I love watching video game awards shows that hyper-focus on indies. I also like having someone feed me the names of a bunch of cozy game titles I may have missed or forgotten about (the backlog is rough these days).
So I took some time off work today to watch the whole of “The Game Awards for Games Who Can’t Afford The Game Awards,” AKA TGAGWCAGA.
What is TGAGWCAGA?
TGAGWCAGA stands for “The Game Awards for Games Who Can’t Afford The Game Awards” and it was a post-Game Awards livestream hosted by indie developer team Pengonauts Studio (makers of indie roguelike StarVaders) to showcase…well, all the cool games that can’t afford to buy an ad spot at The Game Awards or reach the mega-marketing budget necessary to appear on the show organically each year.
My Top 3 Cozy Picks from #TGAGWCAGA2024
1. Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island
Stranded on a mythical island, you’re backpacker Alex, here to make pals with Greek gods who’ve totally blanked on who they are. Roam this ever-changing island, uncover its secrets, and help the gods remember their glory days. Friendships, mysteries, and divine shenanigans await!
Screenshot below!
2. On Your Tail
Relax and play as a writer on vacation who accidentally lands in a cute seaside town with a big mystery: an elusive thief! Solve the case, make new friends, and uncover the town’s secrets while enjoying heartwarming stories and quirky characters. It’s the perfect mix of cozy and detective!
I had to give On Your Tail a special shoutout, not only because I can’t wait to play it but because it releases in three days: Dec 16/24! Preemptive congrats to the whole Memorable Games team.
Screenshot below!
3. Please Touch the Artwork 2
Dive into a hand-painted, cozy hidden object adventure in a strange, dreamlike world. Collect quirky items for the colorful characters, repair damaged paintings, and solve chill puzzles. Join a lost skeleton painter on his journey home—all in a short, sweet, and 100% FREE game (no ads, no IAP)!
Screenshot below!
TGAGWCAGA 2024: Cozy Games You Can Play RIGHT NOW
Here is every single thing that has even a whisper of “cozy game vibes” from The Game Awards For Games Who Can’t Afford the Game Awards 2024. There were so many AMAZING titles that I couldn’t cover them all in detail, but you bet you’re butt I’m still going to shout every single one of them out.
Farewell North
You’re a border collie on a mission to splash color back into your human’s gray, moody life! Wander through the stunning northern isles of Scotland, sniff out secret trails, herd critters, and set wildlife free. It’s all part of a heart-tugging tale about letting go and saying goodbye.
Reus 2
Flex your godly muscles by shaping entire worlds with your epic titans! Craft perfect ecosystems, watch humans thrive, and let their progress unlock even cooler stuff. Build planets to match their vibes and fill the cosmos with your creative spark!
Currently rated Overwhelming Positive on Steam!
Roots of Yggdrasil
Get ready to build, explore, and conquer the Nine Realms in a post-Ragnarok world! Gather artifacts, upgrade your deck, and grow your settlements as you climb to the top of Yggdrasil. It’s a roguelike city-builder—so the end of the world is just the beginning!
Hacky
Step into the neon glow of cyberspace as an elite hacker in this cyberpunk typing simulator! Type your way through networks, steal data with easy commands, and unlock cool abilities as you dive deeper into the pixelated digital abyss. No coding chops required—just fingers of fury! But watch out—the system’s coming for you.
Two Falls
Step into the 17th-century Canadian wilderness with Jeanne, a Frenchwoman seeking a fresh start, and Maikan, an Innu hunter tracking down whatever’s disturbing the forest. Your choices will shape their personalities in this story-driven, single-player adventure. Ready to carve your path in history?
Crab God
Crab God is a deep, atmospheric strategy game where you lead your Crabling colony through the wild ocean depths. Protect the sacred egg of the next Crab God, restore coral reefs, and make a real-world impact while you dive into underwater action. Make waves and give a claw salute to victory!
Pro Philosopher 2: Governments & Grievances
The “Debating Sim” is back! Go head-to-head with famous philosophers, challenge their ideas, and either change the world or just roast them by telling everyone they stink. NONSENSE!
Spirit City: Lofi Sessions
Spirit City: Lofi Sessions is your chill, gamified focus buddy, paired with a relaxing lofi soundtrack. Collect spirits, decorate your cozy virtual space, and boost your real-life productivity with features designed to help you concentrate and unwind. Stress-free vibes, all day long!
Plus, their Cozy Kitchen DLC is coming in 2025!
Été
Été (summer) is a laid-back painting game set in Montréal. Explore the city as you paint your way through, create beautiful canvas art, collect stamps for your album, decorate your studio, and take on commissions from friendly neighbors. Let your creativity flow and unleash your inner artist!
Neko Odyssey
Neko Odyssey is the best game for cat lovers! In this quirky casual adventure, your main task is to snap pictures of adorable cats. With pixel art in a 3D world, it gives off a cozy, anime-inspired vibe that will steal your heart.
Spiral
Spiral is a third-person exploration game that offers a poetic look at cognitive decline. Walk in Bernard’s shoes as you help him navigate his unraveling mind, reliving his most cherished memories along the way. A heartfelt journey through the fading threads of the past.
Fruitbus
Hop into your cozy, customizable food truck and start a journey filled with flavors and friendships! Forage for fresh ingredients, craft your own menu, and serve up heartwarming meals that feed both stomachs and souls. Change the world, one apple at a time!
Phoenix Springs
Dive into the mystery of Phoenix Springs, a modern point-and-click set in a dreamy neo-noir world. Start with an investigation to find your missing brother, Leo—but deep down, you already know how it ends.
Cuisineer
Get ready for a super cute, tasty roguelite dungeon crawler! Explore a vibrant world, battle monsters with your trusty spatula and some boba tea, then gather yummy ingredients to bring back to your restaurant and cook up delicious dishes.
Cuisineer is coming to consoles in 2025! I can’t wait to play on Nintendo Switch, personally.
Cozy Games Coming Soon in 2025
These games aren’t out yet…but they will be soon. Wishlist now!
CraftCraft – Fantasy Merchant Simulator – Releases 8 Jan, 2025
CraftCraft is an RPG merchant sim where you get to craft your heart out! Make anything from a mermaid princess’s necklace to a sword forged from dragon blood—it’s all up to you. Set up shop in your cozy crafting studio and help the quirky folks of Windspell, a mysterious port town, by creating the perfect custom items!
Aloft – Releases 15 Jan, 2025
Fly high in Aloft, a co-op sandbox survival game set in a world of floating islands. Build your skyship from any island, creating a cozy home among the clouds. Discover lost knowledge, fight off fungal corruption, and face down hurricanes to help restore the ecosystem. The sky’s the limit!
Jumping Jazz Cats – Releases 30 Jan, 2025
Play, race, and party with your feline friends in this online platformer! Show off your purrfect kitty parkour as you sprint, jump, swing, and slide through a zany collection of mini-games inside a grand cartoon mansion. Get ready to jump in, jazz cats!
Stories from Sol – Released 20 Feb, 2025
Survive the deep-space mystery in JFS Gun-Dog, a retro visual novel and graphic adventure! Four years after the Solar War, our scarred protagonist is reassigned to the Jovian patrol ship Gun-Dog, tasked with investigating strange signals at the edge of Jovian Space. But lurking in the stars is an unknown threat that could destroy not just the ship, but the entire crew.
Rosewater – Releases Q1 2025
Set off on a wild Western adventure in the alternate 19th-century world of Lamplight City! Join Harley Leger and her ragtag posse as you journey across the frontier, facing bandits, rebels, visionaries, and eccentrics. Meet a colorful cast of friends and foes in your quest for fame and fortune!
Building Relationships – Releases Q1 2025
Live life as a house in this wacky adventure game! Roll, jump, and wave-dash across a cozy island as you play the building itself. Meet other eligible structures, romance them, and dive into a bizarre story—or just go fishing (we swapped out fish for cars to keep it interesting). It’s all up to you!
Dice’n Goblins – Releases Q1 2025
Dice ‘n Goblins is a turn-based RPG where luck and strategy collide! Roll your dice to battle, master your skills, and chain epic combos while navigating the whims of fortune. Collect loot, upgrade your gear, and craft the perfect dice pool to take on monsters and other lurking threats in the shadows!
Bits & Bops – Releases Q1 2025
Bits & Bops is a fun-packed collection of original rhythm mini-games that’ll have you tapping your feet! With over 20 mini-games, catchy tunes, and gorgeous hand-drawn animation, it’s a blast from start to finish. Enjoy simple controls, upbeat music, and lightning-fast response times. Plus, you’ll have an adorable dog-bear named Bop by your side to keep you company.
Ultimate Sheep Raccoon – Releases 2025
Ultimate Sheep Raccoon is a wild bike-racing party game where you and your friends create the course as you go! Build obstacles and set up dangerous traps, grab power-ups to take the lead, and race to the finish in this chaotic, fun-filled ride!
Solarpunk – Releases 2025
Solarpunk is a survival game set in a futuristic world of floating islands. Whether you’re flying solo or teaming up with friends, you can build structures, grow food, craft cool gadgets, and explore distant sky islands on your trusty airship. Get ready to thrive in a world where tech meets nature!
Feline Forensics and the Meowseum Mystery – Releases 2025
There’s only one detective who can solve this murder-turned-museum heist… and they’re the cat’s meow! Question a “colorful” crew of suspects, get them to spill the beans (or hairballs), and uncover the truth. Can you crack the case before it’s time for a nap and make sure justice gets its last biscuit?
Telegraphist 1920 – Beats of War – Releases 2025
A narrative rhythm game that transports you to 1920, where you’ll experience the Battle of Warsaw from a unique angle—that of a war telegraphist, the vital link between soldiers and commanders. Feel the pulse of history through rhythm and storytelling as you become the heartbeat of communication in the chaos of war.
Strand (Exnilo Studios) – Releases 2025
Enter the lonely void of a high-tech space station in STRAND. Solve mind-bending puzzles to break free from an endless time loop while uncovering the fate of your crew. Every detail counts as you unravel the mystery and question humanity’s place in the cold, unforgiving expanse of space.
More cozy titles with no release dates—yet!
Here are some titles we can expect to hear more about in the very near future, hopefully!
- Catto’s Post Office: Deliver mail, make quirky new friends, and explore a cozy, colorful town that’s absolutely crawling with feline fun.
- Paws and Leaves – A Last Tale: Tag along with a tiny fox on his final adventure to piece together his lost memories in a heartfelt, tear-jerking journey.
- Glasshouse: Feudalpunk Turn-Based CRPG where your cramped lockdown apartment block is ground zero for a triple murder next door.
- Mudborn: Chill nature sim all about finding and breeding frogs between the waking and dreaming worlds.
- Truckful: Hit the road in your trusty pickup and cruise through serene countryside valleys, dropping off goods for the locals and uncovering a small-town mystery.
- Misgiven: Sci-fi adventure where you wear a stranger’s mask to survive a foggy, doomed city, making tough choices and battling your own emotions through a unique dialogue system.
- Bytebond: A fast-paced co-op puzzle game where you team up with a friend to fight off a deadly virus and save a PC from infection.
- Ambroise Niflette & the Gleaned Bell: A stop-motion style detective adventure where you solve the mystery of a stolen bell in a quirky, enigmatic village.
- Reviver: Narrative puzzle game lets you shape the fates of two characters through choices and interactions, exploring love, time, and destiny in a beautiful hand-drawn world.
- Bambas!: Urban walking simulator lets you turn everyday streets—crosswalks, curbs, and puddles—into an exciting adventure, bringing out your inner child.
- Golf by the Way: Fast-paced mini-golf party game lets you smack your friends’ balls (and them!) in real-time, with no stroke count to worry about—just pure, chaotic fun.
- Sedap! A Culinary Adventure: A co-op cooking-combat adventure where you team up to whip up delicious dishes and serve them while exploring a fantastical version of Southeast Asia.
- Voron: A story-driven adventure where you play as a raven guiding lost souls through a Norse-inspired world, learning to fly and croaking along the way!
- Let’s Build a Dungeon: Run a game studio, building and managing the world’s greatest MMORPG, hiring staff, designing a fantasy world, and keeping virtual players hooked.
- The Horror at Highrook: An occult card-crafting RPG where you explore a haunted mansion, summon dark forces, craft protections, and unravel the mystery of a missing family
- Bubblegum Galaxy: A cozy narrative game where you rebuild the galaxy tile by tile and solve the mystery of who deleted the galaxy in the first place.
- Crescent County: In this witch-tech open world, you ride a motorbroom, making deliveries, racing friends (and crushes), and discovering what it means to find home.
- Projected Dreams: In this cozy puzzle game, you drag toys to create shadow plays, uncovering past family stories as the shifting shadows blur the lines between reality and fantasy.
- Candy Rangers: Embark on a single-player, on-rails shooter adventure, matching colors with rangers to take down enemies, using each ranger’s color to defeat foes—can you match them all?
- An Elaborate History of Chess: A quirky crafting strategy game where you explore the history of Chess, build castles, farm turnips, and uncover the answers to Chess’s biggest mysteries
- A Webbing Journey: In this madcap sandbox adventure, you’re an adorable spider swinging around the house and tackle chores with nothing but your webs and wits.
- Alula: Alula is a 2.5DHD puzzle game where you help people solve their problems by exploring parts of their psyche.
- Nom Nom Cozy Forest Cafe: Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Café is a cozy and relaxing decoration and rhythm game where you manage a café and befriend cute animals.
- Wild Tactics: A wild, character-driven tactical strategy game has you build a team, manage their relationships, and uncover a conspiracy in the animal-populated city of Clawville.
- Collector’s Cove: Set sail on a cozy farming adventure, exploring diverse climates with your animal companion, discovering rare crops and fish, and completing your compendium.
Watch the TGAGWCAGA 2024 Livestream Yourself
Stay cozy, gamers!