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How often do we play video games that really challenge our minds? No, I don't mean games like Elden Ring that test both our sanity and our mechanical abilities. I'm talking about games that boldly require us to examine our consciences, all within the safety of a video game. These are games that push the envelope on what it means to game in the first place, and they stick with us long after we've finished playing them. 

Compensation Not Guaranteed is one of these games. Created by the Indonesian game developer and publisher, Toge Productions, Compensation Not Guaranteed is set in post-colonial Southeast Asia during a time of great political progress - at least, from the government's point of view. With the player's nation newly freed from the shackles of colonialism, the government has an important task for you. As an employee of the Ministry of Urban Development, you must decide if citizens' land ownership documents make them eligible for government compensation. That is, because the Ministry of Urban Development needs land for this next era in your country's history, it's up to you to listen to citizens and determine who is legit, and who is not.

While the name of the Southeast Asian country Compensation Not Guaranteed isn't stated in the demo that I played at PAX East 2025, the conflict at the center of the game as well as the demographics of its characters brought to mind Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Singapore for me. 

To back up for a minute: you might be wondering why cozy games have anything to do with a hard-hitting exposé into post-colonial politics. That's where the gorgeous aesthetics of Compensation Not Guaranteed come in. Using a 2D perspective and art style that evokes traditional Balinese shadow puppets, Compensation Not Guaranteed presents a warm and inviting environment that is at odds with the tasks your character is asked to do. The traditional neighborhoods look cozy, comforting even, but there is something directly un-cozy about displacing people from their land. Compensation Not Guaranteed hammers this point home with the white and sterile appearance of the "modern" buildings meant to replace people's homes. 

Ultimately, Compensation Not Guaranteed gets us to think about why we play cozy games in the first place. After all, so many cozy games like Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley revolve around land and the home, offering a blank slate for you to develop however you'd like to. Sure, the popularity of such games can be interpreted as a reflection of American millennials' desire to own homes, even as the cost of living continues to soar, but Compensation Not Guaranteed invites us to think about this on a more global scale. After all, the United States left a significant mark behind in Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos in the 20th century. Our imperialist foreign policy has led, in part, to the destruction of the domestic sphere for so many Southeast Asians. 

On a more personal level, the game resonated with me because my grandparents immigrated from Hong Kong. While Hong Kong obviously isn't located in Southeast Asia, my grandparents' lives were shaped by the Japanese and British Empires - two of the colonial forces that occupied much of Southeast Asia.

Though I've come to accept that the Hong Kong my grandparents lived in is drastically different than the one that exists today, I've never come across a piece of interactive media that directly engaged with me on this from a personal level. It's one thing to know about colonial and post-colonial history, to discuss it with your family, but it's another to play a video game that is centered around this entire conflict. It was an eye-opening experience for me, and I'm sure it will be for you. 

You don't need to beat the game to prepare for the next one—here are all the major new and upcoming games coming our way.