I reviewed Winter Burrow as a guest writer for Good Game Lobby this week! First I am going to talk about this new experience, and then the review will follow below.
If you prefer, you can jump to the actual review.
The cover image was drawn by me, inspired by the art of Winter Burrow.
How the opportunity came about
Very recently I began reaching out to publishers of upcoming games I’m excited about to request game keys so I can review them here on the blog when they release. Luna’s Gaming Log is still small, but I figured I might shoot my shot and make some connections.
Well, that actually worked! I got my first key ever and I’ll be publishing a review about that game next Tuesday. (A small hint: I already mentioned this title around here before)
Just to be clear, even though I am taking this step, I don’t have plans to create sponsored content, or to monetize the blog. Luna’s Gaming Log is my creative outlet first and foremost and I don’t want to feel pressure by trying to make a profit out of it. I recently created a page on buy me a coffee to accept donations that would help me cover the costs of self-hosting the blog, but that’s about it. Anyway, sorry for the small tangent, I just wanted to highlight that things aren’t going to change around here even if I receive games to review for free.
I mentioned in the Good Game Lobby Discord server that I’d tried to reach out to the publisher of Winter Burrow for a key, since I was looking forward to playing the game – I didn’t get one from them, but Sey said I could have his key in case I was interested in covering it for GGL! I loved the idea to write for that community, so I quickly got on board.
Playing and writing
It was the first time ever that I was playing a game before release. It felt very special and secretive, since I couldn’t really talk about it – just with Sey himself. Sey was a great sounding board during the process. As he asked me how the game was going and if I enjoyed it, I was already formulating my opinion that later would transform into a review.
Luckily I was able to play the game for 6 hours before starting to write. The full gameplay is estimated to be about 10 hours, and at some point I felt confident that I had seen enough of the gameplay loop and story that I could write about it. As a reviewer, it’s really important to me to play a good amount of hours to form my opinion, and I was glad we got the key with enough time in advance.
We agreed on a deadline that made sense for both of us, aiming to publish the day following the release. I also did some research on Good Game Lobby’s past reviews format because I wanted the new post to fit well with the previous ones.
The format that I use to write my own reviews doesn’t differ that much from the one Sey follows, but I always notice that unlike me, he talks way deeper about the soundtrack. I really like that about GGL’s reviews, so I did some extra digging about Winter Burrow’s music – which led me to find this amazing interview with Andreas Busk and to learn more about the creative process behind the game!
After getting the first draft ready, I shared it with Sey and he had minimal notes to give me – but some hilarious suggestions on the title that shall never leave our DMs. And there it was: we had a review ready to go!
The whole process was really fun. Creating a review from a guest writer’s standpoint made me think of it from different angles and reflect about aspects that I could incorporate into my own reviews moving forward.
Once again: thank you Sey for this opportunity!
Don’t forget to check out Good Game Lobby if you haven’t yet.
Are you still with me? Check out my review on Winter Burrow below, or if you’ve already read it on GGL, you can jump to the comments section.
Winter Burrow Review – Can a game about surviving in the freezing wilderness feel cozy?
- Game: Winter Burrow
- Studio: Pine Creek Games
- Publisher: Noodlecake Studios
- Platforms: Steam, Xbox Series X | S, Xbox One, Xbox Game Pass, Switch
- Completion Time: 10 Hours (Played 6 hours)
- Price: $18.99 on sale now for $17.99 (at the time of the review)
- Genre: Cozy Woodland Survival
Hello everyone, I’m Luna and I was invited by Sey to review Winter Burrow for Good Game Lobby. This is Pine Creek Games’ debut release and it was published by Noodlecake Studios. Winter Burrow is being promoted as a “cozy woodland survival game”, but is it even possible to feel cozy while you’re trying not to freeze or starve to death? Read on if you’re curious.
A new beginning back to your origins
Winter Burrow starts off with a melancholic but hopeful tone, with a hand-drawn cutscene that sets up the story. You are a small mouse that used to live in the wilderness with your parents and aunt, until your parents decide to move with you to the big city. Sadly, working in the mines was too much for them and they pass away. So you decide to move back to your old burrow, but when you get there, it looks totally abandoned and your aunt, who was supposed to take care of the place, is nowhere to be found. This was meant to be a new start, but instead the game makes you uneasy.
You start fixing up your house little by little using foraged items like sticks, hay and rocks. You get tools that allow you to chop wood, break rocks and dig things up. Once your crafting table is fixed, you can make planks from wood and yarn from hay, to then build furniture and knit warmer clothes. After your oven is working again, you can cook your foraged food, which makes its recovery attributes better. Gameplay is really satisfying once you start getting in the groove.
A mouse’s survival chronicles
Surviving the cold wilderness requires you to keep an eye on several stats at all times. There are health, hunger, warmth and stamina meters. Your health goes down if you get physically attacked. You get hungry over time and different food replenishes the hunger meter in different ways – a pie is more filling than a raw mushroom, for example. Your warmth drops the moment you step outside, though wearing warmer clothes helps slow that down. Your stamina drains when you’re doing something physically straining, like chopping trees, but goes back up automatically once you catch your breath (quite literally).
Managing your vital needs is a core aspect of the game and it was fun to experiment with it as I played, for example by consuming food that gave my stats a little boost. The game does a great job of visually showing when your character is cold, with the edges of your screen frosting over, and you hear heavy breathing when your stamina runs low, so it’s hard to miss if something is off.
Encounters
You meet different characters as you explore and they ask for your help. Requests start simple, like bringing them some sticks and pebbles, but they serve to gradually reveal their backstory. By helping them out, you get crafting recipes and progress the story. It stood out to me how their personalities really came through in the dialogue. Each one of them had their own personal struggles and I felt invested to get to know them better. However, these quests can feel fetch-questy, so that is worth highlighting since it’s something some gamers really dislike.
Inventory management was a challenge in the 6 hours that I played. Even though I enjoyed the main gameplay loop of collecting and crafting, you start with such a small inventory that you’re constantly running back home to drop off items. In the beginning, you need to stop by the house to get warm anyway, so it’s not a big issue, but later on, it would have been nice to be able to store and craft items away from the burrow.
For the players that experience arachnophobia: you might have seen that there are spiders in the game. Luckily, you have the option to turn them off in the settings.
Visuals and sound
The hand-drawn visuals from Winter Burrow drew me in immediately when I saw the game for the first time. The style is reminiscent of old children’s books and nostalgic fables; it feels like something I’ve seen before, while also putting a fresh spin on it because of the digital art look, rather than a traditional medium like watercolor.
To put it simply, there’s no other way I’d prefer a game about a small mouse that bakes pies and decorates their house to look.
Andreas Busk created the music and sound design for Winter Burrow. The atmosphere really comes to life with the nostalgic and slightly melancholic tunes inspired by Nordic folk songs. The soundtrack received the award for Best Music at the Indie Arena Booth at Gamescon 2025.
My final thoughts
It is tricky to go into the territory of discussing whether a game is cozy or not, since this is such a subjective feeling. For me, Winter Burrow felt very cozy once I was inside my newly restored home: whether I was knitting some clothes, baking some pies, or decorating, nothing else mattered.
It was the total opposite when I stepped outside. Before leaving the house, I created a habit of making a plan for myself: I cooked, packed my supplies and made a mental note of what I had to get done before coming back. I kept an eye on my condition at all times, so I could eat something or find a spot to get warm if I was getting too cold. When the pressure was on, I couldn’t just hang out outside and admire the beautiful scenery.
The survival mechanics from Winter Burrow give the game a unique dynamism and create tension that other collecting and crafting games don’t have, even if some of the fetch quests are a bit one-note. And I wouldn’t have it any other way – even if part of me really wanted to stop to look at the landscape design or enjoy the music every now and then.
Thanks to the team at Future Friends Games and the Developers Pine Creek Games for the key to review the game!
Winter Burrow is now available for PC, Xbox Series, Xbox Game Pass and Nintendo Switch.
Thank you for reading,
-Luna
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