For fans of cozy games, October may not be the time to pull out horror game classics like Amnesia but it definitely is time to pull out our best autumn vibe games. Now that we've been well and truly inundated in the cozy game trend, it gets harder and harder to figure out which games are worth spending time on, especially when you're looking for a particular theme. Whether you're in the mood for something a little witchy or slightly spooky, these are my absolute favorite cozy games to pull out in the month of October.
For an up-to-date list of year round recommendations you can also check out our list of best cozy games and best games like Stardew Valley.
Reka
Find it on: Steam (Steam Deck mostly playable, in my experience)
This witchy crafting game was one of my most anticipated for this year and now that it's released into early access it's a stellar October vibe. As a young apprentice witch you'll tour the countryside in a chicken-legged house with famous folklore witch Baba Jaga as your mentor. You'll spend your time putting spirits to rest, wandering the Slavic eastern Germany-inspired landscape, and decorating your creepy cottage on legs.
As of early access launch, Reka had some slightly finicky quest order bugs you can run into but even so this thing is all vibes and they are immaculate. The first hour or so of the game where you meet Baba Jaga and do a ritual to inherit her house is so much more intense with visual effects and music than I had expected.
Roadwarden
Find it on: Steam (Steam Deck "playable"), GOG
This classic illustrated text adventure game feels just like curling up with tea and a brand new fantasy book and it's got a distinctly creepy, mysterious story. You're the new warden in a countryside where the wildlife is eerily dangerous and the townspeople are wary of your presence. It's your job to help clear out obstacles, be they fallen trees or stubborn mayors, and report back to your superiors within a time limit to assess the area for new trade opportunities.
You'll have to manage your travel times, food supplies, and rest as you explore several towns and try to wheedle information out of the locals. But you'll likely wind up embroiled in unexplained magic, missing people, and ancient rituals. In classic text adventure style, Roadwarden relies on you to explore by typing in commands and questions at key moments, while others are handled with dialogue options. It's a perfect adventure when you're in the mood for mystery.
Kynseed
Find it on: Steam (Steam Deck verified), GOG
It may look like Stardew Valley initially, and in some ways it is, but Kynseed is as much like a spooky sort of Fable as anything else. After your first idyllic season caring for a family farm with your uncle and brother, things get weird very fast. This world is full of capricious gods and dire consequences and unsettling scenery which is all perfect for fall.
Kynseed is a farming and trading game where you'll live through generations of family farm inheritance and occasionally stumble off into some combat. Unlike the very recognizable casts in other farming sims, though, this one's more of a social sandbox of making friends and enemies in each lifetime as you become a rancher or a store owner. If you've ever drooled over clips of Studio Ghibli characters making food, you're going to love the cooking minigames in Kynseed.
Potion Craft
Find it on: Steam (Steam Deck verified), GOG, Nintendo Switch
Imagine a shop sim where you don't really want to have to run a shop and instead just want to stay locked up brewing new recipes every day. That's basically Potion Craft. Sure, you barter with customers and sell them your brews every day, but the best parts of this game are grinding ingredients, discovering new recipes, and designing the perfect label for each of your custom named potions.
The bit of Potion Craft that I'll always gush over is the very manual action of tossing herbs in a mortar and pestle, grinding them up, stirring your cauldron, and cranking a bellows to seal the process. It just feels like a quintessential alchemist witch experience. Finding new recipes involves using your ingredients' unique properties to explore a map of possible effects, which makes experimenting all the more fun.
Wytchwood
Find it on: Steam (Steam Deck verified), GOG, Nintendo Switch
Just in case that wasn't enough witches for you, here's one more. Wytchwood is a crafting adventure game with an emphasis on the adventure part. You aren't hoarding crafting ingredients and making money in this one, instead you're collecting bits and bobs to solve puzzles as you explore the countryside.
Like Reka and Kynseed, this one is dripping with folklore elements and grim fairytales. Wearing a cauldron like a helmet, you'll travel around cursing bandits, tricking wolves, and harvesting ingredients from mythical beasts in a very autumnal, storybook world.
Beacon Pines
Find it on: Steam (Steam Deck verified), GOG, Nintendo Switch
Beacon Pines is a narrative adventure game where instead of collecting items you're collecting words in conversations and playing them like Mad Libs to unlock new parts of the story. It's a classic horror movie setting in an idyllic rural town that used to revolve around a factory that's since shut down. Now folks are disappearing and it's up to some young animal protagonists to figure out what kind of creepy plot is eating away at Beacon Pines.
It's a bit like an old "choose your own adventure" book where half the fun is finding the choices that will get you killed and end one of the story branches only to go back and explore other paths. By the end, you'll fill out the whole story book and solve the mystery of the old factory town.
