I played a demo of Cosmic Coop, an adventure and simulation game available on Steam. It’s a single-player game with full controller support.
Cosmic Coop is a collectathon-type game by Omnivorian, and it will be released on November 6, 2025, on Steam. This game is enough like Stardew Valley that it feels familiar and comfortable, and yet it’s different enough that it’s not SDV!! It was inspired by Viva Piñata and Stardew Valley and is the creation of a solo indie dev with the help of some “amazing freelancers”. The love and dedication that he has given to the game really shows. He is also super helpful. I played on a PC with a controller and ran into some difficulties, so I reached out on Discord. He got back to me very quickly and fixed the problem within a day. Color me impressed!
The Gameplay of Cosmic Coop
The game begins with the usual premise of trying to bring an abandoned farm back to life. But in this iteration, you have landed here from outer space, and the farm is on a mysterious planet. Over time, you can rebuild the farm, explore the area and discover the secrets of this planet. To accomplish this, you can farm, fish, help your neighbors and collect Critterlings.
Critterlings are playful, piniata-like creatures with unique personalities, favorite treats and special item drops. They appear on your farm, but once there, you have to use your “Critterpedia” to determine their particular likes. That’s because in order to entice them to live on your farm permanently, you have to provide them with those favorite things. When they first appear on your farm, they are grayscale, but once they decide to become residents, they get colorful! Neat! According to the Steam page, there are also mysterious eggs hidden across the land, which will hatch into even more cute Critterlings. I have not discovered any in the demo yet.
Other aspects of Cosmic Coop
The game includes plenty of decorations and personalizations. Plus a bustling village filled with (kind of) snarky NPCs!! Many of the NPCs will buy what you have to sell and then sell you what you want. Seeds, a fishing pole….whatever! There’s also the obligatory chest to sell your items.
There isn’t a town map, and the town is larger than I expected, but it’s not too huge. I memorized it in less than an hour of gameplay play and I’m really bad at directions!! The different areas (at least what I saw in the demo) were distinct enough that it was easy to remember where I was. The buildings in the town are really cute and colorful.
Things I Really Liked About the Demo
I love how Cosmic Coop has fast movements! None of that walking around at a snail’s pace like other games! The same with planting crops. Immediately, you can seed more than one square at a time. Woo hoo!! Watering is still one square at a time, though, at least in the demo. But you can buy or find special fertiliser (a pile of poop!!) which instantly causes your plants to grow.
The game has a day-night cycle as well as seasons. The demo lasts for 7 in-game days, which took me about 3 hours. The developer suspects players will play until year 5 in-game because he has quests until that point. He figures that would be 130 hours if you don’t skip anything. That’s a lot of play time! He expects people to make their own journey, though, so your play time may vary. He also has some elements ready to create new zones in the future. He’s hoping to give these as free DLC, expanding the game world from the 3 zones already in the game to a total of 7 zones.
Finally, I want to point out that the game features a beautiful soundtrack composed by Wood Simon. At times it’s bright and jaunty, and at other times it’s soft and soothing. It makes me smile. There are also cool sound effects as you play. Lots of “blooping” noises, which also bring a smile to my face and other great sound effects as you walk around. For example, there’s a definite difference in the sounds when you walk on dirt as opposed to grass. I can see lots of attention to detail in this game.
Cosmic Coop is a very relaxing game. You can farm when you want, fish when you want, and go to town when you want. You set the pace. I encourage you to try the demo.
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