This cozy room designer is no-stakes fun with some creative expression. It has one goal and focuses purely on mastering that key gameplay element. Is it enough to keep you occupied?
Here for a good time, not a long time
While short and sweet, Hozy delivers on exactly what it promises: a room designer with lots of customization. Each room can technically take as long as you want it to, depending on how you choose to play. Players who want to get detailed with their customization and optimize the layout exactly how they want it will have the best experience with this game. Players who want to move through levels for a sense of accomplishment will find little of that served up to them. The point of the game is much more about enjoying the time you have with each room, rather that trying to complete the game.
In a way, it feels somewhat like a tech-demo, showing off room designer mechanics in very limited spaces. There are many home-builder and designer games out there, but Hozy has honed in very closely on the aspects of customization and, for the most part, singular room design. The player will only be taking to one room at a time of various sizes, with some slight extensions to some that can be considered separate from the main room. This results in the game being relatively straightforward. Still, when in the mood to customize some rooms without the real life work or cost, Hozy does scratch a particular itch.
How to Hozy
It is very clear from the beginning how this game is to be engaged with. The very first level gives all of the groundwork for painting the walls, taking items out of boxes, and being able to place items around and on each other. It also begins the way the other levels will, with the floor needing to be cleaned before items can be placed. The cleaning and wall-painting are the initial mechanics, with the main room decorating coming after. More mechanics get added to that opening section as levels progress depending on the level, but nothing too major gets introduced. It mostly just ends up being busy work that, at the very least, can add to the coziness.
Each room varies in its size and shape, with the items for each particular level being included to fit both the theme of the room, and the shape/size of it. At times the amount of items on a particular level can get quite overwhelming, but most if not all levels are not meant to host every single item. By dragging them out of the room, items can be stored in a storage box. Be careful though, because retrieving items from the storage box can be tedious, and remembering what items were put in there isn’t always easy as you get further in customizing the room. In one particular level, there were very few items that could be stored, forcing me to clutter the area a bit more than I would’ve liked. It seemed intentional for the theme of the room to have it cluttered, but it seemed like an unnecessary requirement.
The only reward for having a good looking room is of course having a good looking room. The game doesn’t reward you in any way, and doesn’t need to. If the player is taking any pride in what they put together, they’ll end up with a room that shows off their customization skills, as well as Come On Studio’s craftiness in choosing an excess of themed items to fill each room and marrying it all into a single style.
A house is not a home
In the same way that a house is not a home without the features to make it such, Hozy feels as if it lacks key elements to make it a complete game. There are traces of other elements of gameplay other than placing objects, such as the slightest bit of narrative cohesion when selecting rooms or through the objects in the rooms themselves. There is also a photo system when rooms are completed, allowing players to show off their rooms to friends. Unfortunately, this feature is mostly fulfilled outside of the game itself, being posted to Steam or shareable through other means. Nowhere within the game can you see other players’ designs or share your own.
The game ends up feeling mostly featureless. Despite the game mastering the room-designer mechanics, even that only seems to be surface scratching. Hozy doesn’t chart new waters and innovate the home design space, but rather gives the player one room at a time to customize with the items given for that particular level. It is very limited in what can be done, though this limitation does at least benefit it in the way that it feels like a polished system.
How cozy is Hozy?
This is absolutely a game meant to be played during relaxing downtime. It doesn’t have to be the only thing you have open on your monitors. It can exist alongside a TV show, movie, YouTube video, class, lecture, or anything else you may fill your time with. It is something to keep the brain active while letting the body and critical thinking skills rest. There are no time limits or stakes, no grades or corrections. Everything you do and any way you choose to design will always be correct. It can be played while listening to the soundtrack, or it can be streamed to a friend. It can be a way to stimulate the mind while waking up, or to relax the mind before going to sleep. There are many ways to play Hozy, and just like when designing the rooms in the game, all ways to play are the correct way to play.
The art style is realistic and proportioned, with a focus on size. Each object feels perfectly measured to make the rooms feel as realistic to design as possible. Large objects have to be limited or they’ll fill the room, and small objects need a place of their own lest they make some surfaces look cluttered. Thanks to being comparatively sized, it becomes clear what each object is meant for in the overall design of the room. There is no rule telling the player that they have to design the room any one way, but the design of the objects themselves communicate what they are ideally meant for.
Each room has its own musical track that helps get the player in the mindset of the room they are designing. With each theme being different for most levels, there are few ways to communicate mood in a mostly visual game. Through the soundtrack, a secondary way to communicate becomes available, and does its best to focus the player on the themes soon to be unveiled when the items come out of the boxes one by one.
Nothing wrong with a little R&R
There are parts of Hozy that make it seem like there could be more to its systems. On the other hand, what Hozy offers is simple enough to fill the niche of cozy relaxation. It ends up falling in a place where “more” is the first thing that comes to mind. Whether it be more features or more of what it already presents, it leaves something to be desired. Perhaps this is a compliment to what already exists of the game, and the fact that players will be left wanting more. It won’t be the main focus of anybody’s time for too long. Hopefully there will be more content to come, as more Hozy would make for the best Hozy because of what a relaxing time the already existing content provides.
Hozy is out now on PC.
