Cocolation is a relaxing voyage into the world of mindfulness – An Interview with Tim Nguyen

Some of y’all might remember Kind Words, the game that kind of popped off in 2019 where people could send strangers words of affirmation or ask questions into a void only for a little letter to come back. At this year’s Games, I got to chat with Lil_Akynna about their upcoming game, Cocolation, which is a wholesome mobile game about enjoying life, whatever happens, and embarking on a journey in your cosy caravan to encounter kind souls like yours.

So, being someone that really tries to lead with kindness, spreading love and someone that tries to be the change that I want to see in the world, I was incredibly intrigued by this title and decided to ask them a few questions about it.

*due to the GamesCom being pretty loud, there were times when I couldn’t understand what the developers were saying. Keep that in mind whenever you encounter words marked with an asterisk!

What is your game about?

Cocolation is about really cosy and wholesome experiences. It’s a mobile game where you live in a caravan and you play as a little cute blob that lives in a caravan, and every week, you get to travel to different places and have the opportunity to send letters to other players and to exchange gifts with them.

The main purpose of the game is to build a very wholesome community based on human interactions. It’s a really calm and cosy game where you get to interact with people but for a short time – and just to [enjoy*] some ephemeral interactions while taking care of your belongings in the caravan.

So you just send out these letters and they arrive at people’s caravan randomly?

Yes.

Do you get to stay in touch with them?

Yeah, you can interact with that person for a whole week and then everyone’s caravans change destinations, so you end up in different places and meet new people. You might have the chance to meet the same person later at another place but the game is really all about those ephemeral interactions.

What else is there to do aside from sending out letters?

The game is a mix of 2D and 3D. The landscapes are in 2D but the caravan itself is in 3D. So you can walk inside the caravan and move to different rooms where you might hang out in the living room, relax in bed or dance to the music on the radio. You can sit on a chair and interact with many different things.

In the future, we want to make the game really customizable, so that you can exchange gifts with other players and decorate your caravan. When you get things from other players, you’ll be able to stick them around on your caravan and really customize everything, like with souvenirs that [commemorate*] your interactions.

What are your biggest inspirations for the game?

It’s based on a PC game that I really love called Kind Words. You get to exchange letters with other players. I’m a big player in that game and play it all the time. I love the community. They’re very supportive and wholesome.

I really wanted to have that game on mobile, which is why we started working on something like that for your phone. It is a good way to make it accessible for everyone. Like, no matter the time of day, if you just need to vent a little or talk about your worries, someone can be there for you with this.

With games like these, the community must be very receptive of the core message and supportive and wholesome. Are there any plans to add moderation or report tools for those rare cases where people might make others uncomfortable or might be intending to do more harm than good?

I haven’t really encountered that sort of behaviour in Kind Words but with my game, I do want to have a report system in place for those rare cases and have them get reviewed internally to make sure that everything stays comfortable and wholesome.

We definitely count on people’s wholesomeness though!

What’s the most challenging part of developing a game like Cocolation?

I think it’s hard to find the most intuitive way to guide people to the game’s goal. We’re currently still building the prototype to show the public the concept – and since the concept isn’t too common, people might get confused with understanding what the goal of the game is. So that’s a real challenge. Adding something that keeps their interest and guides them towards discovering the main interest of the game – which is to write nice things to someone else.

In this demo, we’re doing this by asking them to write a letter to the next person who’ll play this demo. So, that’s some inspiration for the multiplayer in a way.

Since the game is still in the very early stages and since it’s just the two of you working on the game, do you sometimes send letters to each other?

(They laugh.)

We don’t do that. She (milly_nani) does the art and I (lil_akynna) do the programming, so we don’t get to interact with the game development in the same way.

[However], once we implement the full multiplayer, we should definitely do this to support each other!

The game obviously is still very early in development with many of its features not present just yet. That said, do you have a date in mind for a possible release or a playtest or something?

The official release would probably be in a year and a half, so in Spring 2026. Next year, we might try to build a community around this and do some playtesting and the like, but nothing’s set in stone yet.

Are there any plans to release the game on PC, too?

Currently, we’re only working on the mobile version.

We do have some experience with releasing games on Steam and have thought about releasing the game onto PC as well, so perhaps if the mobile version is a success, we’ll consider creating a PC port, too.

Is there any else you’d like to tell to my readers?

Be kind to yourself!

Thank you very much.

And yeah, that was that interview. I had a great time talking to the team behind Cocolation. I didn’t get to ask why the game is called Cocolation but my headcanon is that it’s a truncation of “Comfy Cozy Vacation” or something along those lines?

I love the idea of experiencing human interactions without being tied to life or having to worry about any of that. If you have a bad interaction, you’ll just move on to other people. In a way, that means you can try to go for it rather than succumbing to choice paralysis.

At the same time, I like the idea of travelling around in your little caravan and the idea of being able to meet new people this way. It’s incredibly adorable and I’m excited to see what the playtest will be like once it’s around.

You can check out the developers’ social media and website and the like via the following links.

I’m really excited about this one and I’m glad I got to chat a bit with like-minded individuals who seem very passionate about their values and this upcoming game.

This post was originally written by Dan Dicere from Indiecator.

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