my favorite cozy games right now for winter

i’ve been enjoying cuddling up next to the window this winter and playing video games and listening to music. some people are surprised when i say i like to play video games, but less surprised when i clarify not first-person shooter games (i’ve tried but hated it). i think people just have a narrow idea of all the types of games there are! i’ve been especially loving visual novels (like choose your own adventure stories) lately, and it feels just like reading a book except more visuals and more choices (and it somehow works with my Gen Z attention span…) and i also love trying indie games or funny ones (your royal gayness was such a good game)! and a lot of great art goes into video games. so i guess i’m saying you don’t have to be a “gamer” to enjoy a video game! let me know if anyone actually tries any of these games - it would be lovely to share thoughts :) these are all on Steam!

1. Cinderella Phenomenon

   

   This visual novel is a twisted version of the classic fairytales. You’re a crown princess with the “Cinderella curse,” except it’s riches to rags instead of rags to riches, so you’re cursed to live as a commoner and no one remembers who you really are. To break the curse, you must perform three good deeds, which is a problem because you’re selfish and rude and nobody likes you very much. It’s a simple choose your own adventure with five different possible romanceable characters and a good and a bad possible ending for each, so a total of ten possible storylines. By the end I started cheating and using an online guide to get the good ending for the one I was reading, but that’s only because it was such a good story that I didn’t want to pause and save in between choices. Two of the romanceable characters are not available at first, and they’re the best ones, but this forces you to try to the story with some of the other characters first. The illustrations were great and the worldbuilding was well done.

2. Chef RPG

   

   This game is still in early access, but it’s already so good! It’s like if Stardew Valley were a solarpunk cooking simulator. That means cute pixel graphics, a town of characters to meet and befriend, fishing, foraging, hunting, and running your restaurant. I had fun learning new recipes and building my restaurant, and there’s enough story to keep you interested too. I’ve now hit the place where they ran out of story content (still in development) so I’ve put it down for now but I’m excited to return when more content comes out.

3. News Tower

   

   Another early access one because I keep doing that. This is such a cute newspaper business simulation game, set in New York City in the 1930s and featuring politicians, mobsters, and high society that try to influence your news coverage. You manage the reporters, editors, printing press, etc. and decide what kinds of news to run, based on what your audience and funders want to read. There are enough different variables to keep things interesting. This might seem like too much like my real job for me, but actually it’s more like the job I wanted growing up.

4. Minami Lane

   

   This is one of the prettiest little game I’ve ever seen. It’s a town street builder where you add buildings like houses, ramen shops, boba shops, bookstores, and parks to make the residents happy and attract cats to your street. The missions were pretty simple so I only got about five hours of playtime, but it was pretty cheap so I didn’t mind. It was worth it just for the illustrations.

these are the ones i’ve been enjoying lately, but i’m always looking for new games to try! Cinderella Phenomenon has a sequel so i’ll be playing that next, and then probably looking for more visual novels or maybe a political sim. thanks for reading!