The Beautiful Illusion of Cozy Games

Is the world of The Sims a utopia? Is Animal Crossing perfect? Are cozy games lying to us? Let's find out.

Sources (in order of appearance):

All in-game footage captured by me!

Music (in order of appearance):
------ Title Screen - Animal Crossing New Horizons
------ Buy Mode 1 - The Sims Soundtrack
------ Summer (Nature's Crescendo) - Stardew Valley OST
------ Minecraft - Minecraft
------ Rito Village (Night) - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
------ Buy Mode 1 - The Sims Soundtrack
------ Treasured Memories - Kingdom Hearts Original Soundtrack

* To Support Me: *

[BrigitteEmpire]

I find cozy games pretty realistic in that 100 hours in I start to feel existential dread that nothing I’m doing matters

[ajplays-gamesandmusic]

Cozy games are wish fulfillment for cozy people.
Sometimes we wish for superpowers, and perfect aim, and a war to fight. And sometimes we just wish we lived in a world where we can easily get a home, a romantic partner, friends, an equitable job, and affordable healthcare.

[tristanbrooks]

I think the purpose of these games has nothing to do with the larger world. They are about giving YOU the chance to do or be anything you want. If Sims has landlords or a military it is for you as the player to have fun being a landlord or a soldier. You are always completely control. I think this is actually what makes them feel cozy: control. You are never truly at risk. There is no danger. The world itself is your domain. We escape to these games to give ourselves a sense of order, while real life lacks this order.

[doktoracula]

The fact that Sims were created to be a critique of capitalism, yet now it's nowhere to be seen and it instead is a tool to make more money reminds me of Disco Elysium quote from Joyce Messier: "Capital has the ability to subsume all critiques into itself. Even those who would *critique* capital end up *reinforcing* it instead"

[luniasta]

When you asked if it's really cozy, I kept thinking YES. It's cozy to pretend to be in a world where there's the systems you know but you can succeed in them for once. I think that's part of the appeal. They don't deconstruct it, but it was so comforting to gather bugs on a cute island to pay off a home in the uncertainty that was spring 2020. I think we don't ignore the similarities to the issues of a modern world when we play these games, I think we enjoy the illusion because of it

[HesTheDummyNotMe]

This video got me out here wondering if I should stop birthing 200 iron golems an hour just to cull them for their flesh

[FatherDraven]

The pivot to the skillshare ad reminding us of the paywalling of education as capitalism devours humanity was as inevitable and thematically appropriate as it was soul crushingly demoralizing.

[greggorytame]

What makes these games cozy is that; for just a little bit, you get to play on the winning side of capitalism.

[gamewrit]

Stardew Valley can be played on an infinite loop, but you don't have to farm, fish, forrage, or mine for minerals: no matter what your choices each day, even if you pass out or get knocked out, you wake safe and warm in your bed the next morning, and never lose the cabin you inherited from your grandfather.

[DaBezzzz]

We need a cozy game where the gameplay loop is doing things for people in a community and sharing and asking for things as we and others need them

[Ironsuaba]

In Minecraft, the best way to get a lot of stuff is... enslaving the villagers and often also displacing them/colonizing their villages. Fun stuff!

[YisYtruth]

They're not simulating reality. They're simulating childhood play. Adventure, friendship, exploration. That's what's cozy about them. It reminds us of our childhood.

[mymo_in_Bb]

Ever since getting Stardew Valley, I've been wanting to create my own cozy game, set in a conworld I've been working on for some time, where the player lives in an island community operating without money, where everyone collaborates etc. I have a hell of a lot of planning and researching and learning and first of all finishing my degree to do, but I hope I'll manage to make something like this someday - a simulator that instead of trying to criticise capitalism and consumerism, instead shows a world without it.

[mushuwu]

I think the definition of cozy games has gradually morphed and expanded over the past few years. The games no longer have to simulate idealistic lifestyles. The gameplay loop just needs to provide the feeling of stability and consistency that the real world is lacking.

Some recent, lesser-known titles like Dredge, Dave the Diver, and Hardspace Shipbreakers depict your character in a stressful and/or underserved position. But they're considered by many to be cozy because the gameplay loop focuses on a few menial but cyclical tasks that you gradually get better at.

Interestingly, because the ultimate goal is infinite growth, there also also cozy games that critique capitalism. Dave the Diver has you gradually killing more rare and exotic fish to make more exquisite dishes. Hardspace Shipbreakers explicitly spits in the face of corporate exploitation and legalese. Dredge has you literally ending the world in the pursuit of knowledge. We're now able to incorporate more complex themes and messages in cozy games than before because of their unique role as interactive media.

[Radar_of_the_Stars]

I think another aspect of the cozy genre (at least the good cozy games) that most people don't realize is a staple of the grenre is creativity, and I think it's for the same reason, most people don't have the time, energy, or money to paint or sculpt, or other traditional means of expressing creativity, but it's not very hard to build a house in Minecraft, or customize your farm in Stardew Valley, or make the perfect themed island in Animal Crossing

[theprinceofinadequatelighting]

Hmm... a consumerism simulator where my character goes to work every day to make money to buy more meaningless stuff?

I guess that explains the fight club my sim started in his basement.

[kataevellei]

I think the reason why most cozy games are simulators is that this way, they don't have to have a proper, overarching plot and/or story with a beginning, middle and end. In order for a story to work, you need conflict and stakes, which are antithetical to the feel-good aesthetics of cozy games. As a result, they replace story with micro-interactions.

[tanasaky]

One of my cosy games of choice is Terra Nil. It's core gameplay is about bringing dead planets to life - bringing water, growing trees, attracting animals etc etc. And at the end of the map you LEAVE! You get the F out of the way. No money, no capitalism, no humans.

Infinite growth? We doin' infinite de-growth, baby!

[DamnCyrus]

"Eat the Rich includes Tom Nook" she just like me forreal

[tofuhearts]

I love how cozy really just = will not trigger your fight or flight response