January 2025 was one of the longest years I’ve experienced, and I know I’m not the only one feeling it. Following up from last year’s game recommendations for queer relationships, here are my cozy game recommendations for starting the year.
Cozy games took center-stage during the pandemic, and they haven’t lost their popularity since. Rather than being defined by genre, cozy games are identified by vibes. They’re soft in tone and connect players to themes like friendship and cooperation. Violence is minimal (or cartoonish, at most) and players are only asked for minimal reflexes and focus.
Cozy gaming is for people who don’t want to commit to something with a vicious learning curve or a very high ticket price in hardware. Here are my favorite cozy game contenders for starting off 2025.
Cats/Dogs/Birds Organized Neatly
What do I need to run it?
PC, Nintendo Switch
What’s the level of commitment?
About $3 for each of the games individually. Cats was the earliest release. It was followed home by Dogs, and Birds is the most recent entry. They’re usually bundled together for under $8.
What’s the vibe?
The Organized Neatly series are puzzle games with the same premise. You have a grid and a set of adorable animals in odd shapes. You have to fit them into the grid perfectly to advance to the next level. When you pick them up to put them on the grid, they make cute noises and odd facial expressions. There’s a chill soundtrack to keep your head in the game.
That’s really it. Check the trailer for Cats if you don’t believe me. If you can digest that paragraph, you know how to play the game. Each game slowly ramps up in difficulty as more complicated grids and weirder animals are introduced. Like any puzzler, there will be a point where your skills are matched, but the game is so low-stakes that there’s nothing to be frustrated over. Sometimes, I launch Cats just to rotate the little kitties around and hear them meow. Top-notch.
Spiritfarer
What do I need to run it?
PC, Mac, Linux, Nintendo Switch, PS 4, XBox One, iOS, or Android. Your work laptop should be fine.
What’s the level of commitment?
$30 and many boxes of tissues.
What’s the vibe?
Spiritfarer is a ludicrously beloved game about death. Specifically, you play the titular spiritfarer, a Charon-like persona who looks after the souls of the departed and sees to their needs before they move to the next step of the afterlife. The game has a sublime cast of anthropomorphic spirits in your care. Each day is spent maintaining your ship, running errands, and taking care of your spirit. When they’re ready, you’ll have to do the most difficult thing of all: say goodbye.
I’m dead serious about budgeting for tissues when you start this game.
The game is also a graphical charmscape. Slick animations and beautifully-drawn backgrounds give the afterlife a picture book appeal. Every bit of your ship is lovingly detailed for a grand adventure about love and loss. There’s also an adorable cat named Daffodil who follows you around and is a surprisingly competent lumberjack. The game has two player co-op for people who don’t want to cry alone (player 2 gets to be the cat).
Tiny Glade
What do I need to run it?
PC, GeForce Now, Linux. In layperson’s terms, you’ll want a robust work machine or something else with a bit of kick.
What’s the level of commitment?
$15 to paint the 3D castle of your yearning dreams.
What’s the vibe?
A pop-up medieval town and castle builder. Pick a virtual paintbrush (walls, roofs, staircases, etc.) and just paint it onto the terrain. The game’s procedural generation (not generative AI) handles the placement and fittings automatically so you don’t have to fight over individual ledges. Tiny Glade skips that part that makes other building games frustrating by ditching the learning curve and finicky tools. All you have to do is pick a parcel of land and paint the medieval cityscape you want to see.
When you’re done, take a screenshot of your seasonally lit town and admire the computer-assisted handiwork to the playful, rustic soundtrack. There’s no resource management, conflict, or pressure in Tiny Glade. Although some would say that constitutes a lack of depth, this is a game that sets out to do one thing and does it well.
There are also itty bitty sheep that you can interact with while you build.
Spirit City: Lofi Sessions
What do I need to run it?
PC, GeForce Now, your work laptop (if you’re fine with it huffing and puffing)
What’s the level of commitment?
$12 to decorate your room, adopt spirit creatures, and get some scheduling utilities for your real world.
What’s the vibe?
Well, the short version is that someone turned lofi beats girl into a game. Spirit City: Lofi Sessions is a slice-of-life game that plays out in a dream bedroom. Customize a character and decorate a perfect open plan loft. Pick everything from soundtrack to ambient lighting and watch your virtual self live a softcore life worthy of fantasy. When it gets lonesome, you can adopt a spirit creature and give it a plush bed by your side.
Mooncube Games could have stopped after making a functional game, but they understood the spirit of the source material well enough to build further. Spirit City also has optional utilities and time-management tools that tie into each user’s real life. An in-game pomodoro timer to encourage short bursts of work. A journal keeps your mind sharp and reflective. The habit tracker does the work of our stats-oriented smartwatch apps with a gentler touch.
Spirit City is a relaxed decorating game that optionally pulls double-duty as a productivity tool. After you pick your work soundtrack and ambiance for the session, it’s meant to run in the background while you’re on-task in the real world. The game rewards your efforts with new pets and decorations. It succeeds where similar productivity ‘games’ and apps fail because it’s not buried under obnoxious alarms, adverts, and in-app transactions. It’s a productivity supporter, not an enforcer.
Garden Galaxy
What do I need to run it?
PC only. Lightweight and simple, though!
What’s the level of commitment?
$10 to start your charming isometric garden. And the next. And the next. And the next one…
What’s the vibe?
Another pick-up-and-play entry like Birds Organized Neatly. This time, you’re just popping garden plants and decorations onto the ground to kick off a new terrace. No fumbling with build tools and camera angles when everyone slides neatly into ground-level squares or slips into nearby interactables. Developed by one woman, Garden Galaxy has the charm of a board game without the vicious tableside competition.
You’re not short on content either. There are enough biomes and drops to keep anybody entertained as their project sprawls out of control. The choice to make the player adapt to random drops and plants rather than allowing us to buy whatever we please is inspired. It keeps the mind away from tight organization and nudges us toward letting the garden grow organically. It’s resource management, not budget management at its best.
Fields of Mistria belongs on this list for sure