Welcome to the Cozy Zone, the corner of SG dedicated to sharing and discussing cozy games. Get yourself a blanket, some hot chocolate or herbal tea, get comfy in your chair and enjoy the good vibes and the good gibs too.

I'm certain most of you are familiar with the concept of "cozy gaming/games" by now, but to avoid any confusion here are some excerpts I stole from articles written by people who are better with words than me, which should give you the idea:

These kinds of games encourage players to take things slow and enjoy the cozier things in life, which is why they've gained a reputation for being 'cozy games'. While there isn't an official definition for what a cozy game is exactly, those that do fall under this categorization have a particular vibe that is easy to spot. Typically, a cozy game will be laid back, have minimal, if any, combat, an endearing art style, and will wrap its action around a wholesome story.
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Whether the ideal cozy game consists of task-based satisfaction or getting to project personal feelings onto a melancholy storyline, there are options suitable to gamers of all backgrounds. The genre is very flexible, populated with RPGs, platformers, point-and-click adventures, life sims, and much more. These are the games to play after a long day of work, on rainy days, and when you just don't feel like crawling out of bed.`
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The core idea behind [cozy gaming] is the combination of appealing colors, atmospheric music, and playability. In addition, a game should also be fun and relaxing, contributing to the experience that can be referred to as cozy.
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Cozy games are predominantly identified by the comfortable atmosphere, aesthetically pleasing design, and task-focused gameplay. Cozy games are not always easy or relaxing, though they can be.

Links: 1 2 3 4


With that out of the way and skipping the whole "in these hard times we all need more cozy time in our lives" preamble (heh), let's get straight to what the Cozy Zone is supposed to be about:

My giveaways of cozy games. To be honest (at first) I just needed a place for my next gibs, as it so happened that I was in possession of some amount of keys for this particular type of games, but instead of going with just another one-time train I decided to make it an ongoing thread. So for now the plan is to do GAs for this thread with games of the cozy kind on a somewhat regular basis.

Your giveaways of cozy games. Everyone is welcome to join me in making GAs for games that fit the theme. No strict guidelines, use your own discretion when deciding if the game is good for this thread. In general, fitting games usually have one or more of these tags on Steam: Relaxing / Family Friendly / Cozy / Wholesome / Cute / Comedy; and here are some tags that these games usually don't include: Violent / Gore / Survival / Psychological Horror / Hentai / Dark / War / Military / Dystopian (these are just some examples of some of the most popular tags). In any case, if a game seems cozy enough to you, feel free to give it away. Just make your GAs private (aka invite-only).
Special Cats tag exception: as a result of the FCDSCGC-2023 event, cats were proclaimed the mascot animal of our thread and thus any game that has a 'Cats' tag on Steam is allowed to be given away here, whether it's cozy or not.
Every active giveaway will be featured in the OP (if I'm around at the time it's running).

General discussion of cozy games. Random cozy games discoveries, thoughts on latest games you've played, discounts alerts and everything else related to games of the cozy kind.

Recommendations for cozy games. Do share your favorite games, well known or not. Hidden gems are especially welcome though, cause many niche games often go largely unnoticed.

Cozy events. So, events have become a semi-regular occurrence in our thread, and I'm looking to make them an integral part of the Cozy Zone experience moving forward. If you want to host an event in the thread which requires some coordination or have an idea for a future event, please contact me on Steam; otherwise, feel free to post your cozy trains, celebratory GAs, puzzles and whatnot at any time. You can also contribute by either partially or fully sponsoring the prize pool and/or by donating cozy games for events (as I might struggle to fully cover these prize/GAs-wise on my own, so some help is always appreciated; again, contact me for this).

If you wish to just bump the thread, feel free to so, but keep in mind that the recommended way to bump is the cozy way, which is achieved by posting:
♦ pics of your adorable pets ♦ pics of your cozy gaming space ♦ pics of anything cozy or cute ♦ light-hearted memes ♦ links to relaxing music (make sure to check out our own cozy playlist ♫ too) ♦

One rule in this thread: good vibes only, so please let's make it comfy for everyone and keep the negativity to the minimum.


Active giveaways

from Ellendyl Euro Truck Simulator 2 (lvl 2+)
from s4k1s 4 games cozy Cakeday train (lvl 1-2+)

Current streak of consecutive days with at least one GA running has been going since: January 15, 2023 (approximately)


Previous giveaways and events:

Thanks to everyone who contributed with cozy giveaways and recommendations. ʕっᵔᴥᵔʔっ

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2 years ago*

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Fruitbus looks very charming and cozy!

Caravan SandWitch too!

6 days ago*
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I played the Fruitbus demo a couple of Nextfests ago but I missed Caravan SandWitch. Thanks :)

I did play a good chunk of the long demo for Campfire Cozy Friends the past couple of days. It's a quest-driven game with not much of a narrative in the demo but it's quite pleasant so far.
The game uses AI to generate interaction with NPCs, which is actually much better than I thought it would be as you can really chat with them for a while without running out of conversation.

Of course it got a bit weird when I started asking questions about bugs in the game and the NPCs started making stuff up but still entertaining lol

6 days ago
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Hey thanks for Caravan SandWitch! Definitely buying this one, probably even before Xmas sale. I loved the demo.
The soundscape and landscape alone brought me back to my childhood. Such a chill game!

Probably my favorite demo this month with Out and About.

3 days ago
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Also going on until November 18th on Steam: Cozy Quest.
If you needed more demos, you can look here

From my browsing, here are a few cozy ones that haven't been mentioned yet in the thread, have demos and look very chill and original

I have a weakness for narrative games so I'll put those upfront:

  • Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo, an exploration game taking place in a colorful "Latin American flavored afterlife" where you need to help the residents solve the issues they are holding on to and move on. Gives me Spiritfarer vibes but definitely with a different flavor.
  • Out and About Foraging in big open green spaces, cooking and crafting? Yes please!
  • A Tiny Sticker Tale Narrative driven game about a little donkey and changing the world (literally) with sticker. Everything looks so tiny and cute, I can't even describe it!
  • Melobot - A Last Song A cute little musical robot trying to save a mysterious and silent world with songs. Apparently there is some combat in it but it seems to be very flexible in terms of difficulty to remain cozy.
  • Projected Dreams, a narrative puzzle game where the goal is to create shadows using objects around the room to uncover the story

And here are some more contemplative games with a focus on building, management, or rearranging spaces each with their own vibe

6 days ago*
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Hi everyone,

This year in March we did the closed Cozy Gaming Choo-Choo in this tread with succes. We were planning on doing this more but because of circumstances it didn't happen yet (Where does the time go?!). So we were thinking of doing a public Cozy train instead. The plan is to do this in January, maybe half way somewhere? It's in the middle of winter, which is the ideal season to be Cozy. Plus I don't think there are a lot of other events going on then? (correct me if I'm wrong, please)

This is a heads-up so people who want to participate know to save their cozy game keys until then. More info will come when the date comes near.
To help you: these are the criteria for games to be considered as Cozy (as I remember it, please add if needed)

  • Gives feelings of warmth, peace and comfort.
  • No violence or gore (So no FPS, no horror or bloody hack and slash etc).
  • No time constraints or pressure for performance. So more open ended.
  • Not overly challanging, aka relaxing.

So even if the graphics are cute, it doesn't mean it's a cozy game and visa versa. Although I do realise some people will find a Twin shooter hack and slash like Trifox cozy. And I can see why. To each their own ofcourse. And that is why we won't be acting like judges. Just make a disclaimer and people who don't know the game will be warned what to expect. I mean, even Stardew Vally has combat...

So like we did in the last train, put in a disclaimer for games that aren't 100% cozy and submit them anyway. But try and be as close as you can please. (otherwise what is the point of having a Cozy train instead of just a normal train, right?)

All suggestions or considerations are welcome.
Maybe this can become a yearly thing, who knows ^^

For inspiration, the Cozy Quest is still going on for a day. :)

5 days ago
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The big christmas and the big new year events are direct before.
I don't see January as the perfect date but it is of course up to you.

5 days ago
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Hey Masafor, yeah you are right, but there are other events spread out over the year, so it might always be after something big. But maybe the end of January might be better then? I don't suppose Februari has big events?

5 days ago
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February has Valentine's, and maybe cozy could be 'share the love'?

5 days ago
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Hmm, actually not a bad idea. Let me think about that...

5 days ago
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February sounds perfect and have enough gap to the big christmas and new year events.

5 days ago
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Sounds great, Tina. February is a good time period and it will let participants a little time over sales to get cozy keys.

5 days ago
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I like the idea of starting it in late January and having it end on 2/14!

So glad you posted about it, since I tend to dump all of my extra keys into the Christmas train & holiday boxes. Now I'll save the cozy ones for this train!

4 days ago
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Yeah I can find myself in that idea as well. And with people now warned they can choose what to participate in indeed.
I promised you we would let you know last time right? :-) Glad to have you on board Ellendyl! ^^

3 days ago
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sounds great... I'll save the cozy keys for this event :-)

18 hours ago
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Good to have you on board ;-)

15 hours ago
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Hello, cozy folks. I wanted to make a giveaway just for this thread, but you must solve a simple Jeopardy-style clue to enter.

The symbol of the element with a periodic number of 12.

I had some plans in motion before reading about the train, so I will make a few there next year as penance.

5 days ago
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Bump for a very important element ;)

4 days ago
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3 days ago
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I liked the clue

10 hours ago
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