Wholesome Snack: TGA 2025 rundown

Another year, or rather another six months, another showcase. Thankfully, today I’m only covering this year’s Wholesome Snack, ahead of The Game Awards 2025, which Alexx will be covering on Thursday night for Friday’s schedule. As always, Wholesome is hosted by Jenny Windom and the occasional introduction of trailers by cozy streamers.

The bite-sized show started off with the characteristically wholesome game that is obviously going on my wishlist very soon, Thrifty Business. The next game from the developers of Sticky Business and Ritual of Raven, Spellgarden Games, Thrifty Business sees you run a small thrift shop in a laid-back management title with placement that I’d draw comparisons with Unpacking as an example. Delightful and colorful, we’ve got a little while to wait for this one, but it’s worth wishlisting ahead of its 2026 release.

If you’ve followed what I cover a lot of the time, you’ll know I don’t have the highest opinion of Hidden Object games, mostly due to Big Fish Games. A bit more Where’s Wally (Waldo if you’re criminally insane) than the junk drawer approach of the aforementioned blight on gaming, but also looking much more delightful. Turns out we don’t have to wait too long on Big Egg Inc.’s Lost and Found Co., as it releases on February 11th, 2026, on Steam.

The next one, however, is something I kind of hope I never have to cover again because the name is a pain to write out, but also what type of game it is. B-e-e-t-l-e: Be Right Back! is a “typing adventure” where you go out on the search for your friend Beetle. To do basically anything, you need to type out your response that shows up on screen or the action you want to see done, which is all fine, but the “Twiiiiist” in the trailer is difficult for my dyslexia to deal with. No release date yet, but I’m sure we’ll see this one multiple times again.

As always, Wholesome does a charity thing with its showcases, and this year’s Wholesome Snack is no different. This year’s charity is the ACLU, for obvious reasons, and the bundle includes some pretty good and wholesome offerings. On Your Tail, Botany Manor, Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley, Naiad, Shashingo: Learn Japanese with Photography, Spirittea, Little-Known Galaxy, Kind Worlds 2 (lofi city pop), Summerhouse.

From charity to period lesbian witches doing all that Bridgerton nonsense. I’m not the target audience for Studio Drydock Pty Ltd’s Wylde Society, a blend of wholesome witchy 19th-20th century life sim drama. Though we did get another look at this one, I wouldn’t say it was much more than we’d already seen before, despite the “first look” note in the showcase and on Steam, sadly. No release date either.

We did get an update on Studio Drydock Pty Ltd’s prior lesbian life-sim ‘em up, though. Wylde Flowers is now on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and “Xbox for PC.” So the Microsoft Store? Cool, like I say when watching football every Sunday, go lesbians!

Speaking of lesbians, the trailer for Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth makes a point that the stories were originally written in a time that was difficult, and how we’re similarly going through difficult times right now. However, it does ignore outright saying that the writer, Tove Jansson, was in fact, notably a lesbian and those themes of tolerance and helping each other out might be as a result of that. In the upcoming game, you’ll play as Moomintroll, who is experiencing winter for the first time. Just a release window of 2026, but you can wishlist on Steam now.

The next thing wasn’t so much shown as it was given the triple-A showcase treatment by showing a cinematic idea of the game at hand. In Verdant, you play as Sprout as they adventure through a “post-apocalyptic world stuck in time.” However, this odd little survival title isn’t in a normal post-apocalyptic world, but one that’s overgrown and mutated into weird and wonderful things, such as a stag with a tree on its head instead of normal antlers. Intriguing despite its lack of a proper trailer and release date/window, but certainly one to watch.

The character models might be something completely different, but the colors and shading of Spirit Crossing is that of French-Belgian comics, like those of Jean Giraud. Sadly, that’s about as far as I go into admiring Spry Fox’s upcoming Steam title that’s currently in alpha on mobile, as Spirit Crossing is a co-op life-sim, which I find difficult to get into because, eww, people. Spirit Crossing is coming to Steam sometime in 2026, but we have no idea when throughout the year. Probably late summer, if I had to guess.

After that, we got an odd one in BlackStaff Games’ Travel Pack! Coming from the developers behind Buildings Have Feelings Too!, and it does seem they do love that exclamation mark, Travel Pack! is an odd mix of adventure narrative and tile-based board game. Certainly odd, but interesting. No release date, no release window, but you can wishlist on Steam right now.

Between taking notes, the colors, and the cuts between the cinematic bits of trailer, top-down RPG adventure bits, and turn-based strategy RPG gameplay, I sort of took none of this next one in. Mirage: Miracle Quest is an odd little thing that blends a lot of established RPG tropes of gameplay and sprinkles in some interesting new ideas with “magical girl flair.” No release date as of yet, but there is a demo available on Steam right now.

From something with no release date to something that’s out now in early access, now with a 1.0 release date. We’re talking about the wholesome life-sim from 5 Lives Studios, Cozy Caravan. Originally released back in May of 2024, Cozy Caravan sees you play as an adorable little animal in a cozy little town of life-sim adventure and cozy vibes. Cozy Caravan releases on January 8th, 2026, and if I say cozy one more time, I might fall down the semantic satiation wormhole.

Sticking with the theme of games having an idea of when they release, we’ve seen Wholesome Games Presents co-published title from imissmyfriends.studio a few times. However, Fishbowl is finally set to release this coming April. So wishlist the narractive-based slice-of-life game now over on Steam.

Ok, time for me to sound like a horrible person, again. I like the idea of Capybara Games’ Find Your Words, but I personally don’t love the art style and find it quite off-putting as a result. Find Your Words is an adventure game about a child at a summer camp, but that kid is non-verbal, so you need to find ways to communicate without speaking. A great idea that is inspired by a pair of dads whose kid is non-verbal. No release date yet, but you can expect Find Your Words sometime in 2026.

Sticking with the 2026 theme again (shocker!), we get a look at something I’ve shown off to both Alexx and David, Arcane Eats. Developed by Wonderbell Games, this odd fantasy, Rogue-like, deckbuilder isn’t about crawling dungeons but rather serving the fantasy rogues who might. However, you don’t have to wait for 2026 to play, or faun at the trailer showcasing The Grove, a druid-inspired deck. As there is a demo for Arcane Eats out now.

Though if I do have one complaint, it is the aggressive compression on the voice-over for the trailer. Some might like the trailer but not know why they might be bothered by it. That compression to cut through the loud mix is noticeable if you know what you’re listening for. It’s either that or a loudness EQ that is far too loud. I’ll shut up about production things now.

Nintendo might be rattling someone’s door next, because Grand Duck Games’ CatchMaker is too perfect. CatchMaker sees you running around catching bugs, as you do, but you need to match the right bugs with each other in a weird little dating sim sort of way. Through a series of dates, you’ll find out which bugs match up with each other and who has which preference. The fact that this is the first time this idea has come about in 2025, nearly 2026, is a goddamn crime!

From ideas I want now to ideas that I think are a bit too stressful. Have you ever thought the weird Tetris of Lumines needed to be weirder and much more stressful? Well, PANdemonium: Merge! is that with balancing stuff that is being thrown into a pan that you have to shake to make things merge and make bigger. It is really odd, and I don’t know that I care for it, but I like that someone made something they like. There is supposed to be a demo out now, but I can’t find it, and it is supposed to be released sometime in 2026.

I don’t want to say the next one looked boring, but Loekni’s Zitifono is a weird adventure thing set around an archipelago with a reasonable little mystery. Despite its very bright and colorful look, something about it feels like it is lacking a spark. It could be the visuals being too bright without a contrasting color and brightness breaking it up, but Zitifono is certainly one I’m keeping an eye on.

Come March 5th, I won’t be keeping an eye on Coffee Talk Tokyo, though. I’m just a weirdo who doesn’t really care for the series so much, and the trailer shown kind of is a symbol of that. Someone waiting for a character so they can tell a room full of people something is constantly interrupted, and generally speaking, it’s like being a character in a 90s JRPG. Thanks, but I’m busy making coffee. Coffee Talk Tokyo releases on March 5th, 2026.

Joanne can still climb in a bin, preferably an industrial one, so I can hit it with sticks and deafen her like that film. We got another look at Failbetter Games’ Mandrake, and I have to say, it is mostly covering what we saw before, but we did get a look at a fluffy black friend called Yolf. Another one with no release date or release window, but I really do want Mandrake right now. The first of Failbetter Games’ offerings that I can honestly say that with.

Sticking with that theme, you’ll have to pry Mandragora’s ReStory: Chill Electronic Repairs from my cold, dead hands when it releases next year. One of those shop repair things, a bit like Trash Goblin and such, but with legally distinct PSPs, PlayStation 1s, Nokia 3310s, and other electronics. I’m sorry, but someone needs to hurry up, because 2026 can’t come soon enough right now. I want this yesterday! You can, however, join the playtest on Steam right now.

The penultimate game for this year’s Wholesome Snack is a weird little puzzle game from the developers of Captain Starone. Marumittu Games’ D-topia is a puzzle game set in a world where AI curates life to maximize happiness for the residents. Cue the wet dreams of tech billionaires, but instead of curating happiness, it curates your wallet into theirs. Depressing thoughts aside, D-topia is set to release sometime in 2026.

The final game is something that I wish I could honestly care about, but I don’t. Bits & Bops is a “collection of original rhythm mini-games! Filled with catchy music, snappy gameplay, and gorgeous, hand-drawn animation, Bits & Bops is sure to brighten your day.” It genuinely looks lovely, but if I’m honest, I can’t stand rhythm games. I’m fine with games that have a little bit of rhythm in them, but a game focused around it, no. I can’t hyper-focus for that long. But if you can, Bits & Bops is available now.