Hosted by Brisbane-based couple Erin and Alexander, the podcast takes cosy gaming seriously as a topic worthy of discussion, instead of passing it off as light and airy background content. Every season they choose a selection of games to play, and sit down to shoot the breeze on what makes them fun and cosy (or not). It’s such a chill podcast to listen to, as well as making me laugh out loud almost every episode.

I’m a huge fan of Tea and XP, so I sat down with Erin and Alex to ask them why they started the pod, what cosy gaming means to them, and what exactly makes a cosy game… well, cosy.

How did each of you come to gaming? Were you both already players when you met, or did one of you bring the other in?

Alex: My dad was a gamer, and I have happy memories of watching him play the original Warcraft, so I was a gamer from the onset. My gaming credentials are far from flawless, though for a long time I was pretty insular with the games I played, and assumed that whole genres weren’t for me because they were too casual, or too competitive. Poetically enough, my entry point into cosy gaming was trying to find something for Erin, only to tumble down the rabbit hole myself. It’s just one of the many, many ways she’s encouraged me to expand my horizons.

Erin: My gaming history is a bit more choppy. There were no consoles at home, although we were allowed to play games on the PC. I stopped playing as a teenager and only truly started gaming again when Alex introduced me. There’s one game you can still find and play online: The Wizard’s Castle, a text-only role-playing game written in about 5,000 lines of code. I always played as an Elf. My mum always played as a Hobbit. We never cracked it. That game has a lot to answer for.

Tea and XP is clearly a labour of love. But every podcast has its unglamorous side! What’s the most chaotic or embarrassing thing that’s happened behind the scenes?

Alex: That would be our recording space, the little blanket fort we need to set up for each episode. We call it the Pod-pod. When we first envisioned ourselves making a podcast, we thought it was going to be pretty chic. Perhaps we’d have a fortnightly ritual of coffee and podcasting at the library, or perhaps we’d invest in a proper recording space at home. “Oh that,” we’d say to visitors, giving a lofty wave to our sleek sanctum of technology and tranquillity. Maybe we’d even have a glass of wine during each episode.

The reality was a bit different. Every room of our home echoes like a drum, and the booking process for our library’s recording space combines the luck of a casino with the gladiatorial adversity of Roman blood sports. Recording under a heap of blankets wasn’t supposed to be a real option, we were only getting a benchmark for how much we could reduce background noise, but it proved to be the winner on cost, availability, and sound quality. In fact, every metric except personal dignity.

Erin: The Pod-pod is a lot of fun though! I suppose for me, there have been some episodes where we’re just exhausted. There’s nothing worse than recording a section five times because you just can’t say the words. Of course the sensible thing to do is stop recording, but sometimes that’s the only slot that week. We both have full-time jobs and plenty on our plates. But when we record errors we find funny, they go straight into the blooper reel, so there’s always a silver lining.

You’ve covered games that sit in genuinely contested territory, Dave the Diver being the obvious one. Do you go into episodes already knowing whether you agree, or does the disagreement emerge in the recording?

Erin: We plan the season based on some games we know we’ll rate higher or lower on our Cosy Scale. We knew Dave the Diver would, to us at least, count as a “barely” cosy game. Sometimes we have a loose plan. Stardew Valley surprised us. I just think a game with combat, monsters, and flying skulls can’t be the highest cosy rating. Alex is welcome to his wrong opinion.

Alex: I love your inference that flying skulls aren’t monsters! As Erin said, we only review games that we think are at least nominally cosy, and we usually have a good idea what the other person likes in a game. We don’t talk about the specific scores in advance though. Part of the fun is finding out how well you can predict your partner’s rating. It’s always kind of fun when I’m way off track. Even after all these years, Erin always finds a way to surprise me.

Cosy gaming as a couple sounds idyllic, but I imagine there are practical realities. How do you divide the playing?

Alex: Being elder millennials, we grew up with the family PC or a communal console, so taking turns was an integral part of our gaming upbringing. The habit stuck, and for story-focused games we tend to take turns. It doesn’t quite work for everything, though. There are plenty of cosy games that are fun to play but not so exciting to watch, especially where gameplay centres on a repetitive loop. For those, we tend to go with a “parallel playthrough” where we both sit down with our respective laptops and only play the game when we’re both available. It sounds odd, but it’s a really fun way to share a single-player experience: progress is roughly synched, so you get to share the excitement of reaching a new milestone, but there’s also a tiny bit of friendly competition when one person has a rare find and has to brag a little.

Erin: I play more cosy games than Alex, so often I’m the one playing first and Alex is more likely to watch. We both play the games we select for episodes though, so there’s often a second playthrough that Alex does, with me taking notes and lots of chat. We also stop for lots of tea breaks… it’s in the podcast name, after all!

Your episode on The First Tree dealt with some heavy emotional territory. How do you decide when a game is cosy enough to fit the show, even if it’s emotionally demanding?

Alex: If we wanted to reduce it to a single litmus test, it’d be whether you could play a game and feel calm enough to sit and read a book afterwards, but creating a strict definition is always going to be a doomed undertaking that arguably misses the point. Emotionally impactful games aren’t cosy due to some sneaky loophole. Creating a safe space for the thoughtful exploration of a difficult subject is something the cosy genre does really well. The First Tree doesn’t rely on shock value to get its point across. Its gameplay is couched in dreamlike visuals and calm narration that gives the player the space they need to process difficult emotions.

Erin: I think safe spaces to sit with uncomfortable events are crucial for our emotional development. If we’re shielded from all the bad things in life all the time, we potentially limit our empathy, grit, and fortitude. Plays, novels, film, and TV have done this for ages, and video games are another text that can do this. It’s one of the reasons we’re passionate about cosy gaming. Video games are texts like any other, so they can be beautiful, complex, and breath-taking, except you can interact with them.

What’s the game that’s surprised you most, the one that looked like easy territory but turned out to be far more interesting to discuss than you expected?

Erin: Discussing Night in the Woods was interesting for me. I had been drawn to the game’s art and I really liked the gameplay, but the last part of the narrative felt disjointed and rushed. Playing it a second time and really sitting with what the game was trying to achieve changed my mind a lot. The element I didn’t like (that the main character felt immature and stunted) was what made her relatable to many players who have felt the way Mae has in life. That character didn’t have to appeal directly to me, but she was able to convey a really interesting set of ideas about growing up, mental health, success, and failure.

The other one was Tiny Bookshop. I thought it was going to be more… frothy. The way it draws you into participating in this community by the sea was really appealing, and very moving by the end.

Alex: For me it was Ooblets. I thought it was going to be a simple one to review, a shortish game that hopped on the farming sim bandwagon, but there is so much to discuss. Mechanically it offers farming, creature collection, card battles, shop management, crafting, and so many minigames. Aesthetically it has the quirkiness dialled up to maximum, which will delight some people and exhaust others. It’s a handcrafted indie labour of love that still has some very human shortcomings. Even if we redid the episode with perfect hindsight, I still wouldn’t know where to start.

Is there a concept or argument about cosy gaming that you’ve genuinely changed your mind on since you started the podcast?

Alex: Can cosy games be stressful? This seemed straightforward when we started: cosy gaming is the antidote to stress, so the two things must be mutually exclusive. Obviously! It didn’t take long for the line to get blurred, though. A lot of undeniably cosy games have small, comedic instances of stress. In Dinkum it’s frantically splashing back to shore as crocodiles close in; in Stardew Valley, it’s your remorseful farmer racing home to beat the 2am curfew. Night in the Woods pushed this further, and then there’s Pixel Cafe, a game you could place in a list of top-10 cosy games, or top-10 most nerve-wracking experiences in all human existence, and either would be valid. The game’s “work” cycle revolves around staffing a kiosk alone, triaging orders of different complexity and urgency, and having small mistakes dramatically compound. But you need that alongside the slow-burn downtime story for the game to work. It’s cosy because it gives you a cathartic way to process stress, like how a slightly painful massage can paradoxically be a really relaxing experience.

Erin: For me, it’s changed my mind about accessibility in gaming. Playing games while asking yourself “what would this be like to play if I had slow reflexes?” or “could this be played without two perfectly working hands?” might seem obvious to others, but it helped us examine not only our privilege of health but also appreciate the ever-increasing consideration that accessible gaming is receiving. Everyone should be able to access their hobbies. It’s really cool when developers build that into the core of the game.

Unpacking was your first episode. Looking back, was that a deliberate choice, and would you cover it differently now?

Erin: It was a deliberate choice. When you’re embarking on a new project, there’s something to be said about starting with the familiar. Unpacking really helped us start podcasting because it allowed us to tap into the passion we have for cosy gaming, and talking about your passions is easy.

Alex: It was the perfect starting point. It was Erin’s re-entry into gaming, and the game that really showed me that cosy games have something special to offer. In terms of what we’d do differently, there was one oversight: we didn’t talk about the game’s secret Dark Star Mode. At the time we didn’t want to spoil anything, but it turns out everyone knows about it anyway, and they love to showcase the humour and chaos of this “wrong answers only” game mode.

Do you think there’s something specific about experiencing cosy games as a couple that changes what you get out of them?

Alex: It’s less about playing as a couple, and more about the universal question of: do I hang out with my best friend or have some alone time? But I’d say it’s always nice to share your thoughts on something. Whether you’re doing that on social media or with the person sitting next to you is entirely a matter of preference!

Erin: I think the togetherness, even when playing separately, is a wonderful perk of being in a gaming couple. We do a lot of parallel play in our household, whether it’s one of us gaming, one reading, one writing, or one painting minis, and playing the same solo game at the same time is an extension of that. It allows us to have this lovely common experience, which is surely part of what being in a relationship is about.

Alex: There is one thing that changes specifically when playing as a couple: in-game romance. Dating and marrying an NPC is no big deal if you’re gaming solo, but when you’re doing it as a couple it has the potential for both hilarity and embarrassment when you subconsciously reveal something about your romantic “type.” I ended up marrying Leah in Stardew Valley (a self-sufficient, conscientious girlboss with red hair), Lucia in Sun Haven (a self-sufficient, conscientious girlboss with red hair), and dating Adeline in Fields of Mistria (a self-sufficient, conscientious girlboss with pink hair). Conversely, Erin picks marriage candidates entirely at random, and it’s a pure coincidence she always ends up with an introverted type-B trainwreck.

Finally, what’s the game you’re most looking forward to discussing, and is there one you’re slightly dreading?

Alex: I’m dreading Sun Haven. It’s a great cosy game with some distinctive takes on the farming sim genre, but it’s marred by real-world controversy regarding uncredited artists. I’d usually say it’s important to discuss any controversy candidly, but it poses some particularly thorny issues I honestly don’t know how to broach. Are we tacitly endorsing a toxic work practice if we review the product? Conversely, does boycotting someone’s uncredited work actually help them, or does it just make us feel empowered at their expense? What about other legitimate contributors caught in the crossfire? Is it ethical to sink the whole ship to punish the captain? The very recent addition of partial credits only muddies the waters further.

You can find Tea and XP wherever you get your podcasts. I’d particularly recommend their Wanderstop episode, which closes out season one. It’s a great introduction to what they do.

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Behind that studio is Ell (ellraiser), running things as a tiny UK-based indie operation with a passion for niche menu management sims. The studio started in 2020; Ell had always wanted to make video games, and, of all things, it was a COVID-era shift in working life that finally made room for it. Ell handles development and art, while their brother Jamie (metakitkat) works on design and writing for some of the games.

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Apico came first, released in 2022. A Snacktorio demo followed in 2023, before Ell got pulled away to make Mudborne, a spiritual sequel of sorts to Apico, which released in early 2025. Only after that did work turn back to Snacktorio’s full release.

I've now got two of these games properly under my belt and a demo of the third, so I wanted to put down what each one's actually like to play, and why I keep coming back to this studio.

Apico: the one that started it all

Apico was my introduction to TNgineers. You inherit your family’s old apiary and spend the game crossbreeding bees, restoring habitats, and filling out an encyclopaedia of species that feels like a real accomplishment.

What surprised me was how much actual apiculture is baked into the systems. This isn’t just “cute bee reskin of a farming template”; the breeding logic draws on real genetics, and the studio donates a portion of profits to bee conservation charities (love).

If you’ve played it, you’ll know the loop: gather, craft, breed, repeat, but with just enough narrative and biome variety that it never strays into busywork. If you haven’t, and you’ve got any fondness for Stardew-adjacent management sims, it’s an easy recommend.

Mudborne: what if Apico, but frog?

Mudborne began life as “what if Apico but frog?” for the FletchFest 2023 game jam, and you can feel that DNA (sorry) throughout. But it’s not a reskin. Where Apico is about breeding and restoration, Mudborne leans so much harder into the puzzle logic: genetic keys unlock paths (or pools) between a waking world and a dreaming one, and getting a specific frog variant isn’t just satisfying, it’s often the only way to progress.

The tongue mechanic and the sheer number of tiny hopping variants makes the whole thing feel more alive than its beekeeping predecessor. The trade-off is that it asks waaaaayyy more of you, but there is a fantastic wiki which can help you along. The genetics puzzles have real teeth, and the menu management can get fiddly which occasionally undercuts the cosiness. I didn’t mind that; I liked having something to actually think about. But it’s worth knowing going in that Mudborne is Apico’s more demanding sibling, not just its amphibian cousin.

Same charitable model here too - a cut of sales goes toward amphibian and wetland conservation, which fits a game so clearly made by people who like frogs for reasons beyond how they look in pixel art.

Snacktorio: new for 2026

I’ve only played the demo so I’m not reviewing Snacktorio properly yet, just telling you what I’ve seen so far. It’s a real departure from the previous two games, with factory-cooking automation rather than nature management, casting you as one of the last chefs trying to feed a growing population of monsters before they consume everything. You build production lines, piping the ingredients around the kitchen (factory?), and cook dishes drawn from cuisines around the world, all with the same TNgineers instinct for turning a mundane job into a satisfying system.

There’s a puzzle-automation feel here that’s closer to something like Factorio than to their earlier work (hence the name, presumably), and the demo, which lets you carry progress into the full game, was enough to convince me the studio can do “systems game” as confidently as they do “nature sim.”

I do miss the natural world aspect, particularly the ambient sounds, which was such a huge part of my enjoyment of Mudborne. I'm not sure if this will affect my overall enjoyment of the game, but thanks to the wonderful Sey at Good Game Lobby, I now have a full copy of Snacktorio, so I'll be putting proper time in and reviewing it in full soon!

What I notice across all three is that TNgineers never treats “cosy” as a synonym for “shallow.” Every game has a system underneath the charm (genetics, ecology, production logic) and every game ties that system to something the studio actually seems to care about, whether that’s bee populations, wetland conservation, or (if the tone of Snacktorio’s marketing is anything to go by) not taking itself too seriously while still respecting the player’s intelligence!

I trust this studio to hand me something with real bones under the cute exterior. I’ll report back properly on Snacktorio once I’ve put real hours in.

And if you’re interested, the studio has donated $53,704.24 to charity to date. That’s bloody gorgeous.

You can buy all three games on Steam, and follow the studio here.

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I picked it up knowing it was a coffee shop sim in Early Access, and with mild scepticism due to the aforementioned bad experiences. What I found was something that felt like popping in for a coffee after a rainy walk. Six hours in, and I’m not even close to being bored.

If you want to see how it starts before you commit, I played the first hour over on my YouTube channel. It's part of my Lunch Hour Playthrough series, so it's exactly the right length to watch on a break:

Tailside is a coffee shop sim, but it’s not there to make your palms sweat. There are no timers or punishments for taking too long, getting an order wrong, or just pottering around and tidying up. You make drinks at your own pace, serve your customers when you’re ready, and the game lets you relax. For anyone who has bounced off café management games because they turned into a stress fest, this is something different (finally!)

Tailside is also a decorating game, a brilliant surprise for me as these are my favourite types of game. As you make drinks and build up XP, you unlock furniture and decor for your café, and there is a lot of it! I’ve spent an embarrassing amount of time rearranging things to get my café looking exactly right, and the game is generous enough with unlocks that it always feels like there’s something new at the end of each in-game day. There’s a cute terrace to unlock and personalise too, which I’m very much enjoying.

There is also a skill tree mechanic where you can gain recipes for new drinks (I love the Honey Latte), speed up your processes and optimise your flow which I found really helpful and rewarding.

And then, of course, there are the plushies.

Every day you get a ticket for a surprise plushie. You don’t know what you’re getting until it arrives, which gives the whole thing a lovely little collectathon energy. You can display them in your café or up in your apartment above it, and I still haven’t decided exactly what to do with mine yet. The apartment detail is one of those things that sounds small but it adds so much. You don’t just run this café, you live there. It’s your whole world, and that intimacy is a big part of why the game feels so restorative to play.

The latte art mini-game is the only place where Tailside loses me slightly. It’s slow, and the designs repeat enough that it starts to feel more like a chore than a pleasure. That said, I later unlocked a skill that completes the latte art automatically, and this is the kind of thing I love about a developer who’s clearly paying attention. Problem more or less solved, and it’s a good example of how the game rewards patience.

The other caveat is Steam Deck. It’s playable, but I had crashes and control issues, and it doesn’t feel like the experience it should be on handheld which is a shame, because this is the kind of game you want to curl up with on the sofa. The developer is actively working on this, so it may well be a non-issue by the time the game is in full release. On PC it was faultless, and that’s where I’d point you for now.

After nearly six hours I’ve encountered maybe two bugs total. For Early Access, that’s impressive. This doesn’t feel like an unfinished game to me, it feels like a game that’s still growing, which is a very different thing.

If you want a café game that treats your free time as something to be enjoyed rather than optimised, Tailside is exactly that. It’s warm, it’s pretty, and you can dip in for 10 minutes on your coffee break (geddit?) or lock in for 4 hours straight. I’m already looking forward to whatever the full release adds.

My final verdit: ★★★★☆ (sort the Steam Deck support and we’re straight to a five).

Tailside is available now for 50% off in Early Access on Steam.

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The only reasonable response I have found is to put on my headphones, load up a game, and will myself into a different climate entirely (I won’t mention the unreasonable responses).

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I’m an autumnaphile, a pluviophile, and all I’m looking for right now is the relief of watching rain fall on a screen when the real world outside is aggressively, insultingly sunny.

So without further ado, here are the games I rely on when it’s just too darn hot.

Strange Horticulture (& Strange Antiquities)

Probably the most effective games I’ve found for tricking myself into thinking it’s raining outside, Strange Horticulture and Strange Antiquities have a dim shop interior, and the sound and sight of rain on the window. It never stops raining in Undermere, and this is why I recommend headphones with this game if you are trying to escape the heat! It really does transport you to a cool and rainy Autumn day.

Skyrim

A slightly different case because it’s enormous and I’ve played Skyrim approximately one million times, but in summer I specifically make a beeline for the snowy holds. Windhelm in the snow, or outside Whiterun when a blizzard rolls in. The ambient weather sounds in that game have no right to be as good as they are.

Graveyard Keeper

Not a relaxing game per se, there is soooo much to do and not enough donkey. But Graveyard Keeper has this atmosphere of deep, melancholy autumn that I find enormously comforting when it’s too warm. Everything is amber and ochre which to me is perfect. Graveyard Keeper also keeps me super busy, which takes my mind off everything else.

Dear Esther

Dear Esther is one of the most atmospheric pieces of interactive anything I’ve ever encountered. Scottish coastline in winter, with wind, rain, and complete isolation.

If you’ve never played it through headphones with no other distractions, you’re leaving something on the table.

Stardew Valley

I usually start a new save of Stardew every year around August, in preparation for a cosy autumn, but sometimes I need to head to Pelican Town in June just to hang out on a rainy day, or to shoot the breeze with my fellow villagers during winter when I’ve no crops to harvest.

I’m currently working on a Perfection save (more about that in a future post!) so I’m spending a lot of time there at the moment, and my season has just clicked over to fall. Ideal!

Grimshire

A newer addition to my heat-rotation and I am still slightly in awe of what it does with atmosphere. Dark, folklore-adjacent, and October-coloured in its entire soul, Grimshire feels like a game that was made specifically for people who find summer challenging. I particularly loved the rain sounds in this game, moving from outside to inside is done spectacularly, so headphones are a must!

A word of warning though; this game can get dark pretty quickly. Villagers can and will die, so stick with Stardew if this doesn’t feel like it will be safe.

Coffee Talk

Coffee Talk is in a different register to most of these. It’s cosy-warm rather than cold-atmospheric, but the rain outside the café window is constant and beautiful and it plays through headphones like an ASMR track. I’ve loaded it up in a heatwave more than once simply to sit in that café and listen to the weather.

Night in the Woods

Mae Borowski navigating the specific emotional texture of being in your mid-twenties and not quite knowing what you’re doing, against a backdrop of autumn trees and cold air and a small town that feels like it’s falling apart. Night in the Woods isn’t a cheerful game but it is an honest one, and the season is so present throughout that playing it in a heatwave creates a strange, useful dissonance.

None of this is a particularly efficient solution to a heatwave, but it works for me! With my headphones on and with rain sounds from somewhere that isn't here… I can just about get through until September.

Good luck! 🌧️

The metroidvania genre, named after Metroid and Castlevania, is traditionally defined by isolation, difficulty, and being lost and then, eventually, found. You are usually small, the world is usually hostile, and the map is usually enormous, full of doors that won’t open yet and creatures that are very keen on reminding you of your own fragility.

I have been playing metroidvanias over the last couple of months, and I have been enjoying myself enormously. But maybe instead of wondering whether metroidvanias are cosy, I should ask what actually makes a game feel cosy to me and whether any metroidvanias happen to share those qualities. The answer I think is yes, quite a few of them do. But it requires a little unpacking.

What makes a game cosy?

For me, a cosy game has a few core qualities that have nothing to do with genre. It feels safe to explore, failure is present but not punishing in a way that erodes enjoyment, and there is something aesthetically warm about it.

By those standards, my two favourite metroidvanias, the Ori games, are unambiguously cosy. They are visually stunning in a way that feels almost painterly, the soundtracks are extraordinary, and despite having genuine challenge and real emotional stakes, they never feel hostile. Moon Studios created something that manages to be both difficult and beautiful in a way that keeps you wanting to push forward rather than wanting to put the controller down.

I played Islets recently too, and it gave me the same feeling. You play as Iko, a small and endearing warrior whose fragmented island world has been torn apart, and whose job is to pull it all back together. There’s a warmth to its premise and the art has a softness to it that makes even combat feel more like an adventure than an ordeal. It is a metroidvania that wants you to have a nice time.

The case for a cosy subgenre

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that both Ori and Islets share certain qualities: a world that is beautiful and worth caring about, progression that is driven as much by curiosity as by combat, and a visual style that uses colour and light in ways that feel warm rather than moody or oppressive. Contrast that with something like Hollow Knight, which I have enormous respect for, where the beauty is deliberately cold, the world is melancholic and crumbling, and the difficulty is very much part of the point. Both are brilliant metroidvanias. Only one of them is cosy.

There are other games that sit closer to the cosy end of the dial, and several I’d particularly recommend if you’re looking to stay in this corner of the genre.

Yoku’s Island Express might be the single most charming metroidvania ever made. You play as a dung beetle called Yoku who washes up on Mokumana Island and finds himself serving as the island’s postmaster while also, inevitably, saving the world. The twist (delightfully) is that the traversal mechanic is entirely pinball-based. There are no conventional jump buttons; Yoku is tethered to a ball, and you navigate the interconnected world using pinball flippers to launch him around. It shouldn’t work, but it does! The game gives you a surprising amount of freedom in where you can go and the order in which you tackle objectives, which gives it that lovely quality of feeling like exploration rather than progression. The soundtrack is tropical jazz and the whole thing feels like a holiday.

Crypt Custodian is more recent, released in 2024 by the same dev as Islets, and it’s one that I think deserves more attention than it gets. You play as Pluto, a small black cat who has recently died. Rather than the expected dour metroidvania atmosphere, the game casts aside the usual grim themes for a heartfelt story about making friends and cleaning up the afterlife. You explore with a broom and befriend animal spirits. The map grows bigger as you explore, with inaccessible areas you mentally file away to return to once you’ve unlocked new abilities; a classic metroidvania structure, but wrapped in puzzles that hit a balance of head-scratching without becoming frustrating. It has been described as a big warm hug of a game, and I think that’s right.

SteamWorld Dig 2 is older, but it earns its place on this list through sheer quality of atmosphere and pacing. Set in a steampunk underground world, it follows a robot called Dorothy searching for a missing friend by digging ever deeper beneath the earth. Gameplay centres on exploration, puzzle-solving and combat, with a progression system built around trading collected resources for upgrades that open up new paths. It does all of this without ever feeling stressful. The rhythm of dig, upgrade, explore is deeply satisfying, and the whole thing is compact enough that it never outstays its welcome. (You can currently pick up SteamWorld Dig 1 and 2 as a bundle for £2.27 on Steam!)

Lone Fungus is a game I wasn’t expecting to love as much as I did. You play as Greencap, a tiny mushroom on a quest to protect all of Mushkind from the Spirit Beast, which is exactly as wonderfully absurd as it sounds. It’s jubilant and colourful, with adorable character designs and a fantastical story, going firmly against the typically moody tone that dominates the genre. What struck me most was how generously it’s designed: you can choose between four difficulty modes or use an Assist Mode, and while the combat has real depth through its parry and spell systems, you are never forced to engage with the harder mechanics to make progress. I didn’t parry once and still had a brilliant time.

Worth knowing before you dive in: there are now two games in this little mushroom universe. Melody of Spores, released in late 2025, is a standalone prequel set thousands of years before the original, following Greencap’s ancestor on a quest to unite the mushroom tribes. By most accounts it’s the more polished of the two; the visual direction has improved considerably, with every biome now looking distinct and memorable, and the pacing is tighter throughout. If you’re coming to the series fresh, Melody of Spores is probably the better entry point. If you’ve already played the original as I have, it’s a very easy recommendation for what to play next.

Haiku the Robot is an interesting one to include on a cosy list, because on paper it isn’t. It’s set in a post-apocalyptic world where a nuclear explosion has wiped out all organic life, and Haiku battles through corrupted machines with a creepily atmospheric energy running through the whole thing. And yet I found it deeply absorbing in a way that felt, if not cosy exactly, then certainly comfortable. By not making it a bleak setting with overtones of the end of times as Hollow Knight leans into so fully, it ends up feeling different: more easy-going, more approachable I guess. The pixel art is hand-animated with real care, and satisfying little details draw your eye as you explore: leaves drifting across the screen, water sprinklers triggering as you pass, background fires raging at a safe distance. If you can make peace with a robotic world rather than an organic one, Haiku is absolutely worth your time.

A word about difficulty

One thing worth noting is that “cosy” doesn’t mean easy, and it doesn’t mean the absence of challenge. The Ori games have sequences that can take multiple attempts (hello Ginso Tree escape sequence, I hate you) and Islets has moments where I found myself trying the same boss fight several times. What distinguishes these games from their grimmer cousins isn’t that they lack difficulty, but that the difficulty doesn’t feel designed to break you. You can and will get through it!

I think there’s sometimes a tendency to conflate “cosy” with “mindless”, and I don’t think they’re the same thing. A game can be beautiful and warm and inviting and be a little bit hard, even on easy mode.

What the community recommends

When I started thinking about this piece, I went looking for what other players were saying, and the metroidvania community online has strong opinions on this, which is both very on-brand and very useful. When asked about gentler, more approachable entries in the genre, several names came up repeatedly. I haven’t played any of these myself yet, but they’re sitting on my wishlist now, and they might belong on yours:

• Catmaze, a folklore-inspired adventure with hand-drawn Slavic art.

• Phoenotopia: Awakening, which draws heavily on classic Zelda and is frequently described as warm and story-rich. I’m praying that this is on a good sale this Summer!

• Transiruby, a laid-back Japanese indie with a pastel aesthetic and minimal combat pressure.

• Gato Roboto, a monochrome charmer where you play as a cat in a mech suit (currently £1 on Steam, which is frankly absurd value and it’s now in my library).

• Sheepo, a short and sweet platformer with a shapeshifting mechanic in place of traditional combat. Same dev as Islets and Crypt Custodian.

• TEVI, a fast-paced but vibrantly colourful bullet-grazing adventure.

• Rabi-Ribi, a Japanese indie that blends bullet-hell shooting with classic exploration in a way that sounds chaotic but is apparently enjoyable once it clicks.

The breadth of that list is part of what I find so encouraging about the genre right now. There’s something here for almost every tolerance for challenge and every aesthetic preference.

So: do cosy metroidvanias exist?

Yes!! They absolutely do. The genre’s reputation for darkness and punishment is well-earned when you look at its most celebrated titles, but it has a gentler side that I think gets overlooked.

If you loved the Ori games and you’re looking for that same sense of wonder and warmth, Islets is the most natural next step. Lone Fungus is a small masterpiece that I can’t recommend highly enough. Yoku’s Island Express is a complete original that deserves a place in anyone’s library. And if you want something with a bit more edge to it but still within the approachable end of the spectrum, Haiku the Robot will not disappoint.

The metroidvania isn’t a hostile genre, it just usually acts like one. The cosy ones are there if you know where to look. Enjoy!

People told me, both online and in real life, that this was the game of 2026. I couldn’t go wrong with it, and as I already had a Switch 2, I picked it up and gave it a fair shot. I like playing games I’m not sure about sometimes, as they can have a habit of surprising you.

First off, the concept is clever and cute! You play as a Ditto, in human form, in a world without humans, trying to restore it and bring Pokémon back to life within it. There’s an environmentalist undercurrent to the whole thing, and Pokémon has always carried that subtext, but Pokopia leans into it a lot more.

For the first ten or so hours, I was there for it. New Pokémon were appearing, the interactions between them were frequently funny and warm, and I was in a world that felt like it had things to discover. There’s warmth and craft in this game that I won’t dismiss. But when I got to the second area and realised it was just going to be more of the same, I’m afraid the spell broke.

Pokopia is often described as Animal Crossing meets Minecraft, and that’s accurate I think, but it’s also exactly why it lost me. I really don’t want to make bricks all day, and I don’t enjoy the building. I find it messy, unintuitive, and boring. The storage mechanic is appalling. The sheer number of near-identical block variants is baffling. And if you want to undo something you’ve built you have to crush it and rebuild it and replace it again. It’s exhausting. The world never looked good to me either, even after effort had been put in it was always a mess. Probably a me issue, but as I’m the one playing, there’s not really much I can do about that.

Defenders of Pokopia (and there are many!!) would push back on any suggestion that this is a simplified, child-friendly experience. It isn’t. The game is, in fairness, genuinely complex: there are systems within systems, hundreds of Pokémon to catalogue, and enough depth that the end of the story need not mean the end of the game. What the game really wanted from me, though, was a team of fifty-plus Pokémon, each assigned to specific jobs, each requiring a tailored habitat.

I’ve been thinking about why Pokopia’s scale exhausted me when other sprawling games haven’t. Graveyard Keeper, a small indie from Lazy Bear Games, is enormous. It’s a management sim with a tech tree, a skill tree, multiple NPC questlines, ethical dilemmas about what you’re actually grinding up for the village hot dogs, and an open-ended structure that could swallow weeks. It is not a small game. Yet I never felt overwhelmed by it the way I do with Pokopia. I’ve wondered why, and I keep coming back to the same answer: Graveyard Keeper’s humour is dark, its art has grit to it. Its world has consequences and a black comedy running through it that made even the repetitive tasks feel like they had a personality. Pokopia’s world, by contrast, is bright and smooth and relentlessly cheerful, and I just didn’t enjoy it as much.

There’s a bigger point worth making here, too: Pokopia gets called cosy, but it’s really a sandbox, and I don’t think those two things are necessarily the same. Stardew Valley, for all its sprawl, is goal-oriented. There are relationships, and a farm with a shape and a purpose. I can sink endless hours into Stardew because it has a rhythm I can follow. Pokopia is just more space, more Pokémon, more habitats, more of the same thing, expansively, indefinitely. For me, around the ten-hour mark, more became nothing at all.

This is not a failure of the game, it’s just a failure of fit. Pokopia clearly works brilliantly for the kind of player who finds fun in open-ended building, who can lose a whole afternoon to terrain and decoration and doesn’t need a destination. I’m just not that player. I knew going in that I probably wasn’t, and the people who told me I was wrong about that were, it turns out, projecting their own experience onto mine.

There's an old critical snobbery that used to dog indie games, which was the idea that without the budget, the scale, the recognisable IP, they couldn't be as well-made as the big releases. Pokopia is the big release. It has the scale, the polish, the brand, the marketing push, and a price tag to match. Yet a game I picked up for a tenth of the price, made by a handful of people in a small studio, with no IP to lean on and no marketing budget to speak of, has left a deeper mark on me than Pokopia managed in ten hours. The indie tax runs in both directions, though. You can pay a premium for a game that doesn't move you, just as easily as you can spend next to nothing on one that does.

Pokopia is a good game, it's just not for me. The older I get, the more at peace I am saying that about a game the whole world seems to love. And apparently I can resell the Game-Key Card, which is the most useful thing I've learned from this entire experience.

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New Releases in June

OddFauna: Secret of the Terrabeast (Early Access on 2 June)

This one has been a long time coming!

OddFauna started life as a Kickstarter back in 2021 and has finally made it to Steam Early Access!! The premise is unlike anything else: you play as Astor, a tiny creature living on the back of a TerraBeast, a living, breathing landmass that you can shape, terraform, and grow by nurturing the ecosystem on top of it.

Farm, forage, build, befriend creatures called OddFauna with their own behaviours and abilities, and gradually turn a small patch of back-of-creature wilderness into something thriving.

What makes it stand out visually is that every single item, plant, and creature has been hand-sculpted in clay and painted before being brought into the game world. In an era where “AI-generated assets” is increasingly a phrase that appears on Steam pages, that kind of painstaking craft is worth supporting. It’s a married, two-person studio, too.

Being Early Access, it’s not the finished product; the roadmap mentions more narrative content and story quests to come. But the core sandbox is fully playable, and if you want to get in early and support a small studio doing something beautiful AND original, this is the one. There’s also a demo on Steam if you want to try before you commit!

Solarpunk (8 June)

This is probably the big cosy release of the month, and it’s been generating serious wishlist numbers — over a million on Steam before launch.

Developed by a two-person studio called Cyberwave in Germany, Solarpunk is a survival crafting game set on floating sky islands in a world powered by renewable energy. You build your home in the clouds, grow food, craft gadgets, manage a working energy grid using sunlight, wind, and water, and explore distant islands in your own customisable airship.

What I love about it is the philosophy it’s built around. It’s rejecting the post-apocalyptic anxiety of most survival games in favour of a world where humans and nature coexist, where the challenge comes from building and sustaining rather than fighting and surviving. Top marks from me!

There’s also four-player co-op, though no cross-play at launch (a shame, but understandable given the team size).

It’s landing on Xbox Game Pass day one, which means if you’re a subscriber, there’s no reason not to try it.

The Showcase Guide for June

If you’re new to the summer showcase season, the short version is: June is when game companies and communities hold their big digital events to announce new titles, drop release dates, and occasionally spring surprise releases. There’s a lot of it, so I’ve compiled here what’s worth your attention, with BST (UK) times.

Latin American Games Showcase (4 June @ 10pm BST) One of my favourites in recent years. This showcase spotlights games from Latin American developers specifically, and the output tends to be distinctive, creative, and full of things you won’t see anywhere else. There’s usually at least one title here that ends up on my wishlist for the rest of the year.

Women-Led Games (5 June @ 12am BST) this follows at midnight BST the same night as the Latin American showcase. Women-Led Games is a dedicated showcase celebrating games and studios built by women, and this year they're billing it as their biggest yet. Confirmed titles include updates on Soulframe and We Were Here Tomorrow, with new announcements and deep dives promised alongside them. If you care about who is actually making games and what they're making, this is worth staying up for.

Access-Ability Summer Showcase (5 June @ 4pm BST) A showcase dedicated to accessibility in games, both games with strong accessibility features and games created by disabled developers. Important and easy to overlook in favour of the louder events. I always find something in here.

Summer Games Fest (5 June @ 10pm BST) SGF is the closest thing the industry has to a replacement for E3, and Geoff Keighley’s show tends to have at least a few surprises. Expect major announcements, trailers, and the odd surprise release.

Day of the Devs (5 June @ midnight BST) Runs directly after SGF and focuses on indie games specifically. Always worth staying up for if you can manage it, or catching the VOD the following morning with a coffee.

Wholesome Direct (6 June @ 5pm BST) This is the one I look forward to most every year, and this year is the seventh! Over 50 cosy, uplifting indie games in one showcase with a mix of world premieres, demo drops, and release date announcements. This year features updates from NPC Studio (Fields of Mistria), Stray Fawn Studio (The Wandering Village), and Spry Fox, who are back under independent ownership after a stint with Netflix and are showing something new. The fundraising side of the event is supporting the Transgender Law Center this year.

If you only watch one showcase this month, make it this one!

Future Games Show Summer Showcase (6 June @ 8pm BST) GamesRadar’s showcase, usually a solid mix of indie and AA games with some interesting smaller announcements.

Gayming Pride Parade (6 June @ 8pm BST) The Gayming Pride Parade comes from the Gayming Foundation, a nonprofit that supports LGBTQ+ workers, aspiring professionals, and players in the games industry, and it's a dedicated showcase spotlighting LGBTQ+ developers, creators, and games during one of the biggest weekends in the gaming calendar. Confirmed titles include Wylde Society, Neon Death Drop, Spill the Beans, and Art of Solitaire (which is revealing a Pride-themed deck at the show). Worth watching on the day or catching the VOD.

Frosty Games Fest (6 June @ 11pm BST) This one is new to the Summer Game Fest lineup, founded by fellow Substacker ! Frosty Games Fest is a dedicated showcase for games made in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, with over 50 titles this year, curated from more than 200 submissions, and its stated aim is to give ANZ developers a platform during one of the biggest global gaming weekends of the year.

Southeast Asian Games Showcase (6 June @ 4am BST, 7 June) An awkward time for UK viewers, I know, but the VOD is absolutely worth watching back. Games from Southeast Asian developers are consistently some of the most visually interesting and culturally rich things in indie gaming right now.

Xbox Games Showcase (7 June @ 6pm BST) Microsoft’s big summer event. Expect Game Pass announcements, first-party updates, and third-party partnerships. If Solarpunk is your kind of thing, worth watching; they tend to do well by cosy and indie titles in this slot.

PC Gaming Show (7 June @ 8pm BST) PC Gamer’s annual showcase, usually running long and covering a wide range of PC-focused games. A good one to have on in the background.

That’s an overwhelming amount of content! My advice: you don’t have to watch all of it live. Pick one or two that matter most to you (Wholesome Direct and whichever platform showcase fits your setup), and catch the rest as highlight compilations or roundups later. The FOMO is real but it’s also fine. The recordings will still exist tomorrow!

What are you most looking forward to this month? Let me know in the comments!

By my mid-twenties, I’d stopped. I didn’t make this as a conscious decision (I don’t think), it just slid off the edge of my life, the way a lot of things do when you’re busy performing adulthood. There were better things to spend my time on. More appropriate things.

Reader, there were not better things.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, partly because I now write a Substack about cosy gaming over 40, which means I’ve essentially built a small corner of the internet around the thing I once talked myself out of. But also because I keep hearing the same story from other women my age. They drift away, and then, somewhere in their 30s or 40s, they return.

It’s not a coincidence, and I don’t think it’s just about having more time, though that is of course part of it. Here’s what I think actually happened…

The generation of women who are now in their 40s grew up with the NES, SNES, the first PlayStation, or the family PC. We were there at the beginning of gaming as a mainstream thing. We played Sonic, and Tomb Raider, and The Sims at 2am with our cousins. Gaming wasn’t a niche hobby we discovered, it was just part of the furniture during the 80s and 90s.

Then we hit our twenties, and the furniture got rearranged.

Most of it was time. Careers, relationships, the sheer ADMIN of adult life. But some of it, if we’re being honest, was social pressure. Gaming was still coded as a young man’s hobby. Publicly admitting you spent your Sunday on a RPG felt vaguely embarrassing in a way that, say, watching four hours of TV somehow didn’t. So a lot of us just stopped mentioning it, and stopped doing it.

The thing is, nobody sent us a letter telling us to stop. We just absorbed the message anyway. That’s the permission slip problem.

Women’s leisure has always been expected to justify itself. It should be social, or improving, or at least aesthetically acceptable. Crochet: fine. Book club: great! Binging Netflix: ideal. Terraforming a planet or solving a murder in 1920s Paris? Slightly harder to explain at work.

I think cosy games have become such a significant on-ramp for women returning to gaming partly because they sidestep this. They’re beautiful, narrative, and easy to describe to someone who doesn’t game… “it’s like a little world where you tend a garden and befriend the villagers.”

But I’d push back on the idea that the genre is the point. The genre is just the door. What’s actually happening is that women in their 40s are, in many cases, finally feeling settled enough in themselves to stop auditing their hobbies for social acceptability. The kids are older, or gone, or we chose not to have them at all. The need to be taken seriously professionally is perhaps less fraught.

The data backs this up, for what it’s worth. The average gamer in the US is now 41, and women make up over half the gaming population. The most common reasons cited aren’t competition or achievement, but stress relief, mental engagement, and fun. Specifically, straightforwardly, fun.

That sounds really obvious but it’s actually a bigger deal than it sounds. Women reclaiming the right to do things just because they’re enjoyable, with no improving purpose attached, is still (in 2026!!) more radical than it should be.

For me, the return had a specific starting point. A severe anxiety episode in my late 30s, some time off work, and someone suggesting I try buying a game for Nintendo Switch that was gathering dust in the living room. I was sceptical; I didn't think there was a game out there for me anymore. Then I found Spirit of the North on the Switch, a game about a fox moving through a vast Nordic landscape, and I've played games almost every day since.

I’m not the same person who played those old games on the SNES and N64. My taste has changed; I’m less interested in pressure, and way more interested in world-building and story.

But the feeling of being inside a good game? That hasn't changed at all. I was eight, it was 1992, and it was my cousin's NES. I loved it unreservedly.

Turns out I still do.

Are you a woman who came back to gaming later in life? I’d love to hear when, and what brought you back. Drop a comment below!

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Then I’ll spend the same amount of time playing something like Coffee Talk or Unpacking and feel noticeably calmer afterwards. And because I’m apparently incapable of having a simple human experience without immediately trying to research it, I wanted to know whether there was anything behind this beyond personal preference.

Unfortunately for my screen time report, there absolutely is!

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One of the concepts that keeps appearing in research around attention and digital media is something called attention residue. The basic idea is that when we rapidly switch between tasks, or between emotional contexts, part of our attention stays stuck on the previous thing. Social media is essentially engineered to maximise this.

Within minutes you might move from a video of someone renovating a cottage in the countryside, to news about war, to a recipe, to an argument, to an advert, to a nostalgic clip from a 90s sitcom, to someone announcing they wake up at 4am to optimise their mindset, so your brain never really settles anywhere long enough to recover.

Researchers studying heavy social media use have consistently linked it to increased cognitive overload, attentional fragmentation, stress, and mental fatigue, which feels less like a revelation and more like someone finally putting academic language to the sensation of opening Instagram and emerging forty minutes later with the psychological texture of soup.

What’s interesting to me is that games, particularly cosy games, often create the opposite cognitive experience. They tend to narrow attention rather than scatter it; you are here, doing this one thing. Water the crops, organise the bookshelf, deliver the package, clean the dirty wall, etc, etc. It sounds simplistic, but psychologically it matters quite a lot.

The researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi coined the term flow state to describe periods of deep absorption where attention becomes fully engaged in a task. And games, researchers note over and over again, are unusually effective at inducing this state because they provide clear goals, immediate feedback, and manageable levels of challenge.

There’s no natural endpoint to scrolling socials; the feed is infinite by design. You never really finish, but in Unpacking, eventually the room is complete. In PowerWash Simulator, the patio becomes clean, and in AC:NH, the daily tasks are done and the shops close for the night.

A lot of research into stress and cognitive fatigue points toward uncertainty and incompleteness being mentally taxing. The brain likes resolution, and it likes environments where effort produces visible outcomes. Social media, by contrast, often creates what psychologists call “continuous partial attention”; a state where you’re never fully focused but never fully resting either. Which I think explains why scrolling can feel exhausting in a uniquely modern way. You’re consuming hundreds of tiny emotional fragments without ever fully processing any of them.

And unlike television, books, or games, social media also tends to involve a layer of self-performance. Even when you’re not posting, there’s often an ambient awareness of visibility, comparison, productivity, attractiveness, success, relevance.

I don’t think it’s accidental that so many adults, particularly women over forty, are gravitating toward cosy games right now.

By this point in life, many of us have spent decades being reachable, useful, efficient, and available. Social media somehow intensifies that feeling rather than relieving it. Even leisure starts becoming performative. Your hobbies become content, or your interests become personal branding exercises.

Cosy games often refuse that entire framework. Nobody cares how efficiently I arrange my kitchen in Unpacking, and there is no algorithm watching whether my approach to Dorfromantik is scalable. The games simply allow me to pay attention to something for a while. And attention, increasingly, feels like one of the most depleted resources we have.

I think that’s why certain cosy games can feel restorative in a way that’s difficult to explain to people who don’t play them. It’s not necessarily escapism, at least not in the dismissive sense the word usually gets used, but more that games can create sustained attention without sustained pressure, a combination that is becoming surprisingly rare.

I also think there’s something important in the fact that cosy games are active rather than passive. Even slower or narrative games require some level of participation, whereas scrolling often feels like attention happening to you. Games feel like attention directed by you, and maybe that distinction is part of why one leaves me feeling depleted while the other leaves me feeling relaxed and recharged.

I want to be careful not to romanticise gaming. Games can absolutely become compulsive, and they can become avoidance mechanisms, of course they can. They can become another screen-based way to disappear from your own life if the balance isn’t right. But I do think there’s something increasingly valuable about spaces where your attention isn’t being constantly demanded by something else.

References & Further Reading

I’m not a researcher or clinician, just someone interested in how games affect us psychologically. These studies were some of the most interesting things I found while researching this piece.

• Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper & Row.

• Leroy, S. (2009). “Why Is It So Hard to Do My Work? The Challenge of Attention Residue When Switching Between Work Tasks.” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 109(2), 168–181.

• Mark, G., Gudith, D., & Klocke, U. (2008). “The Cost of Interrupted Work: More Speed and Stress.” Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

• Ophir, E., Nass, C., & Wagner, A. D. (2009). “Cognitive Control in Media Multitaskers.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(37), 15583–15587.

• Alter, A. (2017). Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked. Penguin Press.

• Montag, C., & Walla, P. (2016). “Carpe diem instead of losing your social mind: Beyond digital addiction and why we all suffer from digital overuse.” Cogent Psychology, 3(1).

• Kuss, D. J., & Griffiths, M. D. (2017). “Social Networking Sites and Addiction: Ten Lessons Learned.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14(3).

• Reinecke, L. (2009). “Games and Recovery: The Use of Video and Computer Games to Recuperate from Stress and Strain.” Journal of Media Psychology, 21(3), 126–142.

• Russoniello, C. V., O’Brien, K., & Parks, J. M. (2009). “The Effectiveness of Casual Video Games in Improving Mood and Decreasing Stress.” Journal of CyberTherapy and Rehabilitation, 2(1), 53–66.

• Granic, I., Lobel, A., & Engels, R. C. M. E. (2014). “The Benefits of Playing Video Games.” American Psychologist, 69(1), 66–78.

• Bowman, N. D. (2016). “The Rise (and Refinement) of Moral Panic.” In Video Games: A Medium That Demands Our Attention. Routledge.

• Rosen, L. D., Carrier, L. M., & Cheever, N. A. (2013). “Facebook and Texting Made Me Do It: Media-Induced Task-Switching While Studying.” Computers in Human Behavior, 29(3), 948–958.

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Developed by Wild Sheep Studio, Adorable Adventures is a cosy exploration game in which you play as Boris, a curious baby wild boar who must use his nose to track scents, uncover secrets, and reunite with his family after a forest fire scatters them across a national park.

It's a simple premise, but an irresistible one, and it opens heavier than you might expect, with the smouldering aftermath of the fire setting an almost melancholy tone. But the game doesn't dwell there. Almost immediately, it settles into an upbeat rhythm of exploration and discovery, and that's where it truly earns its name.

The national park you roam feels photo-realistic in a way that kept making me stop to take screenshots. The sound design is absolutely gorgeous too. The ambient birdsong, water sounds, and (my personal favourite) the sound of Boris’ little hooves clicking and clacking across different terrain. It is, without exaggeration, pure serotonin. I found myself smiling at the screen more times than I could count.

And the boars! There is something so healing about experiencing the natural world through the eyes of a baby wild boar. Boris and his siblings are funny, charismatic, and bursting with personality. Each one has their own distinct trait that makes them feel alive rather than just collectible. When you sniff them out and they join you on your journey, they bicker and bundle into each other and generally cause joyful chaos. I laughed out loud more than once.

The gameplay loop suited me well. I enjoy collectible hunting and fetch quests, so I was very much in my element. Reuniting with your siblings involves solving unique quests based on their individual personalities, and beyond the main story there’s a generous spread of side activities: photography challenges, racing mini-games, environmental puzzles, tidying up litter and extinguishing fires, and identifying flora and fauna (master enough of a type and Boris gets a little nature-themed outfit accessory, which is delightful). The narration from the park ranger throughout ties it all together beautifully, giving the whole thing a warm, documentary-esque quality.

That said, it’s not without its frustrations. The map is, to put it plainly, useless. It doesn’t show you where you are, and while it’s covered in icons, there’s no legend to explain what any of them mean. For someone who likes to feel oriented in a game world, this was a constant source of mild irritation. Similarly, some of the side quests offer barely any guidance. Tracking down the baby bunnies, for instance, relies almost entirely on a quiet squeaking sound - and oddly, the sniffing mechanic wasn't available for this quest either, which felt like a strange omission given it's Boris' primary tool. There are no visual cues whatsoever, which is a meaningful accessibility gap for hearing-impaired players.

I also ran into a couple of technical issues. About 30 minutes in, I got stuck between some rocks and had to use the unstuck feature, which teleported me all the way back to the start of the map. Annoying, but manageable. More frustratingly, I couldn’t get the game to run properly on my PC. It was too laggy and glitchy, so I ended up playing exclusively in handheld mode, which meant I couldn’t stream it as I’d hoped.

I completed the main story in around three hours, and there’s still plenty of sniffing and collecting left on my to-do list. At its price point, I do think some players might raise an eyebrow at the length-to-cost ratio - it’s a fair point. But the hours I spent with it were genuinely joyful, and that’s not something I take for granted. There is something very valuable to me about a game that makes you feel this good.

If you’re a fan of cosy exploration games, collectathons, or just something that will make you go “aww” and feel good, Adorable Adventures is worth your time.

Verdict: Charming, beautiful, and occasionally a bit rough around the edges - but Boris has my heart!

Highlights this month include Thrifty Business, Coffee Talk Tokyo, Outbound, and Paralives, all very different, but all worth keeping an eye on for different reasons.

If you want the full picture beyond this list, I update my Cosy Game Release Calendar every month with all upcoming cosy releases. You can subscribe to it or just bookmark it to check in whenever you’re looking for something new!

But for now, instead of listing every single release upfront, I’ve pulled out the games people are clearly most excited about first, and then we’ll get into the rest…

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1. Paralives (25 May)

Paralives is a life simulation game about building homes, lives and bonds. It’s been in development for years, with a huge amount of goodwill behind it. The building tools alone have had people excited for ages.

I’m cautiously hopeful here. It looks like it could finally give people an alternative to The Sims, but with this level of hype, it really needs to perform!

2. Outbound (14 May)

Van-life, exploration and crafting, but with a slower feel than most survival games. If it gets the balance right, this could be one of the standout cosy games of the year.

3. Thrifty Business (18 May)

Run your very own thrift shop in this laid-back management sim! Sort through boxes to find hidden treasures and arrange nostalgic displays of clothes, antiques, toys & more. Befriend the regulars, help with their requests and expand your store into a hub for the local community!

4. Coffee Talk Tokyo (21 May)

Coffee Talk Tokyo is the newest entry in the beloved series, set in a late-night café in Tokyo. Brew drinks, meet humans and yōkai, and experience heartfelt stories in a cosy, story-rich world.

5. Arcane Merchant (20 May)

Open your own shop in the heart of a Medieval Fantasy realm! Stock your shelves with everything from potions and swords to mysterious crystals and legendary artefacts. Set your prices, earn your customers' trust and become the richest merchant in the town!

6. Duck Side of the Moon (7 May)

Waddle and fly as a duck in space! Explore every corner of the galaxy and find curious creatures and materials along the way. Craft gadgets, upgrade your spaceship, and get cosy in this relaxing adventure.

7. Greenhearth Necromancer (11 May)

Raise a garden... from the dead! Greenhearth Necromancer is a cosy, witchy, semi-idle game about caring for living and undead plants alike. Grow cute plants in your balcony garden, cast spells, and brew potions, enjoying the chill idle gameplay and ambience throughout your day.

8. Dreamstranded (13 May)

Survival-lite on a strange island, but with a softer aesthetic. If it avoids the usual survival stress and leans into exploration instead, this could be a really nice middle ground!

9. Walk The Frog (21 May)

Guide Froggo through a world on sticky notes and relax while solving the puzzle of his journey home to find his best friend, Buddy. Meet quirky animal friends, solve satisfying puzzles, help one another and relax in this cosy and heartwarming adventure with an intuitive drag-and-drop puzzle style.

10. Wax Heads (5 May)

Wax Heads is a cosy-punk narrative sim about working in a struggling record store. Chat to quirky customers with unique tastes, explore a handcrafted record collection, fall in love with bands (and their drama!), or just slack off with your colleagues - whatever gets everyone’s groove back!

A few others I’m keeping an eye on

• The Greenening (7 May) – restoring nature is always a win for me.

• Mixtape (7 May) - Play through a mixtape of memories, set to the soundtrack of a generation.

• Feline Forensics and the Meowseum Mystery (13 May) - Interrogate a "colourful" cast of suspects until they cough up hairballs... and the truth.

• Hillshade Farm (21 May) - You’ve got land, time, and a whole lot to figure out.

• Life Below (26 May) – a refreshing twist on the city-building genre, set beneath the waves.

So what about you? What new cosy titles are you looking forward to playing this month?

The reason I care about this is probably worth explaining. Being out in nature is one of the most reliable tools I have for my mental health. For anyone who lives with depression and anxiety, you’ll know that “reliable” is not a word you throw around lightly.

So when I started noticing that certain games were producing something similar, I wanted to know if there was anything behind it, or whether I was just rationalising an excuse to stay on the sofa.

Turns out: there’s research. Quite a lot of it, actually.

The short version is this. Studies comparing virtual nature to real nature have found that while real nature still has an edge, the gap is smaller than you might expect. One meta-analysis put it plainly: across multiple studies measuring anxiety, mood, and stress, researchers found no significant difference between VR nature environments and flat-screen nature content. The medium, it seems, matters less than what’s in it.

What’s doing the work, according to something called the Attention Restoration Theory, is that nature (real or simulated) supports mental health by restoring attention through effortless engagement. It’s a break from cognitive load, not an addition to it. Which, if you’ve ever tried to “relax” by scrolling through your phone and felt more strung out twenty minutes later, makes a lot of sense.

One study used a nature-based casual game called Flower, and measured what happened after twenty minutes of play. The results were across the board: statistically significant reductions in psychological stress, heart rate, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure. The researchers were comparing it directly to a mindfulness meditation session, and across every single physiological measure, the two interventions performed similarly. The game held its own against meditation.

I want to be careful not to oversell this, because the wellness-through-gaming conversation has a tendency to go very corporate very quickly. Nature games are not a substitute for actual healthcare, or for going outside, or for addressing whatever is making you stressed in the first place. The research is clear that real nature still does more. Fresh air is, of course, still good for you.

But I think what’s interesting here isn’t that games have been proven to be medicine. It’s that something we do intuitively; reaching for something green and low-pressure when we need to decompress; turns out to have a legitimate neurological basis.

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There’s a concept that keeps coming up in the gaming and stress research, borrowed from psychology, called the flow state. It’s the thing that happens when you’re absorbed enough in an activity that you don’t feel your anxiety. Games are, researchers note, unusually good at inducing it, because they provide clear goals, immediate feedback, and just enough challenge to keep you present. Nature games, being generally unhurried and exploratory, seem particularly well suited to this.

A good example of this (and I’ll admit some bias here because these are my all-time favourite games) is the Ori series. Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps are not relaxing by any conventional measure. They’re precise, demanding platformers that will make you cry at the story and quite possibly swear at the difficulty. They are not games you pick up to wind down.

And yet. The environments are among the most breathtaking in gaming; luminous forests and light filtering through ancient trees in a way that frankly puts most real-world scenery to shame. And the flow state they induce in me is total. Which suggests that the restorative effect of nature in games might be less about the pace of the gameplay and more about the depth of the immersion.

The study I found most interesting looked specifically at open-world games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It found that players reported a sense of freedom and autonomy that was directly tied to reduced stress levels, not just as a side effect but as a mechanism. The exploration itself was the thing. Moving through a world at your own pace, with no one timing you or ranking you or requiring you to perform.

I’ve been thinking about why this helps us so much when over forty. Partly it’s that you’ve accumulated enough actual responsibilities that genuine unstructured time becomes rare. Partly it’s that leisure, for women especially, so often comes with invisible obligations attached, to be productive, to be improving, to be doing something that will benefit someone else eventually.

The research calls the stress reduction real. I’d call it something else too, though I’m not sure I have the academic vocabulary for it yet. Maybe just: approval. To be somewhere beautiful for a while. To let your nervous system remember what it feels like when nothing needs fixing.

The forest really doesn’t care whether you’re doing it right. That might be exactly the point.

What nature-based games have you been playing lately? I’d love to know what’s in your rotation! Please drop it in the comments.

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Suseno, B. & Hastjarjo, T.D. (2023). The effect of simulated natural environments in virtual reality and 2D video to reduce stress. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1016652

Mattila, O. et al. (referenced in): Effects of exposure to immersive computer-generated virtual nature and control environments on affect and cognition. Scientific Reports (2023). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-26750-6

Stanhope, J.L., Owens, C. & Elliott, L.J. (2016). Stress Reduction: Casual Gaming versus Guided Relaxation. Human Factors and Applied Psychology Student Conference. https://commons.erau.edu/hfap/hfap-2015/papers/9/

Russoniello, C.V., O’Brien, K. & Parks, J.M. (2009). The effectiveness of casual video games in improving mood and decreasing stress. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2009-11993-007

Veling, W. et al. (referenced in): Daily exposure to virtual nature reduces symptoms of anxiety in college students. NCBI/PMC (2023). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9868517/

Kaplan, S. (Attention Restoration Theory, referenced throughout virtual nature literature).

The study focuses largely on a case study of Fanny Buelmo, known as Aqumadre on Twitch, a 64-year-old Uruguayan streamer who plays Minecraft and Rust and has built a following of around 72,000 people to date.

I don’t need to tell you (if you’re reading Cosy Gaming Over 40, you already know) that gaming has spent decades telling certain people they don’t belong. The marketing, the culture: so much of it was built for young men, and everyone else was either ignored or actively made to feel unwelcome. Women were decorative at best, and older women were essentially invisible.

What strikes me about the research is that it puts proper academic language around something I’ve felt instinctively for a while now: that when you don’t see yourself reflected in a culture, it’s not just discouraging, it actually limits your ability to articulate your own experience. The paper calls this hermeneutical injustice, which is a mouthful, but the idea is simple really. If there are no frameworks or narratives for an “older woman who games,” it becomes harder for older women who game to understand and express what they’re doing and why it matters.

Aqumadre, just by existing and streaming, is filling in one of those gaps.

One of the things the study highlights that I found most refreshing is that older women streamers aren’t trying to compete on traditional gaming terms. They’re not chasing clip-worthy moments or leaderboard positions. The communities they build are centred on emotional connection and a sense of belonging.

Aqumadre’s chat is also genuinely affectionate. People look out for her. They’re protective. She uses humour and vulnerability in equal measure, and her followers respond to that rather than to any measure of technical skill.

There’s something the research describes as being a “freedom fighter”; simply refusing to play by rules that were never designed for you. Not adopting the persona the platform expects, not pretending to be younger, louder, or more competitive.

To its credit, the study doesn’t just celebrate this phenomenon uncritically, and neither should we. There’s an interesting tension it identifies in how younger audiences engage with older women gamers and streamers. A lot of viewers position themselves as helpers or guides who explain the game and offer tips. Which is lovely on the surface, but the research points out that this can subtly reinforce the idea of older women as dependent or passive. The “grandmother figure” is warm and comforting, yes. But she’s also, in that framing, someone who needs looking after.

That is worth dwelling on, because there’s a difference between a community that values an older woman’s perspective and a community that loves having a surrogate nan to protect.

I’ve recently started streaming (find me on Twitch here: PixelsAndChai), but I also think the findings resonate well beyond Twitch. The study’s broader point is that older women’s participation in gaming challenges what gaming is for and who it’s by, through the accumulation of ordinary presence.

Every time someone like Aqumadre, or, in a smaller way, someone like me writing a review of a cosy farming game at half eleven on a Tuesday, simply occupies space in gaming culture, the definition of “gamer” gets a little more elastic. And if you need any more convincing that older women gamers belong here, science increasingly agrees that gaming is good for us too.

The paper notes that the industry itself needs to reflect on its design, development, and marketing practices in response to this. I’m not holding my breath on that front, frankly. But the cultural shift does feel real. I see it in the communities I’m part of, and I see it in the fact that a study like this exists at all.

Have you come across any older women streamers worth following? I’d love to build a little list! Drop your recommendations in the comments.

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And it is that, on the surface. It’s absolutely beautiful; the pixel art, the colours, the small apartment you spend most of your time in. It all feels gorgeous and familiar in a way cosy games usually do.

But this one… feels a bit too real at times.

You play as Alo, who has just moved away from home to start her first proper job as a video editor; then lockdown hits. She’s stuck working from home in a new city where she doesn’t know anyone yet. And at the same time, she’s dealing with the loss of her grandmother, Jaja, who passed away just a month earlier.

It’s a lot to sit with, and the game doesn’t try to tidy any of it up for you.

What surprised me most is how quickly I started to care about her. I really recognised something of myself in how Alo was coping (or not coping, as the case may be).

Each day, you wake up and decide what Alo can manage around the house. You can make coffee, have breakfast, shower, brush your teeth, water the plants, tidy up, and do a day’s work. Equally, you don’t have to do anything at all if you don’t feel like it.

But you should know that your decisions impact the options you have in actions and dialogue.

There’s a small system running in the background tracking how Alo is doing, and each time you complete a task or activity, a little mental health bar appears above her head (see above), and will go up or down depending on how the activity makes her feel.

Those everyday things like doing the washing up, the ones we’re always told are “good for us”, can really help. Over time, they build into something that looks like recovery for Alo.

From my own experience, I know how much those small routines can affect your mental wellbeing, so I found myself wanting that so badly for the main character.

I made a point of guiding her through the things that might help, like getting up, getting dressed, eating properly, hydrating, taking care of herself where I could.

I was a little bit like Paplet, her toy fish. I really wanted her to feel better.

Sometimes, it worked, but sometimes not. Because then you’d open a box of her grandmother’s things, or come across something that brings a memory rushing back… and suddenly all of that recovery doesn’t feel so steady anymore.

Seeing something in a box, or having a bad dream, could trigger an anxiety attack or a depressive episode, and Alo’s mental health took a nose dive. That felt incredibly true to life.

A lot of the game plays out through video calls with Alo’s mum, her friends, and the people she works with. At first, everything revolves around Alo and what she’s going through. But slowly, you start to notice that everyone else is dealing with things too.

Those calls start to matter more as the game goes on. You realise that checking in, even when it feels small, actually does something for yourself and for the other person.

A problem shared and all that.

I’m really glad I played this when I did.

I’m close to some of my family, but others live far away now, and some aren’t here anymore. Because of that, parts of this hit closer to home than I expected. There were moments where I could feel it creeping up on me.

Which, I think, says everything about what this game is trying to do.

You can pick up Fishbowl on Steam right now with 10% off.

In the first Stardew Valley Cup live event, ConcernedApe mentioned there’s one secret he doesn’t think anyone has ever found:

“I guess you might say a message or something… the thing is the message is not even really relevant anymore… But I don’t think anyone has found it, and I don’t know if anyone ever will. Because it’s extremely obscure to find it.”

Which makes me want to hunt even harder.

So, in the spirit of the Egg Festival, I’ve grabbed my Easter basket and gone hunting for some of my favourite Easter eggs to share with you.

1. Elliott’s Piano

When Elliott is working at his desk, playing the first eight notes of the Stardew Valley Overture on the piano will make Elliott turn towards you and give you a heart emote ❤️

If you label the piano keys 1 - 4 from left to right, the tune can be played with these notes at any speed: 2432 3421.

2. The Junimo Plush

On the last day of the month at exactly 12 pm, interacting with a seemingly normal bush behind the playground gives you a Junimo plush!

3. The Locked Boxes

The first letters in the Museum‘s incomprehensible Lost Book form these words:

• SUPER CUCUMBER TOWN

• DUCK MAYO SALOON

• STRANGE BUN TOY BOX

Three secret statues can be found by placing items in locked boxes around the valley:

??HMTGF??

Place a Super Cucumber in the brown box in the fenced area north of the Clint’s.

??Pinky Lemon??

Place a Duck Mayonnaise in the metal box in the back room of the Stardrop Saloon.

??Foroguemon??

Place a Strange Bun in the chest in Vincent‘s room at Jodi and Kent’s house.

4. Meowmere

Throw an Ancient Doll into the lava pool on floor 100 of the Mines, or in the lava next to the chest at the Forge on Ginger Island, and a bone serpent from Terraria will rise from the pool and give you the Far Away Stone.

Placing it on the plant pedestal found in the basement of Wizard’s Tower will open up a portal, where a cat steps in and gives you the Meowmere sword!

Extra tip: Use the forge to combine the Meowmere with the Galaxy Sword, and you can have the look of the cat sword with the stats of the galaxy.

5. Marnie’s Lovesick Dialogue

When choosing “Supplies Shop” in Marnie’s Ranch, the text under Marnie‘s portrait normally reads “Animal supplies for sale!”

But there is a 0.01% chance for Marnie to say:

“*sigh*... When the door opened, I thought it might be Lewis.”

When entering Robin‘s or Marnie‘s shop, there is also a chance for a dialogue bubble to pop up with them saying

“Lew...? Oh...”

6. The Mayor’s Lucky Purple Shorts

These start as a simple side quest and then absolutely spiral. Once you’ve got the shorts, there’s a surprising amount you can do with them:

• Put them in the Luau soup.

• Display them at the Fair. You’ll be disqualified, but Lewis will hand over 750 Star Tokens to keep you quiet.

• Tailor them with a gold bar. This creates Trimmed Lucky Purple Shorts, which you can actually wear (and yes, people will comment!)

• Place a staircase in Lewis’ bedroom that leads to a hidden maze where you can find more purple shorts… with a bit of a twist when you try to pick them up

• Equip them as fishing tackle. They change your bobber to a unique purple shorts design (and can even stop tackle durability loss in certain rods)

• Put them in a fish tank. Because that’s a valid decoration choice and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

7. The Beach Creature

Very occasionally, if you’re down by the docks at the beach, a green creature appears in the water.

The chances of it showing up are ridiculously low, and even then, everything has to line up just right for it to appear at all.

And if it looks vaguely familiar, you’re not imagining it - a version of the same creature shows up during Krobus’s 14-heart event, where it carries him through the water.

8. Dancing in the Gift Log

Once you’ve built up a bit of friendship with someone (four hearts or more), you can click on their little portrait in the gift log. Each character has their own animation and sound.

I love this one because it feels like a reward for paying attention to a part of the game most of us only use out of habit - checking what gifts people like, then immediately closing it again.

9. The Lonely Stone

The lonely stone is not an area you can visit, but it has a location on the Stardew Valley map, and you can see it from the docks. When you click the lonely stone on the map, a rock sound effect will play.

The lonely stone isn’t mentioned by any villagers, nor is there any lore about it mentioned by ConcernedApe or hidden in the game’s files… Weird.

10. Your Favourite Thing

When you create your character, you’re asked to choose your “favourite thing”. But when you eat a Stardrop, your favourite thing comes back!

• If you enter “ConcernedApe”, you’ll get a unique little message:

• If your answer includes “Stardew”, you’ll see:

If you’ve played for years, what’s the one thing you stumbled across that made you stop and question what you just saw?

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Some of these have been on my radar for ages, others completely surprised me, but there’s a really lovely mix here: slower life sims, story-led experiences, and a few slightly quirky ones that might just become your next favourite.

If you’re looking for new cosy games, here’s everything worth keeping an eye on this month.

Fishbowl

Release date: 2 April 2026
Platforms: PC

Probably the most anticipated new cosy game for April 2026, Fishbowl is a narrative game about dreams, grief, and hope. Rediscover your memories and find your way into the present in this intimate experience where slice-of-life meets surreal.

KuloNiku: Bowl Up!

Release date: 3 April 2026
Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch

Prep your stations for a cosy cooking game with attitude! Prepare unique meals for quirky small-town locals, upgrade and customize your shop, compete in thrilling cooking battles to become top chef, and protect your family’s long-running restaurant alongside a cast of curious companions!

Lay of the Land

Release date: 4 April 2026
Platforms: PC

Lay of the Land is a sandbox adventure game set in a fantasy world where everything is physically simulated. Use the environment to your advantage and Explore, Fight, Loot and Build your way through mysterious lands.

The House of Hikmah

Release date: 5 April 2026
Platforms: PC

The House of Hikmah is a fully voice-acted, narrative-driven 3D adventure game exploring grief, legacy and the search for answers after profound loss. Solve puzzles, encounter historical scholars of the Islamic Golden Age, and uncover timeless lessons in a beautifully imagined House of Wisdom.

A Thousand Bees

Release date: 5 April 2026
Platforms: PC

Spot the bees in this lovingly hand-illustrated hidden objects game. A literal thousand bees are spread out over a dozen beautiful levels. Can you find all secret levels, too? Enjoy a perfect summer day, deeply inspired by the cosy honeycore aesthetic.

Cleaning Up!

Release date: 11 April 2026
Platforms: PC

Turn huge messes into sparkling spaces! Feel the satisfaction of restoring them to order with your super-powered cleaning tools. The quick, cozy joy of tidying up!

Gecko Gods

Release date: 12 April 2026
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5

This one has been on my list for a while. Explore a forgotten land in Gecko Gods, a puzzle-adventure built for curiosity. Climb walls, solve ancient puzzles and uncover a lost civilisation in a world full of hidden paths, quiet secrets and natural wonder.

ShantyTown

Release date: 15 April 2026
Platforms: PC

ShantyTown is a relaxing diorama-building game about finding beauty in everyday chaos. Bring new locations to life, stack your urban buildings high, and fill each little nook and cranny with your own touch. Try your hand at shaping a cosy little city that is unique to you.

OPUS: Prism Peak

Release date: 17 April 2026
Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch

The OPUS series is known for emotional storytelling, and this looks like it continues that trend.

OPUS: Prism Peak is a narrative adventure where you play as a weary photographer stranded in the Dusklands, traveling with a girl who’s lost her memories. Together, you’ll uncover the mysteries of this land through your camera and find your way home.

Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream

Release date: 18 April 2026
Platforms: Nintendo Switch

This is probably the biggest cosy release of the month. If you ever played the original, you’ll know how weirdly addictive it is. I’m expecting chaos, nonsense, and far too many hours lost to checking in on everyone.

Outbound

Release date: 19 April 2026
Platforms: PC

Explore a colourful world and build your own cosy home on wheels. Craft workstations, and source energy from the sun, wind, or water. Upgrade and customise your vehicle, grow crops, and live sustainably off-grid with up to 4 players.

Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth

Release date: 22 April 2026
Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch

I would have loved this to have been released in the winter, but it will also be lovely play at the height of summer when I’m craving those cosy nights in!

From the creators of Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley comes a heart warming new adventure inspired by the beloved Moomin stories by Tove Jansson. This time, join Moomintroll himself on a charming but cold winter journey.

I loved the first game, so I’m very excited for this.

Bobo Bay

Release date: 24 April 2026
Platforms: PC

Bright, colourful, and very much about exploration and collecting. Bobo Bay is a pet simulation game where you collect, mash(breed), accessorise, and train little creatures to compete in races and other competitions.

Echoes of Mora

Release date: 25 April 2026
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5

A more atmospheric cosy game with a bit of mystery woven in. Explore a mysterious sunken village, discover hidden objects, and uncover long forgotten secrets. Travel through time to help Mora find her lost brother. Play on PC, or immerse yourself in VR.

Adorable Adventures

Release date: 27 April 2026
Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, Mobile

I’m so excited for Adorable Adventures, as it looks absolutely gorgeous. Play as Boris, a curious baby boar who must learn how to use his nose to reunite with his family after a forest fire.

Across rolling meadows, sun-dappled forest paths, deep caves, and rocky highlands, identify scents and follow trails to learn more about the world around you. Search for your brothers and sisters, uncover secrets, and expand your library of smells against the backdrop of a gentle and heart-warming story.

inKONBINI: One Store. Many Stories.

Release date: 29 April 2026
Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch

One of my personal highlights this month. inKONBINI: One Store. Many Stories is a cosy slice-of-life game about running a small-town convenience store, inspired by early 1990s Japan. Meet regulars, stock shelves, and watch quiet, everyday moments turn into meaningful stories.

☕ New cosy games for April 2026

April is shaping up to be one of those months where there’s almost too much choice, but in a good way.

What I like most about this list is the variety. Not everything here is just farming or decorating (as much as I love those). There’s a real mix of:

• story-led games

• slower exploration

• satisfying “task-based” gameplay

• and a few slightly odd ones that could become favourites

Personally, I’ve got my eye on Adorable Adventure, inKONBINI, and Fishbowl, which will probably take over my life for a while!

If you end up picking any of these up, I’d love to know what you think - especially the smaller indie ones that might fly under the radar.

If you’re looking for something even more low-energy, I’ve also shared my favourite cosy games to play when you’re tired over on the blog💛

As it turns out, I’m clearly not the only one leaning into games like this. Steam’s Relaxing Games Event is live right now, and a surprising number of the games on my list are included!

The event is a “celebration of relaxing and satisfying games with repetitive flows and minigames, where you can turn off your brain and play for a few hours”.

Which makes sense; these are exactly the kinds of games that don’t ask too much from you, and ones we need after a long slog of a day.

Cast n Chill

If Bob Ross ever got into making pixel art for video games, this is probably where he’d end up.

Cast n Chill absolutely nails that feeling of being out on the lake, sitting in a boat with your dog, and just… casting and chilling.

At its core, it’s a fishing game. You head out, catch fish, then sell them at Rusty’s Bait Shop to upgrade your gear. There’s a surprisingly good range of rods, bait, and equipment to mix and match, and a few goals and achievements to work towards if you want something to aim for.

It can get oddly addictive when you start chasing bigger and better catches, but what I like most is how flexible it is. You can fully focus on it, or switch on idle mode and let it run while you do something else.

I’ve actually 100% completed it, but I still come back to it now and then and just leave it running in the background. It’s the perfect game to play when tired.

Dorfromantik

A list of games to play when you’re tired wouldn’t be complete without Dorf!

Dorfromantik is probably the game I’ve opened the most when my brain has completely checked out, or if I’m doing something else like listening to a podcast or watching TV.

The game gives you one simple thing to focus on: placing tiles. That’s it. But somehow, that repetitive action is exactly what makes it work. It’s the closest I’ve found to a low effort cosy game that still feels satisfying when I’m too tired to think.

Log Away

Log Away took my Game of the Year spot in 2025, and for good reason.

I love the different scenic landscapes you can choose from, and how the world carries on around you while you build. You’ll see wildlife wandering past your cabin, just doing their own thing, which somehow makes the whole thing feel more alive.

The decorating is where it really clicked for me. Every item you place in or around your cabin affects the little heart icon, changing its colour as your cabin comes together. Then there are the extra items you unlock through suitcases, which gives you just enough of a sense of progress without it ever feeling like a grind.

It ends up feeling like a proper little getaway.

The controls can take a bit of getting used to at first, especially if you’re not used to this kind of building system. But if you enjoy decorating games, it’s worth sticking with. Before long, it becomes second nature and you’re just building your ideal cabin without thinking about it too much.

It’s a genuinely lovely game. If you enjoy creating spaces at your own pace, with no pressure to do anything else, I’d definitely recommend giving it a go. And it’s now Steam Deck verified, so it’s a perfect game to play when you’re feeling too tired to think.

Read the full review of Log Away on the blog.

Gourdlets

Gourdlets is a game I picked up on a whim in a sale and ended up really enjoying for a couple of hours.

You’re basically decorating a tiny island while little villagers wander around, eating, working out, and just getting on with their day. There’s no real goal or ending; it’s a sandbox in the truest sense, but it’s so relaxing.

The art style is ridiculously cute, and I especially loved all the little details like the workout equipment and food stalls. The UI is also really easy to get the hang of, which makes a big difference when you’re low on energy and don’t want to figure anything out.

What really surprised me, though, was the soundtrack. It has this slightly melancholic, sweet tone to it, and the main track stuck with me long after I’d stopped playing.

If you’re looking for something you can dip into for an hour or two and just enjoy the atmosphere, it’s definitely worth a try.

Pencil Stories

I played Pencil Stories entirely at bedtime, and it turned out to be one of the most effective wind-down games I’ve played in a long time.

You play as Letty, a small (and adorable) drifting letter who works the night shift, delivering mail while the rest of the village sleeps. Moving Letty through the village of Tsukinoma and watching her light up each area, with visuals that drift like watercolour, is genuinely relaxing. I often explored just to take in the cute details. The music and ambient sounds (rain, trees, rivers) work really well, especially with headphones.

If you’re looking for a slow, visually calming game to play before sleep, something built around routine and atmosphere rather than challenge, this does exactly what it sets out to do.

Recommended for relaxing and cosy bedtime gaming, you can read my full review of Pencil Stories on the blog.

Under Leaves

Under Leaves is a hidden-object game where you move through beautifully illustrated environments, helping different animals find things they’ve lost, like nuts, shells, leaves, that kind of thing.

The artwork looks like it’s been painted by hand, and you’ll find yourself lingering just to take it all in. The sound design adds to that as well; it all comes together in a way that makes it very easy to just settle into.

There’s not a huge amount of depth here, and you’ll probably finish it in one sitting. But honestly, that’s part of the appeal when looking for a game to play when tired. It’s something you can dip into at the end of the day, when you don’t want noise or challenge.

If you’re after something low effort that still feels a bit special, this is a lovely one to pick up.

Coffee Talk

Some evenings, I don’t actually want gameplay, I want to just sit there and read or watch a story. But I still want to engage with my cosy gaming hobby, you know?

Coffee Talk has become the game I open when I just want to sit and press a button, and look at pretty pixel art. You’re essentially making drinks and talking to customers, but it never feels demanding.

I remember playing this on nights where I’d barely said a word all evening, and it somehow filled that gap without asking anything back.

Japanese Rural Life Adventure

Japanese Rural Life Adventure is a slower-paced life sim where you’re restoring a rural village; growing crops, taking part in seasonal events, cooking, and building things up bit by bit. Time moves in a slightly unusual way (each month is just a couple of in-game days), which means it never drags, and I’ve found there’s always something to do without it feeling overwhelming.

What I really like is how everything builds gradually. You’re not hit with a huge list of materials or tasks. You chip away at things, and before you know it, the village starts to feel more alive. As you make progress, you’ll see more people around, tourists visiting, and little changes that make it feel like your efforts actually matter.

It reminds me a lot of what I loved about older Harvest Moon games, but without some of the pressure those could come with. There’s a loose structure through events and activities, but you’re not forced into doing anything in a set order.

Read the full review of this game here: Japanese Rural Life Adventure review

Cozy Grove

To be honest, I don’t usually recommend Cozy Grove. It’s not one of my favourite games in the traditional sense.

But last year, I was going through a period of pretty intense grief, and this game got me through some incredibly hard days. So it has its place.

Cozy Grove only asks for a little bit of your time each day. A few fetch quests, a bit of wandering, and then that’s it; the rest opens up again the next real-life day. You’re looking at about an hour of gameplay, max, unless you decide to stay longer to fish or forage.

I tend to come back to it when I’m feeling really stressed or overwhelmed. The writing helps too; it’s warm, a bit funny, and I’ve grown oddly attached to the ghosts on the island.

It’s usually heavily discounted as well, so it’s an easy one to pick up for a few pounds if you’re curious.

Naiad

There are evenings where even dialogue feels like too much!

Naiad is one of the simplest games I’ve played. You play as a small water spirit drifting along a river, following the current into different areas, and occasionally interacting with animals or the environment.

There are light objectives like helping creatures and clearing obstacles, but nothing ever feels demanding.

I remember playing this with the sound low, just letting the movement carry me through it. It felt closer to unwinding than playing.

Love cosy games?

If you enjoy cosy games and want honest, thoughtful reviews without all the hype, that’s exactly what I share here on the blog!

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Chef RPG blends restaurant management with cosy exploration, crafting, cooking minigames, and RPG-style progression. It’s an ambitious mix, and even in its unfinished state it’s clear the game is trying to do something a little bit different from the usual farming-focused cosy games.

After reading through dozens of player impressions, one thing becomes very clear: Chef RPG already has an addictive core gameplay loop, but it’s still very much a work in progress.

Chef RPG review: running your own restaurant in White Ash Harbour

At its core, Chef RPG is about rebuilding and running your own restaurant in the seaside town of White Ash Harbour. You restore the once-famous restaurant Le Sequoia, gather ingredients, develop recipes, and gradually expand the business.

The gameplay loop is surprisingly broad for an early access game. Players can:

• forage and hunt for ingredients

• fish and gather resources

• grow crops in a greenhouse

• craft tools and decorations

• run restaurant shifts each evening

• hire and manage staff

• build relationships with townsfolk

• uncover story quests about your character’s past

The cooking system itself is one of the game’s most praised features. Instead of simply selecting a recipe and waiting for a progress bar, many dishes involve small cooking minigames where timing and interaction affect the quality of the dish.

Some players enjoy these moments because they make cooking feel active and skill-based. Others prefer to automate them later once their restaurant grows and staff take over more of the work.

A beautiful pixel world... with a sci-fi twist!

One thing almost every review agrees on is that Chef RPG looks beautiful.

The pixel art combines natural environments with futuristic architecture, creating a slightly sci-fi atmosphere that helps it stand apart from the many rural farming sims inspired by Stardew Valley.

Players can even choose to play as either a human or an android, which changes certain stat bonuses. Humans lean toward social skills, while androids have stronger endurance.

The town itself is filled with named characters, events, and festivals that make the world feel lively even in its early stages.

A lot of freedom in how you run your restaurant

One of Chef RPG’s strongest features is how much creative freedom it gives players when shaping their restaurant.

You can decide what kind of place you want to run:

• a small, high-quality fine dining spot

• a busy casual restaurant

• a specialised cuisine concept

• a vegan restaurant or meat-focused menu

• a large operation run mostly by staff

In some of the Chef RPG reviews, players spend their days gathering ingredients and experimenting with recipes, while others lean more into the management side of hiring staff and expanding the business.

That flexibility makes Chef RPG feel closer to a restaurant management RPG sandbox than a traditional cosy farming game.

Where the Early Access rough edges start to show

Despite all the positive impressions, a common theme across Chef RPG reviews is that the game still needs balancing and depth before full release.

Several players report that the first 30–40 hours are exciting, but that the sense of challenge can drop off fairly quickly.

Part of the reason is that many ingredients, animals, and resources are available all year round, which means gathering eventually becomes routine rather than an adventure. The map itself is relatively small, so exploration can start to feel repetitive once you’ve learned where everything is.

Money also becomes surprisingly easy to earn once your restaurant is running smoothly. A single successful service can generate enough income to cover several days of expenses, meaning the economic progression can flatten out sooner than expected.

Because of this, systems like stamina and health often don’t play a major role in everyday gameplay, and some players feel less incentive to optimise recipes or pursue upgrades once their restaurant is already profitable.

There are also a few other Early Access frustrations that come up repeatedly:

• bugs in some cooking minigames

• tools that occasionally glitch or behave inconsistently

• romance systems that feel unfinished

• repetitive NPC dialogue after a certain point

• some UI and progression systems that need clearer guidance

None of these issues are unusual for an Early Access title, but they do mean the experience can occasionally feel unfinished.

The good news is that many players remain optimistic about Chef RPG’s future.

The developers have already been releasing updates, balance tweaks, and hotfixes, and there are signs that more complex systems are planned. Recent additions hint at new mechanics that could make menu creation and restaurant strategy deeper over time.

If those systems continue to expand, they could add the challenge and progression that some players feel is currently missing.

Chef RPG review verdict: is it worth playing in Early Access?

If you enjoy cosy management games and don’t mind Early Access quirks, Chef RPG already offers a surprisingly fun and relaxing gameplay loop.

Running the restaurant, experimenting with recipes, and exploring the world can easily keep players busy for dozens of hours.

However, if you prefer a fully polished experience with deeper progression systems, it may be worth waiting until the game moves closer to full release. Right now, Chef RPG feels like a cosy game with huge potential, that just needs a little more time in the oven.

Love cosy games like this?

If you enjoy cosy games like this and want honest, thoughtful reviews without all the hype, that’s exactly what I share here on the blog.

Cosy Gaming Over 40 is here to find games that fit into real life. If that sounds like your kind of thing, you’re always welcome here.

And if you’d like more reviews like this, plus cosy recommendations you might not have come across yet, you can subscribe and I’ll send them straight over to you 🤍

Subscribe now

If you’re looking for cosy games with more mature themes, I’ve dug out some great ones to try. Most of these I’ve played myself, but a couple have now made it firmly into my backlog!

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What Makes a Cosy Game Feel “More Mature”?

Before we jump into the list, it’s worth talking about what players often mean when they search for mature cosy games.

It doesn’t always mean darker or more difficult. Instead, it usually means games that focus on things like:

• reflective storytelling

• emotional or thoughtful themes

• slower pacing and exploration

• characters with deeper motivations

These games still deliver that cosy, relaxing feeling, but they often explore topics like memory, loss, friendship, identity, or grief.

10 Cosy Games With More Mature Themes

Dredge

At first glance, Dredge looks like a relaxing fishing game. You sail around a quiet archipelago, catching fish and upgrading your boat. The gameplay loop is simple and satisfying, which is why many cosy gamers enjoy it.

But once night falls, strange creatures appear, the fog rolls in, and the story reveals a Lovecraftian mystery lurking beneath the surface. It’s a perfect example of a cosy game with darker, more mature storytelling, blending relaxing gameplay with a creeping sense of unease. Yikes!

Pentiment

Pentiment is a narrative game set in a 16th-century Bavarian village. You play Andreas Maler, an artist who becomes caught up in a murder investigation. The game unfolds through conversations and your decisions that shape the community around you.

Pentiment is cosy because of its pace, and the manuscript-inspired art style creates a world that feels like stepping into a living medieval book. But beneath the surface are deeper themes around class, faith, and the passage of time, making it a wonderful example of a cosy game for adults who also want rich storytelling.

Spiritfarer

If you’re looking for a cosy game with emotional depth, Spiritfarer is often the first one people recommend.

You play Stella, a ferrymaster guiding spirits to the afterlife. Along the way you build relationships with the characters on your boat, cook meals for them, and help them come to terms with their unfinished business. Few games explore themes of grief and saying goodbye in such a warm and comforting way as Spiritfarer does. It’s high on my list of favourite cosy games for grown ups.

Strange Horticulture

Not every cosy game needs bright sunshine and cheerful villagers. Strange Horticulture takes place in a mysterious little plant shop where you identify unusual plants and help customers with their problems.

The atmosphere is slightly eerie, but still relaxing, mostly because it is always raining outside your window, and the ambience is top tier. The puzzle solving and unfolding mystery make it perfect for players who want a cosy experience with a darker, more mature tone.

And if you end up enjoying that, or if plants aren’t your thing, there is a sequel; Strange Antiquities.

Spirittea

Spirittea often gets compared to Stardew Valley, but I think it has its own unique personality and deserves more than being seen as just another farming-type sim.

Instead of running a farm, you manage a bathhouse for mischievous spirits inspired by Japanese folklore. You help townspeople with their problems, uncover hidden secrets, and gradually restore the bathhouse to its former glory.

The humour and characters feel a little more grounded than many cosy games for adults, and the focus on community stories gives the game a slightly more mature tone.

If you enjoy cosy life sims with deeper character interactions, Spirittea is well worth exploring.

Neo Cab

Neo Cab is a narrative road trip through a futuristic city where you play the last human driver working for a ride-share service.

Most of the game takes place inside your taxi as you talk to passengers, manage your emotional wellbeing, and make choices that shape the story. It’s dialogue-driven and surprisingly intimate. Each trip reveals a little more about the world and the people living in it.

For players who enjoy character-focused storytelling, Neo Cab offers a thoughtful experience that fits perfectly into the idea of cosy games with mature themes.

Unpacking

At first glance, Unpacking looks incredibly simple. You take items out of moving boxes and place them around a home.

But as you unpack across different stages of the character’s life, you slowly learn about relationships (good and frankly awful), career changes, heartbreak, and personal growth. It’s one of the most subtle and thoughtful pieces of storytelling in cosy gaming. Not to be missed.

Cabernet

Cabernet is one of the most intriguing narrative-driven cosy-adjacent games to appear recently.

You play as a young vampire navigating life in a small Eastern European town, balancing morality, survival, and relationships. Instead of focusing on combat, the game leans heavily into dialogue, character choices, and exploring the consequences of your actions.

Themes of identity, temptation, and personal values give it a much more mature tone than many cosy games. If you enjoy story-rich games with moral choices, Cabernet is definitely one to wishlist.

Coffee Talk

If you enjoy character-driven storytelling, Coffee Talk is a perfect example of a cosy game with adult themes.

You run a late-night café where customers come to talk about their lives over their favourite drinks. Conversations range from work struggles to relationships and identity.

The entire game feels like spending an evening listening to stories in a cosy coffee shop, while the rain hammers on the windows outside. Chef’s kiss of a cosy game for adults.

Dordogne

With its beautiful watercolour art style, Dordogne follows Mimi as she revisits childhood memories after the death of her grandmother.

It’s extremely nostalgic, exploring themes of memory, family, and growing up. The relaxed pacing and reflective storytelling make it a wonderful choice for players looking for something slower and more thoughtful.

Eastshade

In Eastshade, you explore a beautiful world as a travelling painter. This game is absolutely STUNNING, and I spent far more time trying to decide on the screenshot than I did actually writing about it.

Instead of fighting monsters, you capture landscapes on canvas and help townsfolk with small requests. It’s one of the most peaceful exploration games I’ve played, and the reflective tone makes it feel more like a journey than a traditional adventure.

The Stillness of the Wind

Few cosy games explore ageing and solitude quite like The Stillness of the Wind. In fact, I can’t think of one that even comes close to this.

You play Talma, an elderly woman living alone on a remote farm, tending goats. One by one, everyone left the village for the city. Everyone, except Talma. Approaching her final years, she maintains a simple way of life tending to her homestead, surviving, subsisting, whilst increasingly disturbing letters arrive from her family in the city.

It’s not cheerful, but it is deeply contemplative and surprisingly beautiful.

Season: A Letter to the Future

In Season: A Letter to the Future, you travel through a beautiful world documenting memories before a mysterious change arrives. You record sounds, photograph places, and capture moments in a journal.

The game is slow and philosophical, making it perfect for players who enjoy meditative exploration games.

Firewatch

While not always labelled as cosy, Firewatch delivers a surprisingly relaxing experience, and it is recommended fairly frequently in the Cozy Gamers subreddit.

You spend the summer alone in a forest lookout tower, exploring the wilderness and talking to another ranger over the radio. The story focuses on loneliness, connection, and personal struggles, creating an experience that feels both intimate and reflective.

Why Cosy Games Often Appeal to Older Gamers

One interesting thing about the cosy gaming boom is how many players discovering these games are in their 30s, 40s and beyond. After years of fast-paced competitive games, many people start looking for something different.

Cosy games offer:

• slower pacing

• lower pressure gameplay

• thoughtful storytelling

• worlds that feel relaxing to spend time in

Instead of chasing high scores or reacting quickly, you can explore, reflect, and enjoy the experience. And sometimes that’s exactly the kind of gaming we need.

I picked it up immediately, and five hours later I realised I’d barely moved from the sofa.

You can checkout my playthrough on YouTube here:

This game actually used to be available on iPhone through Apple Arcade, where it built up some seriously glowing reviews. I’d seen people talking about how lovely it was for a while, so I’d been hoping it might come to PC one day, but no one seemed to know when.

Then suddenly… it just dropped this week.

Instant purchase.

And honestly? It might already be one of my favourite cosy experiences of the year.

A Properly Slow, Restorative Pace

One of the things that struck me immediately is how slow the game feels - and I mean that as a huge compliment.

After a full work day, and my work day was intense, it’s surprisingly comforting to load into a quiet Japanese countryside village and simply potter around. You’re cleaning the house, collecting bits from the garden, gathering forageables and gradually restoring your little rural life.

Nothing feels rushed. Nothing feels stressful. It’s the kind of game you sink into with a cup of tea and just… breathe.

For those of us who love cosy games precisely because they help us decompress, this pacing feels spot on.

The Sound Design Is Stunning

Honestly, the sound design might be the standout feature.

The music is gorgeously atmospheric, but it’s the environmental sounds that really shine. From the creak of wooden floors as your character moves around to the countryside ambience, everything feels incredibly carefully crafted.

Out of all the cosy farming sims I’ve played, this might genuinely have the best soundscape I’ve experienced so far.

It adds so much to that feeling of being transported somewhere peaceful.

Beautiful Pixel Art

Visually, the game leans into charming pixel art, and it absolutely works.

The environments feel cosy and inviting, and the little details in the countryside setting make it feel lived-in rather than decorative. It’s cute without feeling overly sugary, which is always a tricky balance for cosy games.

On the Steam Deck, it looks fantastic. The art style scales really nicely to the screen, and it feels like the perfect handheld game to curl up with in the evening.

Some Lovely Quality-of-Life Features

There are already a few small design choices that make the game feel smooth to play.

For example, if you hold down a button, your character automatically picks up everything nearby. That means cleaning the house or gathering items around the garden takes seconds instead of minutes.

Little touches like that make everyday tasks feel satisfying rather than fiddly or tiresome.

Not every system feels quite as polished yet though.

Planting seeds and watering crops can feel slow and repetitive, especially compared to how streamlined the gathering mechanics are. It’s not game-breaking, but it does make farming feel slightly more tedious than it needs to be.

Hopefully that’s something that could be refined over time.

Learning About Japan (Even When It’s Confusing)

One of the most charming aspects of the game is how deeply it leans into Japanese culture.

You’ll encounter traditions, foods, and objects that aren’t always explained directly. At one point the game refers to “eating nanakusagayu by the irori”, which - if you’re not familiar with those terms - can leave you staring at the screen wondering what on earth you’re meant to do next.

On the one hand, it’s lovely. It feels like you’re learning about rural Japanese traditions while you play.

On the other hand, there are moments where a little bit more localisation or explanation would help the flow of the game, especially for players outside Japan.

Sometimes you want to pause and look things up. Other times you just want to keep playing. So the jury is out on that one for me.

No Combat (As Far As I Can Tell)

Another thing I appreciate: no combat.

At least in the five hours I’ve played so far, there’s been no fighting, no monsters, and no sudden stress mechanics. It’s just about living your quiet countryside life.

For players who prefer their cosy games to stay firmly in the low-pressure, peaceful lane, that’s a big win.

First Impressions

After about five hours, my early verdict is simple:

Japanese Rural Life Adventure is absolutely lovely.

It’s calm, beautifully designed, culturally interesting, and feels perfectly suited to handheld play on the Steam Deck.

If you enjoy slow farming sims, cosy life sims, and games that let you unwind rather than grind every minute, Japanese Rural Life Adventure is well worth a look. Plus, it’s currently on sale at 20% off.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a countryside house to tidy and some nanakusagayu to figure out.