mid-december favourites: new cosy games, new books, and pixel art picture builders

I'm taking the Wylde Society announcement as a birthday present just for me 🥰

Now we’re halfway through December and I have four working days left in the year, I can feel myself getting ready to hunker down for the break. I’ve got stacks of books I want to read, Lego sets I want to finish, and a book nook kit I want to crack into. I’m ready to live my cosiest life and never come out from the giant Oodie my wife got me for my birthday, which basically doubles as rock camouflage. Think those cloaks from Lord of the Rings but significantly less glamourous.

So in the spirit of Cosymas, here are some of the cosy things lighting my way to get there:

I just finished Death at Morning House by Maureen Johnson, which was just as fun as the Truly Devious series and, if anything, maybe gayer, and my next read is The Courting of Bristol Keats by Mary E. Pearson.

Let me be honest here: this was both a cover buy AND an impulse buy. I saw it at YALC and was drawn across the Hodderscape booth by the cover. I’ve never read anything by Mary E. Pearson before but I know her YA series were super popular, the synopsis sounded fun, and even though it was £17.99 and I’d not heard of it before, I spent the rest of YALC thinking about it and in the end my best friend ran back to pick it up for me just before we left.

As far as I can tell, this is a portal fantasy situation where our titular heroine finds out her family have been kidnapped by fae and sets off to find them, and then we get, like, fae kings and deals and quests and the like. I’m always on the lookout for a fae book that’s going to be like The Fae Book I Like, because so many are almost there but not quite it for me, so I’m giving this a shot. I’ll report back!

PS yes I’ve read Holly Black’s books no they don’t quite hit the spot but do I know what actually will? I do not.

It was Wholesome Snack earlier this week, which is a roundup of upcoming cosy indie games, and the most exciting announcement (to me) was Wylde Society - a game set in the world of Wylde Flowers but IN THE PAST, so not ONLY are you playing more of a period drama tea and boarding house type game, it looks like you can FINALLY date the hot green fae lady I wanted to date the entire way through Wylde Flowers. There’s no release date yet but you can wishlist it on Steam now and I’m so excited to watch its development!!

AND shoutout to Milady Confetti, whose cosy gaming channel and content I also discovered through Wholesome Snack and I can’t wait to settle down with a cup of tea and watch a bunch of her videos! I love finding new cosy game creators to check out.

Between Vlognukah prep (for those of you who don’t know, I’m Hannah Witton’s creative assistant), and a dip in the ol’ menty health situation, I’ve been leaning into YouTube and Chill to keep me going this week, if by “chill” you mean “racking up hours of phone game screentime” (and I do).

Like I mentioned last week, I’ve been loving Picture Builder, a pixel art combo of model building and jigsaw style gameplay. I’ve worked my way through making a park, a beach, and an airport in the last few days and I genuinely look forward to logging in for the daily December image in the mornings.

What’s been keeping you going this mid-December? And I’ll see you next weekend for the next edition of Cosymas. x

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