Wanderstop, a narrative-centric cozy game about change and tea, will launch for PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam on March 11, 2025, publisher Annapurna Interactive and developer Ivy Road announced.
“Wanderstop‘s peaceful gameplay was borne out from a lot of inner stress I was experiencing, and the coziness turned out to be an interesting creative restraint as I thought more about a character who was also struggling with hopelessness,” said Ivy Road’s Davey Wreden in a press release. “Healing from burnout and finding inner calm is a difficult, messy process. My hope is that Alta’s story can help players reflect on their own paths, and find some glimmer of hope and rest that everyone needs more of in their lives.”
Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:
Wanderstop is a narrative-centric cozy game about change and tea. Playing as a fallen fighter named Alta, you’ll manage a tea shop within a magical forest and tend to the customers who pass through. But Alta does not want to be here. And if she gets her way, the tea shop will be nothing but a brief and painful memory.
Wanderstop is a tea shop management ritual. Grow and harvest the ingredients needed for tea, and then mix them together in an unusual tea-making contraption. Along the way, speak with the many travelers who pass through the shop, learn their stories and make tea that’s just right for them.
In your downtime, you might tidy up around the clearing, decorate the shop in your style, or just sit on a bench with a cup of tea and listen to your own thoughts. Maybe doing nothing at all is okay. The shop demands patience, it rejects those who have come only in the pursuit of growth unchecked.
And that’s why Alta can’t be here. It’s why she’ll never make it. This isn’t who she is. No, she’s a fighter! Why would anyone insist on turning the world’s greatest championship warrior into a docile shopkeeper?! With everything she’s capable of?? No no no, she won’t, she won’t do it… she can’t…
Wanderstop is a game from the team at Ivy Road, including Davey Wreden (creator of The Stanley Parable and The Beginner’s Guide), Karla Zimonja (co-creator of Gone Home and Tacoma) and Daniel “C418” Rosenfeld (the music of Minecraft).
Watch a new trailer below. View a new set of screenshots at the gallery.