Gaming is for everybody and if you haven’t tried it already, university is the perfect time to start. While gaming is often associated with the hyper-competitive online FPS games (as well as RPG games that need the highest specs possible and often cost way more than the average student can afford), I would like to bring the attention to the category of cozy games, which in terms of accessibility are some of the best games. While cozy games are not a specific genre, they can usually be identified by pastel graphics with cartoon art style and relaxing gameplay.  Most importantly, they are accessible for a wide variety of reasons. 

While university is a crazy busy time of your life, this is also the time where you will have to learn to be alone as you and your friends will have different schedules, no matter how close you are, and you will have to fill up that time somehow. 

Gaming is the perfect way to stop the FOMO doom scroll that often accompanies being alone and leads to comparing yourself to others. On social media, you only see other people going out and making the most of university, when in reality they just choose not to post about the times when they are sitting alone. This down time is important as you need to recharge, and gaming will help you to shape that down time into a relaxing time rather than turning it into a time of anxiety and fears about not doing enough at university. The replacement of social media with gaming means you don’t have to overthink things, as video games were made for us to enjoy and to make us feel positive emotions rather than the anxiety that comes from the scrolling on social media and the constant comparison.  

Most popular cozy games are also budget friendly. They usually do not cost more than £20 and while that isn’t necessarily cheap, for hours of gameplay they provide, they are a lot more affordable than most video games, especially mainstream RPG games. Therefore, if you are someone that just wants to try out gaming without the commitment of spending a lot of money on something that might not be their cup of tea, then these games are ideal. Many cozy games also have low spec requirements, which means they do not require a big investment into a PC that could potentially be used just for one or two games, they can be run on almost any laptop that most students will have as they already need it for their learning. 

Most importantly, these games often have a very low mechanical skill requirement. You do not have to be someone that grew up playing games, as they mostly rely on your ability to think and plan things out. These games also do not punish you to the point where you are discouraged from picking up gaming again if your planning isn’t the most perfect and logical or if you forgot something. 

Lastly, here are some recommendations of games that I would start with:

A Little to the Left (£13, with additional content packs available) – This is probably the most relaxing game out of the list. It is a very simple game where you sort things, match shapes or arrange items in an order. This game is perfect for when you want to focus on something very simple when everything else is too overwhelming and complicated. 

Stardew Valley (£11, sometimes cheaper on Steam) – You are a farmer, and you are attempting to rebuild Stardew Valley. You must improve and change your farm plot as well as befriend and even romance the residents of Stardew Valley. You get to make a choice if you would like to improve the town through collecting different resources or if you would like to sell out the town to evil JoJaMart. In my opinion, this is the perfect game as it allows you to set up different short term and long-term goals as well as allowing for different play styles. You might choose to focus on gathering as many resources as possible in the shortest time possible or you can choose the more relaxed route where you complete the storyline alongside any other goals that you have set out. 

Cult of the Lamb (£19.50, with additional content packs available) – This might be the most stressful game on the list. While the art style is still cute and cartoonish, this game contains elements of resource management as well as elements of dungeon crawler. You are a lamb that leads a cult, and you must go into the various dungeons to defeat different bosses as well as to recruit more members. The resource management element comes from the fact that you must make sure your cult members stay alive and won’t revolt against you.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons