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

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1 year ago*

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1 year ago
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Thanks for the GA. ૮・ᴥ・ა

1 year ago
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Cozy GA for an adorable-looking game about a cute birb

https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/removeXandZ/v4XuYVZ/songbird-symphony (lvl 3+) - Ends Oct 15

Have a nice weekend everyone!

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1 year ago*
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Thanks for the cute birbs and have a cozy weekend. (•ө•)♡

1 year ago
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Someone recommended this one in the thread, and I think it's pretty damn cute, so: https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/deleteFOX/WPFOX2Sf/fixfox (lvl 3+)

1 year ago*
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BUMP

Thanks everyone for all the latest gibs.

1 year ago
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This was released recently and it looks pretty cozy:
Beacon Pines

1 year ago
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Been following this one for some time, great art style and it does looks cozy, wonder how much dark/spooky the story gets though.
Here's another fresh one I randomly spotted in New and Trending: Witchy Life Story. Not my type of game, but looks very cozy.

1 year ago*
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I played the demo and decided not to purchase it. Although cozy, it wasn't polished enough for my taste. The click boxes are not always accurate, especially in the garden, I found myself scratching my head many times trying to figure out what I did wrong. Not sure if that's universal or if something went wrong with my client, but there wasn't much to do in the game so I decided not to bother with re-installing it.

1 year ago
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Too bad you didn't have the best experience with it, thanks for sharing.

1 year ago
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Free to play:
Tukoni

1 year ago
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Here's one that actually has the 'cozy' tag on Steam!

There are cats!

1 year ago
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Can't go wrong with cats, thanks. 😸

1 year ago
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Here's my ga for [Lego Bricktales](https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/delete69/DVI69lc/lego-bricktales) (lvl 4+) 😁

Haven't gotten it for myself yet, because I just won The walking dead final season and want to finish it before starting anything else
Going by the demo I found it to be extremely cozy :3

1 year ago
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Oh heck yeah, I just remembered about you mentioning this game before, and here you are with the GA. Thanks for your cozy contribution. /ᐠ. ᴗ.ᐟ\

1 year ago
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Beautiful! Thank you for your generosity.

1 year ago
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Great thread with positive thoughts and nice giveaways.

Happy Hump Day everyone!

Jalopy (level 4+)

1 year ago*
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Not sure how cozy a "fast paced", "difficult" "shooter" is, that also has the tag "psychological horror", but I entered nonetheless. Thank you! :)

1 year ago
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LOL yeah I guess that wouldn't be very cozy. I'll move that one elsewhere.

1 year ago
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Interesting, I thought the "difficult" and "psychological horror" were the "meme" tags for it that users added just for laughs, isn't this the case? Anyway, I removed it from the OP. 😎

1 year ago
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https://steamcommunity.com/id/MaxThunder/recommended/298600/

The "psychological horror" might be a meme but you never know. Did you play Doki Doki Literature Club? ;)

1 year ago*
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Thanks for the confirmation that the game indeed does not fit. Not yet, but I heard a lot about it.🙀

1 year ago
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Good to see you here, thanks for contributing to the Cozy Zone with your GA. /ᐠ. ̫ .ᐟ\
Got any cozy games recs for us aside from that one?

1 year ago
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Since you are the newest member of GGG, I figured I would throw it on the recruitment thread and mention this thread there as well :)

Some games that I really enjoyed that I found to be relaxing were GRIS, AVICII Invector, ABZU, MANDAGON and Lowglow.

GRIS

AVICII Invector

ABZU

MANDAGON is free.

Lowglow

1 year ago
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Thanks for the recs and for the mention in your thread too. Maybe we'll recruit some people to the Cozy Zone from your recruitment thread. 😼

1 year ago
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You're welcome. I hope so as well. :)

1 year ago
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Bumping this cozy thread with cats. Because cats.
Here are some of mine. I love cozy games, but imho theyre not as cozy as my cats, but are fun for trying

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1 year ago
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The 'mustache' on the cat in the first picture is pretty incredible!

1 year ago
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Cats!! *_*

1 year ago
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they're all so cute!
but especially the first two with the unique face pattern :3

how many cats do you have in total?

1 year ago
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7 in total. It was only 2, but then we rescued one more (the second one) and she was surprisingly precocious... weve always castrated our cats but she got like preteen pregnancy and gave us 4 more wonderful cats. The moustached, the black and white and the calico on the last picture are her kids

1 year ago
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that was probably a handful with the unexpected litter 😅

I'd love to have a couple more cats, but my oldest doesn't agree.. we once rescued two kittens from the same farm as the first one a few years prior. But they were constantly fighting and the oldest wouldn't let the two young ones near the house, so we had to give them away to friends

1 year ago
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Its always a bit hard, generally its possible, but the older a cat gets the harder it adapts to novelty. It gets waaay worse for single cats- too old being the only one its nigh impossible for then to ever accept someone else getting the attention, their spots, etc

1 year ago
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Bumping (with a reminder that my Dear Esther giveaway has ended).

1 year ago
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Thanks, removed it from the OP. Do come back with more hehe. 😎

1 year ago
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Here's a cute picture of my cat with a photo of his predecessor. 😅
At first when I found the photo I thought it was of my current cat as a kitten, because they look so similar here.. but the dates didn't match up

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1 year ago
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I remember seeing this photo before. Very cute and cozy. (◕ᴥ◕)

1 year ago
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oh really? I think I posted it in another thread last year or so 😅

1 year ago
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It probably was in my WL recruitment thread from a couple of months ago, where I made it mandatory to post pet pics hehehe. 😈

1 year ago
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https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/y42ckt3/The-answer-to-life-the-universe-and-everything
Sorry guys, but I'd appreciate it being picked up while it's on sale. Thank you very much.

1 year ago
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Beautiful game. I picked it up on Switch and wouldn't mind playing it again on PC.
Edit: on second thought, I'm withdrawing my entry to give way to those who haven't played it yet.

1 year ago
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Thanks! I had bought it on Steam a while back and voted it in some awards for its visuals without even playing a minute. As soon as I saw the trailer, I described it as an interactive poem.
Participating does not guarantee you will win, but I leave that up to you. :)

1 year ago
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Not only the visuals, but the controls are also spot on, it seamlessly does what you want it to do, the character almost feels like an extension of your hand. I was amazed by how well-polished it is and how intuitive everything was. One word for it is "satisfying."

1 year ago
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Ok, you convinced me. When I'm in the right mood, it will be my first choice.
I don't know if I made myself clear above, but I don't mind if you join :)

1 year ago
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Then I'll grab a chance, thank you. Kinda psyched myself out.

1 year ago
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My opinion is that it is a shame that people with suspicious accounts can participate. If it were possible I would only like such people not to participate. :)

1 year ago
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Thanks for the awesome GA. Gonna link your comment in the OP instead of direct gib link, so that those who usually enter through links from the list in the OP wouldn't miss your request.

1 year ago
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You know what? I thank you! :)

1 year ago
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visually the game looks great! I'd love to play it someday
it's been on my wishlist for ages, but I feel like I need to win it on sg to be encouraged enough to finish it 😅

1 year ago
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Good luck then :)

1 year ago
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1 year ago
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1 year ago
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So fluffy. Must resist the belly trap, though. 😸

1 year ago
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1 year ago
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I've actually deactivated the belly trap in my cat 😁

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1 year ago
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That's good for you, cause belly is the softest part of the cat. 😼 It took me like 10 years of trying to deactivate the trap on mine, and in his later years the belly became his favorite spot for pets.

1 year ago
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1 year ago
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Took me only 8 years to win a second GA with 1k+ entries, so I guess I'll celebrate with a little GA of my own. 😎
This one's pretty nice and cozy: https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/deleteASS/l5ASSRCs/assemble-with-care (lvl 3+)

1 year ago*
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Congratulations & thanks! The other games made by the same developer seem pretty cozy as well:

Alba: A Wildlife Adventure
Monument Valley: Panoramic Edition
Monument Valley 2: Panoramic Edition

1 year ago
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Thanks. Yeah, these devs do follow the cozy way. (◕ᴥ◕) Looks like they have another one in development too, but it might be more gameplay-oriented and not as chill as the others, but we'll see.

1 year ago
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I loved playing both monument valley games on my phone years ago!
so I'm eager to try out their other games

1 year ago
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I just checked and I've already won 15 GA's with 1k+ entries.. even one with almost 5k 😅
but back in the day I basically used to enter every GA I could, so that might distort the numbers a bit

this game has also been on my wishlist for ever!

1 year ago
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You're pretty lucky, that's great. And now you have this thread to celebrate your next 5k win too. 😎

1 year ago
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Thank you very much!
I didn't even know such a game existed. When I was a kid, I broke a lot of things trying to fix them. I would say I was destroyer with care. :)

1 year ago
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Looks like the game for you then haha. Yeah, it somewhat obscure, I don't see it being given away or mentioned too often. I particularly love the colors in it.

1 year ago
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:)
You're right, it's hard to keep track of everything and I wonder how many more interesting games we're missing.

1 year ago
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Congrats on your second win with 1K+ entries. Gives you a nice fuzzy feeling when that happens! 🧸🧸

1 year ago
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Thanks. It does feel nicer than a group win sub-100 entries, and it was a wishlisted game too, which is extra nice. 😎

1 year ago
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Congrats on your rare win! 😄

1 year ago
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Thanks. 🍰

1 year ago
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I blasted through the game!! It was a truly cozy and heartwarming story ^^
I highly recommend ^^ Took me 99 minutes to fully complete, the voice overs are nice, and the music cozy ^^
The puzzles/repairs aren't brain wracking as long as you remember the order in which you took the pieces out,
and the mc generally tells you when things are in working order and you can reassemble the whole.
A really pleasant experience overall!

1 year ago
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Well, that was quick. 😺 Didn't know the game was that short tbh, but I'm glad you enjoyed it.

1 year ago
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1 year ago
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Songbird Symphony has ended. Thank you to everyone else for the nice gibs!

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1 year ago
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1 year ago
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1 year ago
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Nice song. (ღ˘⌣˘ღ)

1 year ago
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Was going through Steam discovery queue and cam across this game which I felt fit this thread perfectly:
Paradise Marsh

Also 2 that are currently on my mind that I've played:

  • Rainy Season: Live a couple of days as a child exploring your tiny packed home during some rainy days. Setting seems to resemble a small rural style Japanese home.
    • Note: This game is available in the Humble Trove and pretty short, so worth downloading from there if you have an active Humble Subscription
  • Depanneur Nocturne: Another small comfy space to explore. This time a depanneur (it's like a mini grocery store ran by a single person). Your goal is to just to find a gift to buy for your significant other.
    • Note: This game was in some of those itch.io charity bundles, so if you bought one of those you might own it there.
1 year ago
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Paradise Marsh looks a bit like a first person Short Hike, insta wishlisted, thanks.

1 year ago
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Paradise Marsh is a very short but very cute game! It's similar aesthetically to Short Hike, but gameplay wise they're very different, as a starters you have way way less to do in Paradise Marsh, but it's still a really sweet and cozy game to spend more or less one to two hours on and it has a lot of nice and sweet messages (others not so much but those are actually kind of funny anyways) so totally recommended

Also thank you for this thread! I already own and/or played a lot of the games recommended here, but others I hadn't even heard from so it was a nice way to find some new ones while listening to some nice music too haha

1 year ago
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Yeah, I was thinking strictly from aesthetics standpoint. Short Hike is like peak cozy pixel art type of visuals for me, so it's nice to see a game that looks similar. But thanks for sharing about Paradise Marsh, too bad it's short, but that's how many games of this kind are. Oh, and make sure to recommend some games that haven't been mentioned in the thread yet. 😉

1 year ago
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Just a tiny and short giveaway, but: cats!
https://www.steamgifts.com/justkittin/dHdmeow?nh/cats-organized-neatly
Hope you all have a conzy week!

1 year ago
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Believe it or not, I have it wishlisted.

1 year ago
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Heck yeah, neatly organized cats. 😺 Thanks for the GA.

1 year ago
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If you are you a fan of Umberto Eco's novel "The Name of the Rose" and/or Jean-Jacques Annaud's film of the same name and you enjoy adventure games with a retro look and great pixel art with Immersive environments and ambience you should try "The Abbey of Crime Extensum". The game is a remake of the spanish game "La abadía del crimen" by Paco Menéndez and Juan Delcán, published in 1987 for 8-bit computers (Amstrad CPC, MSX and Spectrum).

Is it cozy? I would say yes, you can walk around the abbey freely while you listen to different sounds for the day/night situations.

Oh, and the game is free!

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1 year ago
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✦ New cozy release: Potionomics
    Finally, a next-gen Recettear.😼

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1 year ago
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bump

1 year ago
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