The cozy game takeover: Why gamers are settling down and chilling out
A slower pace of life
‘Cozy’ games are not a new phenomenon. In fact, they've been around since the mid-80s when Activision released Little Computer People for the Atari ST and other similarly retro platforms. That was 40 years ago, but the genre has exploded within the last ten years or so and is now one of the most popular gaming niches full stop.
Games like Stardew Valley absolutely dominate the gaming world, with hundreds, if not thousands, of similar games being released every year. They all try to emulate the success of ConcernedApe's magnum opus, and occasionally, one will come close to succeeding. Fields of Mistria, released in early access in August 2024, is perhaps the most recent success story, but there are many others.
What about these games keeps players coming back, and why are they such a mainstay for so many gamers? Let's take a deep dive into the cozy side of gaming and see if we can figure it out.
Real life is scary
It's no secret that the real world is, at the best of times, a terrifying place to be. Right now, things seem to be in a general slump when it comes to things worth celebrating. With the US facing a barage of bad choices, the UK seemingly intent on following in their footsteps, wars happening around the globe, and the general state of things making life just that little bit more challenging, I'm sure you'll agree that things just sort of suck right now.
Every morning, the news is led by the bad. The doom and gloom, fear-mongering, and misery splashed across the front pages. It's as though the media is designed to keep our spirits low, control the masses by destroying their spirit. This makes sense because mainstream media is all owned by billionaires who haven't set foot in the real world or struggled to survive the monotony of everyday life in decades.
These cozy games offer an escape from that in every sense. It's no coincidence that a lot of the cozy titles begin with a character choosing to leave their old life behind to live a simpler one. It's a secret desire that we all share, even if we're too afraid to admit it to ourselves, let alone anybody else.
But we can't just up and leave our lives. In reality, we have families, jobs, bills to pay, and a life that we've built that simply isn't easy to walk away from. Nothing is stopping us from living that dream on screen, though.
Everybody craves ultimate control over life
Further to my previous point, there isn't a person alive who wouldn't do just about anything to have full control over their life for just one day. If you were given the ability to start over and do everything perfectly, wouldn't you take it? That's what cozy games can offer - they have set stories, set coding. If you know how, you can be rolling in money extraordinarily quickly, befriend exactly who you want to, and build a life without the real-life concerns that come with simply existing within the real world.
Even in games where there is combat involved, such as Stardew Valley or Fields of Mistria, the conflict is contained, and it's entirely our choice whether we encounter it or not. If you're into modding, you can even choose to remove that conflict entirely. In the real world, conflict often finds us despite our best attempts to avoid it, so being able to simply say no and live a peaceful life is a lovely change of pace, however virtual that life is.
Money makes the world go around
Whether we like it or not, everything about life boils down to finances. Without money, we'd starve on the streets and eventually wither away to nothing. We need money to survive, which means we need to work, which can often suck the joy out of life, especially on difficult days at the office.
Within this cozy virtual world, making money is easy. Growing crops, selling crafted items, or doing tasks for the reward are all easy to complete, and best of all, there's absolutely no competition when it comes to your fledgling startup. There are no concerns over taxes or worries about your price point. Money comes to you like iron filings to a magnet, and that is astonishingly addictive, even if it's not real.
Pixel graphics reign Supreme
One common trait of many cozy games is the cute, almost nostalgic pixel art style. To be honest, I spent a very long time assuming that this was simply a trend that developers were trying to cash in on, but some deeper thinking has led me to other, less obvious conclusions.
Firstly, pixel games are easier to create and code. I'm not saying they're easy, I certainly couldn't even begin to code even a single pixel to move across the screen, but they are definitely easier to create than photorealistic graphics. They take less work, can be done quicker and more cheaply, and they are easier to update should the need arise.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not belittling the effort it takes to create games with this art style. I have endless respect for anyone capable of coding something that actually works, but the point stands. ConcernedApe, for instance, designed and coded Stardew Valley single-handedly for many years, until the game exploded in popularity and he was all but forced to bring on additional help to keep up with demand.
Secondly, and I'm unsure whether this is a general ‘thing' or whether this is specific to me, but the simple pixel graphics of many cozy games are incredibly nostalgic. As someone who grew up playing games like The Secret of Monkey Island, Zelda, and Pokémon, the pixelated art style takes my mind directly back to a simpler time, before I had to worry about anything other than what was for dinner or doing my homework.
Now, I've got a family to worry about, the fridge doesn't magically refill itself once a week, the laundry is in constant need of being done, and if I'm solely responsible for the roof over my head. I've somehow reached (almost) middle age, I'm considered a ‘grown up’, and I now regularly find myself yearning for those carefree childhood days because being an adult sucks. Whoever said “don't grow up, it's a trap” had the right idea.
Sorry for the tangent, but you know what I mean, I hope.
Regardless, the pixel graphics work on an almost psychological level to calm my anxieties and help my brain to take a break from the constant worries that it usually faces daily. I don't need to think about the laundry (although I probably should) when I'm tending to my pixel cows.
We all want to feel accomplished
Everybody has goals, and as we get older, those goals usually become harder and more complicated to accomplish. Cozy games offer bite-sized goals that can be ticked off relatively easily, but that doesn't stop them from making you feel as though you've achieved something worthwhile.
It doesn't stop after the games stop giving their predetermined goals, either. With most of the big, cozy titles, gameplay continues long after the story is finished, and there's usually an element of customization to be enjoyed. Disney Dreamlight Valley is an excellent example of this, offering players a seemingly endless amount of space to decorate however they want and optional characters to unlock.
As much as we make our own goals in real life, they can sometimes seem impossible to obtain, and they're often changed by outside influences that we cannot control. Within a game, these goals are always obtainable, and reaching them is an addictive experience.
Your imagination is your only limit
Consider life simulation games, such as The Sims 4. In this virtual world, you’re free to build whatever you can think of, become whatever you dream of, and live the life of your dreams without too much hassle. Cheats enable you to hoard millions of Simoleons in the space of seconds, you don’t need to spend 10 years studying something to become an expert, and nothing is preventing you from living your best life.
There are no cheat codes in real life. There aren’t any shortcuts to reaching a dream, and you can’t simply choose to remove obstacles if they arise and get in your way. It’s a long, hard, and ultimately tiring uphill swim to get to where you want to be, regardless of where that actually is.
Life simulation games offer you a chance to live out that dream in a way that realistically costs you nothing more than the cost of the game itself and a handful of hours (or cheats) that get you there. Hell, you can even change your entire personality or appearance with little effort, and that’s a superpower I think many of us have wished we could possess at one point or another.