Wanderstop is a cozy management sim about a burned-out warrior who'd much rather be fighting than running a tea shop

The rise of cozy games have been especially noticeable in recent years, with audiences getting invested and finding comfort in routine as they bond with characters and make a home for themselves. But with the upcoming Wanderstop, game creator Davey Wreden – the dev behind The Stanley Parable and The Beginner's Guide – wanted to focus on something a bit closer to home with his self-aware take on a cozy game.

During the week of The Game Awards 2024, I played studio Ivy Road's Wanderstop, which sees a weary warrior take an unexpected break from fighting to help fix up and run a tea shop. Along with learning the ropes of being a shop owner, I also spoke with Wreden about how his experience with game development and subsequent burnout formed the basis of Wanderstop's peculiar but relatable take on a cozy experience.

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A relaxing brew

Players take on the role of Alta, a famed warrior who has fallen on hard times after several defeats in battle. After a particularly crushing loss, she finds herself lost in a magical forest and uncovers a safe haven with an isolated tea shop in need of fixing up. With no way to leave by conventional means, Alta begrudgingly takes a break from engaging in fights to help the shop's owner with getting the place into top form – all the while, she figures out a way to escape the cozy purgatory that she finds herself in.

Most cozy games often have protagonists that feel right at home with the cozy setting, but Wanderstops flip that by placing a character who seems trapped in the wrong game. Having a warrior set aside their sword to pick plants, make tea, and fix up a shop feels like an usual set up for a comedy game, but for Wreden, that intentional mismatch hit at the heart of what Wanderstop's main narrative is all about.

"I realized how difficult it would be to just remake Animal Crossing and to attempt at making it better, and I sort of slowly started to get more interested in putting a more personal story into the game, one that had more to do with burnout and also dealing with obsession and perfectionism," says Wreden. "That's had a big impact on my life and my work, and this is why it took a long time to make. We took a long time to realize that that sort of story was, in a lot of ways, the core of the game, and also we still had to actually make a cozy game as well."

Much like other cozy games, players will engage in chores involving gathering crops and making food, and participate in social interactions with the community. However, the protagonist Alta is very much not into the whole cozy vibe, and the main part of the narrative deals with her wrestling with the fact that she has to make the best of the situation. That plays out with Alta having to perform tasks that seem ill-suited for her skills, which only ends up annoying her.

Wanderstop has many of the familiar features that are found in games like Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing New Horizons, and Palia. However, the focus on its main narrative, with the protagonist who very much has their own mind made up about the 'cozy' setting and is very much at odds with the idea of trying to fit in makes for a really interesting dynamic at work. It's not a takedown of the cozy game genre, but rather it focuses more on examining that familiar loop of a cozy game through the perspective of a different type of protagonist.

"When I started working on this, there weren't nearly as many cozy games as there are now. So I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing, but I think there's still room for growth for sure," says the creative director. "What I hope for is that this game is an indicator of a space that cozy games have not really explored very much, which is for the game to actually be about something – something that's very human and very real."

"Like imagine you have a protagonist in a game like Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley, and you then feel this character is like a real person who maybe did not actually want to be there very much, and what would that be like, and how would she respond, and how would that character deal with being in this environment? I think it's interesting in ways that I haven't seen any other game quite tackling that subject matter."

The main appeal of cozy games is that they offer players an environment to build up something and form a community with other characters or players. To have a cozy game focus on the story of a character who is not interested in community or finding some downtime is certainly relatable in our present times, and given that Wanderstop still features some solid crafting and building gameplay in its own right, this particular cozy game packs a bit more emotion for its main story. I'm looking forward to seeing more of what's to come with this self-aware cozy game.

For more, check out our round up of the most hotly anticipated new games for 2025 and beyond.