Trend Spotting: The Rise of Cozy Horror

Cozy games meet you at the front door with a warm pile of cookies, a bright smile, and a “don’t worry about it, you’ve done this before”- kind of attitude that helps you forget about your problems for an hour.

Horror games throw a nearly depleted flashlight at you as it runs into the darkness. No guidance. Players forget about the outside world by getting trapped by one on the inside.

And while the two genres seem like polar opposites when it comes to themes, feelings, and how much blood you come across; there are games finding common ground between the two with the rise of Cozy Horror. More than putting Pyramid Head in a Snuggie or giving a makeover to Leatherface, Cozy Horror takes tasks already familiar with players (farming, fishing, the banality of work) and coats them with streaks of horror.

There’s a reason for the rise of Cozy Horror that I will explain later – but first, let’s look at some of the best cozy horror titles haunting the steam digital shelves.

Enough explaining. Just give me the games. -- Alright. Here's a quick list if you want to start your cozy horror adventures now.

Cozy Horror Trope -- Fishing

We all know how fishing works

Drop the line, wait a little bit, and fish happens. Fishing is the game mechanic you put into other games when you want to give players something else to do than to play your game. There’s a social account just to let you know if there’s a Fishing Game in That Game. But what happens when a game tries to make fishing its whole personality?

Dredge finds you as the new town’s angler, dropping line and pulling up anything that doesn’t pull you under. Fishing requires fast fingers to hit the spinning target to land a catch. The salty sea meat sails into your limited hull space where you’ll need to find what fits before bringing it back to shore for sale. And that’s the game – you catch fish to sell to buy more items to catch more fish. 

The creepy part of this cozy life comes from the quests, the environment, and that uneasy feeling that something’s in the water. Like the song says, the freaks come out at night as the better priced creatures wait until a low lying fog rolls into the shoreline. Other than making it harder to see, the fog hides some nasty enemies looking to take a bite out of your hull. If you are looking for a haunted mystery to go along with your fish and chips, Dredge is one of the best titles for you to reel in now.

Other fishing games for you to check out: Normal Fishing, Umigari, About Fishing

Cozy Horror Trope -- Farming

We all know how farming works. 

Put the seed in the soil. Add water. Something something. Profit. A slow incremental climb through the vegetable ranks turning a pound of potatoes to award-winning pumpkins would even put a tear into DuPont Pioneer’s eye. Between planting and profiting, there’s always a question of what to do. Build relationships or build a pile of slaughtered slimes are enough of a distraction between waterings, but what if there was something more – like staying alive.

Welcome to Elderfield takes the bright colors of Stardew Valley and gives everything a grim shade of saturation. For once, you are not given a farm by your deceased uncle, but you will need to take up the rusty water bucket after he’s pulled off all of his skin, grown five times larger, and is now unable to get out of the house. The game combines the turn-based battles of an old Persona game with the core of a farming sim – plant, water, slay. The game lets you adjust the coziness before throwing you into this blood bath.

Other farming games for you to check out: We Harvest Shadows, Grave Season, Pumpkin Panic

Cozy Horror Trope -- Working

Capitalism is its own form of horror. I mean … (gestures at everything).

Learn a series of tasks that typically stack or get more complex as you’re expected to do more with less time. Following the tasks keep you busy with your head down, trying to fulfill every detail of the chore given to you. The cycle continues until you’re done or they say you’re done. But what happens when you look up and start asking questions about your assignment?

Grunn is a game about landscaping. Cut the grass, tend to the garden, and open areas to find more grass and garden. And then there are the pictures. While tending to the greenery, you’ll find polaroid pictures of areas of places you may have not seen yet. Each one leads you down a deeper rabbit hole filled with ghosts and bodies all the while you need to keep up with your job. Think of it as establishing a life/work balance where the “life” part of the equation is about staying alive.

Working - Graveyard Keeper, Shift at Midnight, Mole, Dead Letter Dept., Creature Kitchen

What is this all about – The Rise of MidCore Gaming

Let’s get some definitions out of the way.

Core Gaming - This is what you think of when you think about big triple-A titles with multiple mechanics, a deep story, and hours of gameplay. Think about your big 40-hour single player games from a decade ago that have been slipping in sales most recently.

Hypercasual Gaming - Here’s the other end of the spectrum where all of the rough edges have been sanded down to a smooth polish. Easy to pick up, quick to win, and mass produced on a nauseating level. 

Like the opposite poles of a gaming spectrum, both core and hypercausal have seen wins and losses over the years. Core gaming is losing their aging audience who can’t devote neither the time nor funds to to keep up with the next big thing. Hypercasual finds it easy to bring people in, keeping hold of your audience turns out to be a harder task with similar titles flooding the market. While neither extreme is running out of steam anytime soon, developers are moving towards the middle to find those let down by either side.

Take a look at a game like Forbidden Solitaire. Developers took the bones of a solitaire title (casual) and wrapped it with 90’s nostalgia as well as a deep mystery (core). Easy to pick up but the story compels you to keep playing to find out what’s around that next corner. And for the length and the price, Forbidden Solitaire makes for a great weekend adventure. 

Whether you want a game you can beat in a weekend or are looking for something cozy with more edge, the rise of midcore gaming along with cozy horror looks to bring a new class of gaming to more people.