PAX Unplugged Countdown - 4 days to go!

An Unexpected (Games) surprise in the mail!

If you had your PAX Unplugged badge mailed to you, there was a little surprise inside the package - a large white envelope:

I had not heard anything about Cozy Stickerville before this. I will admit, I had a bit of anxiety looking at those blank maps, the empty field and the mountain, knowing the game wanted me to put stickers on their permanently. In fact, the VERY first instruction is to stick the 6 “setup” stickers on the map WHERE EVER YOU WANT?? WHAT?! (I mean, still following the basic placement rules but otherwise ANYWHERE! In this economy?!).

I mean, yeah I have gotten better over the years with just putting stickers on things and not worrying about it. But the gaming sticker I put on my water bottle is not tied to the legacy of my new cabin in the woods. Anyway, after some breathing exercises, reminding myself if I didn’t play the game, it would just sit forever, I set myself up at the table and got started.

It did ease my concerns a bit that both the prologue demo and the real game come with two maps so you can play the game through twice, trying to change your decisions and the outcome when you start again.

The demo took me about 40 minutes, but some of that was finding a D6 and pen and paper to track resources since the demo does not come with tokens - that would have been expensive! It was just as advertised, a very cozy, chill experience. I hear many people comparing it to Stardew Valley (the video game, not the board game version of the video game...which I suspect people wish was more like Cozy Stickerville...). And it very much has those vibes even in this demo.

You’re escaping from your day to day life as a banker in the big city and set up a tent in the middle of the woods. You flip over cards that provide little choose your own adventure moments. Those decisions lead to stickers and unlocking other cards and story moments. You decide what resources to gather at the end of your turn, then move on to the next day, until you go through the tiny deck of 12 events. At the end, you’re judged by your happiness rating and milestones you achieved.

You can see my cute little home here - I guess minor spoilers for the demo? But only if you can magically figure out my choices and then remember them when you play yourself.

I am intrigued by Cozy Stickerville. Depending on the price, I might pick up a copy to play solo. It does say it can be played co-op, but I imagine myself sipping a cup of tea and putting the stickers down and just avoiding screens at the end of the day. I’d almost prefer that my friends bought their own copies so we can compare our games at the end, rather than co-op (I’m sure Unexpected Games would prefer that too LOL).

Would you play Cozy Stickerville? Does the thought of putting stickers on a game board freak you out or are you over it because you’ve played so many legacy games now? Let me know in the comments!