Prideful Sloth Dishes on What Makes ‘Go Go Town!’ the Definitive Cozy Game Experience, New Updates, and Everything in Between (Interview)

Ever since discovering Go-Go Town! in 2023, I’ve been madly in love with everything about this lovely little title. From the adorable graphics to the more “in-depth” simulation aspects compared to other games in the same genre. It has screamed out to me in many different ways. Now, I finally have the opportunity to talk with Cheryl Vance, co-founder of Prideful Sloth, about what makes this one a cozy game for the ages.

I will unabashedly admit that ‘Go-Go Town!’ is my favorite Cozy Game to release since ‘Animal Crossing: New Leaf’. How did you create the vibe from the moment players jump into the world?

We truly appreciate how long you’ve been following and writing about Go-Go Town! I still remember seeing one of your early articles under Prima Games. It’s been a journey, so thank you! ❤️

From the start, we wanted to break away from the fantasy settings of our previous games (Yonder & Grow) and explore a more modern setting. All while still embracing some playful, fantastical elements.

Originally, the game was introduced from the perspective of the town residents, but it felt slow and didn’t quite click. Based on feedback and what felt right in the demo, we scrapped that approach and instead threw players straight into the game. This helped us adopt a less serious approach and lean into the cozy + chaos.

It’s been a lot of trial and error along with the community’s input; it’s really helped shape the game’s personality. That back-and-forth has been key in creating a world that feels fun, a little absurd, and full of energy right from the start!

Rather than just focusing on building and collecting resources, one of the best parts of ‘Go-Go Town!’ is that we can have people actually help us out by running businesses and bringing the town back to life. What inspired the ability to have the town feel much more alive than other cozy games? 

One of the frustrations we’ve had with many cozy games was how much they relied on the player to handle every little task. It often felt like no matter how much you built up your town, you were still personally responsible for every mundane or repetitive action.

We wanted Go-Go Town! to break away from that. You can pause and just watch the town function around you. While this level of autonomy isn’t new to tycoon or city-building games, we wanted to put our own spin on it, fusing it with the life-sim genre.

The ability to hop into vehicles, no matter how large or small, is genuinely appreciated. Why did the team decide to make these normally decorative pieces of equipment functional?

A big reason for making vehicles functional ties back to the core of our simulation: everything in Go-Go Town! is physical and visible. Items don’t magically teleport or turn into numbers in a menu. They exist in the world and need to be transported. Vehicles are a natural part of that logistics system. This allows you to see exactly how resources flow through the town, from creation to consumption.

Vehicles also play a key role in how both the player and NPCs interact with the world. They’re fun, but they’re also practical. Acting as mobile storage for the player. Or providing a sprint/fast-travel function for getting around quickly.

For NPCs, vehicles are essential to keeping the town running. Couriers rely on them to transport goods. And we’re exploring ways for tourists and visitors to use transport as well, further integrating vehicles into the town’s daily life.

Recently, several massive updates have come out for ‘Go-Go Town!’, including the addition of functional player houses. Are there any other big updates that players should be looking forward to in the coming months?

Our first update of 2025, titled ‘Spring Cleaning’, just came out on March 13. This is an update that the whole team has been excited for! It brings a ton of quality-of-life improvements based on player feedback. Along with new upgrades like a Trader Catalogue UI, and the new Information Tracker app (for all your geeky stats!). There’s a bunch of new content, too.

We have Online Co-op slated for this year, which a LOT of our community has been asking about. We’re planning to post some progress updates in April on how development is going!

The other updates we have slated for this year are ‘Grinding Gears’ and ‘Content Explosivo’ (both working titles!). The Grinding Gears update will focus more on updates to the sim side of the game. And Content Explosivo will focus on expanding player and game content.

Now that the Spring Cleaning update is done and dusted (pun intended), we’ll start planning out more details about future packs and share more details with our community!

The ability to play split-screen multiplayer and have it feel meaningful is a massive step above some other cozy games. Did you always envision multiplayer for ‘Go-Go Town’? Or was it one of those moments of clarity that just made sense in the long run? 

Online and Couch Co-op have been baked into the DNA of Go-Go Town! from the very beginning!

When we were first looking at other games in the genre, we took note of how much players enjoyed multiplayer. And it just felt like the right fit for Go-Go Town! However, we didn’t quite realise just how good of a fit it was until that first time we got to run around together in the game… it was pure chaos in the best of ways!

What is the challenge of making ‘Go-Go Town!’ stand out in an extremely crowded genre? It feels like cozy games are coming out at a very rapid pace. But plenty of fans keep flocking to this one.

Prideful Sloth has been making games in the wholesome space for nearly a decade, so we’ve had a unique vantage point. Being somewhat early adopters of the genre and watching it evolve over the years.

Players today are more diverse and savvy. They’re numb to another dozen Harvest Moon clones; what resonates with them has shifted. Cult of the Lamb was a great example of this. It blends classic cozy mechanics like tending-and-befriending with darker elements such as sacrificing followers, yet it still struck a chord with the wholesome gaming community.

“Cozy” doesn’t have to mean one cookie-cutter thing. It can have depth, challenge, or even a big dollop of chaos energy. It’s something we’ve kept in mind with Go-Go Town!. Making sure we’re not just following trends, but building a fresh and unique experience for our audience.

Now that the Spring Cleaning update is available, what is one part that you’re the most excited for players to experience? Myself? I’m genuinely ecstatic about the new UI.

Ooh, for me, the most exciting feature in this update is actually a beta feature we’re looking forward to getting feedback on—full 360-degree camera rotation.

I know, it might not sound like the most exciting thing to everyone, but it was something we originally ruled out due to performance concerns vs Switch support. As we’ve refined and solved issues around that, it’s become more viable, and we really wanted to see if we could bring it into the full game. Having it in now feels like such a big improvement, and we can’t wait to see what the players think!

Seeing as ‘Go-Go Town!’ may be in Early Access for a while, are there any updates as to when console players may have the opportunity to start building up their own towns?

The question of when Go-Go Town! is coming to consoles is probably the one our Community Manager, Emily, gets asked the most! We WILL be coming to consoles—we’ve always been a multiplatform developer—but the timing depends on a few key factors.

Online co-op has been one of our major features that we wanted to get released before we make a decision on timing for consoles, as it has a lot of impact on console development. Once we release that and have had time to fix bugs and respond to player feedback, we’ll start looking at bringing the game to consoles.

With online multiplayer coming down the pipeline, are there any other features that you can’t wait until players get to experience for themselves? 

One of the updates on our roadmap this year focuses on expanding the simulation side of the game, and that’s something I’m really excited about.

It’s still in the early concept phase, so I can’t share too many details just yet, but we expect it’ll deepen and expand the game by a considerable amount – it’s an area I’ve been eager to refine and build on for a while. I can’t wait to see how it evolves and how players respond once we can share more!

When you’re not working on building ‘Go-Go Town!’ and turning it into the greatest version of itself, what games are you currently losing countless hours to?

Right now, Two Point Museum is eating up what little spare time I have! The Two Point team has done an amazing job keeping the formula fresh, which is VERY impressive considering this is the third game in the franchise.

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I would like to thank Cheryl Vance for taking the time out of her day to chat with me about Go-Go Town!. Go-Go Town! is available now in Early Access on Steam.