Wanderstop Shows Why Video Game Writing Matters

Wanderstop is a “cozy game” developed by Ivy Road and published by Annapurna Interactive, with some highly notable talent from the indie space – written and directed by Davey Wreden of The Stanley Parable fame with editing and music by Karla Zimonja (Gone Home) and C418 (Minecraft) respectively. The game released on March 11th, 2025 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

Now, I used *heavy* air quotes for a reason there – because despite having completed Wanderstop, I’m pretty sure I’ve still never played an actual “cozy game” – and if you’re at all familiar with some of those names I called out heading up the studio, you might already have an inkling as to why.

But let me set the stage for those who maybe aren’t familiar with Wanderstop. You play as Alta, who at first glance seems like your typical hero protagonist. She’s a fighter with a sword and she overcomes all of her opponents – until she doesn’t. She loses, and keeps losing, and when desperate, decides to run off in search of a master who can teach her to become the ultimate champion.

Trouble is, once she sets out on her quest, her sword quite literally becomes too heavy for her to carry. And even when she abandons it, she finds she can’t keep going as-is because every time she tries to press on, she passes out.

(This is where the game quickly starts to show its true colors as an allegory for dealing with burn out, stress, and change.)

Eventually, Alta finds herself waking up in a clearing on a bench with a large, jolly looking man named Boro. Boro owns a magical tea shop in the woods – so your average commercial start-up unicorn, totally normal stuff here.

Seeing Alta’s exhaustion, Boro suggests that she stay awhile. Relax. Get to know how to make tea. Putz around in the garden a bit. Maybe just chill. (Boro is great, btw.)

Of course, with as driven as she is, Alta resists at first. But running away just leads to more passing out and she still can’t lift her sword (which Boro has kindly recovered), so tea shop management sim it is.

As far as simulation style games go, Wanderstop’s mechanics and objectives are pretty simple. You have a handful of seed types to plant in your garden which yield a couple of different plants you can cross breed by simply arranging them in different combinations. You even have a field guide that will show you how to make the different plants that will yield different fruit types for you to use when brewing teas.

You gather tea leaves, tend your garden, do some weeding and tidying up. All in all, it’s a very simple loop – and one with zero pressure. There are no deadlines to complete certain tasks or fill any orders for the customers who wander into Boro and Alta’s little domain.

In the absence of a time limit, the game just does a really good job of metering out content by gradually introducing things for you to do or people to interact with, letting you play at your own pace but still having something new to engage with before things can lapse into getting boring or stale.

All throughout, you’re encouraged to poke around, play with the Pluffins, and find some random packages and collectibles in the garden. You can even just sit on a bench and do nothing.

But of course, you’ll want to make some tea in Boro’s giant magical matrix that lets you control the temperature of the water, decide what ingredients to mix together, and parse out tea to whomever you choose – whether it be for a guest, Boro, Alta herself, or heck – even the Pluffins (do water your Pluffins, 10/10 recommend).

But speaking of the guests, they are the source of variety in Wanderstop’s gameplay loop which plays out over a handful of chapters. And in each chapter, a couple of different eclectic whackos will wander into… well Wanderstop. They each have their own stories to tell and will often give Alta orders for different types of brews to make, but before I dive into the characters any further, I want to pause here to make my first main point about how this game is structured.

My thesis is this:

Wanderstop’s gameplay is incredibly simple. So simple, in fact, that if you divorce the intentionally mundane gameplay elements from the strong narrative delivery, this game wouldn’t be nearly as compelling as it is. It would appeal to some, but it wouldn’t be the kind of experience that I’d be going up to virtual strangers on the internet and saying, “you NEED to check out this game.”

This is a pluffin.

To explore what I mean further, I’ll need to dig into what those narrative themes are and the ways in which the developers convey them. I’m going to attempt to do so with as light of spoilers as possible, but if you’re sensitive to even reading about examples of characters or interactions in the game, you may want to stop here and/or skip to the conclusion.

First of all, what are the themes? I already mentioned it a bit, but here’s a rundown of some of the major ones:

• Wanderstop is largely an allegory for burnout, with Alta’s losing streak, her sword becoming quite literally too heavy for her to carry, and her constant exhaustion. She pushes herself and pushes herself, trying to go on despite the fact that she’s quite literally passing out from the attempt, and when forced to stop and try to rest, she rebels against even the notion of taking a break

• The echoes of Alta’s losing streak haunt her and make her question her identity, her sense of self and what’s left in the absence of her role, occupation, or accomplishments. From the beginning, Alta largely defines herself by her achievements and failures

• When rescued by Boro, Alta is forced to confront her stress and anxiety, participating in a bit of a happenstance mental health intervention. Each time she drinks tea, Alta will even reflect on moments from her past, bringing up examinations of her psyche

• With the changing of the season chapter to chapter, Alta also confronts the notions of control and letting go. She often isn’t in control, especially returning to the on-the-nose concept of not even being able to lift her sword – and some other bits I won’t dive into related to her quest to find a master. Also, customers will come and go, and the garden will change with the arrival of a new season – so she has to let go of some things, whether she likes it or not

• Especially with Boro, but also with herself and with some of the other characters in the game, Alta has to learn how to trust, and confront notions of doubt. Solitary by nature and spiraling with her flagging confidence, both her external and internal sense of trust isn’t something that comes naturally or easily

• Through her connections with others and learning to take the time to appreciate the small moments of joy in life, Alta’s journey also illuminates the idea of valuing time, especially time with loved ones – focusing less on material goods or money or status or personal achievements. There’s a sense of community at the little tea house in the woods, especially as Atla forms connections that she comes to value deeply

With its allegorical depiction of burn out, stress, the need to achieve, the sense of control and the struggle to let go – can you see why I said at the start that I don’t think I’ve played a “cozy game”?

On its face, Wanderstop is a tea shop management-slash-farming sim that’s bright and colorful and cute and “cozy.” But thematically, the game dives unabashedly into many of the anxieties plaguing its real-life players until an entropic point of narrative climax and resulting resolution.

Along the way to this conclusion, Wanderstop employs a number of tools in its writing and core game design that seem simple on the surface but are exceedingly clever and well executed.

First of all, this game’s cast oozes personality. Without even saying a word, the strength of characterization is on full display – not just in how the characters are dressed but also in how they move. For example, when Alta sweeps away leaves in the garden, she wields her broom like she’s swinging a sword. The vision of who these characters are is extremely clear and the devs bring it through in every bit of visual design, animation, and – of course – dialogue.

Speaking of which, Wanderstop features dialogue choices for Alta in various conversations. These choices don’t seem to have any real consequence on how the story plays out – something that would potentially be a point of criticism in other games, especially on the more RPG side of things.

But Wanderstop is actually an example of consequence-free dialogue choice done right in my opinion. The different options that you get align with Alta’s personality, albeit to varying degrees and temperatures. Some are more reserved and dismissive, some are serious, and some are increasingly sarcastic or at times, even playful. They all fit who she is, but they let you role play within the fiction, deciding how you/she would want to respond in that given situation without having to worry about affecting larger narrative outcomes.

In a sense, whether intentional or otherwise, this simple example of an inconsequential dialogue system also fits into the no-pressure atmosphere of what Atla’s time at Wanderstop is supposed to represent. No “right” choices to make, no goals to achieve, no deadlines to meet, no opponents to overcome or battles to win.

Getting back to the character writing, it’s not just Alta who exemplifies the devs’ ability to nail effective characterization. I mentioned earlier the guests that wander into the tea shop, and again without getting too into spoilers, I’ll just say that some of them are extremely memorable and expertly walk the line between obvious stereotypes and believable, fleshed out characters.

My personal favorite was Gerald, the “embarrassing dad” turned knight errant, but I also loved Ren and Nana too. But a really strong example of how Wanderstop’s characters inhabit a weirdly colorful space of tongue-in-cheek humor meets dark existential crisis would be Jerry. And Larry. And Terry. And Harry.

Again, not trying to delve too deep into spoilers but these guys all have similar names for a reason: they’re the Average Joe Office Worker. They all wear similar suits, toting similar briefcases, and they’re looking for the boardroom so they can give their presentation. They also only drink coffee, not tea.

I’ll just say this – as a 9 to 5er myself, these guys’ storyline hit almost too close to home. I was smiling and laughing but also yelling “TOO REAL” and feeling a genuine sense of stress about my own work/life imbalance. (I ultimately ended up wondering if each of these archetypal tea guests were meant to embody the player/Alta’s own anxieties, but maybe that’s just me projecting…)

I will admit that not every character is 100% fully baked out, in some cases due simply to the fact that you don’t spend as much time with them and some spots of uneven pacing in the game’s chapters. But on the whole, Wanderstop’s cast is a strong example of highly polished and surprisingly nuanced characterization.

Another aspect of the writing that I would be remiss not to mention are in the literal examples of in-world writing, chiefly in the form of books and letters that you find around the shop and the garden. Again, I’m handcuffed by my desire not to spoil things – but in case you’re the kind of person who skips reading through collectibles in games, I URGE you not to do so here.

The books especially are worth the read. I don’t know that I will EVER forget the stories of Dirk Warhard by D. B. Steele. In a matter of a few virtual pages, they spin some absolutely wild tales of action, espionage, triumph, and… you know, I’m still not really sure what else. My mind was so blown, that it’s a wonder I’m still even coherent enough to write these very words. Needless to say, the dark humor is once again alive and kicking in these seemingly innocuous in-game collectibles.

But I think that’s enough examples to support my initial thesis here, so let me wrap this up.

In conclusion…

By now, I hope I’ve convinced you to check out Wanderstop for the quality of its writing alone. Earlier I said that the gameplay on its own may not appeal to a lot of players due to its seeming simplicty. But it’s the marriage of intentionally simple, low-stakes mechanics with a narrative that is darkly humorous beneath the “cozy” exterior that makes Wanderstop so brilliant.

The writing and its execution in every inch of the game’s design isn’t something that can be faked or easily recreated. It takes true talent, experience, and collaboration to realize a vision like this that has such a clear identity, helping it to stand out in an increasingly crowded gaming landscape.

Less experienced or talented creators wouldn’t be able to simply ape or imitate what Wanderstop has achieved. Or god forbid, AI – there’s no way a machine could be told, “take what this game did, and make another one just like it.”

It would lack the soul to understand the human experience and translate it into characters who move and act and speak and embody the stories like the ones here in Wanderstop because essentially, that’s what is on display here: a slice of humanity. A tangible, and almost painfully relatable thing that can somehow speak through a bunch of moving pixels to deliver a sense of catharsis in the end.

In a day and age where creative talent continues to be extremely undervalued in the corporate world, especially in an industry under pressure to produce more content bigger and better and faster and cheaper, we need to highlight games like Wanderstop now more than ever. They cannot be replicated or replaced by cheap imitation, whether human or machine-made.

This sort of experimental game that subverts player expectations by marrying intentionally mundane activities with a thought-provoking, emotionally charged narrative is something you can pretty much only find in the indie space nowadays – especially in the form of such an artfully condensed ten-to-twelve-hour package.

It’s not going to have a mass-market appeal or a ton of sales velocity behind it, but it is the kind of art that needs to be made. It’s clearly indicative of someone having something to say, and the passion to make it be heard loud and clear.  

I highly value these unique types of games that invite me into their worlds for a time, and leave a lasting impact for years to come. I may not always remember every small detail, but I will never forget the impression that Wanderstop left on me.