Picturesque railways, animal puzzles, and chumak journeys. 10 cozy games not about war from Ukrainian developers

Tukoni: Forest Keepers

«Tukoni: Guardians of the Forest» from Dream Operator studio is based on the short game «Tukoni: Prologue», which was released on Steam in 2020 and was very positively received by many players in Ukraine and abroad. The project is being developed based on a series of books by Ukrainian artist Oksana Bula.

«This time, Oksana will take on the role of art director, who will both draw herself and coordinate the artists who joined the project. Due to the larger amount of work, we need a larger art team this time,» said Oleksiy Furman, founder of Dream Operator, in a comment to dev.ua.

The game takes place in a magical forest, home to the Tukoni forest spirits. These amazing creatures dedicate their lives to helping forest animals in their daily tasks, ensuring harmony and peace in their cozy home.

The game resembles classic quests in the spirit of Amanita Design projects, in which you need to search for objects in locations and solve puzzles. Tukoni: Forest Keepers has bright and cozy graphics and a relaxed atmosphere that can lull you while solving seemingly simple puzzles.

«Tukoni: Guardians of the Forest» does not yet have a release date, but the developers have already released a demo that can be downloaded from the game’s Steam page.

Super Loco World

A game from Ukrainian indie developer Andriy Bychkovsky, in which you need to build a railway and manage cargo delivery on a cozy deserted island.

In Super Loco World, players not only lay tracks, but also have to carefully control the speed of trains, regulate traffic at railway junctions, and automate the process as much as possible using poles, signs, and traffic lights.

Developing railway infrastructure creates industrial zones and villages. Initially, villages have basic needs (food + wood), and when they are in abundance, they grow into small towns. At the same time, logistical demands increase, which encourages players to expand industrial zones and the railway network.

Super Loco World was released in the summer of 2025 and has mostly positive reviews on Steam. For the Ukrainian region, the game costs 259 UAH.

Shapik: The Quest

This project from Ukrainian developer Pavlo Podberezko is reminiscent of games by the famous Czech studio Amanita Design. It’s a remaster of his first game, created in Flash back in 2011.

In Shapik: The Quest, players explore a world filled with mystery, magic, and danger in search of their missing sister, solving puzzles along the way. The updated version features 12 new levels, «a ton of new animations,» puzzles, and hidden objects, as well as completely revamped music and soundtrack.

The game’s creator, Pavlo Podberezko, was forced to leave his city in Zaporizhia due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. «Developing the game distracts from the horror that is happening, and even as an adult it is nice to find yourself in the magical world of the game, at least for a short time, where all the puzzles are solved and evil is not so terrible,» he said.

Shapik: The Quest is available on mobile devices in the App Store and Google Play, as well as on PC in Steam, where the game has the lowest regional price for Ukraine at 130 UAH. Pavlo is currently working on a new narrative project , Whispers Among the Poppies, which is inspired by the experiences of Russia’s war against Ukraine.

My Dream Setup + Dream Garden

Dniprovska Campfire Studio creates Dream Garden — a cozy simulator for building small garden dioramas with sand patterns, ponds with water lilies, trees, bridges, and much more.

Players can create meditative patterns in the sand and rocks, just like in a real Japanese Zen garden. They can also modify the terrain to create a cozy scene to their liking: raise hills, create ponds and rivers, and fill the garden with sand, grass, or pebbles.

Dream Garden is due out in 2025 and has already received a demo version.

Campfire Studio previously released My Dream Setup, which was a success on Steam. It is a simulator of building your dream room, where players have a large selection of furniture, computers and accessories, posters, paintings, plants and other interior details.

The developers continue to develop the project, which has already received four expansions, adding a garage, a dream kitchen and bathroom, as well as pets to My Dream Setup. They also release regular updates with new items.

In the Ukrainian region, Steam My Dream Setup can be purchased for 150 UAH.

Puzzles For Clef

This is a fun adventure game from Weasel Token Studio about Clef the Rabbit, who receives a letter from his sister and sets off to his ancestral island to search for treasure.

Puzzles For Clef offers players nine different locations, including a quiet bamboo forest and a luxurious air palace. The game is filled with dozens of different puzzles and riddles, which are sometimes not easy to solve. According to the developers, all of them are logical and understandable and do not involve mindless clicking for a quick solution.

There are no monsters or dangers in Puzzles For Clef, so you can explore the cozy island at your own pace.

The project can be purchased on Steam for UAH 290. Soul Shuffler is currently working on a new game, Soul Shuffler, a card roguelite about a demon who collects the souls of various inanimate objects.

Summer Catchers

The in-house project of Zaporizhzhia studio FaceIT, which mainly deals with game outsourcing, was released in 2019 for Nintendo Switch, Android, and PC. This is a cute runner about a little girl from the northern lands who realized that she had never seen summer and the sea, and set off on a long journey south.

The gameplay of Summer Catchers consists of overcoming obstacles in the path of the player’s car, which can be overcome using various methods and tools. The game has nice pixel graphics, lots of funny characters and dialogues in excellent Ukrainian localization.

Summer Catchers costs 206 UAH on Steam, but it is often on sale, where it is offered at a big discount, which lowers the price to 20 UAH.

Shine On, My Little Sun

Ukrainian developer duo Forpixie is working on a cozy visual novel «The Sun Lived in the Sky.» The project originated at the Ukrainian Visual Novel Jam and is being published by STONKS-9800 game developer Ruslan «Ternox» Salikov.

The events of «The Sun Lived in the Sky» take place in a post-apocalyptic world plunged into darkness, where the last human town of Svarzhno survives thanks to the warmth of a star trapped in the city lighthouse. «The lives of the townspeople are disrupted by a surprise. A confused girl suddenly appears from the light of the star — she will change the fate of the inhabitants of Svarzhno forever…», the game description says.

«The Sun Lived in the Sky» has cozy pixel art that immerses the player in a fairy-tale atmosphere. The developers promise an extensive plot that combines humor and sentimentality, and three different endings.

Shine On, My Little Sun is scheduled for release in 2026; in September, the developers reported that over 8,000 players had already added the game to their Steam wishlist.

Missi

This is a cozy point & click game in the style of traditional watercolor drawings about Missy the mouse. Players will search for hidden objects and solve puzzles using clues in sketches of past adventures.

The illustrations in Missi are made in the style of cute watercolor illustrations. The gameplay does not involve battles or competitive elements, so players will unravel the secrets of the mouse hole and help colorful characters in a comfortable atmosphere.

Missi is scheduled for release in 2026. The developers recently announced that they are collaborating with Chernihiv-based composer Veronika Moskalevets to add classical music to the project for a fairytale atmosphere.

Chumaky

Chumaki is a game about travel, trade, farming, and building your own farm. It is being developed by developer Kirill Balandin, who previously released the project Slime Clicker.

In his new game, which was announced at the Ukrainian Games Festival 2025, you have to develop your economy, trade with locals, complete quests, and explore new trade routes. Nighttime travel can be dangerous and attract the attention of «creatures from long-forgotten legends.»

Kyrylo previously said that the number of additions to the wishlist for «Chumak» exceeded his expectations. «I expected about 1,000 in a week, and now it’s almost 2,400 in 48 hours, since the start of the festival (and this is taking into account the lack of a trailer),» he noted. In October, the developer reported that the game had surpassed the 5,000 wishlist mark.

Chumaky is scheduled for release in 2026 in early access format.

Back to Hearth

The Ukrainian game Back to Hearth, in which you have to return comfort to rural homes, was released on Steam at the end of September and received very positive reviews from players.

Players must restore five houses, sometimes with a hammer, sometimes with a broom, and sometimes with a screwdriver. Afterward, the residents will return to their homes to tell their stories.

According to the developers, Back to Hearth was conceived as a cozy walking simulator where the player repairs and cleans houses, examines the household items of former residents, and learns their stories through personal belongings and cut scenes.

However, Game Designer at Podoba Interactive Ivan Turmenko said that at Games Gathering Lviv 2024, some players did not perceive Back to Hearth as a cozy game and called it «sad or melancholic.» Therefore, the authors of the project decided not to position it as such.

In the Ukrainian region, SteamBack to Hearth can be purchased for 140 UAH.

Previously, dev.ua reported that in the fourth year of the great war, Ukrainian developers are working on a number of projects of different spirit that address this topic. We have collected the most notable games about the Russian-Ukrainian war in this material .

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