An Introduction to Cosy Horror Videogames with Andrew Cowen

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The end of the world is a common trope within horror, often reflecting on contentious issues and highlighting them in an often exaggerated way. In doing so, independent videogame developers have engaged with the horror genre, and focused on cozy horror. Cozy horror tends to focus less on action, gore, or jump scares, and instead on providing an experience in which there is a familiar gameplay loop or aesthetic which is then twisted to provide an unsettling horror element.This paper analyses cozy horror as a genre within videogames, and how it has become so prevalent within the independent videogame industry. To do this, I will first look at the concept of cozy horror, where its origins stem from, and why it has found recent success in the videogame ecosystem. Next, I will address the types of cozy horror, exemplified by games such as Vintage Story, Graveyard Keeper, Voices of the Void, and Lethal Company, amongst others. This will allow me to explore the different themes and types of cozy horror, and explain their unique approaches to horror. Finally, this paper will address how the genre encourages the player to challenge monotony and repetition, by remixing these horror types into the gameplay loop