Why do cozy games suck?

Games in order of apperance:

Animal Crossing New Horizons
Smushi Come Home
Stardew Valley
Harvest Moon
Garden Story
A Little to the Left
Fae Farm
Disney Dreamlight Valley
Bug & Seek
Cat Gets Medieval
Cult of the Lamb
Palia
Harvestella
Farming Simulator
Pokemon Scarlet/Violet

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#AnimalCrossing #NewHorizons

[koramora]

You better watch the whole video before commenting 👿

[ArielAntenna]

i am also so tired of every cozy game having farming… like can we please have something else to do besides farm lol

[designerwookiee]

On the topic of giving pikachu a bath, it's honestly astounding to me that the pokemon franchise doesn't have a line of cozy games centered around non-battling components of being a person in the pokemon world. Imagine a game where you're a pokemon professor's assistant and your job is a mix of helping feed, groom, and otherwise care for the hundreds of pokemon that the professor manages. The logistics of the nutritional requirements for a diverse range of pokemon would be a job all on it's own, though the anime just goes, "yea, all pokemon just eat berries and premade pokemon food, and they can eat human food just fine, too." as if none of them are carnivorous. Then there's grooming. Good luck figuring out how to "groom" the living trash and sludge pokemon, anything poisonous, or anything made of mostly fire or ice.

[dxmo.lovrzz]

Another thing I’ve noticed is that in most cozy games, they tend to be very interesting and full of life at the start, and then once you get better, it gets really dried out and more of a grind instead of staying fun

[MossCatGames]

I think some developers saw Stardew Valleys success and completely took away the wrong message "Must add farming"

[FierceCat]

As a person who tried getting their grandma to play animal crossing, it’s not as easy as I thought it would be, she gave up within 5 minutes and I had to remove her tent

[blackgalaxite]

I think the biggest issue is most of these "cozy" games seem to confuse relaxing and calming with understimulating. These games tend to make you wait incredibly long periods of time and force you to play at the game's pace, not yours. They typically lack a large variety of activities to do to keep you engaged and usually lack expansive mechanics and typically rely on super basic gameplay loops that are nothing short of mind-numbing and downright stressful. From what I know, games like Stardew Valley avoid this by providing wide varieties of simple, but enjoyable activities and minorly puzzling elements that make you feel like you accomplished something without distracting from the relaxing elements the game is based around.

[Czarewich]

I think the real problem with cozy games is that what one person finds cozy, another will find boring or bad, or even annoying. You can't really set out to make a "cozy" game because there are people out there who outright find the least cozy games as cozy (like the atmosphere of the first night hiding in a hole in Minecraft), or they enjoy the cozy aspects of non-cozy games (like base building in 7 Days to Die or something). I think sometimes you need something decidedly not-cozy to emphasize the cozy parts.

[limediamond]

I’m really hoping that when Concerned Ape releases Haunted Chocolatier it can be another revolutionary semi-cozy game, this time without farming. A game where you can simply college things and make new chocolates for ghosts, while also going out and fighting if you want

[envyrem]

The only thing that puts me off of new horizons is how tedious everything is, and the low quality of life. When I was very first starting, this was not an issue, but as I continued, even crafting was so unbearable I no longer wanted to play. I love the creative aspect, but the incredibly slow pace actually stressed me out more than being relaxing.

[anaissalla]

I am currently solo developing a cozy game. It's a decoration game with rhythm mini games, but my main thing is that I want it to feel like a 2000s web game, like a dress-up or make-up game, where you can simply pick and choose stuff because you think it looks good and there's little to no confrontation.

I've talked to many people in the industry that are worried about "well, how long can you keep players playing? What keeps them coming back every day?", and I'm a little confused because I want players to come back if they want to, not because I give them daily chores that feel like... chores. I also want to push free updates, though I understand that the game need to generate revenue to make the hours it takes to develop updates worth it... But I want to avoid micro transactions and paid DLCs as much as possible.

I feel like im swiming against the current on this, but who knows!! A girl can dream!!

[thevoidcritter]

I find that there needs to be some amount of darkness for me to appreciate the light. Stardew Valley struck the right balance by having its villagers' stories deal with some heavy issues (which I think is why Shane is so popular)

[Flutters_Shygal]

This all reminds me of when my friends and I were playing modded Minecraft. I was in charge of the farms and the food, and with the installed mods, there was a LOT of different food. Since varied food was important, and eating more types of food gave you benefits, my task was quite important. Despite this, I found it all really relaxing, without getting boring. I would explore to get new seeds I didn't have yet, expand and revise farming areas and experiment with ingredients. I had also set up an energy system that worked on burning excess food. My journey of just wanting to cook for my friends was very expansive, and allowed me to do so much more. And I still count this as a "cozy" experience, since there was nothing to stress me out, yet there still was a certain challenge in figuring everything out.

[nriceu]

"A short hike" is a great 1-2 hour cozy game where climbing to the top of a mountain gives you a good sense of accomplishment

[twitchydragon]

One of my favourite cosy games of the last few years is Spiritfarer. Visually stunning, genuinely adorable characters and impactful storytelling with its themes around death, grief and acceptance. The story really shines and it's filled with gutpunch emotional moments. Highly recommend it!

[Songofthestitchblog]

For me the lack of interesting characters or character development in so many "cosy" games is a big enjoyment killer. After getting mad with Story of Seasons villagers for only ever saying one of two things, I played Hades (not a cosy game perhaps but definitely a masterpiece) for the first time this year and was blown away by just how much well written dialogue there is. After that it was hard to go back to SoS with the same character interactions day after day after day. I'm now having a wonderfully cosy experience playing Divinity Original Sin II on Switch, probably not a cosy game in the traditional sense but the story and the characters and your interactions with them are so very good, and I find the turn based combat to be quite mentally stimulating without being stressful!

[foulprophet]

turnip boy commits tax evasion is one of my all time favorites! it’s short and sweet, with a main plot, and when you complete the game there’s a fun, endless thing you can do (i won’t spoil it).

[Lacillyn]

I think one of the things more people need to remember is that Stardew Valley - as amazing as it is - is an exception and not the rule. I agree that it's fantastic that we got a game that gave us hundreds (or thousands) of hours and major free content updates years after release for 15 dollars... And the fact that it was nearly entirely built by a single developer IS incredible - but that sort of lightning generally doesn't strike twice. I'm a MASSIVE Stardew fan (As my 5600 hours in Stardew across 4 platforms can attest), but I try NOT to use it as comparable for that very reason.

When people look at a game and leave comments on YT trailers or posting in Discord or on whatever Twitter is called these days that say "Well, it looks good, but not Stardew Valley good and at three times the price? Pass"... it just makes me sad. Eric didn't NEED a million copies to sell in the first two months just to not shut the company down - and many developers and teams today DO need big sales or ongoing revenue from things like DLC - just to survive.

Instead, I look to the movies: If I'm willing to pay 15 dollars for a ticket for 2 hours of (non-interactive) entertainment, then why shouldn't I be able to justify $30.00 for a 10 hour game? Or 20 hours? My entertainment dollars go MUCH further in video games.

[flowerpeachh]

For me, I consider the BOTW/TOTK games cozy games since I love the scenery, music, people, jobs, enemies, & life. I love imagining myself riding my horse to my house which is halfway across the map, going inside and sleeping in a soft bed with the breeze blowing through the house. There’s also so much story & exploration that I love.

[angel_of_history]

Coffee Talk is a great cozy game about running a late night coffee shop. For someone who still wishes you could work for Brewster in ACNH, this scratches that itch. The music is great too, and there’s a sequel as well.