Rain hits against the windowpane, lending an almost rhythmic comfort as the gloomy grey sky refuses to give way to the sun. For some, this inclement atmosphere might lower their mood but, for others, these are their favorite kind of day—the type of weather that makes them want to put on a comfortable sweater, get a mug of tea, wrap up in a blanket, and sit down to play a cozy video game. When I say “cozy games,” that probably brings to mind Animal Crossing: New Horizons or Stardew Valley, games with farming simulators, ways to build houses and organize them how you want. But perhaps a game better aligned with the season’s aesthetic would be more suitable. Well, have no fear, since the growing sub-genre of “cozy horror” games has proliferated and it has become quite popular. And some of those games stand out distinctly as filling both the cozy and horror genres in a way that is intriguing to investigate and prompting the question: What makes these spooky games “cozy” to play?
Before diving into the titles, however, what exactly makes a cozy game? As I mentioned with Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing, these games typically have friendly colors and gameplay with no risk involved, no pressure. They provide farming simulators, fishing games, resource gathering, and house decorating. Also, the non-player characters (NPCs) in the games are often friendly residents of idyllic towns where players can develop social relationships with them. Kylie Jones in their article, “Video Games as Portal to Gardening and More” in Australian Garden History Society magazine from January 2025, notes how “Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the prototypical example of the cozy game genre due to its easy and relaxing gameplay that is non-demanding and presents itself with bright graphics and cute characters. Making it an ideal escape.” Finding comfort in the simplicity of the gameplay of Animal Crossing, Jones felt that the atmosphere and ability to organize the space into something they found comfortable provides a “great deal of satisfaction in ‘designing’ a space and having it look just how I wanted it to be.”
Horror as a genre stands entirely opposite cozy. Horror’s intent is to unsettle you, to drive you from a comfortable space into one you might not find easy to endure. The survival horror genre, specifically, has players constantly on edge as they try to survive the terrifying environments around them. Think of the unseen things that you hear around you or the need to fight your way through monsters in an abandoned town like the one in Silent Hill! These games create high pressure and elevated heart rates. But inserting just a bit of that unsettling quality into a comforting space can make for an interesting contrast, namely the mise–en-scène and use of the gothic in the game.
Mise-en-scène refers to the arrangement of scenery and stage properties, as well as the placement of actors on stage. It applies to anything in front of the camera, or in this case, the set pieces and atmosphere the player sees as they engage in the virtual space. These set pieces help tell the story of the game without needing to use words. The mise–en-scène can help reveal the gothic, according to Ewan Kirkland in Videogames and the Gothic. Kirkland helps define the gothic by saying it is better “understood as a shade, a shadow which darkens some texts to lesser or greater degrees, without assuming a solid presence in its own right.” While some media are so dark and full of shadows that it’s impossible to overlook the presence of gothic themes, others provide dark accents to the brightness. When a game itself is lighthearted, usually with simple tasks and no major pressure or risk, but the atmosphere in the set pieces and the ambient music cast a darker shadow over the story, the mise–en-scène creates a layer of the unknown that pushes the game over the line between two opposing genres. Kirkland even states that “gothic fiction is characterized by contradictions, ambivalence and incongruities.” If cozy and horror are contradictory, then I can see how the gothic is prevalent in these games.
One such game is Dredge by Black Salt Games. In an article in Edge, Rod Stewart describes the game as drawing “a line between Animal Crossing’s pun laced fishing minigame and Lovecraft’s fondness for a seaside locale, and the two [turn out] to be a surprisingly natural fit.” He continues to draw the connection between Dredge and Animal Crossing by explaining how the games even start similarly. In both players arrive in the town, are greeted by the mayor, and then receive a loan. However, one is a racoon and the other is a human who keeps avoiding giving details about what happened to their predecessor. What separates the two games, making one horror and the other not, lies in art with harsher lines and cooler colors, eerie sound effects, and the tone of interactions with the NPCs. In Dredge a player takes on the role of a simple fisher with a little boat, going around to get catches to then sell in various towns. As players catch fish, they fit them Tetris-style into their inventory. But along the way, players encounter eldritch horrors or mutated fish from the depths, as well as large sea creatures that will give chase and break the boat. Stewart explains how “these aberrant subspecies might exist as just an evocative snatch of writing and a slightly altered depiction in your inventory. Yet this is enough to send a small shiver down your spine the first time you pull one aboard.” He then criticizes where the game falls short as a horror game saying that eventually pulling these strange fish does become the same as pulling out a large regular fish. To him, “real scares live in the shadows, at the edge of view. And after a dozen hours puttering around Dredge’s archipelago, learning to put a precise dollar value on what should be unknowable terrors, the darkness no longer holds any real mystery for us.” I would say that this is what lends itself to the cozy genre. While the flavoring of horror presents itself in the game, at the end of the day you’re a fisher just trying to sell fish, whether regular fish or mutant ones.
Strange Horticulture by Bad Viking also falls into the cozy horror genre. In the game, players work in a little plant shop, serving customers, organizing the inventory, and putting little colorful labels on each plant to help sell them to customers. Simple and cozy right? The scene of the countertop and shelves provide a relaxed space; there’s even a cat you can pet! All the while the soundtrack of a piano playing with rain hitting against the windows provides the atmosphere to fit that relaxed but slightly haunting dark academia mood. But then as PC Gamer‘s Christopher Livingston explains, the game shifts: “A hunter came into my shop and said he wanted to face the dark beast and destroy it and asked me for a plant that would give him extra power for the battle. But a cult member had visited just a few days before, suggesting I instead give the hunter a plant that would weaken him. . . I had to choose which to side with and which to betray.” As the game proceeds, shopkeepers are greeted by cultists, occult scholars, hooded figures, and choices whether to poison customers! Edge’s April 2022 review of Strange Horticulture states that the game, while a cozy detective game overall, provides “enough of a suggestion of that threat to unsettle, with evocative flavor text and a piano-led theme subtly hinting at an undercurrent of darkness from the off.”
Finally, REKA by Emberstorm Entertainment and Fireshine Games takes the elements of a cozy game, such as resource gathering, helping villagers, designing a house, even gardening, but gives it Slavic folklore twist. In REKA players take on the role of a young apprentice to the witch Baba Jaga. Players help create a chicken-legged house and then wander the forests interacting with creatures from Slavic folklore, working with spirits, cleansing homes and graves of curses, or. . . making poison to get rid a villager’s dislikeable neighbor. The mise-en-scène of this game makes it a cozy horror game. Players walking around a dark forest with looming fog, but nothing attacks as they find beehives. Along the way players find bones and, graves dripping with a horrible curse. Then things get darker as villagers warn against working for Baba Jaga or the witch herself threatens dire consequences if you don’t heed her instructions at the start of your journey. Yet players face no true threat as they encounter spirits, give them offerings, or perform a ritual in a curse-drenched house to help a villager and her chickens. It’s cozy with just the hint of danger lurking or the unsettling words of NPCs to haunt you.
Any of these games would make a perfect fit for autumn, the time of year when we want something just a little spooky but don’t wish to have our hearts racing as we run from monsters. And, thankfully, these games all hit the right notes using simple gameplay styles from cozy games like Animal Crossing but then draw the shadows of the gothic over them to add just enough spooky to satisfy.