Earlier this month I collected a list of my favorite creepy cozy games for autumn and now I may need to consider another: Everholm. This Stardew-like farm sim revolves around witches, magic, and a mystery. It's just announced a November 11 release date but you can actually play its demo right now.
Everholm has a lot of familiar farm sim activities like planting and selling crops, raising livestock, fishing, chatting with townsfolk, and a bit of combat in a creepy dungeon. Main character Lilly gets transported to Everholm in search of her missing sister but finds when she gets there that everyone seems to already recognize her. Despite its super cute pixel-y aesthetic, the entire thing is just a little eerie as you try to figure out what's going on around the island.
I played Everholm's demo last year during a Steam Next Fest and clicked with it right away. A little mystery is just the extra spice that I was needing in a farm sim. I'm also really into its angled isometric perspective—a weird thing to fixate on maybe but you just don't see other farm sims going that route. It's also got some magical spells for you to unlock, like watering crops via summoned raincloud as you can see in the launch trailer above. It's as if it's the spookier sister to Fields of Mistria that I've also been super into this year.
Previously, developer Chonky Loaf had described Everholm as "not too cozy," which hints at that creepy setting. Along with its announcement today, lead designer Mihajlo Djokic says: "That feeling when there’s an angry raging storm outside, thunder strikes, rain pours, and you’re safe in your bed with hot chocolate in your hands—that’s Everholm."
The nice bit about Everholm is that it's launching as a completed game rather than in early access, so there's no waiting around for friendship and romances to get added. Though as we know, even completed games are never quite complete so Chonky Loaf also says that "And this is just the beginning…" in its release date announcement. "New content and features are on the horizon, so stay tuned for even more exciting updates!"
As mentioned, Everholm's demo is still available for you to try now. It's limited to just one in-game week, but that lets you get a taste of the setting before launch. You'll find Everholm on Steam where you can wishlist it until launch day.
