We at Spry Fox have all felt the impact of this emotional and chaotic year. So we’re excited to share Cozy Grove, a heartwarming oasis of fine art, deep storytelling, and delicious surprises coming to PS4 on April 8, 2021!
Cozy Grove is a life simulation game about camping on a haunted and ever-changing island. As a Spirit Scout, you will wander the island’s forest each day, searching for new hidden secrets and helping to appease local ghosts. With a little time and a lot of craftsmanship, you will bring color and joy to Cozy Grove.
Cozy Grove was inspired by relaxing life simulations that encourage the player to relax, explore, and express themselves through decorations and clothing. But we wanted to promote the genre in a number of interesting ways, so for example, we used procedural generation to change the island itself on a regular basis, so you never really know what you’ll come back to every day.
We’ve also added an original new game mechanic where large parts of the island are “colorless” until you invigorate them. Once you do this, not only does the desaturated world literally become more colorful and beautiful, the plants start to bear fruit and the characters become happier. I have witnessed this kind of moment in Cozy Grove a thousand times and I never get tired of it; it is a perpetually delicious experience.
We also wanted the game to have characters and stories that really mean something to players, so we gave each character in the game a story that slowly unfolds over weeks or months. Some of these stories are stupid, and some of these stories are deadly serious. We hope the result will be a story and a game that will make you happy to play for a few minutes or an hour every day for a long time.
Much of Cozy Grove’s distinctive look was worn by Noemí Gómez, our extremely talented and charming Spanish colleague. Noemí brings extraordinary whimsy to anything she draws, which is perfect for a game that features bear-vegetable hybrids and giant fox vendors on an ever-changing limbo-esque island.
Cozy Grove is ultimately destined to be a game you want to sit comfortably in. It doesn’t make you feel like you need to play for 8 hours in one sitting to ‘maximize’ your experience, nor does it make you feel like you’ve seen everything there is. to see in a few days. We want Cozy Grove to become a delicious ritual that you look forward to every day, and to stay that way for many weeks, months, and maybe even years. When the rest of your life risks chaos, Cozy Grove will hopefully be a place where you can predictably and consistently find some joy.
Finally, we wanted to let you know that a native PS5 version will arrive shortly after its release with improved load times. The PS5 and PS4 Pro will also let you enjoy the art of gaming in smooth 4K. The PS5 version will be available for free to PS4 players and you will be able to transfer your save between versions.
