Is it a cozy game or is it "cute" coded?

Is it just me or are there a lot of “cozy” games lately and a lot of them just aren’t very fun? Hi, hello, I’m Alyssa, and before we get started I want to state:

This is just my opinion and criticisms stated in this video about what you like or enjoy do not constitute an attack on you, the people you care about, or the game developers who made them. Making games is incredibly hard and the fact these developers poured themselves into a game and put it into the world for people like you and me to enjoy and have opinions over should be celebrated. 

Now I’ve been playing games since I was a few years old at arcades, the sega game gear, sega saturn, sega CD and the first PlayStation. Of all of my hobbies, video games probably get the most amount of my attention – next to reading. 

Over the last few years, I’ve seen an exponential increase in the number of cozy games that exist and as such “cozy gamer” influencers. Their content tends to just showcase the mere existence of the cozy game but rarely provides a review. As one TikTok creator pointed it – it feels frustrating to try many of these cozy games to realize they’re “cute” looking but rarely fun. 

I love that there are influencers focused on showcasing a specific genre of games especially since tens of thousands of games are released each year — making discovery hard for games… but after watching “why cozy games suck” by Koramora several months ago.. I’ve been mulling over what the fuck even is a cozy game.

Is a game cozy because of its aesthetic, its mechanics, its pacing, or has the term “cozy game” become a catch-all for games that mean cute and targeted at women? 

In 2013, Polygon published an incredible feature about the history of video game marketing and the impact it had on creating the stereotype that video games were for boys. And we have been living the negative effects of those decisions ever since… this stereotype still plagues the games industry… you can see this in who gets funding and the commentary around “what a real game is”

I do believe that all video games are games — and that shitting on another person’s choice of video game is beta behavior with that being said… what the fuck is a cozy game?

Nintendo defines cozy games as games you’d play when you’re curled up under a comfy blanket or sipping your favorite hot beverage but I don’t know about you… that’s all of them. Every game, I want to be in a blanket with my favorite hot beverage – even when I’m yelling “oh come on” and “what in the actual fuck” or even “fuck this game”

A Reddit thread on r/cozygamers has a wide range of definitions, some of the broad common ones are:

• Farming or life sim

• Warm colors

• Easy to play – is laid back

• No combat

• Exploration

• Customization

The best definition, I’ve seen and mostly agree with is that cozy games are games that allow you to get lost in them without feeling stressed or pressured. They invoke a feeling of relaxation, happiness, or curiosity. 

One Redditor described how they play Skyrim as an alchemist and role-play with themselves traveling to sell their wares and another one described the atmosphere in Silent Hill. For me, I’m not sure Silent Hill could ever be considered cozy but maybe Dredge.

In November 2022, Games Industry Biz published “What are cozy games, and what makes them cozy?”

Though the subheadline, mentions “wholesome games” and I’m not 100% on board with the idea that something needs to be wholesome for it to be Cozy. Mainly because I have an idea for a cozy game that I’m working on that by no means would be considered wholesome.

The qualities listed for cozy games in this article… kinda make me feel like it’s a little infantilizing:

1. Socialization with humans, always in an agreeable way – unless it is for comedy

2. Aesthetics are usually colorful or pastel

3. Jolly and nursery-ish music

4. No peril

Not that long ago, I recall a twitter mutual lamenting that the 3D style of some of the upcoming games reminded her of the children’s bubble ish 3D style and it felt like a turn off… and I have to agree. If your game has the same 3D style as the kids youtube channels popping off, it’s not for me. Though – if you enjoy that animation style, please by all means… I just can’t get past the animation style to see if the game itself is any good. 

I’m not on board at all with the idea that cozy games need to be like any of the above. And that really has me coming back to the idea that the term cozy is a catch-all for a category of games that are targeting women. And to be clear, before anybody goes off in the comments – I think marketing games to women is great and we should do it more but are we boiling down what we think women like or enjoy by framing games in this way?

In my mind, it’s not dissimilar to Booktok reducing books to their tropes when they talk about them versus the qualities of the story that make it unique or interesting. 

And much like the rise in trad wife content and content obsessing with perfection in the home… I don’t think it’s a mistake that somehow we’re back to stereotypes for games and who plays what. While it’s been proven time and time again that all types of people play all types of games it feels clear that these games are trying to capture a market they believe isn’t catered to… but maybe it isn’t that the audience hasn’t been catered to… rather that it’s been catered to mostly by people who think they know what these segment of gamers want – and those gamers are making do – like they always have, with what’s available.

One of the best talks I sat in on was with, I believe, the President of That Game Company discussing attracting diverse players to their games… and how the importance of telling emotionally enriching stories was a core ingredient to that. 

And I think that is ultimately what a lot of “cozy” games are missing. An emotionally enriching story or environment— many of them feel like a chore simulator in pretty youthful colors and some of those are done really well but I can only play a chore simulator for so long before it feels too repetitive. But I have ADHD so that could just be me. 

If you stuck around to the end, thank you for hanging out and listening. Let me know in the comments – what does “cozy game” mean to you? And if you had to recommend just ONE cozy game what would it be?