Cosy Caravan is a cute little game about spreading happiness, by helping out, and making grub. Sounds like my kinda place! If you are looking for a whole new cosy game about travelling with a giant fluffy bumblebee. Then this game might be for you. Cosy Caravan is out now on Steam for £16.75.
Nothing wrong with spreading joy.
Gameplay
Cosy Caravan, let us create our own cute little character who is then asked by their aunt for help. As she is busy preparing for a festival. After a short, but brief tutorial, we set off with our friend Bubba – the frog. And the large but chunky boi, Rigby, who is a large bumblebee who pulls your caravan. So far I don’t think Cosy Caravan has an actual goal to work towards. We do start of as rookies to the guild, but this seems more like a placeholder more than anything. The players main goal to collect/spread happiness to the other cute creatures around the map. And when you have gained enough happiness you obtain a guild coin. Which is then used to unlock upgrades, or new work stations to create better items. That offer even more happiness. Other than that we travel between the same locations to collect various ingredients to further sell at the market.
The actual market itself is just one of the major ways to spread happiness in Cosy Caravan. You only get one stall at the start but thanks to those guild coins, we can unlock more. Characters will walk up and purchase what ever is on display, while some might have something particular in mind. Like a fresh apple pie! Money isn’t in the game, which is odd since they do pay at the till. But at the end of the market time, you will get happiness.
As mentioned before there are a few ways to unlock happiness. While, the player will meet other critters who they can wave too. It is a small but fun way to get small amounts of it. Some characters will have fun little quests for you to take. There are also two places I found that the player can help serve customers to achieve a large amount of happiness. And after a day will replenish. Doing these task and continuously visiting people may unlock more recipes. And sometimes new paths for the player to explore.
Graphics & Audio
Cosy Caravan is full of rotund cuteness. I love how chubby and cute the characters look, with an adorable iteration of so many animals. The areas are chock-full of both cute clutter, gentle but brilliantly done lighting, and a lovely range of colours that also managed to not be sickly sweet or garish. Most of the areas are cosy autumn evenings incarnate. The game starts off in stop-motion, which you can turn off in the accessibility settings. Thanks to turning it off, it looked a lot smoother and much livelier.
Longevity
Cosy Caravan is a very slow burn, cosy game. With a decent sized map. I spent four hours just prodding along before accessing a new area. But this was all down to me, not the progression. There are some collectables for the player to collect, such as frogs, and photos. While for the people who like to 100% their games you will have 30 to unlock. None of them look difficult to get in Cosy Caravan, just time-consuming. Which I’d assume is what you would want.
Final Thoughts
The game is really basic in a good way. I never feel pressured to do the market, and gathering happiness is easy. Cosy Caravan does however, get a little boring rather quickly. So I would probably play it in maybe small 2-hour sessions. Its world is nice, relaxing, and the lo-fi makes it feel homely, without taking away from itself. But this isn’t for those expecting faster progression. So it is hit or miss depending really on what you expect from a cosy game. For me Cosy Caravan is getting the Thumb Culture Silver Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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