People often use video games to relax and destress, turning to first-person shooters to enjoy a little imaginary combat, racing games to get a satisfying adrenaline rush, or immersive adventure games to explore fantastic lands. One can get lost in these games for hours as they develop their skills, customize their avatar and immerse themselves deep in the world.
But sometimes, a player wants a low-key, relaxing game that doesn't require much time and energy to master, something with an interesting, even cozy aesthetic, and simple but engaging mechanics that they can play for a few minutes to relax after work or before bed.
10 Objects in Sizeable Can Change Size To Affect The Game World
Sizeable, developed by Sander Ambroos of Business Goose Studios, is based on a simple premise: players click on objects in a diorama to enlarge or shrink them. Changing an item's size causes different effects in the setting. Shrinking the moon in a seacoast level, for example, causes the tide to lower. Enlarging a gong in a Japanese garden level awakens a dragon that burns down a tree.
The game's ultimate goal is to figure out how to manipulate the sizes of items in each diorama to reveal three hidden objects. There are no time limits or dead ends, so players can explore each level as long as they'd like and simply enjoy playing with the world to see what happens.
9 Guide A Sleepwalker To Safety In Back To Bed
In Back to Bed by Bedtime Digital Games, a sleepwalker named Bob wanders through bizarre dreamscapes, oblivious to the obstacles and dangers before him. Protecting him is Subob, his subconscious guardian, who solves puzzles and uses objects like giant apples to alter Bob's path and guide him safely home.
The game's dream worlds draw inspiration from surrealist artists such as René Magritte and Salvador Dalí, creating a suitably otherworldly feel. The mechanics and puzzles follow a set logic, however, and a player will quickly pick up how to juggle objects and obstacles to get Bob safely into bed.
8 Papetura Is Hand-Sculpted From Real Paper
Papetura by Petums is the story of a scroll-shaped being and his magical companion trying to prevent their paper world from being burned down. Their quest is a classic point-and-click adventure where they interact with odd beings and intuitive environmental puzzles to progress. Dialogue is done entirely with simple drawings so that the game can be enjoyed regardless of the player's native language.
The most fascinating aspect of Papetura is that all of its settings, characters, and creatures were painstakingly sculptured out of actual paper solely by creator Tomasz Ostafin, who was inspired by other games built from real materials, such as the classic claymation game Neverhood, and the hand-drawn adventure Machinarium. Thus, Papetura can be enjoyed both as a game and as a piece of sculptural artwork.
7 Windosill Has Toy-Like Puzzles
In Vectorpark's Windosill, players guide a toy vehicle through eleven rooms inhabited by puppet-like creatures and interactive backgrounds. Objects can be tugged, pushed, pressed, or manipulated with the cursor to find cube-shaped keys that unlock new rooms.
The game's vector-based graphics give its worlds a smooth, fluid feel. Many objects exist purely to be enjoyed and played with and don't directly affect the game's puzzles, making the game feel almost like a toy for working out stress and excess energy.
6 Build A Personal Prehistoric Collection in Fossil Corner
Fossil Corner by Brady Soglin and Overfull Games is about a retired paleontologist sorting their collection of fossils in the comfort of their garage. Prehistoric creatures such as trilobites, crinoids, and ammonites are procedurally generated, creating a wide variety of specimens to examine and display. Players can customize their room with bookshelves, display cases, couches, and other items to create their ideal exhibit space.
In a nod to real-life paleontology, the game's puzzles involve sorting fossils into family trees by figuring out how species have evolved over time. The player can also accept email requests from old colleagues asking for photos of rare fossils, encouraging them to expand their collection and seek out new finds.
5 A Gnome Explores A Found-Object Cosmos In Samorost 3
Amanita Design's Samorost 3 is the third in a series of point-and-click games following the adventures of a gnome in white pajamas as he explores strange worlds floating in space. Each game in the series has gotten increasingly longer and more detailed, and the third game takes around four hours to complete.
The game's environments are built from photographs of found objects such as gnarled tree branches, dried fungi, old cans, and more, creating a cozy, natural aesthetic. Many puzzles also involve interacting with the creatures and environments, creating the impression of a living, populated ecosystem.
4 Fantasy Beings Work Out Their Personal Issues in Coffee Talk
In Toge Productions' Coffee Talk, the player is a barista running a café in an alternate Seattle populated by elves, orcs, cat-folk, and other fantasy beings. Unlike typical fantasy games, there is no sword-swinging or spell-flinging. Instead, conflicts are of the social and psychological variety as customers of all species sit down at the counter to mull over their issues while enjoying a warm beverage.
Coffee Talk primarily plays like a visual novel. The barista can subtly influence a customer's moods and decisions by preparing the right drinks based on clues in each person's dialogue or offering quips and advice at critical moments.
3 A Magic Sphere Traverses Strange Landscapes in NightSky
In NightSky by Nicalis, Inc., players guide a rolling ball through a world of obstacles. The ball can pick up speed going down hills to jump over chasms or slow its movement to carefully traverse rickety platforms suspended on chains. Players can even reverse the gravity in some levels, allowing the ball to run along the ceiling.
NightSky's graphics, done entirely in black silhouettes against twilight skies, combine with the mellow soundtrack by Chris Schlarb to create a calming, dream-like ambiance. World-building is done through subtle visuals such as abandoned ruins, wind-blown leaves, and blob-like creatures seemingly growing from the floors and walls.
2 Luna's Wandering Stars Uses Gravitational Physics
Fans of astronomy and physics will find much to enjoy in Luna's Wandering Stars by Serenity Forge, where players navigate a small moon around various solar systems to collect asteroids. In addition, the game boasts a realistic physics system that players can interact with, allowing them to alter gravity, control velocity, and direction, create wormholes, and even move planets.
Some levels can be challenging as players must switch between different powers and learn to maneuver quickly to avoid crashing their moon into a planet or black hole. But a big part of the game's appeal is just playing around with the physics to see what will happen regardless of whether the level is completed or not.
1 Nature Reclaims Ruined Buildings In Cloud Gardens
Noio's Cloud Gardens is a garden-building simulator set in the ruins of civilization after humans have disappeared. Though the concept might sound bleak, it is actually a game about rejuvenation and growth as players slowly cover the broken remains with lush and diverse plant life.
Though Cloud Gardens is a calm, zen-like game, there is still plenty of strategy. Players place seeds to maximize their growth, considering that some plants grow into tall trees, while others become wall-crawling vines, and others spread low like weeds. A player can also place trash such as old TVs and broken garden gnomes strategically to encourage their plants to grow.