Cozy Liora Preview: Plenty of Ideas, One Very Small Game

Imagine you're a kindergarten teacher. Your life revolves around young children—and all the stress that comes with them. Every workday is a test of endurance: you're responsible for a room full of kids, surrounded by constant noise, crying, shouting, and endless mischief. How do you unwind after all that and clear your head (especially when alcohol isn't an option)? That's exactly the sort of person cozy games are made for, and today we're taking a look at one of them: Cozy Liora.

Of course, that's all tongue-in-cheek. Cozy games aren't just for teachers, police officers, retail workers, or anyone else with a stressful job. They're for anyone looking for a relaxing experience free from competition and punishment. Cozy games usually don't have timers or failure states. Instead, they focus on simple, repetitive activities like gardening, cleaning, decorating, and similar routines, all set to calming music and a laid-back pace.

So, while your little students are taking their afternoon nap, let's see whether Cozy Liora can help you relax and forget about everyday worries—even if only for fifteen minutes.

Children who grew up in the late 1990s and early 2000s will probably remember the Tamagotchi—a virtual pet that needed to be fed, entertained, and cared for just like a real one. At first glance, Cozy Liora looks very much like a Tamagotchi. You're greeted by an adorable hand-drawn cat that you can pet, feed, and play with. In reality, though, that's far from being the game's main feature.

The game doesn't really have a central gameplay loop yet—it's still in Early Access—but it does offer a collection of different ideas, some more promising than others.

The first is a daily journal, which serves as the foundation of how the Turkish solo developer presents the game on Steam. Once a day, you can choose an emoji that reflects your mood and write about whatever happened during the day: how you slept, what you ate, what made you happy, and what drove you up the wall. It may sound fairly ordinary, but the game supports Steam Cloud, meaning all of your journal entries are stored online. Fifty years from now, your grandchildren—or simply your future self six months from now—could log in and read everything you wrote. So maybe don't write anything too embarrassing unless you're comfortable explaining it to your grandkids someday.

The second feature is the previously mentioned cat care. At the moment, it offers about as much depth as a classic Tamagotchi: feed the cat, play with it, and pet it. You can only do these actions once per day, encouraging you to check in daily. Unfortunately, there's virtually no customization yet, so the cat remains little more than an animated illustration sitting in the corner of the screen. If cozy games are your thing, you might also enjoy our roundup of the best games for women, which includes plenty of titles from the genre.

The third feature is a collection of mini-games, supposedly designed to help players take their minds off everyday stress. Two of them are immediately understandable: a jigsaw puzzle (currently with only a single image available) and a simplified fruit-themed version of Tetris. Neither really needs an explanation.

The remaining mini-games, however, are a different story. In an effort to avoid familiar classics like tic-tac-toe, the developer opted for more unusual concepts with rather unintuitive rules. To make matters worse, those rules are only displayed once—right before the game begins. The result is that these mini-games are more likely to frustrate you than help you relax.

The fourth interesting idea is the game's social interaction system. A special screen displays other players currently online as stars scattered across the night sky. You can't chat with them directly—this isn't a social network—but there are indirect ways to connect. Once a day, you can write a short note and send it to a random player, and in return you'll receive a few anonymous notes from others.

They're filled with so many virtual hugs and wishes for a wonderful day that you start wondering whether the game is secretly generating them or whether only exceptionally kind people play it. Then again, every now and then a message comes along that's a bit more... realistic, including the occasional inappropriate one. So apparently they really are written by actual players, not bots.

Stepping outside into the garden lets you prepare a tray of treats for a random player. Unlike the note system, you can't attach a personal message here, but it still creates the pleasant feeling that you're sharing the game world with real people. In addition, your in-game phone receives one random message from another player every day. It's a tiny feature, but a charming one.

The game's environments were generated with AI—a fact openly acknowledged in the Steam description. They're made up of cozy rooms decorated in different themes, including gaming, children's, football, gothic, and several others. They certainly look cute, but they're also disappointingly static. These are essentially illustrated backdrops with no meaningful interaction—you can't rearrange furniture, repaint the walls, or personalize the space. If creating cozy interiors is what you're after, you'd be better off checking out our list of games like The Sims.

The soundtrack is another highlight. Around fifteen lo-fi tracks play in random order throughout the game. None of them are particularly memorable on their own, but together they create a calm, relaxing atmosphere that fits the game's intentions.

Traditionally, video games are built around gameplay loops—repeating actions that reinforce one another. In a typical shooter, for example, you defeat enemies to earn experience and resources, upgrade your equipment, and then take on even stronger opponents.

Cozy Liora, at least in its current Early Access form, doesn't really have a gameplay loop. It's closer to a digital relaxation app or a cozy time-killer where the player is expected to entertain themselves.

Most activities can only be performed once every twenty-four hours. That kind of design can work in idle or incremental games, where returning every day leads to meaningful progress. Cozy Liora, however, lacks those systems, so there's little incentive to come back daily.

There's simply not enough to do, while too many restrictions are in place. You can't customize your room or your cat, you can't pet your feline companion twice in the same day, and winning the mini-games doesn't unlock anything. As a result, several promising ideas exist side by side without supporting one another.

Instead of continuously adding cosmetic skins and new mini-games, the developer would benefit far more from expanding the existing mechanics and connecting them into a cohesive experience. There's no shortage of inspiration—Animal Crossing: New Horizons, for example, successfully ties together dozens of simple mechanics into one satisfying gameplay loop.

One other question remains: why isn't this a mobile game? Logging in for ten minutes on your phone to feed your cat and jot down a few thoughts in your journal feels like the perfect use case. On PC, however, players have countless other ways to relax—including many excellent free games (read our list of best free PC games and the roundup of best free games for PS4 and PS5).

Who should keep an eye on the full release of Cozy Liora?

Firefighters. Air traffic controllers. Emergency medical workers. Teachers. Anyone whose daily life is filled with stress.

For just $1–2, the game offers a peaceful digital space filled with a handful of pleasant little interactions—but not much beyond that. Trophy hunters may also find it appealing: it already features 52 achievements, with the most demanding one requiring you to write journal entries for 30 consecutive days. Many of the remaining achievements unlock simply by spending time in the game, sometimes every few minutes.

The biggest challenge for the developer is transforming Cozy Liora from a collection of disconnected ideas into a cohesive game. The existing mechanics need greater depth and stronger connections so players have genuine reasons to return every day. At present, most players will have exhausted everything the game offers after roughly ten minutes.

The encouraging news is that the solo developer is actively supporting the project with frequent updates and shows no signs of abandoning it. It'll be interesting to see how Cozy Liora evolves by the time it reaches its full release.