Making Cozy Games: How Game Developers Build (and Talk About) Cozy Games

This paper examines how game developers define and build cozy games, a genre that has grown rapidly in popularity but remains loosely defined. Originating from a 2017 Project Horseshoe white paper that formalized themes of safety, abundance, and softness, the genre has since drawn scholarly attention. The authors argue that meaning around "cozy" is shaped not only by developers but also by players, journalists, and content creators, and they ask how the wider developer community understands the term and whether it agrees with or extends the original framework.

The study's method involves qualitatively analyzing 20 to 30 YouTube development videos, each at least five minutes long and published within three years, selected through keyword searches. The analysis combines deductive coding against the established cozy themes with inductive attention to additional elements developers identify as contributing to coziness. The paper presents preliminary findings from roughly a dozen videos, so its conclusions are tentative and the analysis remains in progress.

Early results show that developers discuss cozy design in two modes. Some explicitly articulate which elements, such as the absence of timed pressure or an open, colorful world, make their game cozy, and use this framing for marketing. Others treat "cozy" as a taken-for-granted label, offering little justification for the classification, and one developer likens cozy games to platformers, where added levels require no explanation. Developers also commonly use "game talk," referencing established titles such as Stardew Valley, Minecraft, and The Sims to position their work, sometimes distinguishing it from traditional genres like platformers by removing the risk of failure.

The authors conclude that developers do not yet share a unified understanding of cozy games. They frame this as a natural feature of an evolving genre whose definition is socially negotiated among creators, critics, and audiences, suggesting that its characteristics will continue to shift as these communities converge.