I’ve been pretty good this year and avoided flooding my Steam library with more games I don’t have time to play, but Steam’s latest themed sale got me. From now until April 6, Steam is running House and Home Fest. It’s basically seven days of homey, cozy games that feel specifically targeted at me.
I’m basically a videogame realtor, and all about anything that lets me build, organize, or clean some semblance of a house. I’ve scrubbed the dirt off of countless rooftops and walls in PowerWash Simulator, and who knows how many permutations I’ve created of my idealized working space in My Dream Setup. God forbid I apply that energy to cleaning my own house.
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Creature Kitchen
Creature Kitchen (Steam)
This one is a recent favorite, but I was smitten with the cute critters of Creature Kitchen when I wrote about the demo a month ago. I’ve completed the full game since, and even went back for some achievement clean-up since I couldn’t get enough of the creepy-cozy cooking sim.
It’s a short game—it took me about six hours to finish everything, achievements included—but perfectly paced with just-difficult-enough puzzles and tons of weird little guys to befriend. I loved looking for clues to make snacks for the mice in my walls or the weird apparition in the pantry. They’re pickier eaters than I would have expected, but once you figure it out, Creature Kitchen is a satisfying little puzzler.
💲 Price: $7.99/$6.39 | £6.69/£5.35
✅ Has a demo
PowerWash Simulator 2
PowerWash Simulator 2 (Steam)
Look, I recently tried to replay the original PowerWash Simulator since I didn’t finish all of its DLC, and I just can’t go back to it after playing the sequel. Months later, I still stand by everything I outlined in my PowerWash Simulator 2 review, and feel the upgrades made in its sequel are just too good to handwave and go back to ol’ faithful.
New attachments like the Swirlforce Ace, a heavy-duty circular cleaner, and upgrades to the soap system are gamechangers. Couple that with improved co-op, and it’s way more fun for everyone involved. The Adventure Time DLC is on its way soon, so it’s the perfect time to scoop up the sequel if you haven’t already.
💲 Price: $24.99/$21.24 | £19.99/£16.99
✅ Has a demo
Hozy
I just started playing Hozy, but I’ve loved my time with the fixer-upper sim so far. While there’s no shortage of things to do, I love that it doesn’t let me overwhelm myself by trying to tackle a million little projects at once. Instead, Hozy breaks down remodeling an entire neighborhood into several smaller cleanup jobs where you restore old buildings one room at a time.
You’ll do everything, too. Pick up the trash, scrub the floors, squeegee the windows, paint the walls—Hozy gets pretty granular with the work that goes into making buildings as good as new. But the best part comes at the end, when the game dumps boxes full of furniture and clutter into your lap and lets you go wild.
💲 Price: $14.99/$13.49 | £12.49/£11.24
Unpacking
Unpacking (Steam)
Speaking of unpacking, you can do that in… Unpacking. The 2D home decor sim is all about the best parts of Hozy, but with a dash of puzzle-solving as you try to make everything fit into your new room. Every room starts with a neat pile of seemingly endless boxes, and you’ve got to find a home for every action figure and roll of toilet paper in there.
Unpacking caters to the maximalist in me. Screw overly sanitized spaces and homes with hotel vibes. I want crap in every corner and lived-in spaces with real personality. Unpacking lets me do that, but on a handy grid to make sure I get the symmetry right. I should try that when I’m hanging frames in real life.
💲 Price: $19.99/$7.99 | £15.49/£6.19
My Little Life
My Little Life (Steam)
My Little Life is another one I started recently, but so far I’m having a good time tending to the tiny, needy people making demands at the bottom of my screen. Considering it’s an idler, they’re pretty patient little dudes, but they rely on you for more than just cute decor and shelter.
While those things are important, the tiny humans also rely on their desktop gods for food, comfort, and even new career paths. It’s kind of like playing a mini version of The Sims, but I can’t drown the annoying ones in the pool. Or maybe I can, and I just haven’t discovered how. At least not yet.
💲 Price: $5.99/$4.19 | £4.99/£3.49
And here’s everything in my Steam cart
This could be a pile of bad decisions, a collection of the best cozy games I’ve played in a while, or both. I have no idea, since these are all games from Steam’s House and Home Fest sitting in my shopping cart. Either way, three games for under $20 isn’t a bad deal by any means.
Two are idle games, which isn’t very surprising when you see how many I go through while sitting at my desk. I’ve already run the gamut of things to do in Ropuka’s Idle Island (which I also recommend, but it’s bundled with another cute idler, Mini Cozy Room (Steam), and I’m itching to try it for the multiplayer mode.
Tools Up (Steam) is in my cart for the same reasons; I’m looking for something cute and cozy to play with friends between all the hellish survival horror games we play. And then there’s Camper Van: Make it Home (Steam), a game I’ve had on my wishlist since it launched last year. I can’t believe I’m about to buy this and Outbound in the same few weeks, but I’m committed to the van life now.
Steam’s House and Home Fest ends on April 6, so I’ve got a few days before I have to commit to anything. Until then, I would love to hear any cozy game recommendations from the sale that you may have, so leave me a holler in the comments below.
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