Cats Can Fly

A Little to the Left took the cozy gaming community by a storm on its release exactly a year ago. In A Little to the Left, you organize household items like pencils, forks, or storage containers. It’s a calming, sometimes even meditative game about finding order in chaos. There’s no overarching storyline, but it’s loved by thousands of players. If you’re one of those players, you might be looking for some games that evoke the same satisfying feeling as A Little to the Left.

1. Unpacking

Another cozy organizational game that was met with a tsunami of positive reviews and support, Unpacking follows the life of our hidden protagonist as you move around with them and help them unpack their stuff and organize their room. Unlike A Little to the Left, Unpacking does give us a small story based on the items we unpack. Unpacking is available on all platforms (PC, Switch, XBox, Playstation, and even mobile!) for only $20, and $10 on mobile.

2. Pan’orama

Pan’orama puts you in charge of developing a city through placing tiles and choosing building cards. You have to find the most optimal positions for your tiles to synergize and make the most beautiful, productive landscape. Your hard work will attract animals, give way to lush greenery, or create wide oceans depending on what you choose! Each game can last up to 2 hours, but you create a different landscape every time you play. Pan’orama was released earlier this year by the indie game studio Chicken Launcher and is available for only $14 on Steam!

3. Little Alchemy

Little Alchemy released in 2010 as a mobile game and rapidly gained popularity. It’s still available for free as a web game and on mobile! Little Alchemy might be one of the original merge games. You simply drag and drop elements onto each other to make different elements, rinse and repeat! Some of the elements include sprinkles, elephant, and astronaut ice cream. In 2017, they also released Little Alchemy 2, which features a cute new art style and unique elements!

4. Assemble with Care

Assemble with Care explores the things we keep with us, even after they’re no longer useful. You play as Maria, an antique restorer who left her family’s shop to explore the world. Maria has landed in Bellarivia, a small town with lots of old items to restore! Through puzzling out how to fix the townspeople’s broken items, Maria discovers their pasts as well as her own. She tells her story in a way that feels like storybook. Maria’s journey in Bellarivia will tug on your heartstrings, all by making you fix people’s stuff. Assemble with Care is available on Steam for $8. On mobile app stores, the first couple chapters are free, and then the rest are available for purchase as you play.

5. Tetris

Sometimes it’s best to go back to the basics. Tetris is the ultimate stacking and organization game! If you like a good challenge, don’t forget about the classics. Sticking the different pieces together and getting great combos is a rewarding experience in itself! The best part about Tetris is that it’s available for free pretty much everywhere!

6. Save Room

Take a break from the soft pastels of modern cozy games with this gritty inventory management simulator. Many first person shooter games utilize a save room to give you a moment to regroup and experience a moment of safety before jumping back into the fray. Save Room is just that: a save room, inspired largely by Resident Evil. In this game, you are given a stock of inventory, and you figure out how to fit it all into your inventory space. It’s simple, straight-forward, and a great way to relax and just organize your weapons (and eggs, for some reason). Save Room is available on PC, Switch, XBox, PS4 for only $3!

7. The Shape of Things

The Shape of Things takes place in a cozy room where a gachapon sits, waiting for you to unlock the little worlds it contains. To unlock each world, you must twist and turn the items inside. The graphics are adorable, and each world has its own personality. The gachapon idea is unique and gave me a sweet sense of novelty. If you want a few hours of calming Rubik’s Cube-like gameplay, The Shape of Things might just scratch your itch! It’s available on Steam, the Epic Games Store, and Nintendo Switch for only $7.

8. The Sims 4

The Sims 4 might feel a bit far removed from A Little to the Left, but the building mode can be just as fun as organizing a drawer full of silverware! The Sims 4 is a mostly player-led story based game that lots of people play like they played with dolls. The creative stories that people come up with and the attachments that the little Sims can inspire in their players are really amazing. However, even more impressive is The Sims builders. Building is a skill all on its own, and some people dedicate hours of each playthrough to building elaborate and well-decorated homes, parks, gyms, and more for their Sims! The Sims 4 base game is free to play on Steam and the Epic Games Store! (Beware of spending too much money on the expansions though).

9. Zen Bound 2

Zen Bound 2 is a game about painting objects by wrapping them in rope. It’s simple, tactile, and seems to be one of those games that people either hate or love wholeheartedly. The sound design is calming and sometimes even ASMR-like. The controls are quite dynamic, and can be a good challenge for some levels. Zen Bound 2 has over 100 levels, so be prepared for hours of ropes and paint! It’s available on the Switch for $15, and on Steam for just $5!

10. Zoombinis

You know me. I’m always trying to go back to the nostalgic games of my childhood. Zoombinis is a satisfying return to the edutainment games of the early 2000’s. In this game, you help a group of cute round refugees find their way to a new land. Along the way, you must solve increasingly difficult puzzles. Although this game was made for children, there are several difficulty levels which make the puzzles challenging for adults too. It’s incredibly satisfying to finally figure out the missing piece of the puzzle, and even better when you successfully ferry all your charges to the promised land.

A Little to the Left might be one of those uniquely rewarding games that comes out once in a blue moon, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t find something similar! Hopefully some of these games can help you sate your cravings for an aesthetically pleasing puzzle. Let me know if you’ve tried any of these games, and what you thought of them!