One of my most anticipated games for 2026 is a little sandbox puzzle game that plays like the lovechild of Unpacking and PowerWash Simulator

It's become clear to me that I crave order in the games that I play. I have the usual suspects in my Steam library like PowerWash Simulator, Unpacking, and A Little to the Left. But the fact that I carry the same neat-freak nature over to my camp in Fallout 76 or my poor base in Cult of the Lamb cemented the fact that I should either talk to a professional or probably just play games where I can carry on the trend of ensuring everything is placed in an efficient manner and is aesthetically pleasing.

So you'd best bet that when I heard of a game where I could clean a room up and then decorate it with all sorts of furnishings however I pleased, I had a neuron activation moment. Hozy is exactly what I want when it comes to a cleaning sandbox puzzle: it's satisfying, cute, and surprisingly detailed.

Each level sees you clean and decorate a different room, and in the playtest, you get two: a large living room and a tiny studio apartment. Tidying it up isn't particularly hard, as you can swirl all the garbage up into huge floating rubbish balls before chucking them in a Tardis posing as a wheelie bin. After all that's out of the way, you'll then need to clean the windows, wipe the floor, and paint the walls, or put some wallpaper on it. After which it'll look brand new.

Then comes the fun part: the decorating. Like Unpacking, a bunch of moving boxes will appear for you to open and take all sorts of furniture out of. But unlike Unpacking, you have complete freedom when it comes to choosing where to place every single piece of furniture. From fridges to potted plants, there's no right or wrong way to do it. But my way is the best way (obviously).

I jest, you can complete the levels in any way you want, which means you can just zone out, enjoy the ambient noises like the crackle of burning logs in the fireplace or traffic rushing on the road below and just get on with it.

Starting with a completely blank canvas, I spent most of my time debating where best to place big items like tables and sofas so as not to mess up the feng shui of the room. And looking at my first attempt again, I think it went pretty well, except for that weird corner with the leftover chair and bean bag. I didn't know what to put there, so don't focus on that too much, please.

The only time I was ripped out of these good vibes was an issue with some fairy lights on the first level. Thanks to a wonky collision or poor placement, they clipped through the floor and ended up hanging across an infinite expanse of dead space beyond the walls of the room I was decorating. It was still cosy, but in a more eldritch fashion.

Otherwise, I have absolutely no notes for Hozy. The experience is plenty detailed for someone with a penchant for strict order like myself to love, but also simple enough to make the experience carefree and actually relaxing.

The only real issue is that there's no release date tagged onto the game yet, which has me gnawing at the bars of my enclosure because there's only so many times I can replay the same two levels before I start driving myself up the wall. But it's certainly nice to have something to look forward to in 2026.