In r/gamedev, builders debate why Stardew Valley stands out versus many cozy games, pointing to deeper narrative, longer development time, and avoiding genre first positioning as a marketing hook.
Stardew leans heavily into the 'iceberg theory' that is popular in game writing.
Never mind that Stardew took like 5 years to make, while it feels like a lot of cozy games have maybe 2 or 3 main game mechanics, some charming pixel art, and mediocre NPC dialog
there are storylines in Stardew Valley that are about trauma from war, addiction, affairs, growing older, and secrets.
If you go into a making a game with the "Hey we're making a cozy..." or making the genre of the game a selling point it won't have it's own identity
I don’t consider stardew valley a cozy game tbh. The art style might be cozy, the gameplay is incredibly stressful.
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