Winter Burrow – Survive the winter
Sometimes, a few images are enough to tempt us to discover an indie game. This is the case with Winter Burrow, a cozy survival game created by Danish studio Pine Creek Games. The fact that it’s a survival and mini-management game, a genre I’m not personally familiar with, was an additional incentive to give it a try, with the desire to be surprised. Winter Burrow was also released in November 2025. Isn’t this the perfect time to dive into a game where winter reigns supreme, where the aim is to survive the cold, so you can return home to a warm fire?
A little mouse in the heart of the forest
It all begins with a short prologue in illustrations that are as delicate as they are bittersweet. Our little mouse grew up in nature, learning to fish, cook, and build with his parents. They decide to move to the city to make a new life for themselves, but unfortunately, they die from being exploited in the mines. This sets the tone, with the childlike illustrations contrasting with the painful beginning of the story. Our little mouse then decides to return to the forest and live in the burrow of his childhood, far from the lights of an oppressive city. But the burrow has fallen into ruin since it was abandoned…
Our little mouse will have to roll up his sleeves and rebuild his childhood home, with the help of his aunt Betulina, who still lives a few steps away. But our hero must also relearn how to live with the harshness of nature: facing the cold, growing mushrooms to avoid starvation, and bringing back materials to furnish her new home. This means exploring, gathering resources, and knowing when to return in time to avoid freezing to death.
The basics of survival in the game are thus established. By monitoring the bars at the bottom left of the screen, we must pay attention to our little mouse’s health (which can be restored by eating or sleeping), hunger (which can be satisfied by eating mushrooms found along the way or by cooking hearty meals), energy (which runs low after exertion), and, above all, resistance to the cold. This last bar can only be filled by eating certain foods, such as nuts or tea, or by warming up by a fire, especially in the burrow. When it becomes low, snowflakes gradually invade your screen, meaning that fever and fainting are not far off.
Making her burrow more comfortable and welcoming for her return from these escapades is not the only goal of the game. Our little mouse is led to discover the entire territory around her, meet its various inhabitants, and save her aunt from the clutches of an owl. It’s also about completing tasks for the characters, each of whom has a melancholic story to tell, and preparing for the Winter Solstice with festive clothes and furniture, made possible by the DLC added to the game in December. All this, from a mouse’s perspective. And that’s what gives the game its bitter-sweet charm.
Survival between gameplay mechanics and naturalism
It may seem surprising to read here and there in various interviews that creative director Benjamin Salqvist’s primary inspiration was the survival game 7 Days to Die. But a 7 Days to Die that has been transposed into the small animal world of the forest is an original twist, where the game certainly offers crafting and resource gathering, but you have to survive zombies. The other argument in favor of this unusual change for a survival game is the fact that it offers something gentler and more accessible, while retaining the same type of gameplay. This is especially true for an audience that, over the years, no longer necessarily wants to stress out at the slightest drop in health and wants to enjoy a game to the fullest without having to start over.
In Winter Burrow, you explore to find resources and build, while keeping an eye on your various life and health indicators. But if one of the bars drops to zero (and the cold resistance bar will inevitably drop, as it’s the fastest to empty), it’s not game over. Here, the mouse faints in the cold, loses the items found along the way, and is brought back to the burrow to spend the night sleeping. It’s then up to you to find your belongings by retracing your steps.
Collecting items, via a dedicated inventory that grows as skills are developed, also follows the logic of a traditional survival and management game. You can’t take an infinite number of resources, so you have to measure what you bring back from your wanderings in the forest and think about where to go to find a particular type of wood or berry. According to Benjamin Salqvist, the Winter Burrow territory is organized like a real, coherent ecosystem. Certain mushrooms only grow in pine forests, where they are usually found in nature. The various fruits found in the game are always edible in their natural state, and the recipes are inspired by realistic cuisine: mushroom and insect meat stews, hazelnut cookies, mushroom skewers, berry jams, and more.
Once this initial idea had been established, Benjamin Salqvist then turned his attention to another survival game, Don’t Starve, to find further inspiration. The 2D aspect of the title, which he transferred to Winter Burrow in the form of isometric 2D, suited him better than an open world.
Similarly, special attention has been paid to the various characters encountered. In the English version of the game, the animals we talk to are a squirrel (Gnawtusk), our mouse aunt (Betulina), two frogs (Bufo and Pollywog), a hedgehog (Moss), and a mole (Willow). Each name is a nod to the true nature of the protagonist: Gnawtusk means more or less “gnawing molar” and is renamed Quenotte in French. Benjamin Salqvist reveals in an interview that Betulina takes her name from the scientific name of the birch rodent, sicista betulina. Bufo also has the scientific name of the toad, bufo bufo, which becomes Anoure in French, from the name of the order of tailless amphibians, including frogs. Pollywog (tadpole) becomes Batra, obviously derived from batracien (amphibian). Moss is named after a cushion-shaped moss reminiscent of a hedgehog, translated into French as Bryale, another moss with flowers composed of small spikes. Finally, Willow becomes Saule in French, both a literal translation and perhaps a nod to the mole heroine of Kenneth Grahame’s book The Wind in the Willows.
Thus, the important aspect of survival and management has been influenced by other iconic titles in the genre, incorporating expected gameplay elements while transposing them to the animal world, accessible to a little mouse. The strongest enemies are spiders, ants, and beetles. Chairs, tables, and beds are built from natural elements: pine wood, linen fibers, tufts of fur, spider silk, and more. Winter Burrow, however, brings a warmer and less definitive feel in terms of defeat, symbolized by the burrow to which we constantly return. First, we follow the mouse footprints left behind to guide us, aided by our memory; then, we use a mini-map added with the Winter Solstice DLC.
A tale imbued with wintery fairy tales and poetry
The illustrated aspect of Don’t Starve may also have been what steered Winter Burrow’s style towards a more illustrated artistic direction, evoking both the imagery of 19th- and 20th-century children’s stories and a digital watercolor style. It is no surprise that Benjamin Salqvist cites David Petersen and Kenneth Grahame among his graphic and literary influences.
Thus, The Wind in the Willows (published in 1908) is undoubtedly the most direct reference that comes to mind when playing Winter Burrow. This classic of children’s literature recounts the adventures of four animals living near an English river, including a mole and a toad, celebrating adventure, friendship, nature, and the warmth of home. These are themes that are also found in the game: our little mouse befriends the various animals he meets and helps them solve their bittersweet problems: a filial misunderstanding between Anoure and Batra when the latter grows up, telling Saule about the changes in the forest, finding the friend lost in the forest of Bryale, saving Betulina from the clutches of an owl and helping her rebuild her burrow… These are animal problems that take on meaning in the harsh winter season, when cold weather, lack of food, hibernation, and migration can weaken the ecosystem. When the various quests are resolved, sometimes bitterly, life moves forward with new wisdom and new life experience.
Benjamin Salqvist also cites the influence of David Petersen, born in 1977, an American comic book author whose Legends of the Guard series features anthropomorphic mice in a medieval setting, forced to defend themselves and wage war to protect their cities. The epic is transposed to the world of mice, with an emphasis on courage in the face of an immense world, at mouse level… as in Winter Burrow. Petersen’s graphic style has undoubtedly also inspired Benjamin Salqvist in his own artistic direction. Parallels can also be drawn with the original illustrations for The Wind in the Willows by Ernest H. Shepard (also the illustrator of Winnie the Pooh!) or classic 19th- and 20th-century children’s illustrators such as Arthur Rackham (1867-1937) and Beatrix Potter (1866-1963).
This artistic direction, inherited from tales featuring anthropomorphic animals, makes Winter Burrow a poetic experience. The game has its darker aspects: the dangers faced by this wildlife, the harshness of winter, the city as a source of disease and pressure, the fact of not knowing you are immortal but exposed, every second, to the dangers of nature and the elements. Here and there, you even find animal carcasses that you can respectfully cover with cairns. But this melancholy, found here and there in the game, through the environment or the emotional narrative of the characters, is counterbalanced by its watercolor-inspired graphics, its clear lines, and its color palette, which is sometimes wintry, sometimes warm, especially when you return to your burrow. Reality is harsh, and the outside world is dangerous. Perhaps this bitterness also echoes Danish fairy tales, known for their cruelty mixed with poetry, featuring popular rather than royal characters, and often characterized by a winter atmosphere.
But our mouse’s little world is also full of magnificent landscapes that we can admire before returning home to safety and warmth. It’s like curling up under a blanket in your living room while rain or snow swirls outside: the ultimate cozy game. Our burrow becomes our refuge, sheltering our Solstice lights, our oak or birch furniture, our beds and armchairs in warm, welcoming colors. The settings and designs in Winter Burrow convey a gentleness that contrasts with the experience of survival. A tenderness reminiscent of children’s book illustrations, giving the game even more of an animal tale feel.
And the music? Subtly soft and cheerful, punctuated by little melodies as delicate as a mouse’s footsteps. Danish composer Andreas Busk has created a soundtrack that sometimes reflects the danger and anxiety of the outside world, accompanying our escapades with an adventurous tone. While there is a gentle melancholy to it, there is also a sense of determination to persevere despite the difficulties—which is at the very heart of the game. The sound design is not to be overlooked: it’s hard not to marvel at the little mouse noises made by the characters, whether they’re sighs of fatigue as they go to sleep, kitchen noises, or cheerful sounds when they eat. The soundtrack plays a quiet but powerful role, adding even more tranquility and immersion to the game.
Conclusion
It took Pine Creek Games five years to complete Winter Burrow and bring this cozy survival game to the public. While it is not particularly difficult—and may even be a very good introduction to survival games—it surprises with its contrast between the gentle, poetic, and childlike art direction and its sometimes melancholic and bitter themes. However, it never feels punishing, despite its survival and management mechanics. Winter Burrow follows in the tradition of animal stories, with its anthropomorphic animal characters, echoing its literary and graphic inspirations such as The Wind in the Willows. Its gameplay and ecosystem are designed from a mouse’s perspective, immersing us in a coherent and ambivalent natural world. And, without a doubt, it is one of the best wholesome games to play at the start of 2026. Its winter atmosphere makes you want to find refuge at home, with your loved ones or pets, to enjoy their company and snuggle up, sheltered from a nature that is as beautiful as it is sometimes dangerous.