I’m no stranger to cozy games, being a long time fan of Stardew Valley, Spiritfarer, My Time at Portia, Harvest Moon, Rune Factory, and many others. My initial assumption was that Unpacking would give me a similar sense of ease and satisfaction as these other cozy games. However, like several other people mentioned in class I found myself developing a feeling of frustration while playing this game. I wonder whether Unpacking can even be properly categorized as a cozy game, as it lacks what I consider three of the most important characteristics of a cozy game: varied mechanics, an indefinite end, and the chance for a player to insert themself into another world.
A significant reason video games became popular during the pandemic was because they offered players the chance to take part in all sorts of activities from the safety of their quarantine bubble. Video games offered a relief to the boredom of monotony which many people faced during the lengthy pandemic-induced isolation. Cozy games in particular became popular due to a general desire for comfort and wholesomeness amidst the craziness. Rather than remain stuck in a loop of watching the news, staring out the window, and being on Zoom all day, cozy game players could experience variety and excitement playing games. In Stardew Valley, for example, a player could plant crops until they became bored, then shift focus to fishing, or mining, or combat, or making friends, or so many other mechanics found in the game.
In this way I struggle to view Unpacking as a cozy game. It features only one physical mechanic – clicking to pick up and place the protagonist’s belongings – and offers no variety as the game progresses. The player is stuck doing the same thing over and over, with only slight changes to the background and items they’re placing. This mechanic isn’t inherently bad, and there are likely people who enjoy the simplicity of the game, but it is quite different from the plentitude of options one finds in other cozy games like Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon.
Because of the lack of variety in how one can play the game, Unpacking is likely not a game someone would want to play indefinitely. But, if for some reason a person wished to spend hours exploring the game and discovering new ways to play it, they would be quite disappointed by their lack of ability to do so. Unpacking has a very definite end, which is when the player gets the final shot of the protagonist sitting with her partner and child. After this moment there is nothing else for the player to do except restart and play again. A few other cozy games also feature a definite end – Spiritfarer, for example, but even that warrants 30+ hours of gameplay, compared to Unpacking’s 4-5 hours. And most cozy games run indefinitely – you can never truly reach the end in a game like Stardew Valley or My Time at Portia, because even after you finish all the storylines you can still spend hours farming, decorating your house, and doing all sorts of other random tasks. Besides the inability to vary or extend gameplay beyond a single mechanic and a few hours, Unpacking also differs from a typical cozy game in terms of player immersion. A central mantra of the cozy game genre is “making the player feel at home”. In Unpacking, however, it’s not your home you’re moving into. Rather, you’re operating on someone else’s behalf, someone whose life and storyline you have no say over except in how they organize their belongings. Even then the player doesn’t have complete control because some items must be placed in very specific locations, and they are also occasionally limited by other factors such as the protagonist sharing space with her boyfriend. Unpacking is a game played on someone else’s behalf; players cannot make the game their own, which is a further reason I would hesitate to categorize Unpacking as a genuinely cozy game.
I really like your definition of cozy games: it is often hard to pin down what exactly makes any genre of game what it is. What I find interesting is your inclusion of Spiritfarer. Having also played it, I fully agree it is cozy in feeling (love that hugging is a mechanic) but not in genre as it breaks one of the core rules: an indefinite end to allow players to move at their own pace. Although you seem to be lax about the finality of the end, provided there are enough mechanics or hours to bridge that gap. What then makes a cozy game a cozy game besides their wholesome nature?
This is such an interesting question, especially as it points to the larger question of ‘what is a cozy game?’. I like that you mentioned main characteristics of a cozy game instead of explicitly defining it, and I don’t think there is a set definition of what a cozy game, or the genre, is. Personally, I would argue that a cozy game can be described by the feelings that it invokes in players, such as safety, relaxation and absence of danger, fear or risk. However, this isn’t particularly useful as we all feel different things, so what could be a ‘cozy game’ for one person, could induce feelings of risk and frustration to another, and hence wouldn’t be particularly ‘cozy’. You could also use this to argue that someone could find a game like Call of Duty cozy, so it leads me to the question, should ‘cozy games’ actually be a genre?