What is it exactly that makes a game 'comfy'?

What is it exactly that makes a game 'comfy'?

Can it be defined?

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when you feel good

In the case of Dali and most FF towns, it's because they are safe havens with a more relaxed pacing than when in the open world or in menacing areas like the ice cave you just went through when you reach the village.

Also the music
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i think the word 'cosy' is more accurate. getting pretty sick of people saying comfy when they mean cosy.

Nah, because it's different for different people. Just zoning out with some chill music on and playing titanfall is super comfy for me for example, but most people seem to find the feeling in relaxed rpgs.

this. Dali is cosy, not comfy.

Alexandria is comfy

It's subjective, but typically it's a mix of visually appeasing and laid back aesthetic, and good music.

i think comfy is more of a physical thing like a comfy chair while cosy describes the atmosphere of a place.

Comfy - Comfortable

What game gives you the most comforable feeling. What do you need to feel comfy?
>a game with a aquarium effect, mostly buidl/managmant games. Watching how things goes on while sitting back. The lovley artdesigne gives a bonus on top for the whole comfy atmo.

For me it is racing games, TDU modded with no traffic, just me driving down the street or Race07 timeattack mode.

Non-threatening environment, often featuring elements that we already associated with the feeling of comfort or cosyness from real life (comfortable furniture, fireplace, etc.), often even further underlying the feeling of comfort/protection/sheltering by juxtaposing contrasts of unpleasant vs. pleasant (dimly-lit interior with a visible source of heating such as fireplace vs. rain/snow outside of the windows is a very common trope).
You can have a cosy wooden room juxataposed against a grim, cyberpunk city, a cosy farming village set against massive imposing mountains etc, a cabin against a snow-storm or even a dimly lit and safe-looking space-ship cockpit against the vastness of cold space. The contrasts can go a long way.
If you don't want to do the contrast thing, then the most usual suspects are: visibility of water-sources, saturated colors and sufficient greenery (again, hinting environment with plentiful water), "domesticated" or cultured backgrounds (fields, orchards etc...), but usually all of it also has to hint the local community is "manageable" (such as a family, village, small town, as larger communities start to feel threatening again.

Another popular element is trace of human routine presence: worn out items of daily use (books, cups, foodstuff etc...) - things that show age, frequent use, involve hand-crafting or personalization (again suggesting lived-in, but not too large community).

Anything that reminds the audience that they are in controlled, cultivated environment that neither imposes too much cultural stress (like a dense urban area would) or environmental threat (such as a desert or a wild nature could).

So: tldr:
Familiarity, controlled environment suggesting manageable size of human presence and lack of immediate environmental hazard, and contrasts.

low stress, minimal strategic thinking or planning ahead, either low chance of failure or it just doesn't matter if you fail. relaxing music. minimal dialogue/text so it doesn't matter if you space out.

the more such features a game has the more comfy it is.

>RRRREEEEEEE YOU FAGGOTS DON'T KNOW WHAT COMFY IS KYS

simplicity and music with vibes

I think comfy is used as a literal amalgamation of cosy and comfortable.

Playing a cosy game in a comfortable setup wrapped in blankets and shit = comfy.

Atleast what it was back when we first started having comfy threads.
Now, just like everything else that was once good it has gone to shit memeing territory.

good town with good music

so is entering a woman's vagina comfy?

Generally I doubt many people would use the world on high speed FPS as its usually quite adrenaline heavy and suspenseful.

Dealing with a female up close and personal is never comfy but it can have its benefits.

That is not so much about the idea of "comfy" being subjective as about you using the word wrong - or at least in a sense that absolute majority of people would not identify it.

Laying around with the gf, reading or playing vidya while it rains outside can be super comfy. It's not a sexual thing tho, it's more like cuddling/feeling safe

Small villages tend to have a high chance of being comfy, there has never been a comfy big city.

You sound gay as fuck?

Immersion.

Obviously you never feel like you're IN the game but you can be drawn in to a point and feel invested in what you're seeing and that's when I get the comfy tingles.

Like exploring dark places in Dragons Dogma and the workshops in Vagrant Story.

You mean when you don't have to deal with her and just exist alongside eachother.

Its definitely not immersion though.
I can get immersed extremely into a horror game and not a speck of that is comfy.

>there has never been a comfy big city.
Not entirely true, but again it's a matter of contrasts and composition. Big city can be used as a backdrop to stress out the comfiness of a specific smaller environment: an individual flat, street, square. There are plenty of "comfy" cyberpunk or high-urban area images (pic related isn't the best image, but it's the best I can find right now). Alternative is a use of exaggeration, where you "expand" elements of a small environment to create large one (I should have an image to illustrate that too, I'll try to look it up and post it in a while).

Immersion is not in any way the same as something being cozy or comfortable. Immersion is the degree of presence you maintain in the environment - regardless of the atmosphere or emotional response that it elicits. While immersion is going to help you feel more "comfy" in a "comfy" environment, immersion in a horror-settings will make you scared, immersion in a desolate settings will make you melancholic.

Immersion is a mechanic that allows you to be more invested in the environment, but does not in itself indicate the particular kind of investment you'll get.

I'd just like to say that any game with character customisation can not comfy. They may have some nice environments and atmosphere's but the initial hour spent in character creator is a constant reminder that you will never be happy with your avatar.

"Comfiness" I think mostly stems from a nostalgic sensation you feel from the game/area in question. It makes you feel good to be there. Warm in the chest.

Hmm, pretty good answer. Nice job.

comfy just means "NEETs like it"

comfy is literally a NEET shibboleth on this website

Well yes an immersive horror game isn't comfy but immersion for me comprises lots of little things working together and if the right things come together in the right game it leads to comfy times.

Lighting and music for example, can be scary or comforting but both can be immersive too.

Yes, but as the other user pointed out, don't confuse the cause and the effect.
You feel comfy due to immersion to an environment, the comfy comes from the type of the environment, not immersion itself.

For me it's a mix of immersion and the desire to live in that game world

Like when you're in the azura's coast and can almost smell the salty sea water and the mushroom smell of telvanni towers

This is a pretty good post for Sup Forums.

Immersive and scary are not oppositions. Immersive simply means "allowing for a strong sense of presence". Immersion is the degree to which your brain forgets that he is sitting in front of a TV screen, and embraces the "reality" of the fiction: the degree to which you convince your brain that the fiction is REAL and that you REALLY ARE THERE.
Immersion makes horror scary, comfy comfortable, sad depressing: all of these emotional responses that are directly tied to sense of presence or participation on the environment are linked to immersion. If you are not immersed, you are not going to feel invested in the game (or movie, or a book) in ANY way, because your brain will not take any of the fiction seriously.

And yes, there is a lot of things that need to come together in order to (reasonably) guarantee immersion. It often has a lot to do with consistency and detail of the environment: which are coincidentally also the things that frequently determine whenever the environment has a specific "mood" (scary, comfy, melancholic, joyful etc...).

But still, I think it's very good to make clear distinctions: Immersion is a specific way your brain comprehends the fiction. It's like the process of "reading" (in fact, it's REALLY akin to the process of reading).

"Comfy" or "depressing" or "scary" categories refering to the content of what you are reading (playing, watching).

So the reason why people take an issue with what you said is because it's kinda like if you were asked "what makes a scary book", and you answered with "the ability to read and write".
I mean: technically: you are right. But it's not a very informative answer, and it's not what people were generally looking for as an answer either.

Thanks.

What if it's one of those character creators with premade cartoony facial features? Those work out well. Just need to decide between a few options you like.

Such as making something like pic related in Fantasy Life.

not him but if you have never felt this with a woman, you are living your life incorrectly

Didn't need to be told that again.

Comfy is subjective, but I'd define it for me as something that's really relaxing and envelops you in a light hearted feel good mood, like sinking your face into a pillow after a rough day.

Replace "comfy" with "boring" any time you see it used around here.

Comfyposters are fucking cancer.

To me it's a game where I can relax, take it slow without a need to rush, music has to accent this. Scenery has to be nice to look at and the story and or setting has to be interesting enough to keep you going.

You make me wonder why someone would still bother to be this coherent and well spoken about a topic on this board.
It was a breath of fresh air reading you user and I saved your post for future threads like this.