---
title: "Is cozy a genre or a feeling? What research says | A Short Sail"
description: "Is cozy a genre or a feeling? Four views from game designers and game scholars, compared in one table, with a plain answer and a free link to every paper."
url: https://ashortsail.com/blog/is-cozy-a-genre-or-a-feeling/
published: 2026-12-12
updated: 2026-12-12
author: "Yos Riady"
image: https://ashortsail.com/og/blog/is-cozy-a-genre-or-a-feeling.jpg
---

# Is cozy a genre or a feeling? What research says

Is cozy a genre or a feeling? Four views from game designers and game scholars, compared in one table, with a plain answer and a free link to every paper.

By [Yos Riady](https://ashortsail.com/authors/yos-riady/) · Published 12 December 2026 · **Last checked: 12 December 2026**

Is cozy a genre? Mostly it is a feeling, with a loose genre built around it. Game designers describe coziness as a **flavor** you can add to any game, and scholars find it in **all kinds of games**, from farming sims to Dark Souls. So "cozy game" works as a handy shelf label, but whether a game feels cozy is up to each player. The [cozy games research roundup](https://ashortsail.com/blog/cozy-games-research/) has every source.

## The short answer

Cozy is mostly a feeling. A loose genre has grown up around the games that give that feeling most strongly, such as Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing. Researchers agree on what the feeling is made of, safety, plenty and softness, but disagree on whether “cozy game” can work as a real genre label.

Four groups of writers have tried to pin it down, and they pull in different directions:

-   **Game designers** say coziness is a flavor. You can add it to any game, a bit at a time.
-   **One group of scholars** says players feel coziness in all kinds of games, because games are predictable and familiar, like a home.
-   **Two critics** say that if any game can be called cozy, the word stops meaning much.
-   **Two editors** sort coziness into three kinds: a whole cozy game, a hard story in a cozy wrapper, and a cozy moment inside a tense game.

Below is each view in plain words, with a free link. For all eight papers we read, see our [cozy games research roundup](https://ashortsail.com/blog/cozy-games-research/).

## How do the four views compare?

The four views agree that coziness is built on safety, abundance and softness. They differ on where coziness lives: in the game’s design, in the player, in a label that has grown too wide, or in three distinct kinds. The table puts them side by side.

| View | Who | Year and type | Cozy is… | Genre? | Example |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| A flavor | Tanya X. Short and other designers, Project Horseshoe | 2018, designer report | A dial you turn up with safety, abundance and softness | No, any genre can have it | Animal Crossing turns it all the way up |
| Felt everywhere | Tanya Krzywinska and colleagues, Falmouth University | 2025, journal article | The feeling of home that comes from knowing a game well | No, it is in the player and the game together | Inns in World of Warcraft |
| Too wide | Gideon de Pan and Frank G. Bosman | 2024, critical essay | A label from makers, players, features and culture that often disagree | It is losing its meaning | Spiritfarer, Valheim with mods |
| Three kinds | Agata Waszkiewicz and Marta Tymińska | 2024, journal editorial | Coherent, dissonant or situational | Only the coherent kind looks like a genre | Stardew Valley; That Dragon, Cancer; Dark Souls |

## Is cozy a flavor you can add to any game?

Yes, say the game designers behind the best-known definition. A 2018 Project Horseshoe report treats coziness as a dial that any game can turn up or down, by adding safety, abundance and softness. In this view cozy is a design style, and it fits inside any genre.

At the 2017 Project Horseshoe retreat, a group led by Tanya X. Short wrote the report, published in 2018 ([Short et al., 2018, Project Horseshoe](https://www.projecthorseshoe.com/reports/featured/ph17r3.htm)). It is a design report, written by people who make games, and it is not a study of players.

They define coziness as “how strongly a game evokes the fantasy of safety, abundance, and softness.” Safety means little danger or loss. Abundance means your needs are met. Softness means gentle colors, sounds and pace.

The key words are “how strongly”. Animal Crossing turns the dial all the way up. Dark Souls turns it up only at the bonfire, a safe spot between fights. So for a designer, cozy is a style you build toward, in any genre. We walk through the report in [How to design a cozy game](https://ashortsail.com/blog/how-to-design-a-cozy-game/).

## Can any game feel cozy, like home?

Yes, says a team led by Tanya Krzywinska, a professor at Falmouth University. Their 2025 article in *Games and Culture* finds coziness far outside cozy games, in inns, camps and player houses. They argue that knowing how a game works feels like being at home, whatever the game looks like.

The article ([Krzywinska et al., 2025, *Games and Culture*](https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:dd66abc4-10c5-4043-8898-ea55cc392703)) reads games the way literary scholars read books. It does not survey players.

They trace cozy back to the idea of home. They find that feeling in the inns of World of Warcraft, in camps in Baldur’s Gate 3, and in player houses in online worlds. For many fans, they write, a game world becomes “their fantasy second home”.

Their big idea is that knowing a game is cozy in itself. Games follow rules, so you learn where things are and what to do. They compare it to knowing the way to the bathroom in your own house in the dark. That is why a horror fan can feel at home in a horror game they know well. It is also why a soft-looking game with poor teaching can feel deeply uncozy.

So in this view cozy lives in the player and the game together, and a genre label cannot hold it. We go deeper into this paper in [Why your favourite game feels like home](https://ashortsail.com/blog/why-games-feel-like-home/).

## If everything is cozy, is anything?

No, say two critics. In a 2024 essay in *Into the Magic Circle*, Gideon de Pan and Frank G. Bosman argue that the cozy label comes from too many places at once. Makers, players, game features and shared culture all call games cozy, and they often disagree, so the word is losing its meaning.

Their short critical essay ([de Pan and Bosman, 2024, *Into the Magic Circle*](https://testplatform.openjournals.nl/IMC/article/view/18928)) uses Gris and Spiritfarer as examples. They point out that a “cozy” label can come from four places:

1.  **The makers.** Thunder Lotus called Spiritfarer “a cozy management game about dying”.
2.  **Each player.** In their words, “A game is, simply put, cozy because some player thinks it is.”
3.  **The game’s features,** such as safety and softness. Even these feel different to each player.
4.  **Shared culture,** a common sense of what looks cute and cozy.

Then they describe what they call cozification. Players call games cozy for their soft colors alone, as with Ni no Kuni. Or they make a game cozy with easy modes, console commands or mods, as with Valheim.

Their conclusion is blunt: “If (almost) all games can be or can become cozy, none of them are.” It is a useful warning, though the essay is short and rests on two examples.

## What are the three kinds of cozy?

The three kinds of cozy are coherent, dissonant and situational. Agata Waszkiewicz of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin and Marta Tymińska of the University of Gdańsk use this split in a 2024 editorial for *Replay*. Only the coherent kind, a cozy look with a cozy message, behaves like a genre.

Their piece ([Waszkiewicz and Tymińska, 2024, *Replay*](https://www.czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/Replay/article/view/23165)) is the opening editorial of a special issue on cozy games. It builds on earlier work by Waszkiewicz and Martyna Bakun from 2020.

First, they say we spot cozy games by their look: pastel colors, round shapes, cute characters and soft music. There are no jump scares, timers or contests, and failure “does not sting”.

Then they split coziness into three kinds:

-   **Coherent:** a cozy look with a cozy message. Stardew Valley is their example. This is what most people mean by a cozy game.
-   **Dissonant:** safe, soft play wrapped around a hard story. That Dragon, Cancer is their example.
-   **Situational:** a cozy moment inside a game that is not cozy, like a campfire in Dark Souls or a quiet dinner at home in Uncharted 4.

This split explains why the genre question is so slippery. The other two kinds are cozy moments and cozy wrappers, and they turn up anywhere. For more on the dissonant kind, see [Dark cozy games](https://ashortsail.com/blog/cozy-but-dark-games/).

## Where do researchers agree about cozy?

Researchers agree that safety, abundance and softness are the base of coziness, that predictability matters, and that the player has the final say. All four views accept these three points. They part ways only on whether a label this personal can still sort games into a genre.

-   **Safety, abundance and softness** are the base. Nobody throws them out.
-   **Predictability matters.** Knowing what comes next is part of feeling cozy. Bettina Bódi of Leeds Beckett University ties this to steady routines in a 2024 paper, which we cover in [Why we unwind by working](https://ashortsail.com/blog/why-we-unwind-by-working/).
-   **The player decides.** Every view admits that two people can play the same game and only one feels cozy.

They differ on what follows. The designers say you can still build toward the feeling. The critics say a label this wide is too loose to sort games by. Our [research roundup](https://ashortsail.com/blog/cozy-games-research/) has a short section on where else these writers disagree.

## So, is cozy a genre or a feeling?

Cozy is a feeling first, and “cozy game” is a useful but loose genre label on top of it. The label points at games built to give that feeling the whole time you play. Sad games with soft play, tense games with cozy moments, and games made cozy with mods sit at its blurry edges.

**Cozy is a feeling first.** You can find it in a farming game, in a tavern in an online world, or at a bonfire between boss fights. No one owns it.

**“Cozy game” is a useful shelf label.** It points at the coherent kind. If a shop or a friend says “cozy game”, you can expect gentle play, little danger and soft looks.

**The label is loose at the edges.** People will keep disagreeing about the edge cases, and that is fine.

So if you want a cozy game, the label is a good start. Then trust how a game feels to you. If you want to know more about how researchers define it, start with [What is a cozy game?](https://ashortsail.com/blog/what-is-a-cozy-game/)

## What this means for us

We make a cozy sailing game, so we think about this a lot. We read the question as a design job: keep play safe, give plenty, keep things soft, and make the world easy to learn and come back to. Whether it feels cozy is up to you.

You are a little tabby cat with a sailboat, and the islands need your help. You pick up letters and parcels, pack them into your hold, and deliver them to folks. You fish by day and by night, chat with the islanders and make new friends, and build your home island, one plank at a time.

## Questions

### Is cozy a genre?

Not in the usual sense. Researchers describe coziness as a feeling or a flavor that many kinds of games can have. "Cozy game" is a loose label for the games that lean on that feeling the most, such as Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing. It is useful for finding games, but its edges are blurry.

### What makes a game feel cozy?

Most researchers start from safety, abundance and softness: little danger, plenty of what you need, and gentle sights and sounds. This comes from a 2018 report by game designers at Project Horseshoe. Many scholars add predictability, the comfort of knowing what comes next and how the game works.

### Can a game with combat feel cozy?

Parts of it can. Scholars call this situational coziness: a safe, warm moment inside a tense game. The bonfire in Dark Souls and a quiet dinner at home in Uncharted 4 are their examples. The game as a whole is not cozy, but those moments are.

### What is cozification?

Cozification is a word from Gideon de Pan and Frank G. Bosman, in a 2024 essay. It means the ways players make games cozy, such as calling a game cozy for its colors alone, or turning on easy modes, console commands and mods. They use it to argue that the cozy label has grown too wide.

### Can a sad game be cozy?

Some scholars say yes, if the play itself stays safe, and call it dissonant coziness. That Dragon, Cancer and Spiritfarer are common examples. Other writers doubt that a soft look always makes a hard story comfortable, and some players say dark cozy games can add stress.

### Is a cozy game the same as a wholesome game?

They are close cousins. Before the word cozy spread, game scholars used names like wholesome games, slow games and tend-and-befriend games for many of the same titles, each name focusing on a different quality. Agata Waszkiewicz and Marta Tymińska list these older names in a 2024 journal editorial.

-   [cozy games](https://ashortsail.com/blog/tags/cozy-games/)
-   [game design](https://ashortsail.com/blog/tags/game-design/)
-   [relaxing games](https://ashortsail.com/blog/tags/relaxing-games/)

**Written by [Yos Riady](https://ashortsail.com/authors/yos-riady/)**

Yos Riady is the solo developer making A Short Sail, a cozy sailing game.

## Related guides

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-   13 Dec 2026
    
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    Why a game you love can feel like home, even a dark one. What research on cozy games says about familiar places, inns, camps and knowing your way around.
    
    -   [cozy games](https://ashortsail.com/blog/tags/cozy-games/)
    -   [game design](https://ashortsail.com/blog/tags/game-design/)
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## A Short Sail

The cozy sailing game with a cat.

Coming soon to Steam and [itch.io](https://yosriady.itch.io/a-short-sail) [Play the free demo](https://play.ashortsail.com/) [Get updates](https://ashortsail.com/blog/is-cozy-a-genre-or-a-feeling/#newsletter)