Cozy Games May Help Improve Players' Mental Health, Researchers Say

[dark_arc@social.packetloss.gg]

Arguably Brighter Shores is a cozy game and it's got an appealing art style to my eyes

[zahille7@lemmy.world]

I like Paleo Pines myself. It's like Stardew and Animal Crossing had a baby about dinosaurs. It's absolutely adorable.

Chao Resort Island. A fan game that's basically a 2D/3D Chao Garden from SA2. It uses some sprites from the old Sonic Advance games, but it's just a fun little virtual caregiver thing.

Sonic Adventure 2 Battle: Chao Garden. The "true" Chao Garden experience according to fans online. I have the steam version so I have the popular Extended Chao World mods to make it better/easier to raise Chao.

A lot of survival crafting games (base building and decorating and such) can be cozy too, if you want them to be.

[zahille7@lemmy.world]

Thank Goodness You're Here was the last cozy game I played and I can't recommend it enough to literally everyone.

[codilingus@sh.itjust.works]

Gods I need to replay it and go around slapping the English, again.

[adalast@lemmy.world]

That first paragraph put me off from the article because it positioned the research on gaming violence as if there were a positive correlation instead of reporting that it is actually negatively correlated. It also did not mention the positive research that came from the studies on game playing and eye hand coordination and the many other benefits video games have been proven to have. The author made it sound like this was the first positive thing about video games.

[elevator7009salt@ani.social]

As a reader, I say "not for me" and leave overly negative things there for others to enjoy. The way I feel better is not reexposing myself to a reflection of all the ills in this world that I'm constantly being shown can be awful. But some people find catharsis in it! One man's trash is another man's treasure, after all. I am sure some people would dismiss some things I like as too saccharine and not realistic aka gritty enough.

[douchebagmcswag@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

Matt fucking Berry makes it

[kandoh@reddthat.com]

Unpacked is pretty great.

[mayonnaise@lemm.ee]

A Short Hike - Super cute and chill.

[buboscandiacus@mander.xyz]

Already played it and absolutely loved it

Everything was peefect

[gaael@lemmy.world]

G.R.I.S is short and not replayable but it's beatiful and deep from start to end. Cried a few times during the playthrough and felt relieved afterwards

[zahille7@lemmy.world]

So does the soundtrack imo. Idk why, but a lot of the songs are incredibly moving to me. Especially the track March, which plays a couple times in the game but most notably during the scene when you float up in the sky with a bubble.

[venator@lemmy.nz]

Can someone explain what is a "cozy" game?

[rozz@lemmy.sdf.org]

Tchia has a tiny bit of fighting, but felt like a cozy game the whole time I played it. It was slower paced and easy to just explore.

Outer wilds has a lot of mystery to solve but is very relaxing and pleasant.

Both games I felt perfectly happy to just enjoy the sights occasionally.

[rozz@lemmy.sdf.org]

To me it seemed to try to say that most research done so far on video games is mostly about how violence in games affects people, not the positive benefits. Which is probably true that the majority (for a while at least) was about that.

[heythisisnttheymca@lemmy.world]

think animal crossing, harvest moon, stardew valley, those games.

[kolanaki@yiffit.net]

Loosely: Games that make you feel cozy.

Does not necessarily challenge the player, might not even set goals. Has a certain aesthetic that is not drab or dreary.

Stardew Valley is considered to be a cozy game, as an example.

[venator@lemmy.nz]

Loosely: Games that make you feel cozy.

I've never noticed a game having that effect personally

I always thought of the word cozy as describing your physical comfort level as opposed to mental

[venator@lemmy.nz]

I've not played harvest moon, but I found stardew valley and animal crossing a bit tedious... I guess people mean games that have a lot of small low stress tasks that don't require much risk taking?