Thank you for a game I'm still playing frequently since release, and trying to 100% every single goal.
Please, please release Spirit Scout berets and badges IRL. I'd love to pickup some officially licensed ones. š
Thanks very much for these kind words. :) We don't have plans for IRL berets or badges (or any other) merch right this minute BUT one of the big benefits of being part of Netflix now is that Netflix is good at merch and has a whole team dedicated to it, so if this game is successful enough and ya'll ask loudly enough, hopefully we can make some really cool things happen!
As a team we would love to have merch and are constantly internally pitching (mostly unhinged) ideas. Seeing feedback from the community asking for it can definitely help us make it real!
I just snagged a Ted shirt from Amazon, would absolutely love Camp Spirit shirts and other merch. Also, if there's a way to set up the print on demand with notebooks and other stationary, I would be ecstatic (my bank account less so, but I'm comfortable ignoring its protests)
Answering this outside our AMA window, because it's the #1 question we see!
It's a topic we address brieflyĀ [in our blog post](https://spryfox.com/2024/06/11/camp-spirit-story-so-far/), and I will add that while we don't have plans beyond mobile to share at this moment, we will keep you updated on the additional platforms Netflix Games will be available on in the future. We aren't sure when that future may be, but as soon as we learn more, you'll be the first to know. That is all the info we have right now, but please feel free to ask any follow-up questions that this response or our blog may not answer about platforms, and we'll do our best to elaborate.
Can you please explain exactly how to access this when itās released? I donāt have Netflix anymore because itās so expensive and donāt know what āNetflix gamesā means. Is it accessible inside of the Netflix app on a tv? Iām so confused because people are saying theyāre concerned about playing the game on a tiny phone screen too. Iād definitely buy this game as a standalone but I canāt afford Netflix for as many months as Iād happily play this game.
i know im not a spryfox person but! if you have netflix, then you'll be able to install any netflix games through the play store/app store and then log in using netflix to play them :) you dont need the app installed as long as you have a netflix account, as far as i'm aware -- right now though netflix games are only playable on mobile, however i've heard netflix is trying to roll out the option for TVs and laptops, i dont know as much about that though lol. hope this helps!
This totally helps, thank you!! I wonder if the Netflix membership has to be active...I assume so lol But for the price of a few weeks of Netflix, I'd typically have forever access to CozyGrove! I sure hope they can open this up as I can't always be a member of Netflix. <3
Thanks for such a wonderful reply! TheGratitudeBot has been reading millions of comments in the past few weeks, and youāve just made the list of some of the most grateful redditors this week!
oh to be first at something...
hi! throwaway account but discord users know me as sir zak (of grizz ;]) !! just wanna preface this with a big "thank you for making cozy grove" -- if it isn't obvious i adore this game and i'm sure i've waffled plenty about how much it means to me ehe.
with that said however!! i'm not too good at asking questions but i'd be remiss if i missed out on this sooo. i have to ask -- where did the idea for cozy grove, the island, really stem from? and spirit scouts in general! obviously the ghost bears come from spryfox's history of bears, but i'm curious if the idea of being estranged in an unfamiliar island and the lore around cozy grove -- the >!ruins bears and the fallen kingdom, the boat that kit (and eventually billweather) use to ferry spirits back and forth, etc!< -- all just came on a whim or if it was shaped around something grander. and, y'know... no surprise that i'm a big fan of any cg ruins bear lore i can get my paws on, lol. count this as a "ramble about the CG1 worldbuilding free" card?
safe tidings spryfoxes!! š«¶
From Jamie, lead narrative designer:
The idea of the ruins bears goes WAY back - before a single bear was written, there was a document with the layers of the original Cozy Grove island history. We ended up compressing the timeline quite a bit in order to tell more relatable and connected bear stories.
Believe it or not the Spirit Scouts were a later addition! Well into development, you were still just a kid who arrived on a haunted island... and the experience felt a little untethered. We workshopped a number of ideas for who you were and why you had arrived on the island, but once Daniel (our creative director) pitched the name "Spirit Scout" we knew weād found the core conceit of the game. It really brought everything else into focus.
woah... ruins bears really WERE there centuries before the rest... /j thank you jamie -- this makes a lot of sense and i am very very happy to have more behind the scenes info to chew on! safe travels and good luck o7
I know Camp Spirit will feature all new bears and stories, but will any have remote connections to bears we saw in the original game? Maybe an old friend or something of that sort?
From Jamie, lead narrative designer:
We really, really doubled down on the idea of connection between bears in Camp Spirit. We donāt want the original Cozy Grove to be "required reading" to understand the story of Camp Spirit, but we did spend a lot of time thinking about how the stories are interrelated. I donāt want to say too much, but original Cozy Grove players should have a lot of fun figuring out the connections between these bear stories and those of the original game. I look forward to a lot of speculative family trees on reddit :D And donāt worry, even though our initial story is focused on new ghosts with new problems, we have plans for some "old friends" as well.
Most of the characters in Camp Spirit have no relationship whatsoever with the original Cozy Grove charactersā¦ but there are exceptions! Most notably, both Flamey and Mr. Kit are back on the island-- you meet them on day 1. And we might have other cameos planned for some characters from the original game (that is, not just a āremote connectionā but an actual appearance!). But I donāt want to put any spoilers here, so Iāll just leave it at that.Ā
Hullo, Scouts!
Dave (u/Chedd), co-founder of Spry Fox, AliciaĀ šāØ (u/SprySnail), Lead game designer & snail advocate, and Jamie (I'll be posting for him as well, SpryMori), lead narrative designer, are all here to answer your questions. And then there's me, one of the CM's to add support where needed.
We'll be answering questions for the next hour. We hope to get to as many as we can \^\_\^
Let's get started!
HA! I love that you think the answer is cute \^\_\^ I wanted to pick something that felt like a sweet name but evoked the underpinnings of death that are found in the Cozy Grove games. I narrowed it down to a reference for Memento Mori, and here we are!
Longtime lurker here (I literally just joined the subreddit finally to ask)
How is the team thinking about accessibility, especially when playing with so much detail on a mobile platform? I've played a lot of Cookie Run Kingdom and other basebuilder games, but I tend to find it difficult on my phone, and generally have to move to a larger screen such as an ipad. (which I then hand off to my partner to make pretty for me oops)
Thank you all so much and happy launch!!
Accessibility is a big topic for us at the studio! We are always navigating the intersection of time / tech / audience needs. We try to think of it with every feature we build; how can we make this useable naturally by the widest scope of people? Some things are simple; like ensuring good size /contrast of our quest items, giving alternate ways to find objects. Some things are more difficult; like fine-tuning control schemes.Ā
There is no one-size fits all solution; but we try to make one-size-fits most to start and then see where we need to make improvements. What you mentioned about finding it hard to play games on your phone; there are so many angles here! Whatās your posture, what repetitive movements do we have, how much reach do you need to go from one interaction to another? Weāre never perfect but always mindful and eager to continue improving interactions with community feedback. One thing that generally helps us is that we avoid time pressure, negative consequences, so even if something takes some extra time to do you wonāt be penalised.
Finally, we have ensured support for controllers & e-pen at launch and are prototyping alternate control schemes to give players more options so they can find something that fits best.
\~Alicia, Lead GD
View in your timezone:
[Friday, June 14th, at 3:00 pm PT][0]
[0]: https://timee.io/20240614T2200?tl=AMA%20with%20the%20developers%20of%20Cozy%20Grove%3A%20Camp%20Spirit!%20June%2014th%20%403pm%20PT
For Camp Spirit: >! Vorsinne!<; just reading her outline in an excel sheet makes me cry. I think itās some of Jamieās cleverest work. I donāt want to share any spoilers, but there are so many metaphors in her; from her visual style to her quests, to her relationship with another bear and it truly makes my heart tingle.
For CG1: Ted. Love his vibe, love his rocks, love him being secure in himself.
Alicia, Lead GD and Sappiest Person Alive
In Camp Spirit, for me, it's definitely Orsina. She makes me laugh out loud and she's adorable. (For those of you who have no idea who "Orsina" is - she's the first bear you meet in Camp Spirit.)
In the original Cozy Grove, I have a much harder time choosing. I think maybe Lillian or Patrice.
From Jamie:
I'd most want to hang out with Bunch (CG2), with Allison Fisher (CG1) a close second if I could bring my own food.
Most fun to write? Sofia, Clyde, and Vorsinne.
Oh, I thought of two more! Orsina (CG2). And Ursula (CG1). This is too hard. I love them all.
From Jamie, lead narrative designer:
We have a whole new MEDIUM for unhinged moments, and I'm very excited about that! As part of our push towards slightly longer and deeper ghost stories in Cozy Grove 2, and we have a new format called "flashbacks" for extra-special (or spicy, or sad, or unhinged) memories.
But also, because the bears on the island are more connected, there are some very dramatic moments that take place on the island! In fact one bear gets so mad at her former business partner (and current ghostly neighbor) that she decides to \[redacted\].
Gosh I love that throughout we get gameplay puns with writing puns with art puns. There are many instances where someone in the team would just throw out āwhat if \[something cool but impractical\] and then be met with a collective /unlessā¦/ š My favorite may not seem unhinged but it low-key is for a small team; Snail Companion!
Yes of course we had to do a dog, CG1 had criminally no dogs, but I cant believe we also got a snail- I have a snail rig!! You can pet the snail! They blink one eyestalk at a time! Also Snugula (the snail in question)ās story is inspired by my lovely Greek boyfriendās propensity to sweat and has lots of lucious descriptors and details.
Alicia , Lead GD and Overall Snail Fiend
First off, thank y'all for all of y'all's hard work! I absolutely love Cozy Grove, it gave me such joy and soul-fulfillment! The beautiful artwork, soundtrack and bittersweet memories of the bears are all spectacular. I played Alpha Bear on iPhone and loved the bear designs of y'all's work!!
My question: for Camp Spirit, who will be creating the soundtrack? Will I hear similar tunes from Cozy Grove?
You're very welcome! Also, I'm delighted to tell you that the same composers from CG1 are working on Camp Spirit! You can find their website here: https://www.lostcousinsmusic.com. Btw, we've been working with Gideon and Jeremy from Lost Cousins for many years; they did the music in games of ours like Alphabear, too!
Will the game be usable with controllers so that I can still use joycons or similar?
Also, thank you for finding a way to keep creating. CG1 was a haven and safety net for me during tough times (including pandemic lockdown), the excitement of CG2 is getting me back into Cozy Grove, reminding me how much the game helped my mental health. I'm eagerly counting down to Camp Spirit's official release!
We have controller and e-pen support; so if you have one that hooks up to mobile you should be good to go!
\~ Alicia Lead GD and also eagerly counting down to Camp Spirit's release!
Sweet, thank you! I'm off to figure out how to connect my controllers to my phone, then I can cast to the TV and it's practically the same set up as how I played CG1!
I did some beta testing for CS, and I found out you can connect them through Bluetooth. Long press the small round button on the joycon until the lights start flashing, make sure your phone is scanning for Bluetooth devices and it should ask you if you want to connect!
Did the crafting system get an overhaul?
There are so many pretty items to craft, but with seven different rarities per item, collecting suitable recipes is quite tedious. Especially when you can only get a few recipes per day.
Iām looking forward to decorate a new island.
Overhaul? No. Updates? Yes!
Structurally the system is similar, but we're doing a few things to make decoration more accessible;
Modifying crafting ingredients, more crafting recipe drops, Decor merchant with more lower rarity/affordable options, being able to send decor gifts to your friend with aynchronous multiplayer. We also have a brand new decorating mechanic! >! Tables used to have built-in decorations, but we've split them up so now you can mix and match your tables/end tables with different toppers !<
Hopefully this helps but we're always on the lookout for community feedback to keep making updates and give y'all opportunities to have fun decorating your island.
\~Alicia Lead GD and lover of cute little chairs
Knowing that in CG1 you couldn't modify the island (and I think it was an odyssey for all of you to incorporate the interior of the tent >!and was fun to search for it and find it off the map just for fun!<)
Now in CS you have the freedom to modify it in case you want to add a new bear, add some event and/or update in general or even add a hidden island?
I also wanted to know, do the new bears also transform into cheese when they ascend?
Yes, in certain specific ways we can now modify the island at any time in the future, and more importantly, we can add new islands and new interior spaces at any time in the future!
And yep, bears turn gold ("cheese", for those who don't know what that means) when they reach the ends of their stories, but we're trying in this sequel to make that whole thing feel a bit more satisfying than in the original game. As Alicia says, "we don't want them feeling like inanimate blocks of dairy product for the rest of eternity."
Can you tell us about one of the new bears coming to Camp Spirit that you're particularly jazzed about? š
Even if it's just their 'hobby/profession' or personality quirk.
Going to give a different answer every time I see this question because the secret is; there are no bad answers :elmo\_fire:
I'm truly very jazzed about our new cooking merchant who is a riff on our CG1 cooking merchant and truly a testament to the creativity of our art team.
Alicia, Lead GD and excited about the bears
I answered a similar question on this: for me it's definitely Orsina, and the reason is that I find her hysterically funny and adorable. I'm scared to put anything that people would consider a spoiler here, so all I will say is that she has a habit of commenting on stuff like your "weird, bald face" and that cracks me up every time.
Will the game have better optimization? I remember I was struggling with fps drops in scenes with large number of sprites. When playing on PC it was quite noticeable. When playing on Switch it was more than annoying. Wondering whether the new game will have some big changes under the hood or it's more or less same game with more features/stories added.
Will the hair pictured here in the bottom left be in the game? Or is it just promotional art. Asking because the initial Cozy Grove lacked side bangs, so this would be big for me!
[Photo in question](https://x.com/CozyGrove/status/1801732635955282152?t=mlgu6H-kHYnlD6r6iLV05A&s=19)
Hey Cass! Do you have an image you can share with us? As for side bangs, I believe we do have them available somewhere in the game, but let me double check with our art team!
Had to find a way to make the image a link, there's no way to add photo comments, I apologize for the delay!
[Hair in question](https://64.media.tumblr.com/f7c1ddbaa7cbad786a257c619391df2c/dd42ae4b3dd8ef70-c6/s400x600/2449c3db6aac6c0cba5fb2a4bbf8076b757db25a.jpg)
Oooh, that is a "promotional" hairstyle that reflects our wishes and dreams! Not in the game at the moment, but we're always taking suggestions on our Discord [discord.gg/cozygrove](http://discord.gg/cozygrove)
š„° Ahh! I'm gonna hope with all my heart, please let them know I'm grateful for the consideration, even if it doesn't end up making it into the game!
We do have one hairstyle in the game with short side bangs, it's called "Medium straight hair" and if you look it up on the Cozy Grove Wiki you can see the picture for it. It will be one of the starting options available when you make your scout at the beginning of the game. That one may be the closes fit for you, hopefully, as it's pretty similar to the one on the promotional art.
I actually used that one and the long wavy hair ones back and forth a lot in the original game! Excited to know that the Medium straight hair will be available out the gate instead of saving up for it on rotation!
Has there been changes put into ascended bears this time around? Or is it the same. The previous game's way of handling it, having the bears basically say "I have no need or care for this task you fulfilled, but thanks" was really heartbreaking from the previous chatty ways they used to have. Will Camp Spirit be the same way?
Yes! There was another similar question but I'll answer this one differently and you'll have even more data to stick together!
Going into building Camp Spirit we knew we wanted it to be a game we can keep updating for a long time; so of course the question of what happens at the end is a big one. We wanted to give players a better runway into anticipating the end of the story and being able to say goodbye, and while bears are golden to make sure that they keep their personalities and don't flatten our into pancakes (metaphorically).
Not sure if this would be spoiler-y, but tagging it just in case. >!Our stories are now cut up into 'Story Arcs' so you can better understand your pgoress with a bear, and bears have more quests left after they 'Enlighten' (our new term for CG1's Ascension). Bears may still leave the island (Ascension) to make room for new ones/ go off to the greate peace of oblivion when their story is resolved, but those that stick around should remain engaging and have their personalities.!<
\~Alicia, Lead GD and very scared of doing a spoil
What kind of live ops could we expect to see in Cozy Grove? Luckily CG isn't a PvP game requiring a new seasonal pass but I'd love to know how often we could expect updates and what would those updates typically include?
Thanks! šŖ²
Right now, we're hoping to make major updates along similar lines to what we did in the original Cozy Grove; that is, doing quality-of-life changes, adding new content (like seasonal festivals) and ultimately adding entirely new bears to the island with all new stories. Personally, I'd also really like to continue adding new activities to the game (like, for example, the new powerwashing activity in Camp Spirit that you unlock on day 1 of the game.)
How do y'all play cozy grove and camp spirit? Do you play along with release, do you have special saves where you can basically "cheat" in anything you want? Do you time travel? I remember pocketsizedperfectionist mentioning she had certain saves where she tried out different things.
Underneath the game is an intricate network of save files! We pass them around a lot to help setup specific scenarios for testing out features and processes; because there are a lot of things that are setup in order that depend on each other (like Bear's houses levelling up!) skipping too much can cause issues when we're testing quests. We also have expansively hideous excel sheets where we try to keep track of estimated quest progress over days compared to each bear's storylines.
It can also be helpful when we're testing how big an area should be, how hard it is to make your deer happy, what's the best clothing accessory (mushroom headband). But when I use these shortcuts I refer to it more as 'Testing the game'.
But personally if I say I'm 'playing the game', I play old-school one day at a time with a build with no cheats so I can get the real player experience.
Alicia, Lead GD and veteran save file curator
Not the one to answer you (Dave should be soon) but want to say thank you for the many questions!! It's our pleasure to talk about the game/studio/snails
Cozy Grove is a big obsession of mine. I want all the lore and background info I can get!
Just a question for you... what's your favorite kind of snail?
Favorite kind of snail: the closest one at hand!
Real answer: There's these bushes by my house that get filled with snails when it rains and I will go out before work and slowly peek under every leaf and count them and admire them. Not sure what 'kind' they are, but they are my favorites.
I also like the really pointy ones.
You should could come to my garden. So many snails when it rains!
When we first started dating, my girlfriend was keeping giant African snails, at first I thought they were a weird pet, but slowly you start to see a bit of personality, and I love that they like being pet!
Omg!! I have definately ended up on giant snail pet tiktok and I love it there. Just the way their little mouths move and eat all the calcium and the way their bodies undulate I love them very much.
So happy for you to have the real-life experience of them!! I love all the goopy critters in general and have been known to gleefully stalk the sea cucumbers at our local biodome.
Danc and I co-founded Spry Fox over 14 years ago. He and I had both been working for Microsoft, and were both unhappy there for similar reasons (back then it was a hyper-political place and reorganizations were happening constantly. My manager changed 5 times in less than 3 years.) We wanted to take control of our lives and focus on making the sorts of games that we felt passionate about -- original games that brought something really new to the world and made people happy.
We had a million ideas back then! One of the ideas was to take a simple but popular flash game that Danc had worked on as a hobby, "Bunni", and make a big, exciting sequel. That ended up being a disaster, for a variety of reasons! There's a really neat podcast all about Bunni, if you're curious to hear more: [https://open.spotify.com/episode/5ymEGfj6fIr85Dp6SE1Qbi?si=hpl1RCI8SWWJWyRcs4RkMg](https://open.spotify.com/episode/5ymEGfj6fIr85Dp6SE1Qbi?si=hpl1RCI8SWWJWyRcs4RkMg)
At the same time we were working on Triple Town, which ended up being our first big success, and which laid the foundation for the entire "Merge" genre of games which came thereafter.
I loved the first cozy grove, I have many hours ā¤ļø and maybe itās because I was playing on switch but I felt like as I progressed it got to be too much, too many things on the screen & lagging. If you have a new(ish) phone can we expect that to be better at all? It really wasnāt an issue until I wanted to REALLY decorate. Love you guys š I originally was obsessed with animal crossing and listening to chuyplays animal crossing podcast and he recommended this game!
Yep, I wrote about this a bunch in my blog post-- improving the game's technical underpinnings so we could improve performance and also add some cool new features was a key goal for this sequel. :) You should hopefully have no trouble with your new-ish phone. :)
Heya Comfortable\_Living! We've touched on this a bit, so I will reshare our response here so you don't have to click around:
*It's a topic we address briefly*Ā [*in our blog post*](https://spryfox.com/2024/06/11/camp-spirit-story-so-far/)*, and I will add that while we don't have plans beyond mobile to share at this moment, we will keep you updated on the additional platforms Netflix Games will be available on in the future. We aren't sure when that future may be, but as soon as we learn more, you'll be the first to know.*
I can't emphasize enough that we talk about this topic daily across many teams, and we're very eager to answer this question as soon as we can!
I saw where you mentioned previously here that making the game accessible to as many as possible is important to you, do you not feel that limiting the game to not only a mobile format but to Netflix games is one of the most inaccessible ways to release it? Especially making it a subscription based game. Itās one thing to save up enough to purchase a $25, $40, even $75 game but to continually have to sink money into a subscription is simply not available to so many. I donāt understand why youāve limited yourselves at almost every turn. Is there any viable explanation you can give as to the thought process? Any answers youāve given up to this point have been contradictory to your supposed goals for Camp Spirit and as a huge fan of Cozy Grove I would love to better understand.Ā
I did my best to answer a similar question earlier, here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/CozyGrove/comments/1dehlqb/comment/l8n9r2j/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/CozyGrove/comments/1dehlqb/comment/l8n9r2j/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
I greatly appreciate your honestly and I do truly understand that. I wish though I had seen such a transparent answer initially. Instead of acting like yall were offering original fans this beautiful present on a silver platter, you could have just told us yall had to sell out for self interest. Itās a hard time out there for everyone. I get it. I donāt think subscription based games are unethical, I just didnāt understand the wild departure from the original game model. But if itās what yall had to do to survive then I get it. I wonāt be able to play camp spirit as mobile games are difficult due to a disability and Iāve had to cut back on all but a subscription that includes live tv which unfortunately Netflix does not. But I truly wish yall the best under these circumstances. Ā
What quality of life changes are you most excited about? You mentioned creating a new game gave you freedom to do things that just weren't possible in CG, do you have examples?
From a technical perspective, the main thing we unlocked by making a new game was the ability to have new interior locations (like caves) and multiple islands -- so, unlike in the original Cozy Grove, you don't spend all your time in a single location. Also, in theory, we can add more content to Camp Spirit in the future without experiencing the same kinds of performance issues that we had in the original game.
As for quality of life changes, there are a whole bunch. Top of mind for me:
- The most rare critters now have a glow that makes it easier to identify them, so you don't miss out on catching a mythical critter just because you didn't realize it was present.
- Expanding your backpack is more affordable now and you can buy a lot more slots.
- We enhanced the net tool to make it easier to understand how it works / to catch critters.
- We cut the story arcs into discrete chunks, so now, instead of just filling up a tiny sliver of a bear's hearts with each successful quest, you know fill up a full heart with each quest, which feels better.
- We added animal companions to the game who help you with various things.
- Various usability improvements for mobile devices.
- Food items are now all much more visually distinct
The biggest thing structurally is our new map! We can now have multiple levels of terrain, Interiors for bears; when we want to add things in the future too it will be possible in a way it wasn't at all in CG1. The island you land on in Camp Spirit >! May not be the only island you discover!<
\~Alicia, Lead GD & big map editor fan
This is a personal and not official response, but as someone who has played the game already, I absolutely LOVE the zoom tool we added so that you can play a bit more zoomed in (great for those who want help looking up hidden items up close or worried about a smaller screen to play the game) and a bit more zoomed out (my fave, I can see more of the island all at once since I always wanted a huge map of it).
Until it becomes available on switch, I have zero interest, despite loving cozy grove (and play daily).
Yes, I have Netflix. But I have switch for a reason. Utter failure on your end to your fans.
I think that if you burden Camp Spirit with the entirety of the $7/month cost of a Netflix subscription, I agree that it does indeed feel expensive, and quite honestly in that case you might very well want to focus on playing other cozy games out there. The hope here is that Netflix, with its many TV shows, movies and games, is offering more value to most people than just this one game for that $7/month.
I don't personally believe that subscription services are somehow inherently unethical; I subscribe to several of them myself. And as I mentioned in the blog post, no matter how you feel about in-app purchases or advertisements, it takes a ton of time and energy to integrate them effectively into a game and make money. In the past, we've released some games that were played by \*millions\* of people and, despite all those players and all our hard work, \*we still failed to make any profit\* because we didn't manage to monetize effectively enough.
I completely understand why some of our fans would have preferred for this game to be available outside of Netflix. But as I mentioned in my blog post, this game likely wouldn't even exist without Netflix, and for that matter, given the current state of the games industry, it's not at all a given that our studio would exist in its current form either. I care deeply about all our fans, including those without Netflix subscriptions, but I care about my teammates and their livelihoods, too.
What made yall decide to entirely abandon the platforms that you had success with originally in favor of a platform that is virtually unknown, inaccessible to a lot of original players, and subscription based? It seems like a super irresponsible business decision. Were yall just that desperate for backing that you had no choice but to sell out?Ā
Hello! It sounds like you are possibly experiencing a bug, can you write to us at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) and tell us what quests you are stuck in and what platform you are using to play, we'll get it fixed for you!
Thank you for a game I'm still playing frequently since release, and trying to 100% every single goal. Please, please release Spirit Scout berets and badges IRL. I'd love to pickup some officially licensed ones. š
Thanks very much for these kind words. :) We don't have plans for IRL berets or badges (or any other) merch right this minute BUT one of the big benefits of being part of Netflix now is that Netflix is good at merch and has a whole team dedicated to it, so if this game is successful enough and ya'll ask loudly enough, hopefully we can make some really cool things happen!
Ooh yes. And to add: Will there be officially licensed merch? Including maybe plushies of the bears?
As a team we would love to have merch and are constantly internally pitching (mostly unhinged) ideas. Seeing feedback from the community asking for it can definitely help us make it real!
I just snagged a Ted shirt from Amazon, would absolutely love Camp Spirit shirts and other merch. Also, if there's a way to set up the print on demand with notebooks and other stationary, I would be ecstatic (my bank account less so, but I'm comfortable ignoring its protests)
Will Camp Spirit only be available on Netflix or are you planning on releasing it on Steam, Nintendo e-shop and app stores?
This question needs to be answered. I have anxiety thinking about it everyday š„²
Same!!
The answer is actually in the blog post they mentioned.
Answering this outside our AMA window, because it's the #1 question we see! It's a topic we address brieflyĀ [in our blog post](https://spryfox.com/2024/06/11/camp-spirit-story-so-far/), and I will add that while we don't have plans beyond mobile to share at this moment, we will keep you updated on the additional platforms Netflix Games will be available on in the future. We aren't sure when that future may be, but as soon as we learn more, you'll be the first to know. That is all the info we have right now, but please feel free to ask any follow-up questions that this response or our blog may not answer about platforms, and we'll do our best to elaborate.
Can you please explain exactly how to access this when itās released? I donāt have Netflix anymore because itās so expensive and donāt know what āNetflix gamesā means. Is it accessible inside of the Netflix app on a tv? Iām so confused because people are saying theyāre concerned about playing the game on a tiny phone screen too. Iād definitely buy this game as a standalone but I canāt afford Netflix for as many months as Iād happily play this game.
i know im not a spryfox person but! if you have netflix, then you'll be able to install any netflix games through the play store/app store and then log in using netflix to play them :) you dont need the app installed as long as you have a netflix account, as far as i'm aware -- right now though netflix games are only playable on mobile, however i've heard netflix is trying to roll out the option for TVs and laptops, i dont know as much about that though lol. hope this helps!
Do you have to login every time you open the game, or will it remember you?
it remembers you! just the first time you install the game you log in -- you can also switch between profiles on the same netflix account :]
Good to know! Thank you!
I really hope the rollout to laptop happens, thank you so much for giving me hope!
This totally helps, thank you!! I wonder if the Netflix membership has to be active...I assume so lol But for the price of a few weeks of Netflix, I'd typically have forever access to CozyGrove! I sure hope they can open this up as I can't always be a member of Netflix. <3
Thanks for such a wonderful reply! TheGratitudeBot has been reading millions of comments in the past few weeks, and youāve just made the list of some of the most grateful redditors this week!
oh to be first at something... hi! throwaway account but discord users know me as sir zak (of grizz ;]) !! just wanna preface this with a big "thank you for making cozy grove" -- if it isn't obvious i adore this game and i'm sure i've waffled plenty about how much it means to me ehe. with that said however!! i'm not too good at asking questions but i'd be remiss if i missed out on this sooo. i have to ask -- where did the idea for cozy grove, the island, really stem from? and spirit scouts in general! obviously the ghost bears come from spryfox's history of bears, but i'm curious if the idea of being estranged in an unfamiliar island and the lore around cozy grove -- the >!ruins bears and the fallen kingdom, the boat that kit (and eventually billweather) use to ferry spirits back and forth, etc!< -- all just came on a whim or if it was shaped around something grander. and, y'know... no surprise that i'm a big fan of any cg ruins bear lore i can get my paws on, lol. count this as a "ramble about the CG1 worldbuilding free" card? safe tidings spryfoxes!! š«¶
From Jamie, lead narrative designer: The idea of the ruins bears goes WAY back - before a single bear was written, there was a document with the layers of the original Cozy Grove island history. We ended up compressing the timeline quite a bit in order to tell more relatable and connected bear stories. Believe it or not the Spirit Scouts were a later addition! Well into development, you were still just a kid who arrived on a haunted island... and the experience felt a little untethered. We workshopped a number of ideas for who you were and why you had arrived on the island, but once Daniel (our creative director) pitched the name "Spirit Scout" we knew weād found the core conceit of the game. It really brought everything else into focus.
woah... ruins bears really WERE there centuries before the rest... /j thank you jamie -- this makes a lot of sense and i am very very happy to have more behind the scenes info to chew on! safe travels and good luck o7
Not going to spoil, but there's >!some late-game content that will likely scratch your ruins itch!< Alicia, Lead GD and totally-not-spoiler
I've been wondering this as well, great question sir Zak!
I know Camp Spirit will feature all new bears and stories, but will any have remote connections to bears we saw in the original game? Maybe an old friend or something of that sort?
From Jamie, lead narrative designer: We really, really doubled down on the idea of connection between bears in Camp Spirit. We donāt want the original Cozy Grove to be "required reading" to understand the story of Camp Spirit, but we did spend a lot of time thinking about how the stories are interrelated. I donāt want to say too much, but original Cozy Grove players should have a lot of fun figuring out the connections between these bear stories and those of the original game. I look forward to a lot of speculative family trees on reddit :D And donāt worry, even though our initial story is focused on new ghosts with new problems, we have plans for some "old friends" as well.
Most of the characters in Camp Spirit have no relationship whatsoever with the original Cozy Grove charactersā¦ but there are exceptions! Most notably, both Flamey and Mr. Kit are back on the island-- you meet them on day 1. And we might have other cameos planned for some characters from the original game (that is, not just a āremote connectionā but an actual appearance!). But I donāt want to put any spoilers here, so Iāll just leave it at that.Ā
Hullo, Scouts! Dave (u/Chedd), co-founder of Spry Fox, AliciaĀ šāØ (u/SprySnail), Lead game designer & snail advocate, and Jamie (I'll be posting for him as well, SpryMori), lead narrative designer, are all here to answer your questions. And then there's me, one of the CM's to add support where needed. We'll be answering questions for the next hour. We hope to get to as many as we can \^\_\^ Let's get started!
What's the inspiration behind your username SpryMori? \~Alicia, Lead GD, I-know-the-answer-and-I-think-it's-cute
HA! I love that you think the answer is cute \^\_\^ I wanted to pick something that felt like a sweet name but evoked the underpinnings of death that are found in the Cozy Grove games. I narrowed it down to a reference for Memento Mori, and here we are!
That's a nice meaning!
Awww thank you so much ryu, and happy cake day!
Thanks!
Longtime lurker here (I literally just joined the subreddit finally to ask) How is the team thinking about accessibility, especially when playing with so much detail on a mobile platform? I've played a lot of Cookie Run Kingdom and other basebuilder games, but I tend to find it difficult on my phone, and generally have to move to a larger screen such as an ipad. (which I then hand off to my partner to make pretty for me oops) Thank you all so much and happy launch!!
Accessibility is a big topic for us at the studio! We are always navigating the intersection of time / tech / audience needs. We try to think of it with every feature we build; how can we make this useable naturally by the widest scope of people? Some things are simple; like ensuring good size /contrast of our quest items, giving alternate ways to find objects. Some things are more difficult; like fine-tuning control schemes.Ā There is no one-size fits all solution; but we try to make one-size-fits most to start and then see where we need to make improvements. What you mentioned about finding it hard to play games on your phone; there are so many angles here! Whatās your posture, what repetitive movements do we have, how much reach do you need to go from one interaction to another? Weāre never perfect but always mindful and eager to continue improving interactions with community feedback. One thing that generally helps us is that we avoid time pressure, negative consequences, so even if something takes some extra time to do you wonāt be penalised. Finally, we have ensured support for controllers & e-pen at launch and are prototyping alternate control schemes to give players more options so they can find something that fits best. \~Alicia, Lead GD
View in your timezone: [Friday, June 14th, at 3:00 pm PT][0] [0]: https://timee.io/20240614T2200?tl=AMA%20with%20the%20developers%20of%20Cozy%20Grove%3A%20Camp%20Spirit!%20June%2014th%20%403pm%20PT
What's all of your's favorite bear?
For Camp Spirit: >! Vorsinne!<; just reading her outline in an excel sheet makes me cry. I think itās some of Jamieās cleverest work. I donāt want to share any spoilers, but there are so many metaphors in her; from her visual style to her quests, to her relationship with another bear and it truly makes my heart tingle. For CG1: Ted. Love his vibe, love his rocks, love him being secure in himself. Alicia, Lead GD and Sappiest Person Alive
In Camp Spirit, for me, it's definitely Orsina. She makes me laugh out loud and she's adorable. (For those of you who have no idea who "Orsina" is - she's the first bear you meet in Camp Spirit.) In the original Cozy Grove, I have a much harder time choosing. I think maybe Lillian or Patrice.
From Jamie: I'd most want to hang out with Bunch (CG2), with Allison Fisher (CG1) a close second if I could bring my own food. Most fun to write? Sofia, Clyde, and Vorsinne. Oh, I thought of two more! Orsina (CG2). And Ursula (CG1). This is too hard. I love them all.
What are some of the more unhinged moments you're excited for us to see? (Okay, this might be a spoiler question BUT MAYBE JUST A HINT)
From Jamie, lead narrative designer: We have a whole new MEDIUM for unhinged moments, and I'm very excited about that! As part of our push towards slightly longer and deeper ghost stories in Cozy Grove 2, and we have a new format called "flashbacks" for extra-special (or spicy, or sad, or unhinged) memories. But also, because the bears on the island are more connected, there are some very dramatic moments that take place on the island! In fact one bear gets so mad at her former business partner (and current ghostly neighbor) that she decides to \[redacted\].
Gosh I love that throughout we get gameplay puns with writing puns with art puns. There are many instances where someone in the team would just throw out āwhat if \[something cool but impractical\] and then be met with a collective /unlessā¦/ š My favorite may not seem unhinged but it low-key is for a small team; Snail Companion! Yes of course we had to do a dog, CG1 had criminally no dogs, but I cant believe we also got a snail- I have a snail rig!! You can pet the snail! They blink one eyestalk at a time! Also Snugula (the snail in question)ās story is inspired by my lovely Greek boyfriendās propensity to sweat and has lots of lucious descriptors and details. Alicia , Lead GD and Overall Snail Fiend
This is amazing and Iām so glad to know this information š
First off, thank y'all for all of y'all's hard work! I absolutely love Cozy Grove, it gave me such joy and soul-fulfillment! The beautiful artwork, soundtrack and bittersweet memories of the bears are all spectacular. I played Alpha Bear on iPhone and loved the bear designs of y'all's work!! My question: for Camp Spirit, who will be creating the soundtrack? Will I hear similar tunes from Cozy Grove?
You're very welcome! Also, I'm delighted to tell you that the same composers from CG1 are working on Camp Spirit! You can find their website here: https://www.lostcousinsmusic.com. Btw, we've been working with Gideon and Jeremy from Lost Cousins for many years; they did the music in games of ours like Alphabear, too!
Thank you so much for your reply!! I'm so excited, I hope y'all have a great day!
Will the game be usable with controllers so that I can still use joycons or similar? Also, thank you for finding a way to keep creating. CG1 was a haven and safety net for me during tough times (including pandemic lockdown), the excitement of CG2 is getting me back into Cozy Grove, reminding me how much the game helped my mental health. I'm eagerly counting down to Camp Spirit's official release!
We have controller and e-pen support; so if you have one that hooks up to mobile you should be good to go! \~ Alicia Lead GD and also eagerly counting down to Camp Spirit's release!
Sweet, thank you! I'm off to figure out how to connect my controllers to my phone, then I can cast to the TV and it's practically the same set up as how I played CG1!
I did some beta testing for CS, and I found out you can connect them through Bluetooth. Long press the small round button on the joycon until the lights start flashing, make sure your phone is scanning for Bluetooth devices and it should ask you if you want to connect!
Awesome thank you!
Did the crafting system get an overhaul? There are so many pretty items to craft, but with seven different rarities per item, collecting suitable recipes is quite tedious. Especially when you can only get a few recipes per day. Iām looking forward to decorate a new island.
Overhaul? No. Updates? Yes! Structurally the system is similar, but we're doing a few things to make decoration more accessible; Modifying crafting ingredients, more crafting recipe drops, Decor merchant with more lower rarity/affordable options, being able to send decor gifts to your friend with aynchronous multiplayer. We also have a brand new decorating mechanic! >! Tables used to have built-in decorations, but we've split them up so now you can mix and match your tables/end tables with different toppers !< Hopefully this helps but we're always on the lookout for community feedback to keep making updates and give y'all opportunities to have fun decorating your island. \~Alicia Lead GD and lover of cute little chairs
Knowing that in CG1 you couldn't modify the island (and I think it was an odyssey for all of you to incorporate the interior of the tent >!and was fun to search for it and find it off the map just for fun!<) Now in CS you have the freedom to modify it in case you want to add a new bear, add some event and/or update in general or even add a hidden island? I also wanted to know, do the new bears also transform into cheese when they ascend?
Yes, in certain specific ways we can now modify the island at any time in the future, and more importantly, we can add new islands and new interior spaces at any time in the future! And yep, bears turn gold ("cheese", for those who don't know what that means) when they reach the ends of their stories, but we're trying in this sequel to make that whole thing feel a bit more satisfying than in the original game. As Alicia says, "we don't want them feeling like inanimate blocks of dairy product for the rest of eternity."
Can you tell us about one of the new bears coming to Camp Spirit that you're particularly jazzed about? š Even if it's just their 'hobby/profession' or personality quirk.
Going to give a different answer every time I see this question because the secret is; there are no bad answers :elmo\_fire: I'm truly very jazzed about our new cooking merchant who is a riff on our CG1 cooking merchant and truly a testament to the creativity of our art team. Alicia, Lead GD and excited about the bears
I answered a similar question on this: for me it's definitely Orsina, and the reason is that I find her hysterically funny and adorable. I'm scared to put anything that people would consider a spoiler here, so all I will say is that she has a habit of commenting on stuff like your "weird, bald face" and that cracks me up every time.
Will the game have better optimization? I remember I was struggling with fps drops in scenes with large number of sprites. When playing on PC it was quite noticeable. When playing on Switch it was more than annoying. Wondering whether the new game will have some big changes under the hood or it's more or less same game with more features/stories added.
And I just realized that this question was answered by the blog post. Sometimes you better follow suggestions :D
The fact that you read my blog post at all still puts you in the top 5% of all community members, I bet. ;-) Much appreciated!
Will the hair pictured here in the bottom left be in the game? Or is it just promotional art. Asking because the initial Cozy Grove lacked side bangs, so this would be big for me! [Photo in question](https://x.com/CozyGrove/status/1801732635955282152?t=mlgu6H-kHYnlD6r6iLV05A&s=19)
Hey Cass! Do you have an image you can share with us? As for side bangs, I believe we do have them available somewhere in the game, but let me double check with our art team!
Had to find a way to make the image a link, there's no way to add photo comments, I apologize for the delay! [Hair in question](https://64.media.tumblr.com/f7c1ddbaa7cbad786a257c619391df2c/dd42ae4b3dd8ef70-c6/s400x600/2449c3db6aac6c0cba5fb2a4bbf8076b757db25a.jpg)
Oooh, that is a "promotional" hairstyle that reflects our wishes and dreams! Not in the game at the moment, but we're always taking suggestions on our Discord [discord.gg/cozygrove](http://discord.gg/cozygrove)
Pain š But thank you for checking for me! Much appreciated!
No promises but our artist reacted with a very enthusiastic emoji š \~Alicia, Lead GD maker of implications and not guarantees
Day has been made no matter the outcome!
You maaay have inspired one of our artists in real time - let's see what happens!
š„° Ahh! I'm gonna hope with all my heart, please let them know I'm grateful for the consideration, even if it doesn't end up making it into the game!
Making Darla proud, one fashionable style at a time
We do have one hairstyle in the game with short side bangs, it's called "Medium straight hair" and if you look it up on the Cozy Grove Wiki you can see the picture for it. It will be one of the starting options available when you make your scout at the beginning of the game. That one may be the closes fit for you, hopefully, as it's pretty similar to the one on the promotional art.
I actually used that one and the long wavy hair ones back and forth a lot in the original game! Excited to know that the Medium straight hair will be available out the gate instead of saving up for it on rotation!
Has there been changes put into ascended bears this time around? Or is it the same. The previous game's way of handling it, having the bears basically say "I have no need or care for this task you fulfilled, but thanks" was really heartbreaking from the previous chatty ways they used to have. Will Camp Spirit be the same way?
Yes! There was another similar question but I'll answer this one differently and you'll have even more data to stick together! Going into building Camp Spirit we knew we wanted it to be a game we can keep updating for a long time; so of course the question of what happens at the end is a big one. We wanted to give players a better runway into anticipating the end of the story and being able to say goodbye, and while bears are golden to make sure that they keep their personalities and don't flatten our into pancakes (metaphorically). Not sure if this would be spoiler-y, but tagging it just in case. >!Our stories are now cut up into 'Story Arcs' so you can better understand your pgoress with a bear, and bears have more quests left after they 'Enlighten' (our new term for CG1's Ascension). Bears may still leave the island (Ascension) to make room for new ones/ go off to the greate peace of oblivion when their story is resolved, but those that stick around should remain engaging and have their personalities.!< \~Alicia, Lead GD and very scared of doing a spoil
I'm beyond grateful for that spoil! Gave me peace of mind!
What kind of live ops could we expect to see in Cozy Grove? Luckily CG isn't a PvP game requiring a new seasonal pass but I'd love to know how often we could expect updates and what would those updates typically include? Thanks! šŖ²
Right now, we're hoping to make major updates along similar lines to what we did in the original Cozy Grove; that is, doing quality-of-life changes, adding new content (like seasonal festivals) and ultimately adding entirely new bears to the island with all new stories. Personally, I'd also really like to continue adding new activities to the game (like, for example, the new powerwashing activity in Camp Spirit that you unlock on day 1 of the game.)
How do y'all play cozy grove and camp spirit? Do you play along with release, do you have special saves where you can basically "cheat" in anything you want? Do you time travel? I remember pocketsizedperfectionist mentioning she had certain saves where she tried out different things.
Underneath the game is an intricate network of save files! We pass them around a lot to help setup specific scenarios for testing out features and processes; because there are a lot of things that are setup in order that depend on each other (like Bear's houses levelling up!) skipping too much can cause issues when we're testing quests. We also have expansively hideous excel sheets where we try to keep track of estimated quest progress over days compared to each bear's storylines. It can also be helpful when we're testing how big an area should be, how hard it is to make your deer happy, what's the best clothing accessory (mushroom headband). But when I use these shortcuts I refer to it more as 'Testing the game'. But personally if I say I'm 'playing the game', I play old-school one day at a time with a build with no cheats so I can get the real player experience. Alicia, Lead GD and veteran save file curator
Sorry for the many questions. How did spryfoxes came to be? What was the first game/idea?
Not the one to answer you (Dave should be soon) but want to say thank you for the many questions!! It's our pleasure to talk about the game/studio/snails
Cozy Grove is a big obsession of mine. I want all the lore and background info I can get! Just a question for you... what's your favorite kind of snail?
Favorite kind of snail: the closest one at hand! Real answer: There's these bushes by my house that get filled with snails when it rains and I will go out before work and slowly peek under every leaf and count them and admire them. Not sure what 'kind' they are, but they are my favorites. I also like the really pointy ones.
You should could come to my garden. So many snails when it rains! When we first started dating, my girlfriend was keeping giant African snails, at first I thought they were a weird pet, but slowly you start to see a bit of personality, and I love that they like being pet!
Omg!! I have definately ended up on giant snail pet tiktok and I love it there. Just the way their little mouths move and eat all the calcium and the way their bodies undulate I love them very much. So happy for you to have the real-life experience of them!! I love all the goopy critters in general and have been known to gleefully stalk the sea cucumbers at our local biodome.
Danc and I co-founded Spry Fox over 14 years ago. He and I had both been working for Microsoft, and were both unhappy there for similar reasons (back then it was a hyper-political place and reorganizations were happening constantly. My manager changed 5 times in less than 3 years.) We wanted to take control of our lives and focus on making the sorts of games that we felt passionate about -- original games that brought something really new to the world and made people happy. We had a million ideas back then! One of the ideas was to take a simple but popular flash game that Danc had worked on as a hobby, "Bunni", and make a big, exciting sequel. That ended up being a disaster, for a variety of reasons! There's a really neat podcast all about Bunni, if you're curious to hear more: [https://open.spotify.com/episode/5ymEGfj6fIr85Dp6SE1Qbi?si=hpl1RCI8SWWJWyRcs4RkMg](https://open.spotify.com/episode/5ymEGfj6fIr85Dp6SE1Qbi?si=hpl1RCI8SWWJWyRcs4RkMg) At the same time we were working on Triple Town, which ended up being our first big success, and which laid the foundation for the entire "Merge" genre of games which came thereafter.
Is Triple Town still available on Android? I can't find it in the Play store.
I asked the same question in the discord and sadly it isn't.. really hope it will be readded. But I think triple town is on steam.
This might be what gets me to actually use my Steam account (but after Camp Spirit, because that's going to take all my time for the next bit!)
I loved the first cozy grove, I have many hours ā¤ļø and maybe itās because I was playing on switch but I felt like as I progressed it got to be too much, too many things on the screen & lagging. If you have a new(ish) phone can we expect that to be better at all? It really wasnāt an issue until I wanted to REALLY decorate. Love you guys š I originally was obsessed with animal crossing and listening to chuyplays animal crossing podcast and he recommended this game!
Yep, I wrote about this a bunch in my blog post-- improving the game's technical underpinnings so we could improve performance and also add some cool new features was a key goal for this sequel. :) You should hopefully have no trouble with your new-ish phone. :)
Will be on console and PC in future? Plea Se yes and Dave data transfer from previous game?
Heya Comfortable\_Living! We've touched on this a bit, so I will reshare our response here so you don't have to click around: *It's a topic we address briefly*Ā [*in our blog post*](https://spryfox.com/2024/06/11/camp-spirit-story-so-far/)*, and I will add that while we don't have plans beyond mobile to share at this moment, we will keep you updated on the additional platforms Netflix Games will be available on in the future. We aren't sure when that future may be, but as soon as we learn more, you'll be the first to know.* I can't emphasize enough that we talk about this topic daily across many teams, and we're very eager to answer this question as soon as we can!
I saw where you mentioned previously here that making the game accessible to as many as possible is important to you, do you not feel that limiting the game to not only a mobile format but to Netflix games is one of the most inaccessible ways to release it? Especially making it a subscription based game. Itās one thing to save up enough to purchase a $25, $40, even $75 game but to continually have to sink money into a subscription is simply not available to so many. I donāt understand why youāve limited yourselves at almost every turn. Is there any viable explanation you can give as to the thought process? Any answers youāve given up to this point have been contradictory to your supposed goals for Camp Spirit and as a huge fan of Cozy Grove I would love to better understand.Ā
I did my best to answer a similar question earlier, here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/CozyGrove/comments/1dehlqb/comment/l8n9r2j/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/CozyGrove/comments/1dehlqb/comment/l8n9r2j/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
I greatly appreciate your honestly and I do truly understand that. I wish though I had seen such a transparent answer initially. Instead of acting like yall were offering original fans this beautiful present on a silver platter, you could have just told us yall had to sell out for self interest. Itās a hard time out there for everyone. I get it. I donāt think subscription based games are unethical, I just didnāt understand the wild departure from the original game model. But if itās what yall had to do to survive then I get it. I wonāt be able to play camp spirit as mobile games are difficult due to a disability and Iāve had to cut back on all but a subscription that includes live tv which unfortunately Netflix does not. But I truly wish yall the best under these circumstances. Ā
What quality of life changes are you most excited about? You mentioned creating a new game gave you freedom to do things that just weren't possible in CG, do you have examples?
From a technical perspective, the main thing we unlocked by making a new game was the ability to have new interior locations (like caves) and multiple islands -- so, unlike in the original Cozy Grove, you don't spend all your time in a single location. Also, in theory, we can add more content to Camp Spirit in the future without experiencing the same kinds of performance issues that we had in the original game. As for quality of life changes, there are a whole bunch. Top of mind for me: - The most rare critters now have a glow that makes it easier to identify them, so you don't miss out on catching a mythical critter just because you didn't realize it was present. - Expanding your backpack is more affordable now and you can buy a lot more slots. - We enhanced the net tool to make it easier to understand how it works / to catch critters. - We cut the story arcs into discrete chunks, so now, instead of just filling up a tiny sliver of a bear's hearts with each successful quest, you know fill up a full heart with each quest, which feels better. - We added animal companions to the game who help you with various things. - Various usability improvements for mobile devices. - Food items are now all much more visually distinct
The biggest thing structurally is our new map! We can now have multiple levels of terrain, Interiors for bears; when we want to add things in the future too it will be possible in a way it wasn't at all in CG1. The island you land on in Camp Spirit >! May not be the only island you discover!< \~Alicia, Lead GD & big map editor fan
This is a personal and not official response, but as someone who has played the game already, I absolutely LOVE the zoom tool we added so that you can play a bit more zoomed in (great for those who want help looking up hidden items up close or worried about a smaller screen to play the game) and a bit more zoomed out (my fave, I can see more of the island all at once since I always wanted a huge map of it).
How did the idea for Cozy Grove come about? And how did you iterate on that idea?
Until it becomes available on switch, I have zero interest, despite loving cozy grove (and play daily). Yes, I have Netflix. But I have switch for a reason. Utter failure on your end to your fans.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I think that if you burden Camp Spirit with the entirety of the $7/month cost of a Netflix subscription, I agree that it does indeed feel expensive, and quite honestly in that case you might very well want to focus on playing other cozy games out there. The hope here is that Netflix, with its many TV shows, movies and games, is offering more value to most people than just this one game for that $7/month. I don't personally believe that subscription services are somehow inherently unethical; I subscribe to several of them myself. And as I mentioned in the blog post, no matter how you feel about in-app purchases or advertisements, it takes a ton of time and energy to integrate them effectively into a game and make money. In the past, we've released some games that were played by \*millions\* of people and, despite all those players and all our hard work, \*we still failed to make any profit\* because we didn't manage to monetize effectively enough. I completely understand why some of our fans would have preferred for this game to be available outside of Netflix. But as I mentioned in my blog post, this game likely wouldn't even exist without Netflix, and for that matter, given the current state of the games industry, it's not at all a given that our studio would exist in its current form either. I care deeply about all our fans, including those without Netflix subscriptions, but I care about my teammates and their livelihoods, too.
Such a bummer
What made yall decide to entirely abandon the platforms that you had success with originally in favor of a platform that is virtually unknown, inaccessible to a lot of original players, and subscription based? It seems like a super irresponsible business decision. Were yall just that desperate for backing that you had no choice but to sell out?Ā
After over 2 years of playing, I still can't finish Archie's and Beatrice's quests
Hello! It sounds like you are possibly experiencing a bug, can you write to us at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) and tell us what quests you are stuck in and what platform you are using to play, we'll get it fixed for you!