Jul 17, 2024Indie Highlight
Farlands, developed by JanduSoft and Eric Rodríguez is your chance to own your very own planet! You were seeking a lifestyle change and the chance just fell in your lap. In fact, this old, abandoned planet is selling for a steep discount! So set out on an exciting adventure on your worn-out ship and accompanied by an assistance bot to start a new farming endeavor in a far corner of the galaxy!
Take on the usual tasks of clearing out weeds, chopping down trees, and gathering stones. However, you’re not surrounded by the plant life you’re used to. It’s some fantastic alien plant life! Your goal is to take this abandoned planet and turn it into a thriving homestead. So, Grow a variety of fun-looking crops. Set out on an exploration mission to see the surrounding planets. Take some time to relax with fishing. Also get to know a cast of quirky locals who chose to continue living in such a remote part of the galaxy!
Farlands is coming to Steam July 25th! Plus, it is coming to the Nintendo Switch at some point in 2025.
Little-Known Galaxy is another adorable and space-based farming game you should try!
May 29, 2024Indie Highlight
Have you ever wanted to run your very own shop? That’s exactly what you do in Cozy Keep by developer Unbossed Games. You’re a shopkeeper in a fantastical realm where you’ll engage with many aspects that come with running a shop. Trade with other merchants, deal with thieves, take care of customers, pay taxes (or maybe don’t, your choice), and keep your shop stocked with the best items. Of course, you want to run a prosperous business, so buy low and sell high!
Start your shopkeeping adventure with a new to you building! It needs a little cleaning and some furniture, but it’s all yours. Add some decorations to make the place more appealing, too. You aren’t stuck just running your shop, though. Cozy Keep offers much more variety to your gaming day through crafting, hunting, fishing, exploring, and resource gathering. You even get to run a farm! The items you gather, the stuff you craft, and the crops you grow can all be put up for sale in your shop or used for your survival. Nothing goes to waste here.
Cozy Keep is listed on Steam, but has no release date available. You can add it to your Wishlist, though, and check out the demo!
Wonder Wandelier is an adorable shop-keeping sim where you craft and sell wands!
May 15, 2024Indie Highlight
Immerse yourself in the enchanting world of Teatopia by developer Yixin Games, where you run your own farm in an environment full of Chinese culture and beautiful designs. Turn your overgrown farm into a haven for crops. Care for a variety of animals, from livestock to pets. Cook some exquisite meals and teas. Plus, immerse yourself in a vibrant community while discovering the secrets to the underworld’s Ghost Market.
Teatopia follows the classic farming sim formula, where you start out on a farm that’s overgrown with wild weeds and tremendous trees. Of course, you’ll work hard to clear these obstacles in order to free up space for your crops. Build sheds to care for livestock and even breed them. They’ll produce products like eggs and milk for you. But you can also have an animal companion, like a cat or dog. The pets find treasures for you if you develop a deep bond!
Explore the secrets of traditional Chinese cooking that Teatopia has to offer by whipping up delicious recipes you acquire from all over. You even manage your own tea plantation and create exquisite teas. And of course, you get to explore the East and West urban areas, where you’ll find different attractions and vibrant characters. Plus, the Ghost Market is an intriguing place to wander! This enchanting underworld is where fairies and humans converge, but it also has some unique products for sale.
Teatopia has no set release date yet. You can find it on Steam, though, where you can add it to your Wishlist!
Tales of Seikyu is another fantastic looking farm sim with fantasy elements.
Apr 10, 2024Indie Highlight
Set out on a fantastic adventure in a town hidden from the outside world in Crimson Hollow by developer Sheeba Studios. This little hamlet is a magical town protected by a crimson moon, and it’s now where you call home. Explore the enchanting surroundings while you pursue new professions. Get to know the magical locals and help them with tasks. Even defend your little town from enemies who threaten your way of life!
Start your journey in Crimson Hollow with customizing your very own character. Choose your clothes, hair, and skin to make a truly unique character. Then, get to know your neighbors. There’s a witch, vampire, and mermaid who will also need a helping hand. As you get to know them and help them, you’ll uncover secrets and perks. Become proficient in mining, blacksmithing, fishing, herbalism, and alchemy, too. Even collect treasures as you journey through life in this mysterious little town!
You can find Crimson Hollow on Steam where you can Wishlist it. There is currently no release date available.
Moonlight Peaks is another upcoming life sim game with fantasy elements!
Mar 7, 2024Indie Highlight
In Bloody Hell Hotel by developer Unfold Games, you play as a vampire who’s just woken up from a coma that’s lasted centuries. Upon waking, you find your grand estate is in ruins. You decide to renovate it and turn it into a functioning hotel! That’s no easy task, of course. Times are tough and resources are scarce, plus you being a blood-thirsty vampire isn’t exactly helpful with customer satisfaction. But none of that will stop you!
Beneath your estate is a crypt and cave system. They’re the perfect spot to forage, farm, and craft! Bloody Hell Hotel has customers that expect high-quality room service, which you can give them by gathering mushrooms, milking the undead cow, and collecting eggs from zombie chickens. Prepare tasty dishes for your guests and serve them to meet their satisfaction. Use your vampire powers to clean up the run-down estate. Then, upgrade, decorate, and furnish the hotel to make it more inviting for customers. Even hire staff to help you throughout the hotel. And if there’s a demanding guest you don’t want to serve, eat them! You’re a vampire, after all. Don’t forget to head down to the crypt to craft some weapons, and set out on a journey through the dungeons to earn some resources and upgrades for the hotel!
Bloody Hell Hotel is coming to Steam, but has no release date yet.
Don’t forget to check out Moonlight Peaks for more vampire fun!
Feb 7, 2024Mobile Game
Welcome to My Home is a charming mobile game where you can escape to a gorgeous world full of decorating, farming, and crafting! Customize your character using hundreds of different outfits and hairstyles. Decorate your adorable farmhouse with different kinds of flooring and walls. Place chairs, stools, benches, and more to create a cozy living space, as well as crafting stations to make a working workshop.
The focus of this game is completing quests and story missions by talking with NPCs and fulfilling their needs. You also can fulfill orders in Welcome to My Home from an order board to earn money needed for upgrades and items. Plus, there’s a social aspect to the whole thing. Make friends with other people and post on your own timeline or interact with your friends’ posts like other social media apps. Request help from your friends and help them with their requests. You can also join a guild for more social fun!
Welcome to My Home is available now on Google Play and Apple App store.
Cozy Islands is another cute and cozy mobile game app!
Dec 21, 2023Feature
Ready for another list? This time it’s a list of games released this year that are perfect for console users. Whether they’re receiving a new one for Christmas or you’re just searching for some cozy games to get your console owner, this list is a good place to turn! Many of these games are on more than just Xbox and PlayStation, but sometimes it’s hard to weed out what is or isn’t. At any rate, these are all cozy games that should meet some needs. Relaxing farming sim, cute survival craft, cozy exploration, spell-slinging dungeon exploration, intriguing conversations, and potion making are all here.
So here are 6 cozy games for the console!
Lego Fortnite is a brand new mode in the popular game where you play as a Lego figure. Play solo, or with up to seven other people and explore a fun new world. It’s a survival crafting game, so you’ll need to collect resources for crafting. Build weapons, homes, and many more useful items. Recruit villager NPCs as you expand your base of operations. They’ll be able to collect resources and battle enemies with you!
Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos is the most recent entry in the franchise. Ten years ago, a great calamity. A volcano erupted and the Harvest Goddess and Harvest Sprites used the last of their power to keep the inhabitants safe, but it isolated the villages from each other. Some people were even trapped outside their villages. Ten years after the eruption, you find a message in a bottle containing an SOS message, and with the help of your inventor friend and others, you’re on a mission to revive the Harvest Goddess and Harvest Sprites and a mission to reconnect the villages. Farm in different biomes, raise a variety of animals, take part in different festivals and contests, so much more!
Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly is the second episode in the Coffee Talk series. In it, you play as the proprietor of a cozy little coffee shop that’s only open at night. Set in an alternate present-day Seattle, join a cast of fantasy characters and serve up some delicious hot drinks as you explore the world by listening to their stories. Even use your phone to follow their lives outside of the coffee shop via social media, and return lost items to further influence the story.
In Mail Time, you’re a newly minted Mail Scout in the cozy forest of Grumblewood Grove. It’s your first day on the job, and you’re full of unbridled enthusiasm for your new adventure. With your cute little mushroom hat, over 46,000 character design combinations, and a bag full of mail, it’s up to you to deliver all of the letters to the inhabitants of Grumblewood Grove. You shouldn’t dally, but Mail Time is a relaxing adventure. Run through the forest, jump over obstacles, and even use letters to glide your way around the forest to reach your destinations. Explore 8 different colorful areas and meet 15 unique characters with their own stories and charms.
Spells & Secrets is a captivating rogue-lite adventure where you use different spells to fight your way through dungeon levels. You’re a first-year student at the esteemed wizard Academy of Greifenstein, eager to learn together with your fellow magic users. However, something odd has happened to the school on your very first day there. It’s now over-run by magical creatures, and of course it’s up to you to defeat those creatures, save your classmates, and save the school.
Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator takes inspiration from medieval manuscripts and medical books. Play as an alchemist who runs their own shop. Grow your own ingredients or haggle with traveling merchants to buy them. Use your various tools to brew potions using those ingredients. Even experiment to concoct new types of potions, then sell your wares in your shop!
Looking for more ideas? Check out this list of the 15 Best 3DS Games of All Time. You can also find a list 5 Games Perfect for Your New Steam Deck, and 5 Farming Games for Your New Switch.
Dec 20, 2023Feature
We’re another week closer to Christmas and I can’t wait! I love going around the neighborhood looking at people’s decorations. I think that’s part of why ACNH having lights in trees feels so satisfying to me. What else is super exciting about the Christmas season, is the new gaming systems and games you get! And with Steam Decks being fairly popular, what better way to celebrate the approach of the holiday with some gift ideas for that system?
The following list only features games that have been Steam Deck verified, to save the gamer in your life some troubles and heartache!
My Time at Sandrock is the long awaited sequel to My Time at Portia. And just like the prequel, this one takes place in a post-apocalyptic world 330 years after the Day of Calamity destroyed a lot of modern technology. You accept the role as a builder of Sandrock, a desert community. Gather resources to build machines, befriend locals, fight enemies, and lead the town to economic prosperity! Uncover the backstories for over 30 NPCs while you forge friendships with them. Complete side quests, play fun minigames, and even team up with a friend to play the game together!
APICO is a lovely game where you leave your boring city job and return to Port APICO, where you grew up, and return to your beekeeping roots. The APICO islands feature a set of lush, beautiful environments for you to explore. Each biome has its own breed of bees for you to discover. Gather resources to use in your studies or crafting. Make and sell Apicola (honey) and other beekeeping items you will discover. Play fun beekeeping minigames, without the stings! More importantly, breed different cross breeds of bees and discover 30 new species to help repopulate the APICO islands with. Plus, uncover the secrets of the islands while you explore.
I even have a review of APICO here, if you want more information!
Cornucopia offers the same comfortable features players have grown to love from the farming game genre, but in a lovely 2.5D pixel art style. You plant 52 types of fruit trees, 15 types of berry bushes, and grow 52 different crops, including their different artisan varieties. Sell crops or cook them up in one of 200 different recipes! There’s also logging, fishing, mining, and pet breeding to occupy your days. Also enter the pets into competitive races or use them to help you fight monsters. Then, kick back and relax with some crafting and decorating. Unlock furniture and decorations to turn your farm into your favorite getaway. Make friends with Cornucopia’s NPCs, too. Who knows, maybe one of the over 47 NPCs will catch your fancy! Romance them, go on dates, and unlock their romantic cut scenes. Even marry one, start a family, and decorate their room in your house.
Play as a simple journeyman blacksmith in While the Iron’s Hot. You’re looking to become a master blacksmith. This game features an exciting combat-free experience. Journey to the mystical lands of Ellian where you’ll meet a cast of quirky characters. Explore tunnels full of puzzles and resources. Master every step of the blacksmithing process. Smelt ore, turn metal into ingots, and shape them into useful items. Use your skills to repair machinery to open up new areas to explore. Craft equipment that helps you explore new regions. Even work hard to restore the defunct blacksmithing town of Stal. Revitalizing the village just might prove to Eillian’s artisans that you’re worthy of being a master blacksmith!
In Loddlenaut, you play as an interstellar custodian who has been hired by the spacefaring mega corporation GUPPI to clean up their mess. They’ve inundated GUP-14 with pollution, and want you to restore the planet. This is an open-world ocean adventure where you’ll get to explore this beautiful alien planet, along with the corporate ruins of GUPPI. You’ll find remnants of their buildings, ships, and machinery that have all sunken to the bottom of the game’s ocean. Use your bubble gun, clean up the trash, remove oil spills, and uncover clues about the past inhabitants. Unlock better gadgets to help you clean up different types of ocean pollution. Recycle the trash you collect and use it to craft items. Even befriend cute little axolotl-looking creatures called loddles!
Did you get a new Switch instead? Or perhaps you got one for someone and want some games to go with it. Either way, check out my list of 5 Farming Games for Your New Switch!