Welcome, renovators, to our very first Dev Diary!
We’ve loved seeing your feedback and suggestions on the Hozy playtest, and greatly appreciate everyone who’s taken the time to play and leave comments - thank you!
Today, we wanted to share a little more about the incredible team behind Hozy.
Hozy is being developed by Come On Games, with a small but passionate team of 5 developers working on the game; founded as a media studio in 2016, the team had originally worked on apps and websites across a bunch of different industries…and then COVID-19 hit. To keep fresh, the team started working on games as a side project to develop their skills, experimenting with different genres.
As the team began to hone their game development skills, Egor, the Creative Director of Come on Games, had been spending his spare time playing cozy, relaxing games as well as some interior design and cleaning titles, and had felt like something was missing; they didn’t feel satisfying enough - so, he decided to begin experimenting with creating his own!
There were a lot of early versions of Hozy, but it was when Egor realised he wanted the game to be satisfying in every moment - where the process of cleaning, moving objects around, and yes, those micro-interactions we all know and love - was as important as the final results, that Hozy truly found its heart.
Hozy is a game focused around joy, interaction, and care for the surrounding environment, made by a team that has, since its early days, focused on building excellent user experiences, whether in their early days of app and web development, or in their games; right now, they’re hard at work utilizing the incredible feedback and suggestions from those of you who have tried the playtest…shall we take a little look at what they’ve been working on?
One of the biggest pieces of feedback we received from you, our wonderful playtesters, was that the window-cleaning squidgee tool was getting stuck on corners and edges when you were trying to clean - not ideal! That’s why, in the latest patch, the tool has been optimized, allowing for smoother cleaning and a more streamlined experience.
Another thing we noticed in your feedback was that placing carpets around furniture wasn’t as easy as we intended it to be; so, you’ll now find that in the playtest, you can place carpets even under existing furniture to really create the perfect look, without having to rearrange everything!
Aside from these two major fixes, we’ve also been taking a lot of your suggestions into account; that’s why since the playtest’s launch, more localization options have been added for various languages, and both Mac OS and Steam Deck features have been incorporated for those who were itching to be a part of the playtest on various platforms!
We hope you’ve enjoyed the first Dev Diary for Hozy, and that we’ve given you a suitable little sneak peek into what you’ll be able to expect from the final game; if you’d like to stay updated, make sure to wishlist us here on Steam, follow us on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram, and join our Discord to share your experiences in the playtest so far!
We look forward to having more to share with you soon!