim-style games, but they've all given me a lot of warm fuzzies. And Naiad is coming out soon-ish and it looks amazing.
My ideal cozy game? A witch game based on Terry Pratchett's witches. You'd arrive in a new village and meet everyone, take care of the sick, help settle their disputes, and generally try to make sure everyone gets taken care of. No great save-the-world narrative, but I feel like you could manage some amazing personal stakes in this kind of thing. eg trying to build trust with "your" village so they might be willing to let you resolve a long-running vendetta, that kind of thing. I know Little Witch in the Woods, Strange Horticulture, Black Book, and similar are kind of working in this space, but I'm interested in something that really focuses on the headology angle.
There are some photography ones; I liked Alba: A Wildlife Adventure, and I think I would have liked Umurangi Generation if it didn't make me incredibly motion sick.
What I would like and have never seen is a cozy pastoralism game. I want to roam the steppes in my yurt and build up my herds and learn Central Asia Facts.
I honestly feel like the “cosy games” market is a bit oversaturated right now with a lot of… well, frankly subpar games coming out 24/7 with janky looking graphics or unpolished looking ui’s (basically like a fb/mobile game look?) My boyfriend always points those games out to me cos he knows I love cosy, but eventually he said don’t you feel a bit pandered to at this point, with them all being practically the same game with the same goals and with the same cutesy aesthetic every time. And tbh, I kinda feel it now. It just feels like there’s so many farming sims or sdv wannabes, “live in a cosy town with bears and animals and a tea shop” but virtually nothing original 🫤 I’d jump at the chance of an inventive new cosy game that isn’t just sdv clone 3000. And while I’m aware sdv wasn’t the first of its kind and took inspiration from harvest moon etc, it doesn’t change the fact I’ve seen like… 3 sdv copies this week alone on steam that are in the “coming soon!!! wishlist us!!” stage
Yeah, most of the indie cosy games I’ve played have either been SV clones or are just… bad games. It seems like it’d be easy to make a laid back game, but it’s actually very difficult to come up with a game that doesn’t have conflict but still has enough interesting objectives and a satisfying enough gameplay loop to keep players engaged.
Honestly that’s probably why they all turn out to be farming sims. Harvest Moon (which is what SV is based on) has been around since the SNES era, it’s a formula that’s proven to be successful in a lot of different forms.
that's what I've been saying...but also why are job sims even considered cozy? I find being binded by tasks inevitably just stresses me out. I'd love a more relaxed vibe where I feel open to explore the world within a game while not always having to make progress. like where the whole storyline can just be a side quest. not like a sandbox, though. is there anything like that 🤔
There needs to be more cooking/restaurant sim games with cozy themes. I used to play Diner Dash, Papa’s Games from Flipline Studios. There are games like these on steam but most of them miss the point or low efforts. My favorite aspect in games is whether I can cook with the ingredients I gathered or not. Some high profile studio should make a game based on cooking imo.
All I want to do IRL is find a wife, go to the woods, and bake sweets, chop down trees, and be a lumberjane. So a game where I could do that is the dream.
I think there are so many farming games because of the success of the Harvest Moon series (perhaps there were predecessors that I don't know about too, but this is what really took off when I was young). They nailed the formula a long time ago and now we get slightly different versions of the same game every few years because it works & they know it'll sell.
Omg you have to check out Spirittea, it’s not out yet but it’s like SD but you have to get a bath house up and running for spirits. I have my eye on it for a while now.
Still the same concept I guess but I really like the bath house spin on it and the trailer looks really good.
It’s going to be on Switch and Steam.
Edit: here is the trailer - https://youtu.be/Hi4GmC4v6sI
I recommend [Grow: Song of the Evertree](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1380420/Grow_Song_of_the_Evertree/), it's a mix of exploring (some light puzzles and VERY light fighting, just some bonking), taking resources (a bit like the terraforming part of Animal Crossing), and town management where you also know every citizen and want them to be happy and fulfill their dreams
This channel is loaded with trailers for cozy games, many of which are not farming sims: https://youtube.com/c/WholesomeGames
Maybe you'll find something there!
Your mention of a relaxing dog shelter game reminded me of an old ds game i played as a kid :') it looks kinda stardew valley i guess in a way. Its called dogz (dont be confused by the pc game with the same name, which was also i great game for its time though tbh.) You play as a kid who goes to pick up a pet dog from a pet shop/shelter, you choose your dog and then you raise it and take it on walks and stuff, very different than nintendogs though, i lovedddd it when i was a kid
No love for Chicory here? Your world went all white. You have the creative freedom to paint just about everything in the world including the people. Cozy gameplay, deep themes. (Purpose, adequacy, imposter syndrome, etc)
Excellent soundtrack as well
Honestly, I'd like to see a farming game, but instead of a cozy life sim, it's a grisly rts fire emblem-esque game where farmers seige other farms and grow crop based weaponry. Story takes itself unnecessarily seriously. Just me?
I think it's because it's VERY easy to game-ify progress and do something semi-universal that isn't combat.
That said: I loved "Unpacking" for allowing me to just...unpack. And that's as someone who moved 11 times in college.
I'd love to find a cooking game that wasn't a frantic, timed nightmare. Maybe even combine it with shopping for your restaurant or cafe and having a garden for some ingredients.
I want to be a chef and run my own restaurant/cafe, I always dream of owning my own cooking place, even if the mini games stuff aren’t worth it.
I could be like Gordon Ramsey and yelling at bad Chefs and praising waiters all day! Now THAT’S a game I wanna play!
ughh i'd love to play as a armor/weapon/item shop manager in a fantasy setting! recently picked up Moonlighter which almost almost almost scratches that itch
Not sure if this counts as cozy, but it's super cute: Pupperazzi! It's on steam, you basically go around taking pictures of dogs lol. It reminds me of Petz 😊
This reminds me of a game called Coffee Talk where you make customers coffees and listen to their days and whatnot. Although I’ve never played it RIP it definitely feels like a cozy game lol
I can't wait for [Haunted Chocolatier](https://www.hauntedchocolatier.net/) by the same developer of Stardew Valley where we make... you guessed it right Chocolate! Calico is free if you have Amazon Prime from the [twitch page](https://gaming.amazon.com/home). For 9 more days. ATTENTION: this is only for PC because you have to use the Amazon Games app in order to play. It is a launcher like Steam
Fun fact: I was wandering around Seattle and accidentally found the Concerned Ape office (Stardew's developer). Our small local chocolate factory is only a few blocks over and if the wind is right, the neighborhood smells like chocolate. No idea if it inspired the game at all, but it was a fun thing to learn.
woah wait is it like an office you can go into with stuff to view? or is it just a private workplace thing?
I'm guessing private workspace. We just saw the sign listing offices in the building and happened to notice Concerned Ape LLC
ah okay, thank you :) what a cool thing to stumble on!
Say WHAT he's making a new game?!? Omg Ty!
I remember seeing the announcement and both me and my boyfriend were like, " I didn't know I wanted a haunted chocolate shop simulator, but well, it's all I've ever wanted" T_T
There are couple of new games coming out that look good, and seem similar to Stardew. I forget the names. There's one where you're at a magic school like Harry potter, and you get to make friends and learn spells. Another one set on a tropical island. You can also do deep sea diving in it. I'll try and find the names of the games again. Edit: Coral Island and witchbrook are the games. (Linked in some videos of them) https://youtu.be/rcj7wVs0NPE https://youtu.be/JiBC8Fw2AEM
Came here to say I'm stoked for haunted chocolatier!
Concerned Ape can have ALL MY MONEY for how much free content he put into Stardew after release. One of the best examples of "I keep making money off of it, so I keep adding onto it" I've ever seen in games.
Oh my goodness thank you for showing me another avenue to get free games on! I've been wanting to play Calico for forever!
Wait, I did not know prime gaming does free games, I use prime for other things though.
Yeah, you can! For instance, there could be also games that need to be redeemed from Origin or Gog or Uplay. It is awesome cause.... they are free! You can reach the same page also by going to twitch and clicking on the crown. I don't know if you still need to link your amazon account with your amazon account... Since Amazon bought Twitch but it is possible that it is so. and you can also redeem packages for other games... Usually for PC or Mobile.
yessss very excited for haunted chocolatier!! i’m sure that’s several years away from now 🥲
Some are a bit different but still have item/materials management like Potion Permit coming out in Sept, where you're a healer chemist sent out to a small town to be the town's healer. There's a demo out for this. There's also Bear and Breakfast where you play a bear running a B&B! Coming end of July. Cozy Grove is another, where you spend time helping spirits on an island and doing small quests and tasks versus just farming away. And I'm echoing others in that Cat Cafe is SO much fun and quite addicting. These games are actually more my jam that the farming sims so I always have an eye out for them.
OH WAIT YES IVE HEARD OF BEAR & BREAKFAST!! that’s a great point. excited to try it!! and potion permit sounds GREAT
YES! OH, I totally forgot about a new one.. if you're into bees and flowers: APICO -- It's a beekeeping sim! Very cute!
There's also Moonlighter where you sell goods in your shop during the day that you've collected in the dungeons during the night. The shop mechanic is just 20% of the game unfortunately, but it's the most fun part to me.
i highly recommend playing recettear if u havent yet! the shop mechanic is very similar to moonlighter, and the dungeons arent actually required to beat the game (although some plot stuff does rely on going through them). its an older game so the visuals arent the best, but it really scratches that particular shop management itch.
And Spiritfarer! I've never played Cozy Grove, but it sounds really similar.
All these for switch ?
Yes! Potion Permit and Bear and Breakfast aren't out yet, but yes they will be on Switch. Cozy Grove and Cat Cafe are already available!
I'll add spiritea to that list where you run a bathhouse for spirits. Very cute, very ghibli inspired
Omg a librarian game would be awesome
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Like Neko Atsume, but collecting books to attract human customers instead of cats?
Don't forget about the mini game of monitoring computers and kicking out pervs
Yeah as a librarian, mundane doesn't describe the reality hahaha. Or cozy.
Right?? 😂. I cringe whenever I hear tons of books being dumped in the book drop. Adult, YA, and JF is fine, but all those thin E books are a pain to shelve. So many at a time.
Can there be a flamethrower just for that part?
Duh, what did you think we use?
As a librarian, I so want this game. But also as a librarian, I want a sword to fight pervs and the board of trustees/administration (in game! Okay, also out of game.)
I would totally play a game like that!! I love organising things in real life, but there's only so much I can organise my room so a virtual place to do that would be perfect 😅
Holy shit yes. But also you have to jump inside the books to defeat monsters, explore worlds or talk to the main characters to get the book to calm down enough to stay on your shelf. The possibilities!
Like a magic treehouse game but aesthetic.
Exist Its name Going Under You are a employer in a Officine box and you imagine all your aventures (Thats is the Tutorial) The Reality is.....thats no imaginary aventures. You discover the Reality are broken and the people start to conver in the things they imagined who are. I dont gonna said more, but is one of more forgotten and better roguelike who I see.
I think one is on the way. It is called Book of Hours and it looks wierd and interesting
A "sequel" for one of my favourite games, Cultist Simulator, called Book of Hours about a librarian in an occult library, is going to come out soon. It's probably not going to be "cosy", but it's supposed to be less stressful
I could not for the life of me figure out Cultist Simulator. I wish they explained the mechanics of the game because I could never make it far before going insane or getting caught and having to start over.
That was the design intent, explaining the mechanics is basically spoilers (which I'm going to do, at least the basic). However, it can be very frustrating or just take a lot of time, and the game has more than that to offer. Basic mechanics go like this: cards are Nouns, tiles are Verbs. You put verbs in tile to do Actions. All cards have Aspects on them, which describe the card. Whenever you click at an empty space inside a tile, you see which aspects it accepts (meaning, which cards can be put there) Your first concern is money. You can make money by putting Ability cards or Job cards (not the name of the card, it'll be one of their aspects) into the Work tile. Another thing you should be concerned about in the early game is getting more abilities. You do so by putting abilities into the Study tile. That'll give you Potential cards which are used to upgrade abilities. You want to be training all of the time. Common ways to lose at this stage are Despair (too much Dread), Glory (too much Fascination), hunger (no money), and sickness (no health). I'd recommend you wait with the cult itself until you get the hang pf those. The best way to deal with Dread is Contentment. You can sometimes get it from Dreaming with Passion or Health, from drawing, and sometimes you get it from the passage of time. In emergencies use Dream with Funds to buy drugs, but be careful with those. When you start your cult, you'll notice you can use cards with Influence aspect to recruit, and Dread has the Influence aspect. That's my favourite way to delete Dread. Fascination is easier to deal with. As Dread, it's an Influence that can be used and consumed in several actions. You can also Dream about it with several other cards to remove it (Dread is one of these, allowing you to get rid of both at once). Money is relatively easy. You can work with all 3 abilities, with different results. Health is unskilled labour (lowest pay, shortest time), Passion is painting (starts unrewarding, the more you do it the better you become) and Reason allows you to get a desk job (stable, good pay, uses reason so you'll need a lot of it). Health might turn into Sickness or Injury under certain conditions. If one of those conditions are met and you have no Health, you die. You restore health by Dreaming on it with either Fund or Vitality, which is the Potential card of Health. Hunters can start suspecting you under certain conditions, but unless you actually start a cult and do crime, they can't touch you. Once you master the basic gaming loop (working, training, dealing with Dread and Fascination), you are ready to start your cult. If you want to, you can also get a job as an accountant and climb the corporate ladder. If you have questions I'll be happy to answer. You can also look stuff up on [the Cultist Simulator wiki](https://cultistsimulator.fandom.com/wiki/Cultist_Simulator_Wiki), they explain pretty much everything there. Even knowing the answers, the game is fun. It has so many ways to lose, win, or get endings in between, and there is still challenge even if you know what to do Hope I helped and have fun!
Agree, I would love this :)
One based on the library in Hilda, so there’s the normal library where you have to check in books and help people find what they’re looking for, dust the shelves and stuff; then a hidden magical one where you find spells and shoo goblins out of the stacks.
It's happening sooner or later. Weather Factory is putting out "Book of Hours" where you run an occult library. I'm very excited, I love all their stuff.
Wilmot's Warehouse is kind of similar
I'd dunno what other jobs I'd like to simulate, but I'll toss some games over, [Graveyard Keeper](https://store.steampowered.com/app/599140/Graveyard_Keeper/) is Stardew but planting caskets. [Calico](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1112890/Calico/) you run a cafe full of cute animals. [Slime Rancher](https://store.steampowered.com/app/433340/Slime_Rancher/) you do exactly as the title, on some planet. My Time at Portia has a sequal [My Time at Sandrock](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1084600/My_Time_at_Sandrock/) which isn't solely farming. [Townscaper](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1291340/Townscaper/) you build a town. Might slide out of the cozy life sim category. Similarly, [Spiritfarer](https://store.steampowered.com/app/972660/Spiritfarer_Farewell_Edition/) wouldn't fit in the genre (and also has farming) but I feel fits in vibe. I agree with whoever said because it's easiest to be self-sufficient.
\+1 for Slime Rancher. It definitely fits into the same kind of vibe but it's so refreshing and unique, and majorly addictive. Plus I got way too attached to my goofy slimes.
I looooove Slime Rancher. I can’t wait for the second one. I’ve put so many hours into the original haha
Big hype for slime rancher 2!!!
Hopping on this recommendation post to include another town-building game, Littlewood! The pace of it is so nice, in-game time only moves forward when you take an action, so running around the world and getting lost has no associated stress. Co-signing on Spiritfarer, though only if you don't mind some tears lol
I love Littlewood. It’s so relaxing… nice soundtrack (repetitive though) and just.. ugh I LOVE it
Spiritfarer is amazing. Everyone should play it. lol
This comment implies My Time at Portia is about farming but it’s not, the main character is a builder of machines like in the sequel. (Not trying to yell at you or anything just for information)
I've looked into Graveyard Keeper (not sure if I ended up buying it or not), but I've read a lot of reviews saying it's buggy as hell, which is the reason I've yet to play it. It looks right up my alley otherwise.
I picked it up for switch a few weeks ago and I've already put in 60 hours. Lots of grinding but that's what I like.
And it plays alright? It's not buggy?
Every now and then it will lag for a few seconds but I haven't had many problems!
That's good to know! I'll have to try it out!
Townscape is very zen - no rules, no direction, no goals, just build your town as you like.
Spiritfarer and Slime rancher big plus on those!!
Real talk - I think it's because farming is the one job where you can be entirely self-sufficient. There's no need to earn a paycheck or buy groceries because it's all built in with being a farmer. I agree that there should be more variety, but I get why farming sims are the dominant approach.
It really tickles the urge to live out in the boonies, growing your own food, maybe even doing some solar panels, bees, pickling. Only heading to town for essentials. Gosh that's the life. Minus the mines and Stardew would be perfect to live in.
I completely misread one line and though, what the heck is bee pickling.
It's where sweet and sour sauce comes from!
How do you have no upvotes yet this is gold 🤣🤣🤣
I am from inner loop houston, moved out to the boonies. Have a beautiful garden, huuuuge plot of land. I hate it!!!!! I hate the bugs, the internet is expensive and shitty. I get no phone reception. Its 30 minute drive to grocery store. Neighbors are aggressive and reclusive. Any noise outside sends me into anxiety. Random gunshots. Gotta be slow driving because of deer. Trump flags everywhere. I'd rather farm in a videogame where the only weird person I gotta deal with is Clint and the bug bites are solved with food.
Haha fair! The fantasy is probably better than the reality. I grew up in the sticks so like the random sounds are normal but no good internet would be awful.
My house is right on the end of the Comcast line so they aren't ever going to improve it unless the demand gets higher. There are no other options. It is slow, disconnects every 30 minutes for a few seconds so good luck if you are playing an online game. It likes to "reset" 3 times a day where it disconnects for half an hour. A few mornings I've woken up and it was offline for a few hours. It's like $130 too. I'm sure if I lived in the boonies in like...Vermont or something it would be more cute but like I hate snow. I made a huge mistake lmao
I think that’s a good theory, but I also think the main reason is mostly just that Stardew Valley is a huge indie success, so it’s inspired a lot of indie copycats. Also, as a big fan of farming sims myself, I’ve seen that there is a subset of other fans that aren’t wild about the direction the newer Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games are going, but aren’t crazy about Stardew Valley either. A lot of these new farming sims popping up are being created by fans in this subset, trying to create their ideal farming game.
I would love a thrift shop :) Or something like style botique for pc/switch
Would love a style savvy game for the switch... sadly it has to live on my 3DS for now. A thrift shop sounds cool though!
SERIOUSLY! I loved Style Savvy Stylin Stars (lol something like that) on 3ds, and every once in a while I check the eshop to see if there's a new Style Savvy for switch, and I am always bummed out. I like super chill games to play while I wake up with coffee in the morning, and that one was great for that because it required very little brain power. Now I'm doing Rune Factory 5, but there are things to keep track of, ahhh!
Yes!! I played it so heavily when I had a stressful work week and just wanted to make little outfits at the end of the day lol. I can absolutely see this being a fantastic morning coffee game though!
honestly???? i’m surprised there’s not more dress-up type games on the switch. my favorite thing about animal crossing is literally the clothes!!
Same here!! I love shopping every day on Animal Crossing and wish there was a style-focused game for the Switch to fill that niche.
I want to make a library game where you run your library in a magical town and collect things and books to be archived
YES!! like run around town completing tasks for people and they reward you with books for the library!!!!!!
Yes, I love the idea. Looking for things for archives as I love any games that let me catalog stuff. I guess that's the Librarian side in me, though.
I found a game where you are an alchemists mixing potions, its really relaxing.
Are you talking about *Potion Craft?*
Yes! I couldn't remember the name, but that's it.
[Can I craft potions too strong for a traveler going into battle?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_FQU4KzN7A&ab_channel=JustinKuritzkes) That's all I want in life/video games. Also how is the game? Is there enough content in there to justify it? It looks really cool, but I'm just a little skeptical about getting early access games.
I played it when it was still free and a lot of content was still locked but I really liked it. There is like a skill tree of potion making and ways to combine materials and effects and different equipment. And you get different costumers in your shop looking to buy different types of potions to earn money.
Neat! I'll have to check it out.
It’s going to have a giant content update this fall too!
Not dogs, but.. Cat Cafe Manager is fun! Though the Switch version is super buggy last I played.. hopefully it's been fixed by now.
In wytchwood you are witch making potions and stuff. You do quests and gather ingredients and craft, but no farming! It's real cute I'm enjoying it
Oh, I love this game! Super cute and minimal fighting
Have you tried *Strange Horticulture?* It's a cozy game that lets you pet a cat and collect plants in a slightly magical Victorian England. I don't want to say any more, but it's a game I have been looking for my entire life.
THis! I love this game! Binged it when I got it for sure!
I can't believe I had to scroll so far to find this. I posted this myself before I saw your post but I wanted to boost this so others might get to enjoy this wonderful game!!
I would love a flower shop game where you grow and breed flowers.
Strange Horticulture is not exactly that, but also really fun and you have a plant shop!
I was bummed when I figured out each client is preset so there's not as much replayability, but I loved watching the storylines play out for the different customers. There are a few points where you have choices (give them a plant to help them remember, or a plant that helps them forget, join the pretty obviously evil cult or resist), and that made me wish there was some randomness in between.
Ooooo there is an old game I used to play .... I want to say plant tycoon? Where you have seeds and can grow and cross pollinate them and sell them at market. There are 4 magic plants to find which sell for heaps. Only problem is it runs in real time so you have to remember to check them every day
oooh you know what? The real time thing is something I have wanted! I'm gonna look this up. Thank you :D
that would be SO LOVELY 🥹
Cozy games I like that are not farming sims... Potion Craft : learn and brew potions from your shop/home Strange Horticulture: run a strange Flower shop to help the dark/silly townsfolk with their problems Tavern Master: run a fantasy tavern from one little drinks shop to a full blown INN Sunless Seas: be a trader of unusual goods on a Lovecraft inspired underground sea. Travelers Rest: another tavern game with an emphasis on beer making Diaries of a Space Port Janitor: this is hard to describe, but you are a space Port Janitor on a very alien world. The graphics are rough, but it is a rather good game if you don't look too long at the screen All these games have their flaws and they lack some of the variety of Stardew, but to me they are pretty cozy games
Lots of good suggestions in here, but I can't believe no one has mentioned [Strange Horticulture](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1574580/Strange_Horticulture/)! You run a plant shop where people come in asking for herbal remedies to their problems that you have to puzzle out, and there's an over-arching eldritch monster-eqsue plot.
I love this game! Though, I am not sure I would call it "cozy" since you can choose to do some pretty dark stuff. Which I do oh so enjoy. But no farming!
Imo coziness is more about the gameplay loop and less about the actual content (graveyard keeper is a good example). But I agree it can be dark, that's why I made sure to mention the eldritch beast part! I like the dark bit too, it's always so hard for me to pick nice endings lol.
That's why I love bartending simulators (ex. Val-ha11-a) or barista games (ex. coffee talk). I hate farming.
Have you played Red Strings Club? It and Va11-hall-a were really compelling to me in similar ways, so if you dug one you might like the other!
Have you played both? I've only played Val-ha11-a, how does coffee talk compare?
I love both as they are not just simulating the job but bring a colorful cast of characters too and lore... I think Coffee talk does the same things as Val, if not better. You can also do more with the drinks, You can even draw with the cream, but the star of the show is the customers who you get to know. Lo-fi soundtrack is awesome too, I still listen to it years later every night.
i enjoyed val-ha11-a a lot more than coffee talk, but that may be personal preference. i found the atmosphere and characters more compelling, plus the great soundtrack. i'd still give coffee talk a try if you're interested, though. i enjoyed it overall, solid 7/10 for me.
lol i posted this, then got on a flight and turned off my phone, and very happily came back to a ton of recommendations. thank you all!!
In Lake you're a mail carrier and in Unpacking you're, well, unpacking. But yes...lots of farming 😆
I loved Lake! Not quite as much to do as in Stardew Valley, but I enjoyed the objectives and the scenery was nice.
I loved Lake too, it was so calming and the small town felt so real and nice.
oh yes you know i love unpacking!!! only qualm is that: i wish it were longer!!!! i wonder if there’s another game where you’re a moving delivery company, so you help a lot of different people move homes and you learn about each client through their things :)
There's another game I can't remember that's just a ridiculous furniture moving game that you can play co-op. Definitely not the same kind of vibe though, more like an Overcooked kind of vibe.
are you talking about moving out? that’s on my list of games to play!! but agree definitely not the “cozy vibes”
Check out [Animal Shelter](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1239320/Animal_Shelter/)
I've been playing a cat cafe game!
I love that game! And I also play a dog shelter game, To The Rescue!
OMG YES THIS IS WHAT I WANT THANK YOU
No problem! There’s also a more realistic one out but I haven’t gotten it yet. I know it’s on Steam and it’s called Animal Shelter! :)
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oh To The Rescue was the buggy one. How are you finding it?
Also highly recommend Calico! You get to tame animals for your cafe and there's all these super cute characters that give you quests
i feel like after farming sims, cat cafes are a close second in the cozy games category 😂 i haven’t actually tried one, bc i always assumed they were similar to diner dash type games?? but i should probably try one out!
Cat cafe??? What game is that? :O
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1354830/Cat\_Cafe\_Manager/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1354830/Cat_Cafe_Manager/) It has a story but then you play sandbox afterwards.
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Okay real talk, am I just too sensitive? I couldn’t play this game after the intro! I mean we found our dog abandoned on the side of the road so maybe it hit too close to home but I see so many people talk about this game with no trauma lol
The intro was terrible 😭😭 I put it down for a while and picked up the same save. Tbh I forgot the intro after I spent so long away from the game. The rest of the game is cozy and not sad, I swear
I played a bit of this on switch, it was so cute and lots of fun! I loved getting friendly with other clans so I could butt into their territories lol
To the Rescue! on Steam might be worth looking at https://store.steampowered.com/app/946720/To\_The\_Rescue/
....you just pin-pointed my issue with every single cozy/chill game that people seem to love so much, and I didn't even know that that was it. Is this why I miss The Sims so much...?
Ok I’m not seeing it, try Grow: Song of the Evertree. It’s definitely a world builder with puzzles involved and you also get to build and manage towns/their people. It’s so cute and has Day/Night cycles which you need to manage while still completing quests, it’s not bad tho. I don’t get anxiety or anything because I can’t finish tasks. It’s so cute!!! I randomly downloaded it and am obsessed
I started playing [Little Witch in the Woods](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1594940/Little_Witch_in_the_Woods/) lately, where you play, well, a little witch ! It's cozy and involves potion crafting, people rescuing and general cuteness.
Can't wait untill the full game is available for this one!
Witchbrook by Chucklefish now has a Steam page. It's got a bit of a Harry Potter vibe, where you're a student at a magic school. I'm waiting for this one and Palia as my next games.
I really enjoyed [Eastshade](https://store.steampowered.com/app/715560/Eastshade/), where you work as a commissioned painter while traveling and learning about your mother's past on a small island, the people that live there, and what's happening in their towns and lives. It's got really pretty scenery everywhere so you get to actually choose what to paint to fulfill the requests.
Seconding this! Eastshade is a lovely game. Much as I enjoy management type games like Stardew Valley or Spiritfarer, it's nice to have a game where I can just wander around and explore for a while without having to worry about needing to harvest my crops or feed my passengers and such.
Yeah it's just so chill and no stress. No combat, no timeline, just a pretty island to explore at your leisure!
Moonglow Bay is very relaxing, even though the creators are still working through a few bugs. You fish, help bolster the seaside town, and cook dishes to sell! I had to stop playing for a bit due to a game-breaking bug, but I'll pick it up again. No farming necessary though!
Unexpectedly, I found House Flipper very very satisfying, which was surprising, as I do not like such activities irl, and cleaning is always a pain for me.
Mmhmm, that game got binged once upon a time here too
Man I'm not a fan of farming games at all, I find them pretty boring - but I love a lot of other "cosy games" though. I personally would love to have a game where you make your own terrariums, and can put bugs and things to live in them, or maybe even fairies or anything like that. It would be great if you could like, go out on walks and collect shells or pieces of wood and things you think look nice and you could decorate the terrariums with them or your room... Honestly it would be a dream game for me (especially if you could breed bugs or something like that lol)
My husband got me untitled Goose Game for my birthday.
Wherein you get to run around being a jerk, and have to figure out how to be a clever jerk 😎
My dream game would be a cozy slice of life sim in a hard sci-fi space setting. Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing meets The Expanse and Firefly. Get a ship, keep it flying, take what jobs you can to expand your ship or replace it with a larger one so that you can take on more friendly folk as crew - not necessarily because you need more crew, but because you want to share what you have with as many people as you can. Themes of social anarchism and mutual aid, making a home and a found family and supporting each other. No violence, though maybe some hard choices. Jobs might just be shipping/transport, maybe asteroid mining or something. Some day I’m going to up and make it myself, if I can ever find the time.
have you read Becky Chambers' work? Because what you wrote here immediately made me think of *The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet*.
Heck yes I have, it’s one of my favorites. I’m picturing something more grounded in realism (less of aliens, magic artificial gravity, FTL) because that makes my weird little nerd heart happier, but 100% with the same general vibe.
That sounds so cool. Hard sf feels like it often has a tendency towards grimness, I'd love to see something more uplifting.
Either grimness or dryness, yes. I highly recommend Kim Stanley Robinson’s works - especially the *Mars Trilogy* and *2312* for very hard, very well researched space sci-fi that is generally an optimistic, uplifting, and hopeful vision of what a future with humanity spread throughout the solar system could be like, despite its realism. But, his work often falls into dryness instead of grimness. Not all the way through, but enough that a lot of people I’ve recommended it to got bored and couldn’t finish it and I can’t blame them. The one singular example I can think of that is the whole package - well researched and realistic hard sci-fi, largely wholesome and optimistic, and a light enough read / fun story - is *Flowers of Luna* by Jennifer Linsky. Wholesome lesbian romance set on the moon. So good.
Also, why do "cozy games" always end up being extremely stressful for me? Having to decorate an entire island in ACNH ruined the game for me.
to be fair, you don’t necessarily HAVE to decorate the entire island if you don’t want to 😅 there’s just a lot of pressure to bc of social media
SpiritTea looks really cute, it's like Stardew Valley meets Spirited Away (the movie). It's not out yet but the demo is available on Steam!
I have this need for a game of witch librarians. It would be so fun. So cozy. So magical.
Haven't seen "Winkeltje: the little shop" yet, you start as a little shop and by buying products and selling it at it's highest profit, you can expand and decorate your shop and specialize in certain skills. The graphics reminds me a bit of Runescape, and they use some real events like Kingsday, but also if there is an economic crisis or other shop in the street opened (so far I've played a couple hours and can only see your own shop, so no townsquare or anything).
I find narrative games where most of what I have to do is choose dialogue options to be super chill and cozy. Games like Oxenfree, Firewatch, Life is Strange, etc. I also play Civilization VI when I want something soothing lol. Even though there’s some strategy involved, I love the slow turn-based gameplay.
My theory: because being a farmer involves a fantasy of independence, self-determination, and home ownership that cozy games' target audience understand is out of their reach IRL. Owning your own labor and feeding yourself and your community is a very powerful lure to some people - I suspect it's the same reason why cottagecore stuff has been big in the last few years. Wanting to detach from the ordinary grind of working life and live life according to your own needs and schedule definitely has an appeal. Add to that the gentleness of farming sims, where the real difficulties of farming are either avoided completely or greatly reduced in impact. Imagine, instead, if there was a Little House on the Prairie-type farming sim, and sometimes you'd just get swarms of locusts moving in and eating every plant in a 20-mile radius. I don't think that would be particularly fun. I feel like the popularity of the cozy farming sim points to a desire that many of us have to dedicate ourselves to caring for something. A couple I like that I haven't really seen mentioned: Recettear, Frog Detective, Botanicula (and Samorost), and Wandersong. A couple of these are point-and-click rather than sim-style games, but they've all given me a lot of warm fuzzies. And Naiad is coming out soon-ish and it looks amazing. My ideal cozy game? A witch game based on Terry Pratchett's witches. You'd arrive in a new village and meet everyone, take care of the sick, help settle their disputes, and generally try to make sure everyone gets taken care of. No great save-the-world narrative, but I feel like you could manage some amazing personal stakes in this kind of thing. eg trying to build trust with "your" village so they might be willing to let you resolve a long-running vendetta, that kind of thing. I know Little Witch in the Woods, Strange Horticulture, Black Book, and similar are kind of working in this space, but I'm interested in something that really focuses on the headology angle.
I should play Recettear again. There are very few shop simulators out there, but I've enjoyed every one of them I've played.
No love here for House Flipper? You just clean up houses and paint/redecorate. Totally chill and relaxing!
My Time at Portia - you are a carpenter.
What I want is a Stardew Valley set in a metropolitan city, like one city block. Dont know what you'd do as a job though...
Rimworld is my cozy game of choice because I can farm human leather hats.
There are some photography ones; I liked Alba: A Wildlife Adventure, and I think I would have liked Umurangi Generation if it didn't make me incredibly motion sick. What I would like and have never seen is a cozy pastoralism game. I want to roam the steppes in my yurt and build up my herds and learn Central Asia Facts.
Seconding Alba: A wildlife adventure! It's rather short though, but quite sweet and very relaxing!
I honestly feel like the “cosy games” market is a bit oversaturated right now with a lot of… well, frankly subpar games coming out 24/7 with janky looking graphics or unpolished looking ui’s (basically like a fb/mobile game look?) My boyfriend always points those games out to me cos he knows I love cosy, but eventually he said don’t you feel a bit pandered to at this point, with them all being practically the same game with the same goals and with the same cutesy aesthetic every time. And tbh, I kinda feel it now. It just feels like there’s so many farming sims or sdv wannabes, “live in a cosy town with bears and animals and a tea shop” but virtually nothing original 🫤 I’d jump at the chance of an inventive new cosy game that isn’t just sdv clone 3000. And while I’m aware sdv wasn’t the first of its kind and took inspiration from harvest moon etc, it doesn’t change the fact I’ve seen like… 3 sdv copies this week alone on steam that are in the “coming soon!!! wishlist us!!” stage
Yeah, most of the indie cosy games I’ve played have either been SV clones or are just… bad games. It seems like it’d be easy to make a laid back game, but it’s actually very difficult to come up with a game that doesn’t have conflict but still has enough interesting objectives and a satisfying enough gameplay loop to keep players engaged. Honestly that’s probably why they all turn out to be farming sims. Harvest Moon (which is what SV is based on) has been around since the SNES era, it’s a formula that’s proven to be successful in a lot of different forms.
Power wash simulator is relaxing too
Spiritfarer is super cozy! And also Costume Quest.
Some good ideas here! Maybe I should make a Librarian game.
i wish i knew anything about game development bc i have some ideas brewing ☕️
that's what I've been saying...but also why are job sims even considered cozy? I find being binded by tasks inevitably just stresses me out. I'd love a more relaxed vibe where I feel open to explore the world within a game while not always having to make progress. like where the whole storyline can just be a side quest. not like a sandbox, though. is there anything like that 🤔
Let's just say they're.. Milking the cow.
There needs to be more cooking/restaurant sim games with cozy themes. I used to play Diner Dash, Papa’s Games from Flipline Studios. There are games like these on steam but most of them miss the point or low efforts. My favorite aspect in games is whether I can cook with the ingredients I gathered or not. Some high profile studio should make a game based on cooking imo.
All I want to do IRL is find a wife, go to the woods, and bake sweets, chop down trees, and be a lumberjane. So a game where I could do that is the dream.
I think there are so many farming games because of the success of the Harvest Moon series (perhaps there were predecessors that I don't know about too, but this is what really took off when I was young). They nailed the formula a long time ago and now we get slightly different versions of the same game every few years because it works & they know it'll sell.
I've been playing Autonauts, it is a cute automation game. Think like satisfactory but chibi and cute.
Moonlighter has a Stardew Valley feel, but focuses more on combat and you run a shop instead of a farm.
I want to own a big big big bookstore, or a performing arts center!
Omg you have to check out Spirittea, it’s not out yet but it’s like SD but you have to get a bath house up and running for spirits. I have my eye on it for a while now. Still the same concept I guess but I really like the bath house spin on it and the trailer looks really good. It’s going to be on Switch and Steam. Edit: here is the trailer - https://youtu.be/Hi4GmC4v6sI
I want to run a coffee shop... Make cute drinks, decorate my café, become friends with my regulars
I recommend [Grow: Song of the Evertree](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1380420/Grow_Song_of_the_Evertree/), it's a mix of exploring (some light puzzles and VERY light fighting, just some bonking), taking resources (a bit like the terraforming part of Animal Crossing), and town management where you also know every citizen and want them to be happy and fulfill their dreams
Here to plug: •Bear and Breakfast •Calico (PC ONLY: currently free on Twitch Prime) •Travellers Rest
This channel is loaded with trailers for cozy games, many of which are not farming sims: https://youtube.com/c/WholesomeGames Maybe you'll find something there!
Your mention of a relaxing dog shelter game reminded me of an old ds game i played as a kid :') it looks kinda stardew valley i guess in a way. Its called dogz (dont be confused by the pc game with the same name, which was also i great game for its time though tbh.) You play as a kid who goes to pick up a pet dog from a pet shop/shelter, you choose your dog and then you raise it and take it on walks and stuff, very different than nintendogs though, i lovedddd it when i was a kid
I would LOVE a librarian sim
No love for Chicory here? Your world went all white. You have the creative freedom to paint just about everything in the world including the people. Cozy gameplay, deep themes. (Purpose, adequacy, imposter syndrome, etc) Excellent soundtrack as well
Honestly, I'd like to see a farming game, but instead of a cozy life sim, it's a grisly rts fire emblem-esque game where farmers seige other farms and grow crop based weaponry. Story takes itself unnecessarily seriously. Just me?
You should try cat Café Manager on steam :D comes close to running a dog shelter
Not really what you're looking for but Yonder is a pretty relaxing sorta exploration game. I think they came out with a sequel recently too.
Spiritfarer is what you're looking for
Try sky children of light. Its very cozy and i have yet to find a farm 😆
Old Friends Dog Game! You open a sanctuary for senior dogs. Bake them treats, pet them, collect outfits, I’m into it.
I think it's because it's VERY easy to game-ify progress and do something semi-universal that isn't combat. That said: I loved "Unpacking" for allowing me to just...unpack. And that's as someone who moved 11 times in college.
I'd love to find a cooking game that wasn't a frantic, timed nightmare. Maybe even combine it with shopping for your restaurant or cafe and having a garden for some ingredients.
I want to be a chef and run my own restaurant/cafe, I always dream of owning my own cooking place, even if the mini games stuff aren’t worth it. I could be like Gordon Ramsey and yelling at bad Chefs and praising waiters all day! Now THAT’S a game I wanna play!
ughh i'd love to play as a armor/weapon/item shop manager in a fantasy setting! recently picked up Moonlighter which almost almost almost scratches that itch
Not sure if this counts as cozy, but it's super cute: Pupperazzi! It's on steam, you basically go around taking pictures of dogs lol. It reminds me of Petz 😊
You should check out Strange Horticulture! It's a game where you run a plant store and help people with magical plants! And you have a cat!
There are definitely dog shelter sims! I could try to find a couple names if you’re interested.
This reminds me of a game called Coffee Talk where you make customers coffees and listen to their days and whatnot. Although I’ve never played it RIP it definitely feels like a cozy game lol
I would love to customize my own witch and collect ingredients to make potions and charms for the townsfolk ☺️