Welcome to the Cozy Zone, the corner of SG dedicated to sharing and discussing cozy games. Get yourself a blanket, some hot chocolate or herbal tea, get comfy in your chair and enjoy the good vibes and the good gibs too.

I'm certain most of you are familiar with the concept of "cozy gaming/games" by now, but to avoid any confusion here are some excerpts I stole from articles written by people who are better with words than me, which should give you the idea:

These kinds of games encourage players to take things slow and enjoy the cozier things in life, which is why they've gained a reputation for being 'cozy games'. While there isn't an official definition for what a cozy game is exactly, those that do fall under this categorization have a particular vibe that is easy to spot. Typically, a cozy game will be laid back, have minimal, if any, combat, an endearing art style, and will wrap its action around a wholesome story.
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Whether the ideal cozy game consists of task-based satisfaction or getting to project personal feelings onto a melancholy storyline, there are options suitable to gamers of all backgrounds. The genre is very flexible, populated with RPGs, platformers, point-and-click adventures, life sims, and much more. These are the games to play after a long day of work, on rainy days, and when you just don't feel like crawling out of bed.`
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The core idea behind [cozy gaming] is the combination of appealing colors, atmospheric music, and playability. In addition, a game should also be fun and relaxing, contributing to the experience that can be referred to as cozy.
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Cozy games are predominantly identified by the comfortable atmosphere, aesthetically pleasing design, and task-focused gameplay. Cozy games are not always easy or relaxing, though they can be.

Links: 1 2 3 4

With that out of the way and skipping the whole "in these hard times we all need more cozy time in our lives" preamble (heh), let's get straight to what the Cozy Zone is supposed to be about:

❣ My giveaways of cozy games. To be honest (at first) I just needed a place for my next gibs, as it so happened that I was in possession of some amount of keys for this particular type of games, but instead of going with just another one-time train I decided to make it an ongoing thread. So for now the plan is to do GAs for this thread with games of the cozy kind on a somewhat regular basis.

✽ Your giveaways of cozy games. Everyone is welcome to join me in making GAs for games that fit the theme. No strict guidelines, use your own discretion when deciding if the game is good for this thread. In general, fitting games usually have one or more of these tags on Steam: Relaxing / Family Friendly / Cozy / Wholesome / Cute / Comedy; and here are some tags that these games usually don't include: Violent / Gore / Survival / Psychological Horror / Hentai / Dark / War / Military / Dystopian (these are just some examples of some of the most popular tags). In any case, if a game seems cozy enough to you, feel free to give it away. Just make your GAs private (aka invite-only).
Special Cats tag exception: as a result of the FCDSCGC-2023 event, cats were proclaimed the mascot animal of our thread and thus any game that has a 'Cats' tag on Steam is allowed to be given away here, whether it's cozy or not.
Every active giveaway will be featured in the OP (if I'm around at the time it's running).

☯ General discussion of cozy games. Random cozy games discoveries, thoughts on latest games you've played, discounts alerts and everything else related to games of the cozy kind.

◒ Recommendations for cozy games. Do share your favorite games, well known or not. Hidden gems are especially welcome though, cause many niche games often go largely unnoticed.

✧ Cozy events. So, events have become a semi-regular occurrence in our thread, and I'm looking to make them an integral part of the Cozy Zone experience moving forward. If you want to host an event in the thread which requires some coordination or have an idea for a future event, please contact me on Steam; otherwise, feel free to post your cozy trains, celebratory GAs, puzzles and whatnot at any time. You can also contribute by either partially or fully sponsoring the prize pool and/or by donating cozy games for events (as I might struggle to fully cover these prize/GAs-wise on my own, so some help is always appreciated; again, contact me for this).

If you wish to just bump the thread, feel free to so, but keep in mind that the recommended way to bump is the cozy way, which is achieved by posting:
♦ pics of your adorable pets ♦ pics of your cozy gaming space ♦ pics of anything cozy or cute ♦ light-hearted memes ♦ links to relaxing music (make sure to check out our own cozy playlist ♫ too) ♦

One rule in this thread: good vibes only, so please let's make it comfy for everyone and keep the negativity to the minimum.

❦ Active giveaways ❦

from Ellendyl ⇝ Euro Truck Simulator 2 (lvl 2+)
❀ from s4k1s ⇝ 4 games cozy Cakeday train (lvl 1-2+) ❀

⋗ Current streak of consecutive days with at least one GA running has been going since: January 15, 2023 (approximately)

Previous giveaways and events: ⟲

Thanks to everyone who contributed with cozy giveaways and recommendations. ʕっᵔᴥᵔʔっ♡

View attached image.