Happy Pride, everyone! I hope your Pride is either cozy or wild, whichever you desire. To celebrate, let’s talk about LGBTQ+ inclusive cozy games!
I know that some games, particularly farming sims, have all the characters as “player sexual.” This means you can date anyone, regardless of their gender or yours. But I’m looking for something a little deeper to consider these games of the LGBTQ+ variety.
I want canonically queer characters (regardless of player intervention), inclusive gender identities, and themes/storylines relevant to LGBTQ+ experiences.
Some of these games may deal with difficult subject-matter, like dysphoria, discrimination, depression, and homophobia/transphobia. Please play with care.
Best LGBTQ+ Cozy Games: My Recommendations
Here are my recommendations for the best LGBTQ+ cozy games, including genre details, a quick summary, what makes it appropriate for this category, and a “wholesome or not” sliding scale.
1. Wylde Flowers
- Play Wylde Flowers on Steam
- Play Wylde Flowers on Nintendo Switch
- Play Wylde Flowers on Apple Arcade
Genre: Farming sim
Wylde Flowers is a farming sim slash adventure RPG where you play as Tara, who just inherited a farm from her grandmother…and learned that she is a witch! You’ll spend your days gardening, caring for animals, crafting, doing quests for the villages, meeting otherworldly creatures, visiting magical realms, and performing rituals to protect the island you now call home.
LGBTQ+ Content: Tara can date Amira and Giva (two women) or Kim (who is non-binary). You can also shape Tara’s sexual identity through dialogue choices, determining the gender of past partners as you see fit. Being that Tara is not a “player self insert,” dating a woman actually feels meaningfully queer. She is a fully fleshed out character who can be straight, gay, or pansexual depending on your choices.
Wholesome —–|————————————— Gritty
2. Unpacking
- Play Unpacking on Steam
- Play Unpacking on Nintendo Switch
- Play Unpacking on App Store
- Play Unpacking on Google Play Store
Genre: Puzzle game
Unpacking is a serene, hand-drawn cozy puzzle game by Witch Beam that tells the intimate story of a woman’s life through the act of unpacking her belongings. With no timers, dialogue, or overt narrative, the game invites players to explore emotional milestones—childhood, college, love, heartbreak, and new beginnings—purely through environmental storytelling. Every item placed reveals something about the protagonist’s evolving identity, passions, and relationships.
LGBTQ+ Content: This is a bit of a spoiler, but the female protagonist ends up happily partnered with a woman!
Wholesome -|——————————————- Gritty
3. Moonstone Island
Genre: Creature collection
Moonstone Island is an open world exploration, creature collection, plus card battler. Phew, what a mouthful! In it, you play as an alchemist leaving home for the first time to study abroad for a year. It has a Kiki’s Delivery Service-vibe as you land in a small town and get to know the townsfolk there while you build out your skills. There are 66+ creatures to collect and battle, including rare “holographic” varieties, and over 100 procedurally generated islands to explore.
LGBTQ+ Content: Moonstone Island is packed full of LGBTQ+ characters, including Rowan (non-binary), Gaiana (non-binary), and Paolo (non-binary). You will also spot a trans flag in one of the romanceable character’s rooms and reports that the developer wrote some of the characters on the ace spectrum.
Wholesome -|——————————————- Gritty
4. Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To
Genre: Puzzle game
Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 is a cozy, queer-friendly puzzle game that blends the nostalgia of Panel de Pon-style matching with a heartfelt, character-driven story. Playing as Samar, a night-shift witch navigating love, friendship, and wayward spirits in a neon-drenched city, you’ll swap tiles freely to build satisfying combos in fast-paced duels or laid-back endless sessions. With its inclusive cast, gentle narrative about connection and healing, customizable difficulty, and a lush lofi soundtrack, Spirit Swap delivers a soulful mix of chill vibes and strategic challenge that’s as comforting as it is compelling.
LGBTQ+ Content: There are gays, there are theys, there are aces, and there is even a queer polycule! This. Game. Has. Everything.
Wholesome ——-|————————————- Gritty
5. Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator
Genre: Dating sim
Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator is a cozy dating sim where you play as a dad dating other hot dads! The character customization system is very inclusive, so you can build the (trans or cis) dad avatar to suit your deepest dadsona. Unapologetically queer, super funny, and more than a little weird, Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator is a memorable and silly dating sim for the modern era. Oh yeah, it’s voice acted by the Game Grumps and friends!
LGBTQ+ Content: You play as a queer dad dating other queer dads. That’s it. That’s the game!
Wholesome ————-|——————————- Gritty
6. Gone Home
Genre: Walking sim
Gone Home is a unique “spooky cozy game” about exploring an empty, haunted (?) house while trying to piece together the story of it’s missing residents. Dark corners, doors slamming, eerie locked spaces…the game is meant to be a riff off the horror walking sim genre. But an ultimately uplifting twist makes the game more cozy than horrific. There are no monsters, no gore—just light chills-n-thrills throughout.
LGBTQ+ Content: This is a spoiler, but the character who seems to be “missing” is not really missing at all. She has come out as queer and left to live her best life. The “horror” setting is more metaphoric than tangible, as it’s an expression of her anxiety and loneliness as she comes to understand who she truly is.
Wholesome ————————————–|—— Gritty
7. If Found…
Genre: Interactive visual novel
If Found… is an interactive visual novel, where you learn intimate details about Kasio’s life, her isolation, her found family, and her quest to belong somewhere. Players interact with the story in a unique way: holding a digital “eraser” to wipe away text and graphics, uncovering the next layer of story beneath. The game is emotionally weighty, but cozy to experience and play.
LGBTQ+ Content: The main character, Kasio, in If Found… is trans, and ends up moving out of her parents’ home due to the transphobia she experiences there. The game is heavy on the themes of belonging, self-acceptance, and found family.
Wholesome —————————————|—– Gritty
8. One Night, Hot Spring
Genre: Interactive visual novel
One Night, Hot Spring is a micro-novel with branching paths that can net you a series of endings. The narrative is anywhere from one to ten minutes long, so you can easily play through all of the story routes. In One Night, Hot Spring, Haru agrees to visit the hot springs with friends Manami and Erika. This is something that Haru struggles with, what with being trans in a country where she is not yet able to change the marker on her ID. The story invites you to see the world through Haru’s eyes, and join her in her struggle to navigate a society that isn’t always inviting.
LGBTQ+ Content: The main character is trans and queer. The story works as a great “explainer,” answering common questions about the trans* lived experience that people may not stop to consider. For example, simple things like going to the bathroom become a source of anxiety and potential trauma.
Wholesome ————|——————————– Gritty
9. Life is Strange
Genre: Interactive visual novel
Life is Strange is a visual novel with light puzzle elements about friendship, loyalty, fate, and regret. It’s one of the best cozy games available on PlayStation 4/5, too. When Max uses her strange powers to save a friend’s life, she becomes thrust into the center of a supernatural catastrophe of her own making. With branching “choices matter” dialogue paths and multiple endings, how Max’s story resolves is up to you. There are twists and turns galore, and a lot of content warnings (abuse, suicide), so please play with care!
LGBTQ+ Content: Max and Chloe are both canonically queer, and you can have them romantically involved with one another by the end of the game if you make the right choices.
Wholesome ————————————–|—— Gritty
10. The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood
Genre: Interactive visual novel
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is a deeply-interactive visual novel about a young witch who was banished from her coven and seeks to… Well, what she seeks is actually up to you. Through “choices matter” branching story paths, you can decide whether she wants freedom, reunification, or even revenge. You will also design tarot cards using energy and elements harvests from around you, preform readings for visiting witches and entities, and cohort with a powerful intergalactic being called a Behemoth.
LGBTQ+ Content: The main character, Fortuna, reads as aroace based on the way romance and attraction are dismissed as something that she is not interested in. However, through the course of the pick-your-path narration, you can end up in a queer relationship with a woman. There is also a trans witch, for whom your tarot reading helps “come out” for the first time.
Wholesome ——————————|————– Gritty
11. A Normal Lost Phone
Genre: Interactive visual novel
A Normal Lost Phone puts the player in possession of, well, a normal lost phone. Played in portrait mode (mobile is obviously the intended audience), you’ll interact with a lost-and-found smartphone, and the “game” consists of trying to unlock everything inside of it to see to whom it belonged. Under the guise of trying to return the phone to its owner, you’ll learn about Sam, the owner. And if you dig far enough, you might even be able to uncover where she went and why her phone was left behind.
LGBTQ+ Content: This contains spoiler content! Sam is bisexual and transgender, but her parents don’t know. In fact, few in her small town know who she truly is. Her online life, a web forum and dating app, give a colorful glimpse into a young woman growing to be comfortable with who she is inside.
Wholesome ———————–|——————— Gritty
12. Tavern Talk
- Play Tavern Talk on Steam
- Play Tavern Talk on Nintendo Switch
Genre: Interactive visual novel
Tavern Talk is a dialogue-driven visual novel reminiscent of Coffee Talk. You’ll play as an innkeeper who mixes and serves drinks to a laundry list of quirky, whimsical characters. By talking to each visitor, you can learn more about them and uncover tidbits of information about what’s going on across the region. Using these rumors, you can add quests to your bulletin board for wandering adventurers to take on. In doing so, you might even uncover a throughline across some of these mysteries, and uncover a darker story waiting to be heard.
LGBTQ+ Content: The diverse cast of characters include folks who go by they/them, they/she, and they/he. There isn’t a ton of romance in the story, but queer relationships are included in passing.
Wholesome ——————|————————– Gritty
13. Night in the Woods
Genre: Interactive visual novel
Night in the Woods is hard to pin down, genre-wise. It’s a story-driven exploration game with light puzzle platforming. The narration is mostly dialogue-led between a cast of anthropomorphic animals that includes cats, bears, foxes, and alligators. There’s a rhythm game at one point. And it has one of my favorite visual styles of any cozy game, like, ever. Returned from dropping out of college, Mae tries to reintegrate into small town life that has largely gone on and grown up without her. Emotionally dense and smartly written, I recommend Night in the Woods to anyone who will listen.
LGBTQ+ Content: Throughout Night in the Woods, you’ll meet characters who are openly queer, transgender, and non-binary. I’ll leave it to you to play the game and find out who is what.
Wholesome ————————————-|——- Gritty
Stay cozy, gamers!