Finally, a nesting game that gets the lighting right

I call them nesting games — those titles that put you in the seat of someone who's just moved, but instead of carrying heavy boxes and getting in an argument with your partner, you get to move furniture and redecorate until you're happy with your place, all with a few clicks of your mouse. The task isn't just to design an appealing space but to set up a home with a character in the game in mind, whether that's a prospective buyer in House Flipper 2, your new Sim, or the people you only meet through the belongings you organize in Unpacking. It's your job to make that isometric house an isometric home.

But there's often one big atmospheric element missing in these games — something crucial to the vibe of a real-life home, a make-or-break, something uniquely imperative to the way you set up your house: lighting. In the House Flipper games, for instance, there is a day/night cycle, but somehow during the day it's always perfectly sunny and always looks like it's 3:00 p.m, whereas nighttime just makes it harder to see. It's also got that grayish look so many Unity games have, and it isn't helped by the fact that a lot of the spaces in the game are literally gray before you paint and retile the floors. Even after my House Flipper 2 homes are set up with the (sometimes) sleek furniture, they aren't quite cozy or inviting.

It took me a few hours of playing Hozy to realize that the lighting, often dappled through tree branches or flickering with the whims of a candle flame, is a big part of what makes it so successful as a true nesting game. It takes after Tiny Glade in this way, though the light is slightly less diffused and thus a bit more realistic.

It's still always sunny and it's still always about 3 p.m., but when I finish a room in Hozy, developed by Come On and published by tinyBuild (Potion Craft, Hello Neighbor), I am ready to crack open a beer and plop down on the comfiest, squishiest piece of furniture I've just set out and enjoy the space I set up. It's how I feel in real life after hanging up a painting that's been leaned against the wall for two months or organizing my bookshelf in accordance with the Dewey decimal system.