Consider this your warning: there is some serious cute ahead. Like, there’s so much cuteness that you might get so overwhelmed that you say some bad words. I admit, I swear more often during Wholesome Directs than I do any other showcase – but it isn’t my fault everything is so [BLEEP]ing adorable! Just the theme music for Wholesome Directs makes me feel warm cozies. This year, Wholesome Games has collaborated with The Yetee for three pieces of themed merchandise, with part of each purchase price going towards Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.

Catch up on last year’s Wholesome Direct here. Some of the games featured in 2023 are seen again this year.

Game highlights

Tiny Bookshop (Neoludic Games, Skystone Games)

Who wouldn’t want to run a small bookstore out of the back of a trailer hitched to their car? Leave everything behind and do exactly that in Tiny Book Shop, a cozy narrative management game. Travel to a coastal town, stock your shop with books and items, and get to know the locals. Sometimes the right person needs just the right book, and a little help to find it. Tracking reading habits gives you important information about what genres you may want to stock up on next.

Tiny Book Shop will be released for PC via Steam in 2025.

Été (Impossible)

I remember Été very well from last year’s Not-E3; I liked it so much I included it in my overall highlights of the not-event (it’s also so pretty I also made it my cover image for that post). The relaxing painting game is set in Montreal, which is part of its appeal: it just feels like Montreal during the summertime. As a budding painter from abroad, you’re spending one summer in the French-Canadian city. Use colour to explore the city and capture it on canvas. Everything you discover is added to an album of “stamps” that you can use to make your own artworks. Complete commissions for friendly locals, or paint whatever you please and put on an exhibit at your own studio. Rare pigment collectibles to mix new dyes are hidden in the city. The game is relaxing, with no time limits, no pressure, no wrong way to paint, no correct order to complete quests, and no failure.

Été will be released for PC via Steam on July 23.

Squeakross: Home Squeak Home (Alblune)

A cute rodent and nonogram puzzles? Count me in! (Get it? Because you need to count in nonograms? I crack myself up.) Your new rodent friend has a nice home waiting for them but it’s completely empty. Use the Home Squeak Home Catalog to solve puzzles, transforming them into furniture for the rodent’s home and accessories for the rodent itself. You can customize your game by allowing hints, solve random cells, and using the Logic-Assist system to view previous solutions – or use none of it, totally up to you. The catalog features various styles of furniture ranging from basic to extravagant pieces. Your rodent can be customized too, from snout to tail. The developers are rodent lovers, so they understood the importance of having options to recreate a beloved friend of your own!

Squeakross: Home Squeak Home will be released for PC via Steam in 2025. (And until then, I shall say nightly prayers asking that it comes to Nintendo Switch. Please, great rodent in the sky, please!)

Great God Grove (Limbo Lane Games, Fellow Traveller)

Mail carriers are seriously underrated as video game heroes, though it is getting a bit better with games like Lake making them protagonists. Great God Grove puts a mail carrier front and centre. Normally, the gods gather generationally to postpone the apocalypse, but this time the god of communication started a bunch of fights before running off to god knows where. As the gods’ new mail carrier, it’s up to you to help! Use your mail-cannon to suck up lines of dialogue (for real) then launch them back to solve puzzles. There are 60 characters to meet. Learn about them, then deliver messages to solve their problems. Or mess with them, if that’s what you’re about. The game mixes first- and third-person gameplay. Get ready for godly crushes and godbossing!

Great God Grove will be released for PC via Steam in Q4 2024.

The Star Named EOS (Silver Lining Studio, Playism)

Mere days ago, I wrote about how The Star Named EOS was being delayed from spring until summer, but coming to more platforms at that time. It won’t be a long wait, either, as a July release date was announced today. The narrative-driven puzzle game follows Dei. As a child, his mother regularly sent letters while she travelled, each with a snapshot of where she was visiting. But, as an adult, everything Dei thought he knew is called into question when he notices something odd about one of the photographs. Gameplay is heavy on the puzzles, which involve recreating old photographs to rediscover the long-forgotten truth about a family mystery.

The Star Named EOS will be released for PC via Steam/Epic/GOG, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox Series on July 23.

Full list of featured games

• Mythmatch (Team Artichoke) – launching for PC via Steam
• Caravan SandWitch (Dear Villagers, Plane Toast) – launching for PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch
• Tiny Bookshop (Neoludic Games, Skystone Gamess) – launching in 2025 for PC via Steam
• Éte (Impossible) – launching on July 23 for PC via Steam
• Discounty (Crinkle Cut Games, PQube) – launching in 2025 for PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series
• Rooster (Sticky Brain Studios) – launching for PC via Steam
• Available on Playdate – Spellcorked (Jada Gibbs, Nick Splendorr, Ryan Splendorr)
• Available on Playdate – Reel-istic Fishing (ToadleyUnderControl)
• Available on Playdate – Faraway Fairway (Hedgehog Dreams)
• Available on Playdate – Bloom (RNG Party Games)
• Available on Playdate – Escape the Arcade (Julie Bjørnskov, Anders Bjørnskov)
• Available on Playdate – Rowboat Rally (Rae)
• Into the Emberlands (Tiny Roar, Daedalic Entertainment) – launching on June 19 in Early Access for PC via Steam
• Squeakross: Home Squeak Home (Alblune) – launching in 2025 for PC via Steam
• Critter Café (Sumo Digital, Secret Mode) – launching for PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch
• Garden of the Sea (Neat Corporation) – launching in 2024 for PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch
• Fantastic Haven (Piece of Cake Fabulous, Goblinz Publishing) – launching in Q3 2024 for PC via Steam
• Crab God (Chaos Theory) – launching for PC via Steam
• ILA: A Frosty Glide (Magic Rain Studios) – launching for PC via Steam
• Sally (Lucid Tales) – launching during Q4 2025 in Early Access for PC via Steam
• Great God Grove (Limbo Lane Games, Fellow Traveller) – launching in Q4 2024 for PC via Steam
• Times & Galaxy (Copychaser Games, Fellow Traveller) – launching on June 21 for PC via Steam/GOG/Humble, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series, Xbox One
• Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo (Galla, Fellow Traveller) – launching for PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox
• Pine: A Story of Loss (Made Up Games, Fellow Traveller) – launching in 2024 for iOS/Android, PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch
• Afterlove EP (Pikselnesia, Fellow Traveller) – launching in October 2024 for PC via Steam/Epic/GOG, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series, Xbox One
• Dungeons of Hinterberg (Microbird, Curve Games) – launching for PC via Steam, Xbox Series
• Fruitbus (Krillbite Studio) – launching in October for PC via Steam
• Freeride (Flighty Felon Games) – launching in Q1 2025 for PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch
• Kamaera: A Frog Refuge (Humble Reeds. Armor Games Studios) – available now for PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series
• Lost & Found Co (Bit Egg Inc) – launching for PC via Steam
• Littlelands (Rafael Martin, Kyle Creamer) – launching for PC via Steam
• Usagi Shima: Bunny Paradise Update (pank0, Wholesome Games Presents) – available now for iOS/Android
• Minami Lane (Doot and Blipbloop, Seaven Studio, Wholesome Games Presents) – available now for PC via Steam; launching in 2024 for Nintendo Switch
• Pooool (Noah King) – available now for PC via Steam
• Tiny Lands 2 (Hyper Three Studio) – launching for PC via Steam
• Moonstone Island (Supersoft, Raw Fury) – available now for PC via Steam; launching on June 19 for Nintendo Switch
• Rolling Hills (Humble Games, Catch & Release) – available now for PC via Steam, Xbox One
• On Your Tail (Humble Games, Memorable Games) – launching for PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch
• Spilled (Lente) – launching for PC via Steam
• The Palace on the Hill (Niku Games) – available now for PC via Steam
• Traveller’s Rest: City & Story Update (Isolated Games) – launching in July
• Petit Island (Xelo Games, Soedesco) – launching for PC via Steam/Epic, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series
• Albatroz (Among Giants, Soedesco) – launching for PC via Steam/Epic, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series
• Magical Bakery (Superlumen, Soedesco) – launching for PC via Steam/Epic, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series
• While Waiting (Optillusion) – launching for iOS/Android, PC via Steam
• Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato (StudioBando) – launching in August 2024 for PC via Steam/Windows, Xbox Series, Xbox One
• Track Thoughts (Tidbits, Freedom Games) – available now for PC via Steam/Epic
• Tukoni: Forest Keepers (Dream Operator) – launching for PC via Steam
• Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Café (Anais Salla, Devilishgames) – launching for PC via Steam
• Curiosmos (Celine & the Silly Stars) – launching for PC via Steam
• Hermit & Pig (Heavy Lunch Studio) – launching for PC via Steam
• Letter Bunny (Dramatic Iceberg) – launching for PC via Steam
• Music Power Up (Microstudio) – launching for PC via Steam
• Dragon Shelter (Wild Forest Studio) – launching for PC via Steam
• Goodlands (Joshua De Oliveira, thegeolojosh) – launching for PC via Steam
• Boreas (Low Pony) – launching for PC via Steam
• Monterona (Slava Korolev) – launching for PC via Steam
• The August Before (sillylittlegames) – launching for PC via Steam
• Opus: Prism Peak (Sigono, Shueisha Games) – launching for PC via Steam
• Space Sprouts (Schleuder Games) – launching for PC via Steam
• Broken Lens (Team Run) – launching for PC via Steam
• Ringo’s Roundup (Surt) – launching for PC via Steam
• The Star Named EOS (Silver Lining Studio, Playism) – launching on July 23 for PC via Steam/Epic/GOG, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series
• Tiny Tires (Jon Kristinsson) – launching for PC via Steam
• Dawnfolk (Darenn Keller, Astra Logical) – launching for PC via Steam
• Umami Grove (Pomshine Games, Dangen Entertainment) – launching for PC via Steam
• Kitsune Tails (Kitsune Games, Midboss) – launching on August 1 for PC via Steam/itch.io
• Building Relationships (Tanat Boozayaangool) – launching for PC via Steam
• Tiny Cauldron (Purring Campfire) – launching for PC via Steam
• Pup Champs (Afterburn) – launching for PC via Steam
• Map Map – A Game About Maps (Pipapo Games) – launching for PC via Steam
• Omochapon (shawnthemiller) – omochapon.com
• Catto’s Post Office (In Shambles Studio) – launching for PC via Steam
• Wax Heads (Patattie Games) – launching for PC via Steam
• Screenbound (Crescent Moon Games) – launching for PC via Steam
• Ebitapes (Geese & Goose) – launching for PC via Steam
• Katsl (kofka.games) – launching for PC via Steam
• Pretty Goo’ (Dollopop) – launching for PC via itch.io
• Hirocat – The Delivery Hero (Astero Games) – launching for PC via Steam
• Hello Again (Soup Island) – launching for PC via Steam
• Undusted: Letters from the Past (Eminlab) – launching for PC via Steam

Watch the showcase

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