COZYRAMA Review (PC)

COZYRAMA doesn’t present you with the tools to move mountains; it hands you a small paintbrush, a suite of critters and accessories, and a bite-sized diorama to transform into your own slice of heaven. Here, there are no cities, no moral boundaries, and no dilemmas to juggle — only open spaces, fresh air, and an open-ended world that bends to your imagination and adolescent desires. A haven for hedgehogs; a waterlogged paradise for foxes; an ultraviolet meadow of vibrant purples and bubblegum pinks.

In this place, you have the opportunity to craft petite dioramas and insert all of your wondrous embellishments, including fluorescent terrains, scrubbable lakes, and all sorts of woodland creatures, all of which you can manipulate and mold into your own backyard companions of varying sizes. And yes, that does mean that you can essentially inflate a hedgehog and have it stomp and cloak the entire board. But, more on that later.

In case you haven’t guessed it yet — yes, COZYRAMA is an adorable sandbox-driven game, one that refuses to buy into the notion that city-building games need bottomless toolkits and governing systems to thrive, and instead chooses to settle for the simple pleasures of terraforming and world crafting. There are no goals to complete, and there are no looming hourglasses to keep you from unleashing your inner perfectionist. No, in this idyllic diorama you have the ability to build and flourish without having to endure the baggage of a traditional city-building RPG. It’s a simple idea that lingers along the dotted line of minimalism, but, given the concept, honestly, it doesn’t really matter all that much.

A Place of Comfort

COZYRAMA presents you with a small plot of land—a square for a diorama, specifically—and a menu of all kinds of set pieces, including plants, rocks, animals, and a brushing tool that allows you to create brooks, paths, and other kinds of natural textures. The idea, then, is that you explore the tools on your trusty belt, and lay the groundwork for idyllic wildlife areas and other blooming habitats. With no overarching tasks to accomplish, you essentially have the freedom and the luxury of transforming just a fragment of a canvas into a world that speaks to your own unique needs. And that’s it. There are no caveats, and there are no hidden consequences behind the actions that you take along the way. It’s diorama crafting, nothing more, nothing less. A blessing, or a curse? A bit of both, as it turns out.

It goes without saying at this point, but the truth is, COZYRAMA isn’t a game that you would naturally turn to when you’re looking to wax that all-powerful god complex that typically resides deep within a fundamentally threatening 4X sim à la Civilization. No, if anything, COZYRAMA lingers on the opposite side of the spectrum, in a pocket that shuns strenuous efforts and openly embraces wholesome content and communal harmony. It’s small, and it certainly lacks the weight of a full-fledged build ‘em up game, mainly due to its squashed diorama size and general lack of materials and set pieces and what have you. However, it does offer a fantastic selection of flexible options and terraforming opportunities as tribute, which goes a long way, all things considered.

Beyond the Diorama

Admittedly, there are only so many things that you can do here before the journey begins to take its toll and the process of building a diorama becomes a little dull and lackluster. Granted, it does feature some neat touches, like an interactive slider that allows your inland critters to roam freely and explore the worlds that you create, for example. There are also plenty of colorful combinations that you can implement to make otherwise dull landscapes look more sprightly and wondrous. But that’s about as far as you can push the boundaries, frankly.

There are a couple of issues that sprout out among the other minor complaints, like the conveyor belt of items, for example. Unlike your usual categorized list, COZYRAMA adds a lot of random objects into each section of the building menu, which means that it can be awfully difficult to find the item that you want, and more importantly, the item that you need to finish your post-terraforming tasks. For instance, there are plants in the critter menu, and there are critters in the furniture section, and there are objects that, frankly, have no rightful place in the categories that they fall into. A small nit-picking issue, but one that ought to be resolved in future updates, nonetheless.

Aside from a couple of flaws in its UI and structural implementation, COZYRAMA plays as it should, with a buttery smooth feel and a satisfactory hook to keep you going. It doesn’t drag, and it doesn’t suffer from any irritating bugs or visual problems — and that’s a great thing, truly. Could it do with a larger playing field for you to expand your dioramas? Absolutely. Does it boast enough content to warrant a couple of strokes of the ol’ paintbrush? Honestly, yes — and that counts for a lot.

Verdict

When all’s said and done, there is a beautiful diorama that deserves to be celebrated and cherished here, despite it being without the breadth of a full-fledged sandbox and the scalable provisions that usually come with a modern world-building sim. Even still, for what it does bring to the table, COZYRAMA makes a good attempt at rekindling the flame over a common wick. It isn’t the first of its kind, and it probably won’t be the last, either. Yet, I’m inclined to believe that there’s a solid indie flick here that deserves to be explored here, with just enough wriggle room to conceive even more materials and terraforming opportunities.

Anyway, if it’s a simple diorama-building sim that tickles your fancy (Minami Lane springs to mind here, actually), then you’ll probably enjoy spending an hour or two rifling through the world of COZYRAMA. It’s sweet, compact, and above all, a genuine delight to embellish. If that sounds like your idea of a good time, then you should definitely consider checking out Sandwich Games’ world of bite-sized whimsy.