Image: Come On Studio/Tinybuild
What do you get if you cross ‘Cozy’ and ‘Home’ together? Hozy, apparently. Questionable name choice aside, this upcoming simulator about cleaning, decorating and organising spaces is effortlessly charming, and if you’ve ever played Unpacking or House Flipper with a grin on your face, you’re going to want this on your radar.
Hozy is the first game to come from Come On Studio, a team of graphic, visual and web design professionals. That background in graphic and visual design is unsurprising, given how stunning Hozy looks. Sharp, clean and realistic while still managing to be playful and whimsical, it might be the best-looking game in the genre I’ve seen to date.
I’ve played through Hozy’s public playtest, currently available through Steam, which allows me to sample two levels of the game. The first had me tidying and renovating an attic into a comfortable and cosy living space, while the second had me converting an old warehouse loft into a tiny but functional apartment.
The labour-intensive jobs come first, but Hozy’s so user-friendly that nothing feels arduous. Picking up litter simply means holding down a mouse button until your hands are carrying as much as they can fit. Cleaning the floor means clicking and dragging a mop across your screen, and painting feels much the same. In a matter of minutes you can have transformed a messy, run-down room into a charming space, ready for you to make your stamp on it.
The next bit will be what appeals most to fans of Unpacking. With boxes of furniture and decor appearing in your room, you’re left to place and arrange until you’re happy with where everything is. The difficult part here is that you don’t know what’s going to come out of a box, and you can’t judge by their size. A mid-sized box might be hiding a piano, for example, or a three-seater sofa. You’ll need to make sure you can accommodate everything, and that likely means continually shuffling around as you go.
It’s a relaxing and enjoyable experience, though, largely thanks to Hozy’s intuitive controls. As of yet, there’s no controller support, and given the games’ reliance on mouse clicks and scroll wheel rotates, I’m not sure there will be. But it works well enough, even with a laptop touchpad. Picking up an object is a simple case of clicking it, and a scroll of your wheel (or a two-finger swipe on a touchpad) will rotate. Click again to place an object, and rinse and repeat. The same goes for emptying boxes: just one click is all it takes. There’s no complex and tiresome dragging or unnecessary motions needed here.
Hozy is going to hugely appeal to you if you’ve enjoyed the likes of Unpacking and House Flipper, but anyone who likes a cosy, casual experience should bear this one in mind. It’s coming to PC via Steam on 30th March, and I for one can’t wait. Keep an eye out for more coverage closer to the release date.
