Cozy Burg

Make it Beautiful, Make it Work

Wishlist on Steam Download logo & art pack (zip)

Fact sheet

The one-paragraph pitch

Make it Beautiful, Make it Work. Cozy Burg is a cozy hex city builder that's real underneath. You get a hand of three cards, a land card, a zone card and a road card, and you place them. Anyone can pick it up in a minute. But nobody moves in just because you built a house: every resident needs a home they like and a job they can get to, and you have to earn every one. In the developer's words: "I grew up on SimCity and fell for Dorfromantik as an adult. Cozy Burg is my try at the best of both."

The full founder story (good for features): cozyburg.com/why

What makes it different

• Real people, real jobs. Everyone in town needs a home they like and a job they can get to, and they're picky about both. Homes with no work in reach sit empty. Every car you see is somebody going to work, to the shops, or home again.
• Nature brings them in. Homes near forests, lakes and parks fill faster and hold more people and jobs. Keep nature all around, or the people won't come.
• Nobody likes a jam. Jammed streets make people unhappy. A traffic lens tints every road green, amber or red; then upgrade the road, cut a second route, or draw a bus line stop by stop and watch riders climb aboard.
• Try their jobs yourself. Go fishing, or drive a taxi around town. Each is an optional two-minute game that pays out cards if you do well. Timothy the raccoon has a game too.
• A town worth visiting. Landmarks unlock from what you build: a big lake on the shore unlocks the lighthouse, a mountain range a ski resort with a working chairlift, a level 3 road plus a bus line the stadium, 500 residents the airport. There's also a castle, a national park and a volcano.
• Your pace, your cards. No energy and no timer on the building. Each town level has a goal and a budget of cards; Gentle, Standard and Demanding set how forgiving a run is.
• A soundtrack that composes itself. The score is generated live by the game while you play. Nothing sampled, no loops.

Also worth knowing

A Creative mode ships with everything unlocked from the first click. Town services (police, fire, a hospital) arrive when you need them. A narrator marks the big moments, a Town Film replays your town growing from the first tile, and Journey mode is a tutorial plus five small levels, each about one idea. Saves live on a shelf of postcards, one painted map per town. Animal homes bring wild horses, sheep, a bear, sea turtles and hawks.

Screenshots (click for 1280px; 1920px originals in the art pack)

Trailer

Watch on the Steam page. Watch on YouTube

About Noise Harbor

Noise Harbor is a solo indie studio. Cozy Burg is its first title: a city builder built on the belief that a town should be a nice place to live before it's a spreadsheet — and that watching your own little world go about its day is the reward.

Review keys available on request — via Keymailer or the press contact above.