I feel like I barely made a dent in my 2023 wishlist. I still need to play Dave the Diver, Paranormasight, and Coral Island (I was waiting for console). I want to finally roll credits on and review Roots of Pacha. I haven’t touched House Flipper 2, A Date with Death, While the Iron’s Hot, or even Disney Dreamlight Valley!
I find it hard to keep up with games sometimes. There’s so much I want to do with my evenings. I’m writing a book, learning Japanese, and teaching myself about repairing retro electronics. Games still steal a huge piece of my heart, but sometimes I end up playing something that doesn’t fit the vibe of this site (Baulder’s Gate 3, for example) and I feel like I’m “wasting time.” I wish I could play more, write more, create more—but it’s hard to keep up.
I had some awesome moments with cozy games last year. My Time at Sandrock blew me away. I easily sunk 110+ hours into it, soaking up the colorful characters, story surprises, and cozy country aesthetic. In fact, I still find myself opening up my save file just to court the local pottery artist or get my mining fix.
Last year also had a lot of duds, unfortunately. Harvest Moon: Winds of Anthos tried to go “open world” but ended up emptyish; Fashion Dreamer was activity-barren despite a relatively high price point; and Fae Farm had some of the mot dull NPCs I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting in a game.
Needless to say, I’m excited to see what the next 12 months have to offer. Will we hit the highs of Dave the Diver, Venba, Moonstone Island, and My Time at Sandrock? I can’t wait to find out with you.
Now, 2024 is upon us and time ticks ever onward. The New Year is packed with cozy games from an assortment of genres, from RPG to puzzle to farming sim.
Here are my most-anticipated cozy games coming in 2024:
1. Eastward: Octopia – 31 Jan, 2024
Octopia is expansive DLC for the game Eastward (the base game is required to play). Sam and John return in an “alternative reality,” where the focus is on farming, community-building, and animal rearing. Turn an abandoned fairground into a thriving village; some OG Eastward characters might even stop by for a visit!
2. Persona 3 Reloaded – 2 Feb, 2024
Persona 3 Reloaded is a remake of the classic PS2 title, a genre defining blend between dating sim, time management, and turn-based JRPG. Decide how to spend your time: study, make friends, date, train, develop skills, work a part time job, or slay monsters to protect the world from chaotic entities known as Shadows.
3. Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator – 22 Feb, 2024
Revitalize an abandoned community garden in a slow-paced, aesthetic simulation game. Choose what seeds and decorations you want in your space and discover different colourful varieties for each plant. Find a balance between perfectly manicured and natural growth that works for you.
4. Islands of Insight – Feb 2024
Islands of Insight is a shared-world puzzle game where you can find and solve a variety puzzles at your own pace and encounter other players in real-time. Challenge yourself with perspective puzzles, mazes, logic problems, and environmental challenges as a Seeker traversing a series of mysterious floating islands. I’m getting “The Witness meets Journey.”
5. Life by You – 5 Mar, 2024
Life by You is a moddable and open life-simulation game from some ex-Sims developers who wanted to put their own twist on a classic experience. Along with everything you would expect from a Sims-esc, there are a variety of deep Creator Tools that empower payers to make their own in-game content through mods.
6. Cozynauts – 28 Mar, 2024
Cozynauts is casual, action-adventure space colony sim that lets you build, craft, farm, fish, and discover alien life in a solo or co-op gaming experience. Build a settlement from scratch while discovering the secrets of the planet both above and below ground.
7. Europa – 16 April, 2024
Europa is explorative 3D platformer where you play as an android named Zee traversing the moon called Europa, a stunning terraformed paradise in Jupiter’s shadow. Run, glide, and jump as you explore a breath-taking Ghibli-esc world and solve puzzles along the way.
8. Critter Cove – Q1 2024
Critter Cove is an open world life sim and town building game set in a post-apocalyptic land. Beautify the town, clean up the environment, and hopefully improve Critter Cove’s tourist rating to breathe life back into a once bustling community. Seems like a great choice for Animal Crossing fans!
9. Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley – Q1 2024
- Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley on Steam
- Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley on Nintendo Switch (TBD)
- Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley on Playstation 5 (TBD)
- Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley on Xbox One (TBD)
Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley is a hand-drawn exploration adventure game featuring Snufkin of the Moomin series of books fame. Snufkin, a philosophical vagabond, embarks on a story-rich musical adventure filled with quirky and memorable characters. Quintessentially Nordic, this game has a cozy, hygge vibe.
10. Botany Manor – Q2 2024
Botany Manor is a puzzle game-meets-walking sim about revitalizing an abandoned and downtrodden community garden. Play as Arabella Greene, a retired botanist, and find hidden treasures of botanical research that will unlock the secrets of ensuring the varieties of forgotten flora thrive here.
11. Fantastic Haven – Q2 2024
Fantastic Haven is fantasy sandbox city-builder where the goal is to act as the Elders and protect endangered fantasy creatures, ensuring the return of magic to the land. Use diplomacy and teach people to live in harmony with nature as you explore, research, and craft to make your refuge prosper.
12. Dungeon Inn – Q2 2024
Dungeon Inn is a turn-based management puzzle game where you play as Sarah, manager of the Dungeon Inn, which hosts two rival guilds and all the tensions between them. With the dungeon around the corner, Sarah must navigate hostilities and business challenges to ensure to inn thrives.
13. Magic Inn – Q2 2024
Magic Inn is a life sim and deck-builder centered around a wizard innkeeper who must navigate social and business intricacies to create their perfect hospitality hub. Converse with customers using innovative card deck-based gameplay to build relationships and grow your business.
14. Bloomtown: A Different Story – Q2 2024
Bloomtown: A Different Story is a narrative JRPG mixing turn-based monster taming and social elements. Nostalgia abounds in this 1960s Americana world, where Emily and her friends must work together to save their cozy town from the evil creatures currently possessing its residents!
15. Sopa – Q2 2024
Inspired by Miyazaki, Coco, and The Little Prince, Sopa is a cinematic narrative adventure about family, the passage of time, and special moments we accrue along the way. After falling into a mystical world in his grandmothers’ pantry, young Miho must retrace the steps of a mysterious great traveler before he can return home.
16. Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island – Q3 2024
Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island is the tale of Alex, a backpacker shipwrecked on a lost mythical island in a story-rich adventure exploration game. Befriend the gods of Greek mythology, help them restore their memories, and discover the secrets of the mysterious island in order to make your way back home.
17. Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time – Expected 2024
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time is a long awaited sequel to the 2012 game Fantasy Life for the Nintendo 3DS. A charming life sim where you settle on a ruined island and make friends, craft items, and build your own city from the ground up with some light time travel sprinkled in for good measures!
18. SUMMERHOUSE – Expected 2024
SUMMERHOUSE is casual sandbox city-builder where you can craft a neighbourhood of tiny, charming homes at your own pace and enjoy the feeling of long lost summer afternoons. There are no rules, and you can’t win or lose—just design and build to your heart’s content.
19. Neko Odyssey – Expected 2024
Neko Odyssey is a pixel graphics casual adventure game about exploring a Japan-inspired city and taking photos of cats. Can you find, befriend, and photograph all the cats in order to grow your (in-game) online profile as a social media influencer?
20. Trash Goblin – Expected 2024
Trash Goblin is a wholesome shopkeeping game where you solve puzzles to clean and repair trinkets so that you can upcycle them in your store. Meet a colorful cast of characters, upgrade your store, and even expand your business around town.
21. despelote – Expected 2024
Despelote is a slice-of-life game about childhood and soccer in 2001 Quito as Ecuador comes closer than ever to qualifying for the World Cup. Physics-based soccer play encourages you to move around town and become immersed in the local streets and parks in the POV of eight year old Julián.
22. Tales of Seikyu – Expected 2024
Tales of Seikyu is a fantasy farming sim with solo or co-op play options. Restore a countryside inn to its former glory amidst yokai legends and shape-shifter magic. Cultivate crops; construct coops and barns; craft unique recipes; renovate old buildings; and enjoy an eclectic cast of unique inhabitants.
23. Magical Delicacy – Expected 2024
Magical Delicacy is a pixel art platformer and cooking game that I first stumbled across at PAX West 2023. Play as the young witch Flora and cook magical delicacies, collect unique ingredients, and develop your shop in this wholesome exploration and management game.
24. While We Wait Here – Expected 2024
While We Wait Here is a choose-your-own adventure visual novel with horror and comedy elements expertly blended together. Serve customers their orders and get to know them through pick-you-path narrative branches—all as you wait for the world to end.
25. Tiny Glade – Expected 2024
Tiny Glade is a relaxing sandbox building game about designing castles in a stunning pastoral environment. Assemble every brick, pebble, and plank according to your creative whims. Enjoy having zero objectives and zero pressure—simply build and create your days away.
26. Fields of Mistria – Expected 2024
Fields of Mistria is a nostalgic farming and life sim with 80s/90s anime aesthetics, adorable pixel graphics, and a Stardew Valley-esc vibe. Customize your character and farm; garden, fish, mine, and craft; start a family with one of 12 marriage candidates; and restore the town of Mistria to its former glory.
27. Wanderful – Expected 2024
Wanderful is an exploration and building “board game” about forging your own adventure by placing tiles in procedurally generated worlds. Race to the end of the world to try and beat the ultimate adventurer’s high score. Uncover landscapes, creatures, and secrets in this create-your-own-story strategy game.
28. Olliefrog Toad Skater – Expected 2024
Olliefrog Toad Skater is another game I spotted at PAX West 2023. It’s a whimsical, amphibian-based skateboarding game where you can create your own toad or frog and hit the skate parks to rack up points with grab tricks, grinds, spine transfers, acid drops, wallrides, and more.
29. Toroa – Expected 2024
Toroa is an atmospheric exploration game about traversing the skies and seas as Toroa, a bird guided by Tāwhirimātea, Māori God of the weather. Help lead Toroa through their past, present, and future to finally reunite them with their family.
30. Bugaboo Pocket – Expected 2024
- Bugaboo Pocket on Steam
- Bugaboo Pocket on Nintendo Switch (TBD)
Bugaboo Pocket is a virtual pet and creature collector game in the POV of a research scientist living in a cabin with just bugs and a penpal for company. Raise and release bugs to help Beetleback Ridge recover from a devastating fire and spoil your critters with affection, minigames, food, and even furniture.
31. Townframe – Expected 2024
Townframe is a relaxing puzzle game where you recreate towns from people’s memories. Collect written instructions and modify the buildings or use different tools, such as one that makes wind, to create a scene that matches the memory.
32. Paper Trail – Expected 2024
Paper Trail is a charming top-down puzzle adventure following Paige, an academic leaving home for the first time. Help her cross beautiful scenes by manipulating the foldable, paper world around her to create new pathways. An absolutely stunning and unique puzzle narrative.
33. Beastieball – Expected 2024
Beastieball is a turn-based volleyball RPG and creature collector that has you coach a sports team of Beasties rather than engage in combat. Help your creatures form bonds in order to improve their playing ability. Unclock creature combo moves as besties, sweethearts, partners, or even rivals.
34. Mika and The Witch’s Mountain – Expected 2024
- Mika and The Witch’s Mountain on Steam
- Mika and The Witch’s Mountain on Nintendo Switch (TBD)
- Mika and The Witch’s Mountain on Playstation 4 & 5 (TBD)
- Mika and The Witch’s Mountain on Xbox One (TBD)
Mika and The Witch’s Mountain is the next game by Chibig, the developers who created My Summer in Mara—one of my favorite farming sim in the world. Play as an aspiring witch, Mika, who delivers packages to the townspeople of a small island. It’s Harvest Moon meets Kiki’s Delivery Service!
35. Love, Ghostie – Expected 2024
Love, Ghostie is a wholesome matchmaking game about helping ghosts and spirits find The One. Gift items, set up dates, and learn about the cute and quirky inhabitants. Every resident is shippable with every other resident so enjoy mixing and matching them as you follow their stories.
36. Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story – Expected 2024
- Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story on Steam
- Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story on Nintendo Switch
Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story is a crafting RPG and farming sim set in the whimsical world of Bandle City. Everything has fallen into chaos after a fateful party and it’s your job to use your knitting magic and backpack house to restore the portals and reunite the world once more.
37. SANYA – Expected 2024
SANYA is a point-and-click narrative adventure set in the 1990’s, meaning it is on the top of my priority list as a Millennial. Follow a little boy named Sanya who rescues a stray puppy in the last days of summer before school. Ride your bike, play with friends, take care of your pup, and drink in the delicious nostalgia.
38. Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To – Expected 2024
Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To is an LGBTQ+ match-3 dating sim that I spotted at last year’s PAX West and fell head over heels for. Explore a lush, narrative-driven world of witchy demons and court them with colourful, dynamic match-3 rounds set to a custom lofi soundtrack.
39. Echoes of the Plum Grove – Expected 2024
Echoes of the Plum Grove is a colony and farming sim set in the cutesy town of Honeywood. Farm, socialize, make friends, cook, craft, forage, and explore as the newest resident looking to help build a thriving community. Decisions matter in this quaint but mysterious casual game.
40. Ova Magica – Expected 2024
Ova Magica is a farming sim and crafting RPG with chibi character sprites and a charming anime-inspired cast. Tagged as “Stardew Valley meets Pokémon,” players have the ability to tame and collect critters to help take care of your farmstead in the quaint little hamlet called Clover Town.
Bonus: The Nintendo Switch 2 – Estimated 2024 Arrival
Is the Nintendo Switch 2 coming out 2024? Rumors are swirling and folks certainly seem to think so! What do you think? Will you pick one up on Day One, or are you content with your OG version/LED?
Conclusion
How many of these 40 games will I realistically have time to play? I’m not sure. I’m going to try my best to wrap up my 2023 Must Plays before leaping into Octopia, Garden Life, and Persona 3 Reloaded.
Next year is stacked with cozy titles. If I had to pick a top 3 (gun to my head), I’d go with:
- Persona 3 Reload
- Mika and The Witch’s Mountain
- Fantasy Life i
What’s your most anticipated cozy game this year? Let me know in the comments!
Stay cozy, gamers!
You Might Also Like: 12 Best Story Driven Games on Steam