Ready for Halloween? These ten cozy games have some seriously spooky vibes

DREDGE

8.8

0 Want

ActionRPGAdventureSimulation

Dredge is the most relaxing game in the world, until it isn’t. By day, Dredge is a chill fishing sim with a focus on inventory management. If you keep fishing after the sun falls, however, you might find some terrifying creatures in the water.

While Dredge can get pretty creepy at night, there’s no gore or jump scares to worry about. It’s a little unsettling at times, but it never takes things too far, and the creepy creatures always retreat when the sun comes up. It’s the kind of horror game that even the faint of heart can enjoy.

Graveyard Keeper

7.7

0 Want

RPGCasualManagementSimulation

Imagine a version of Stardew Valley where you run a mortuary on the side. That’s what you get in Graveyard Keeper, an addictive farming sim that also lets you build and manage a graveyard. You can grow carrots and cabbage, but you also embalm corpses, bury bodies, and keep graves looking nice and tidy.

It can get a little grisly—if you need extra cash, you can harvest corpse parts as a side hustle—but the pixelated graphics keep things from feeling gross. It helps that the game has a terrific sense of humor. Some of the dialogue is laugh-out-loud funny, and that playful tone keeps Graveyard Keeper from feeling too dark.

Cozy Grove

9.9

0 Want

Arcade

A haunted island might not seem like the best place for a camping trip, but the spirits in Cozy Grove want to make your stay as peaceful as possible. These ghosts won’t keep you up at night, but they could use your help with some everyday tasks. Completing these simple tasks, like catching fish and collecting seashells, will gradually bring the island back to life.

Cozy Grove has a similar gameplay loop to Animal Crossing. The game’s clock moves in real time, and there are only so many tasks you can complete in a single day. There’s not any pressure, and there are no big scares, just a bunch of cute ghosts that would really like to be your friend.

Beacon Pines

10

0 Want

CozyInteractive FictionRPGHorror

Can’t decide if you’d rather sit down with a spooky game or curl up with a creepy book? Why not do both? Beacon Pines is a narrative adventure game that takes place inside a mysterious novel. As you explore each chapter, you’ll make friends, uncover secrets, and make choices that change the course of the story.

Playing Beacon Pines feels a lot like reading through a Choose Your Own Adventure book. You might not always be happy with the outcome of your choices, but playing through different branches of the story is key to unraveling the game’s larger mysteries. It’s an engrossing, narrative-focused game that really makes you feel like you’re a part of the story.

Wytchwood

7.7

0 Want

CraftingRPGCasualAdventure

Inspired by gothic fables, Wytchwood is both a dark fairy tale and a breathtakingly beautiful crafting game. You play as an old crone that needs to collect wayward souls. Nabbing these souls can get a little tricky, so you’ll need to brew potions, craft traps, and build other items that will help you fulfill your mission.

Wytchwood’s visuals are immediately eye-catching, but it also has some incredible sound design. Ghosts wail as you wander past the graveyard. Trees creak and sway when you walk into the forest. I wouldn’t call it a horror game, but it has a creepy ambiance that’s hard to beat.

Don't Starve

9.5

0 Want

People have called Don’t Starve “the Dark Souls of survival games,” but it’s my ultimate comfort game. The premise is simple: You’re dropped into a terrifying wilderness, and you have to stay alive for as long as you can. Food is easy enough to come by, but you’ll also have to avoid monsters and build some sort of light source before it gets dark.

Don’t Starve might seem brutal at first, but once you get a handle on the basics, it can actually be really soothing. There’s something really comforting about gathering and crafting what you need to survive the other stay. Add in an awesome, Edward Gorey-inspired art style, and you’ve got yourself a spooky good time.

Strange Horticulture

8.5

0 Want

Point & ClickAdventurePuzzleStory Rich

Strange Horticulture is an occult mystery game, but it’s really about collecting and cataloging some of the weirdest plants imaginable. You play as the brand-new owner of a local plant shop, and your customers depend on you to find the plants you need. Deliver a customer the right plant, and you’ll expand your encyclopedia. Give them the wrong plant, and you’ll have to deal with a rising sense of dread.

In your free time, you’ll investigate cults, chat with strange customers, and pet your adorable cat. It’s a terrific mix of investigative gameplay, puzzle solving, and storytelling. The game is fairly short, but since there are multiple endings to discover, it’s worth playing more than once.

Little Nightmares

9.4

0 Want

SurvivalHorrorAdventurePuzzle

What scared you the most when you were a kid? Little Nightmares is a stealth puzzle platformer that’s all about confronting your childhood fears. It’s filled with monsters and other horrors, but since you view everything through the eyes of a child, it never feels too terrifying.

Scares are a big part of Little Nightmares, but what really makes the game work is its charms. There’s something really nostalgic about wandering around in a yellow raincoat with nothing but a flashlight. The goal of the game is to escape a nightmarish world, but once you get into it, you might want to stick around a little longer.

Birth

0

0 Want

GorePoint & ClickHorrorAdventure

Sometimes, playing games can make you feel a little less alone. Birth is a sweet-but-creepy game about managing loneliness in a very strange way. Instead of trying to make friends, you’ll build a friend from bones, organs, and any other odds and ends you can find.

Birth is a truly unique puzzle game that looks and feels like a work of art. The premise might sound gruesome, but it’s a genuinely heartwarming game. It’s definitely on the short side, but it’s an extremely satisfying experience.

Night in the Woods

8.9

0 Want

Adventure

It’s hard to imagine anything cozier than hanging out with your friends, eating at late-night diners, and talking about ghosts. Night in the Woods is a slice of life game about a college dropout that recently returned to her hometown. It’s filled with fun minigames—you can even play a dungeon crawler on the main character’s computer—but the story and characters are the star of the show.

What’s really special about Night in the Woods is that it focuses on different types of horrors. Sure, there are strange cloaked figures in the woods, but you also have to grapple with anxiety and depression. Even though the characters are cute animals, they’re intensely relatable. It’s the kind of spooky story that anyone can connect with.