Muri: Wildwoods Playtest Brings Sunshine-Style Cleaning to Cozy Adventure—But Can It Stay Fresh?

This cozy cleaner caught my eye for all the right-and risky-reasons

“Cozy cleaning adventure” used to be a novelty. Now it’s a crowded shelf. So when Speldosa Interactive announced Muri: Wildwoods would be playable in an open Steam Playtest from August 20 to September 3, I perked up-partly because “Super Mario Sunshine meets PowerWash Simulator” is catnip, partly because we’ve all been burned by checklist-y cozy-likes that mistake good vibes for good game design. Speldosa isn’t new to this, though. Their freeware darling Project Shoreline quietly pulled in over 60,000 players on itch.io, and the Skövde pedigree (home turf for Goat Simulator, V Rising, Lightyear Frontier) suggests they know the indie lane they’re driving in.

• The playtest is a 30-60 minute slice from an early area—short, but enough to test the core loop.
• Cleaning is paired with light platforming and environmental puzzles, not just “spray the brown bits until they turn green.”
• Befriending cleaned critters and a forest spirit hints at a narrative spine, not just a chore board.
• First premium release for Speldosa—so scope, polish, and replay hooks matter more than ever.

Breaking down the announcement (and the promise)

In Muri: Wildwoods you’re a tiny creature with a water gun restoring a polluted island. You wash away corruption, color floods back in, and critters go from gunked-up to pettable. It’s a clear pitch with proven appeal—PowerWash made “satisfying” a genre, while Sunshine showed that cleaning can be traversal, not just tidying.

Speldosa says the demo showcases early-game exploration, secrets, and smaller puzzles using water modes and your character’s paws. Crucially, they’re asking for feedback via a short survey. That’s smart: too many cozy games ship with one-note loops. If Speldosa is actively tuning flow—spray, solve, explore, reward—that’s how this rises above the pile.

The real story: Cozy cleaning is crowded—here’s how Muri can stand out

We’ve seen every flavor of chill cleanup: Loddlenaut’s polluted oceans, PowerWash’s hyper-satisfying grime ballet, even the dark humor of Viscera Cleanup Detail. The common pitfall? Repetition without meaningful escalation. If you’ve cleaned one yard, you’ve cleaned them all. Muri’s angle is to stitch cleaning into light platforming and secret hunting. That’s promising. When your water stream doubles as a traversal tool or a puzzle key rather than a glorified progress bar, the loop breathes.

What I’ll be watching for in the playtest:

• Traversal spice: Does the water gun have multiple modes (pressure, spread, maybe a hover burst) that feed platforming tricks?
• Level readability: Is the corruption visually distinct without wrecking visibility? Cozy games live or die on clarity.
• Reward cadence: Cleaning should unlock micro-moments—critters reacting, shortcuts opening, secrets popping—every couple of minutes.
• Narrative tone: A forest spirit setup is ripe for warmth, but please spare us fetch-quest filler. Environmental storytelling beats objective lists.

Hands-on questions I want answered

Thirty to sixty minutes is enough to reveal the game’s priorities. A few red flags I’ll be sniffing out: do areas become “paint by numbers,” where you just hose down splotches until a meter fills? Or does the design encourage poking into corners, using water creatively, and paying attention to creature behavior? If there are puzzles, are they just “spray switch, door opens,” or do they mix timing, angles, and traversal in ways that stay cozy without going mushy?

Accessibility is another make-or-break. The team mentions controller support and options for a comfy experience. Good start. But with color-driven corruption, colorblind and contrast settings are essential. Aim assistance, adjustable spray sensitivity, and vibration toggle should be standard. The cozy crowd isn’t looking to wrestle sticks; they want flow.

Finally, progression. As Speldosa’s first premium release (price TBA), Muri needs a gentle but compelling arc—tool upgrades, new water modes, fresh biome rules, critter abilities—so the satisfaction loop scales. If the playtest teases a clear upgrade path without drowning you in currencies, that’s a green flag.

Why timing and pedigree matter

Launching during Gamescom’s Indie Arena Booth puts Muri in front of exactly the people who can give tough, useful feedback. And Speldosa’s Project Shoreline wasn’t a fluke; 60k players on itch.io is real signal for a team of ten. Skövde’s indie scene tends to punch above its weight with tight scopes and strong loops. If Muri follows that template—small, focused, polished—it can avoid cozy bloat and the dreaded “Early Access forever” feeling, even if the release date is still TBA.

If you dive into the playtest, try this

• Experiment with water modes constantly—look for interactions beyond basic cleaning (propelling objects, revealing paths, dousing hazards).
• Hunt for secrets after an area looks “done.” The best cozy games reward curiosity, not speed.
• Pet every critter you clean. Not kidding—if creatures react differently, that’s a systems hint.
• Use the survey. Ask for more traversal options, clearer visual language, and a steady drip of upgrades—not just bigger messes.

One last note: because this is a premium debut, I’m not expecting battle passes or monetization weirdness. Keep it that way. Let the charm, the spray physics, and the exploration do the heavy lifting.

TL;DR

Muri: Wildwoods brings Sunshine energy to the cozy cleaning boom, with exploration and puzzles that could keep the loop fresh. The Steam Playtest (Aug 20-Sep 3) is short but telling—if traversal, readability, and rewards click, Speldosa may have something genuinely soothing and smart, not just another tidy chore simulator.