1y ago

What game do you play to just chill?

Nowadays I find a lot of games feel like too much work and/or anxiety when I just want to relax for like, 30 minutes to an hour after a long day. On the other hand, the games specifically designed to help you unwind just feel boring imo.

In the past I've felt like Outer Wilds scratched this itch, cause the whole experience was engaging but generally relaxed. There was a mystery that kept me hooked and the exploration and movement was fun in and of itself. I also felt like Subnautica filled this role since it was very much at my own pace, with anxiety producing portions which could for the most part be avoided or minimized, and also there was a clear objective to fulfill, get off the planet.

So what games do you play when you just wanna relax?

345 comments

Honestly, I fire up the Xbox and play the original Halo on easy difficulty. It's like hanging out with an old friend.
- Same, either Halo and the Silent Cartographer or Halo 2 and Metropolis. Those two levels are my video game comfort food.
- It's like hanging out with an old friend.
  Interesting analogy, as this can be taken as an anxiety trigger as well.
- Halo on easy is so fun. I love fucking around in Halo 3

You should check out Stardew Valley. Super chill game that evolves at your own pace.
Don't like to fish on the game? Don't fish.
Don't like to go in the mines and fight stuff? Don't go in the caves.
Play on a PC and want to spend hours just modding the hell out of the game? Go for it.
- I couldn't get into it. Felt very stressful to me. Like I had to do something productive every day before night. It's probably more my fault than the game's fault though.
  
  I love these types of games, and I've tried to get into it multiple times... But everything feels like it's on such a strict timer. I just want to chill and farm/explore/talk to people without worrying if I spent too much time enjoying myself doing any one particular thing. If it had some kind of sandbox mode or if you could slow down the time, I'd give it another go.
  
  I get like this in any sort of "real time passes" games, with some exceptions. If you have a limited amount of time to do a limited amount of things in game, my mind starts min/maxing what I should be doing every moment in game. In Outer Wilds the passage of time matters less cause you always start back at zero, what you gain each run is just knowledge, you don't lose out and fall behind on any resources, points or whatever cause you didn't do certain things that day.
  
  The game is like that for the first game month. When you get to summer you tend to relax a bit more so after your tool upgrades.
  
  I 100% agree. There's just so much to do and too much of your day is spent as a time tax maintaining what you already have. There are several unlocks to reduce this, but they come far too late in a playthrough in my opinion.
  I find a time control/clock-stopping on demand mod almost mandatory for me to be able to play without stressing, especially when playing with expansion mods that more than double the amount of content in the game.
- Stardew valley is way too stressful to me, I have to make the most of each day and if I'm not I'm wasting it
- You mentioned things you might not like to do, I wonder what you like to do in Stardew Valley (my knowledge on that game is very little).

Don't overthink it. Minecraft. Vanilla survival world. Don't try to optimize and automate everything (unless you find that relaxing). Make your farm look like a farm. Mine until until your inventory is full. Build towards an Ender Dragon or Wither fight if you have time. Go mining or fishing or do base chores or a beautification project if you don't.
- I tried Minecraft way back, so maybe it's changed, but I don't do to well in setting my own goals in a game. I liked Subnautica because there was an interesting story element and mystery that kept you engaged as you moved towards your goal of getting off planet. In the process of reaching the goal, yeah, I wanna make my base look nice, wanna build some cool things, but my overall actions were still being compelled by the storytelling and world-building of the game. I don't see those elements in Minecraft but again, it's been a long time since I played.
  
  Modpacks with a good quest line might be something you're into
  
  You sound like me. I don’t do well with sandbox games, I like a story related objective to work towards. Subnautica and Outre Wilds are also both favorites of mine. I also think a great chill game is Forza Horizon 4 or 5. Driving around the open world with changing time of day and popping into different events is so relaxing to me, especially if I mute the in-game radio and play some Spotify instead. My only regret is I bought it through the Microsoft Xbox app (to keep my progress I made during a Game Pass free trial) and now I can’t play it on my Steam Deck.
  
  The two big boss fights are the closest thing to a "goal," but yeah, even in survival mode I guess it's as much lego as it is video game. In your case, maybe a Bethesda game but focusing on side and companion quests until you're so overpowered that wrapping up the main plot will feel like one more.
- I used to love doing a weird automated laboratory under my classic farm, but yeah it did suck out the fun once I could reliably do it again and again.
  I used to specifically farm the ingredients for pumpkin pie, this was just after hoppers and repeaters were added which meant you could use those and pistons to make an automatic egg collector, sugare cane breaker and pumpkin breaker. I'd build the most picturesque farm with a secret trapdoor somewhere that would lead to my food automation zone. I haven't really played properly since 2017 though, with a brief comeback in 2020.
- Automation is really fun with mods. They are kind of like puzzles and I chill out thinking about them.
  
  In the right mood, I like setting things up and tweaking them, but I don't find it "chill". If I fire up Minecraft to chill, I usually think of it almost like a model railroad or something, occasionally it literally is a virtual model railroad if I want to build nether transit or something. I also find it satisfying to fill in that last patch of a map and put a copy of it on a wall next to its mates. It is very satisfying to get that auto smelter or adjustable enchanting room just right, though, and I can easily see that stuff being a goal in its own right.
  What I find brilliant about the concept of Minecraft is the way it hits a sweet spot of being just complex enough to be immersive, but abstract and simplified enough that the open world is actually open and rewards a hundred different play styles.

Solitaire oddly enough. Just sit there, throw up a YouTube playlist on my second monitor, open up the game on my main, and just unwind.
- To be fair though, you can get same relaxation by doing any mindless task with music.
  Hell, one of the highlights of my week is putting on a history podcast and then just cleaning the hell out of the bathroom, bedroom, mopping the floors, etc.
  Its a relaxing personal moment where you're lost in your own world, you learn something new, and your apartment looks great at the end.
- Absolutely. I have a ton of games and solitaire is one of the ones I play to chill.
- Sounds like somebody else grew up with windows 3.1.
- Similarly, nonogram/picross puzzles. I have one on my phone that's called Hungry Cat Nonogram that I really like. It mixes up the formula by introducing different colored pixels into each row and columns. It's hard to explain, but very fun. It's the only game I keep on my phone
- Solitaire is a 10/10 game tbh. I got a little too good at the iPod Video version of the game because it was addicting.
- Freecell for me :B

RimWorld. It's so fun watching your colonists at work, peacefully farming, and suddenly one of them gets hit by a chunk of steel followed by a hundred bear raid.
Very relaxing.
- War crime simulator is apparently quite relaxing.
  
  What's not relaxing about war crimes and organ harvesting
- You can also play in builder mode where there are no raids (or very little challenge to them i cant remember exactly)

Especially in the winter,I like to fire up The Long Dark. I put on the exploration setting where the wildlife doesn't attack. You still have to deal with the need for food and warmth, so there are still stakes. Just not the anxiety inducing animal attacks. There's a sort of bleak beauty to the game.
- I just realized, if there was ever a wildlife photography mode in that game, I would play the shit out of it. RP-ing as an 'extreme' wildlife photographer trying to shoot around blizzards and keeping your gear in working order would be a really cool way to shake up the gameplay. Would easily get another 200 hours of play out of me.
- Top shelf game
- I've forgotten about this! I played it way back when there wasn't even a real story, but I believed that's changed.
  Constantly finding resources to survive was quite anxiety inducing, lol.

No Man's Sky has a very chill vibe. I don't play it super often, but it's probably the chillest game I play semi-regularly.
- And by its very nature, it's forgiving of long absences. It's so easy to just pick it back up, probably take some time to admire the 10 new updates Hello Games has released since you last played, and then settle in for some chill gameplay.
  I'll never finish No Man's Sky, and I wouldn't even say I play it, exactly. But it's one of my very favorite places to visit, and I will probably continue to visit for years and years to come.
  
  This type of forgiving design is the main difference between modern games and older ones. Nowadays, there’s no shortage of games that are trying to manipulate you into grinding every day.
- For me it’s Red Dead 2. All that horseback riding and camping and herb picking and Pinkerton killing? It’s like I’m the one camping and horseback riding and killing pinkertons.

Personally, i just need a game that lets me do something pretty. Satisfactory was mentioned, or City Skylines. Or something that is highly nostalgic and familiar, like Skyrim, Halo or Minecraft. I don't intrinsically need to think in these cases, which is my goal. I'm a programmer, so anything that lets me shut my brain off and just exist is great. Sometimes BloonsTD is also a great game for this, but it's situational.
Counter intuitively, most "casual" games like Stardew don't really fit this vibe for me because of the daily time limit. I need to pick and choose what tasks to do in a day, and I always fall into a min-max schedule, which requires effort. Much as I love them, I also avoid story driven games like Baldur's Gate when I need to unwind, because I really need to pay attention to progress, and there kinda isn't any mindless grinding. Multiplayer games with randos is also strictly out. No League, COD, Battlefield, Fortnite etc... Just in general. Don't like 'em, never did, hate that they are so prolific. They're just stressful.
- Man, sounds like we're in very much the same vibe, think I'll give City Skylines and/or Satisfactory a go
  
  Hell yea my dude. Don't forget, always be productive! And don't damage Ficsit property.
- In the something pretty department I recommend dwarffortress.

I’m going to go with Satisfactory.
- Factorio for me, the interesting part is that I usually want tonlay the game after a day of mindless tasks at work.
  On the other hand if I've been busy at work and had to solve a lot of issues I'm prefer other games.
  It's my brain gym
- I hear a lot about this one and it does interest me, but whenever I look at the Steam page I just don't end up feeling it. What is it about the game that keeps you personally coming back to it?
  
  On this kind of games, I have a preference to Factorio (and the game is released, not in beta). They propose a free demo. So you can rest and see if you have the good feeling. It is definitely not a game for everyone, but it is one of my favourite.
  
  It's all about how you play in my experience. If you want to get a basic factory up and go slug hunting, super chill. If you want to sink your spreadsheet teeth into optimizing every resource available and build a non-spaghettified factory, plenty of room to go hard core.
  Also the graphics are fantastic for all the massive machinery

Skyrim. Meme mods aside, the vibe and soundtrack are just...chef's kiss
- Oblivion for me

Burnout Paradise
There are few games where winning and losing are equally fun, but Burnout Paradise pulls it off flawlessly.
You hit that turn with the perfect drift? Hell yeah. Oh shit, there was a car waiting for you at that intersection and now you have to watch your car and their car get smashed, crumpled, and tossed like a bag of moldy tangerines in slow motion? Hell yeah.
- +1 Burnout Paradise is such a great game for just mindlessly driving around. I think I have that entire map memorized in my brain now.
- Your description alone is getting this put on my Steam wishlist
  
  I got this game a week or 2 after it came out in 2008. There’s literally a whole open city to explore but I remember the first 30-45 minutes I played were spent literally driving up and down the same quarter mile road because I found a split ramp built for barrel rolls but I just wanted to see all the ways I could squish the top of my car with a failed barrel roll and still drive away lol.
  15.5 years later it’s still just as satisfying

Breath of the Wild. I mean, yes, there are quests, bosses, temples, shrines, minigames and whatnot, but it is also completely fine to just fetch your favorite horse from the stable and ride across Hyrule, hunting wildlife, watching the sunset, cooking food for your character, maybe have Wolf Link accompany you on a hunt, just taking in the scenery, foarge for mushrooms, looking for shooting stars at night ... a little bit of reality escape helps to unwind after a long, hectic day. And this game is unreasonably beautiful as well, despite the simplyfied graphics.

Stardew Valley. It's chill if you let it be. There aren't really hard time limits and you can always farm things and complete challenges on your own time
- Finally! I thought I was going to be the one to post StarDew Valley. :-))

FTL, Stardew valley, No mans sky, Minecraft, Old rpgs like Chrono Trigger
- I don't exactly experience a tonne of chill while playing FTL
- FTL is a great chill out game for me. The only problem is I've put in so many hours that I've practically seen everything! I looked into some interesting mods but just haven't tried them out yet. When I think about it, FTL shouldn't be that chill, but there's a certain simplicity in the gameplay, and the ability to pause all the time, even during combat, gives me the ability to take my time thinking through what I'm gonna do.
  Underrated chill out game, agreed, maybe I'll finally get around to trying some mods.
  
  Yeah I haven't tried the mods either and I kinda suck at the game but I've always felt like it has a low cost to entry, which is why it feels chill to me. A lot of death anxiety in games is due to time investment and, frankly, like BOTW, fear of long loading screens more than any in game punishment.
  Ftl has such a satisfying and similar gameplay loop and allows so much pausing that it doesn't really feel stressful for me. I still hate dying and do it a lot in the game, but I can play ftl with a sort of soft mental focus that many other games don't allow me to do

No Man's Sky.
After the mildly stressful intro (which isn't bad, just uses more sticks than carrots in the tutorial section), you basically just pick a direction and go.
If you wanna quest, there are quests available in (almost) every system.
If you wanna farm, pick a nice planet and get to building.
If you wanna fight, go find a planet with hostile Sentinel presence.
There's always something interesting to do, but you can also just find a nice view on some planet, build a couch and just watch the iridescent grass blow in the wind for a bit.
- The more I hear about No Man's Sky now the more I'm thinking that perhaps this will be one of the games I can chill out to. I generally love space games, and the idea of just kinda flying around doing random stuff is already appealing.
  
  Its a vastly game than it was at launch. It's on my list to play.
  
  As someone with almost 500h in NMS, get in fully aware that things get repetitive fast. Once you get off planet and can visit other stars the first time, it'll likely take 2 hours to see all different kinds of planets.
  Unlocking ("learning") the 3 aliens' languages is the absolute worst slog in the whole game.
  Another ultra tedious chore is doing the daily missions for Quicksilver (special currency) to unlock some nifty cosmetics.
  Also, combat sucks. It just plain sucks. The most annoying thing to me is: if you don't fire your weapon for 1 or 2 seconds, your dude will put it down, which will create a small time window where you'll have a significant delay between pressing the fire button and actually firing, because of the animation.

The latest Zelda games for me, I just wander around aimlessly and it helps me relax.
- I'm reminded that I used to do exactly this in Ocarina of Time back when I was a kid. Maybe it's time to relive those days.
  
  I'm way overdue for an Ocarina of Time replay, thanks for the reminder!
- That game has a lot of peaceful moments when not in combat. One time I was playing while tired from work and I was gliding from a high place towards the direction of one of those symbols that’s etched on the land. I wound up microsleeping mid-glide because of how peaceful it was up there with the rain and the sound of the air gently moving. Had woke up when the air got louder and noticed that I didn’t have any more stamina.
  
  Check out Jacob Gellar's YouTube review about it
- Same. One of my fav ways to spend an evening.

Dorfromantik
- This is my favorite chill game.
- I can't suggest this game enough.

I have a few.
Zelda on the switch. (BotW and TotK)
Terraria and Stardew Valley are pretty fun to play for relaxing.
Valheim with console options enabled so I have unlimited resources and can kill any enemies if I'm feeling lazy. I mostly like to just build and I'm slowly building an entire island with buildings, and other features.

I got deeply into this (genre?) when I burned out on a combination of playing big/tough games and the stresses of life. I also enjoyed the pace of Outer Wilds and Subnautica. Some other favourites:
Supraland 1/2 (low combat, light hearted metroidvania, I loved it)
Psychonauts 2 (amazing adventure game, big but not hard. I loved collecting everything, it was a great balance)
Tinykin (similar adventure, a bit like Pikmin, which is also great. Lots of chilled collecting)
Spiritfarer (lots of freedom, loose plot, not overwhelming)
Breath of the Wild (do what you want, very nice discovery elements)
TOEM, A Short Hike, GRIS and Cocoon (light adventure / puzzle games, peaceful but could be boring if you want action)
Yokus Island Express (lovely metroidvania, chilled gameplay, not overwhelming)
It Takes two (humour, light combat - played with my young son)
Unravel 1/2 (easy-ish puzzles)
Weirdly, I found Sniper Elite 4/5 fairly chill, lots of scoping out areas
Overcooked 2 (zero stress if you play practice mode a ton before attempting a level. I found it a very zen/flow game)
Peggle 1/2 (can be frustrating, but is very low stakes and arcadey. Lovely for short sessions)
Wilmots Warehouse (can be stressful if you take the timer seriously, but I loved all the organising. Very satisfying)
Vampire Survivors (can get a bit much, but pretty simple and disposable)
There are tons more, I deal with a lot of anxiety!
Some games I was recommended for this purpose that didn't land for me:
Powerwash sim / other simulators (these feel like a second job for me. Constant grind and focus on perfection wasn't helpful)
Tetris Evolution / Lumines (either gets too fast / hard, or gets boring)
Stardew / Terraria (in theory these look great, but I find huge sandboxes too overwhelming. Always feels like I should be doing more stuff / doing it better)
Roguelikes (I like Hades, Dead Cells, etc, but they're very stressful and frustrating when so much hinges on survival)
Finally, I'd suggest trying a solo board game. More tactile and relaxing alternative to screen time.
- I saw you mention peggle and rouge lites. If you haven't checked it out yet you should try peglin - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1296610/Peglin/.
  Its a great peggle based rouge lite with a good amount of replay ability (plus there is an excellent android app too).
- Might I recommend Alba and Lil' Gator Game? Both will fit fairly well into your list.

Factorio, Minecraft, and... Counter Strike. I exclusively play with a full squad of friends and even if we have a bad game, at least I'm spending time with my friends. Keeping contact with your friends is super important and getting harder every year. So it's quality time.

It's my bike, I ride my bike.
Indoors, I've got Zwift, which looks a bit like a game.
Outdoors the resolution is better, but the NPCs can be belligerent.
- Lol

Warframe, it's my "no thought, head empty, just shoot things" game
- As a veteran of the game I keep coming back to it from time to time it's a really nice way to relax.
  
  What MR are you?

Rim world on low difficulty
- Low difficulty rimworld is underrated. Animal crossing with cannibalism.
  
  Hmm you make a great pitch
- Can't say I expected to see rimworld up here

Skyrim. I played vanilla a bunch and now I'm working through the Living Skyrim 4 mod. I had to tweak a bunch of the settings, but I really enjoy it. I also love the Witcher 3, both actively playing quests and just wandering across the map listening to the howling wind and the soundtrack. I've loaded into that game after a long day with every intention of playing and just sat there with my headphones on and stared into space while the trees crackle together in the wind and the music plays.

Lately I have been playing Crypt of the Necrodancer. It was quite chill until I reached zone 4. It doesn't get me worked up or anything, but the last level of zone 4 does get me a bit tense with the speed.
In general, Deep Rock Galactic is pretty chill. If I really just want to take it easy I can pick up a mission on Hazard 3 or 4.
- I second deep rock
  
  Third. Just go in play a quick mission or two with a friend on the weekend then have some crazy beers.
- Completely agree. The first few zones are so fun because you're just engaging with the game. Then it gets nutso.

Animal Crossing. I still play NH for 15 minutes a day just to go round my island and see what’s happening. My island is pretty much how I want it and I have collected nearly everything I want, but to take 20 minutes out the day just to walk around catch a bug or two and talk to an islander is a great way to relax.

Witcher 3, I love riding roach around and exploring and listening to the music. I like cruising in cyberpunk 2077 listening to the radio stations. There's also spiritifarer.

Roguelikes.
I played Rogue Legacy 1 and 2 for the longest time. Some dead cells. Enter the gungeon, and currently testing the humble roguelikes bundle, really digging Wall World.
- Are roguelikes chill? I haven't played much in that genre but hades made me situp and focus every time.
  
  Yes, Shattered Pixel Dungeon is chill.
  Once you learn to surprise attack from behind doors and kite the mobs, it is pretty much on rails.
  Calm and Zen.
  https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.shatteredpixel.shatteredpixeldungeon/
  
  Hades is an action game most roguelikes aren't
- I'm just getting into Enter the Gungeon. I heard it was good but I had no idea
- Could someone please cure me of my Dredmor addiction? 12 years later and I'm still rolling random builds. Diggles are my only friends.

Weirdly, Satisfactory, a game about thanklessly building a factory for a faceless corporation to exploit an alien wilderness.
But you get a coffee mug and there are lizard doggos.
- I just tried this game. While i 'get' it now, i really wish there was just a 'creative mode'.
  
  There is. Just released last week.
- Lol, you sold me. That's been on my backburner for a while. Now I just need to download it.

Civilization. While it CAN be a stressful game if you crank up the difficulty to Deity, at prince or king, it's just so much fun.
With the advanced setup options, you can set up a game for however you are feeling at the time, explore a large world (however full or empty you want it), expand and watch your empire cover the map, learn and find all the new stuff in the world, conquer everybody, be a neutral power broker, launch into space.
It just feels nice.

slay the spire

Farming simulator 22 or Euro truck simulator 2, just driving my tractor around plowing some fields, or driving my truck through Europe to drop off something relaxes me well.
- Agreed, I quite enjoy playing ATS/ETS2 and just listening to a podcast on the side as well.

I play Trackmania at least once a day. The community is so nice and friendly and the racing at high speed is so calming for me.
- Just. Don't. Play. Kacky.
  You will lose your cool and hate existence. Even if you like kacky it will happen at some point.

Blast some bots in Quake 3.
- I've been enjoying unreal tournament, too
- A man of culture

Noita is a good chill game. You will lose, and you will die a horrible death in the process, but if you can accept that, the journey to death is a fun one.
- I've just become aware of Noita recently. It looks kind of insane in a good way, but looks really hectic and anxiety inducing. But what you've said is pretty convincing, maybe I can make the journey to death fun.
  
  It's one of those games where, if it looks interesting to you, I can't recommend it enough.
  
  I got on the hype train when it came out. I’ve played it maybe twice. Too much random chance for me.
  
  It's not for everyone, but I absolutely adore it. It's incredibly hard, but once you get the idea of what's going on, if it's still too hard I highly recommend checking out the steam workshop. I tend to play with a couple mods to make it a bit easier and then go wild with mods for spells, enemies, world gen, etc. Even without mods every single run is wildly different.
  Anyway, again it's not for everyone, but the combination of a simulating every pixel, endless spell combinations, and the hilarity that ensues because I tried something new that I thought was safe, well, it's a recipe for either a really good time or throwing a controller at the wall. For me, good times. And I say that when I loathe games that are too hard for me most of the time.
- Glad I found this, my brother in pixel sims. This is 100% my favorite game.

Forza Horizon 5. I like to just drive around the map for a while, and maybe do a race or two, until I inevitably get bored after an hour or so. Repeat every week.
(until I bought a real life motorcycle to scratch that itch, and no, I'm not racing or being dangerous on my motorcycle)
- Ah, but which one do you have? Because you know, there's this other motorcycle that can do X...
  Slightly kidding, but "the correct amount of motorcycles is N+1, where N is your current amount" mentality is a real thing.
  
  I currently have a '06 Suzuki GZ250. I got it 3 months ago and already have put 1600 miles on it.
  I'm already getting the itch for a faster motorcycle, though. I first test rode a Harley Davidson Sportster 48, which was fun and tourquey but kind of heavy and not as comfortable as I expected (Harley = cruiser = comfortable so I thought). I then made the decision (mistake?) of test riding a Triumph Trident 660, and holy crap that was so much fun, I need it in my life lol even though I can't afford it.
  I also had an unexpected "adventure" getting stuck in the mud recently when trying to go off the beaten path. Dual sports have way too high seat heights for me but maybe I should get an ADV bike?
  God help me the day I try a supersport bike. Make sure I don't submit to squid-dom...

RuneScape, really hard to beat how chill it is
- Hope you mean OSRS
  
  Nah, you gotta move with the times a bit man.
  
  I do lol, but I R3 can be a gateway drug too

Rocket League. And then I'm not chilled.

American Truck Simulator or Euro Truck Simulator 2. Pick a long hual, throw on a podcast or some music, and just cruise.

Good ol' vanilla survival Minecraft. Very fun with friends.
- I miss old. Old vanilla minecraft on the xbox 360 some Good memories

I like to play any type of horde clearing game where I can shut my brain off and just swing/shoot my way through a bunch of enemies. Some examples of this are deep rock galactic and vermintide 2. One scratches the shooty itch and the other scratches the swingy itch
If I ain't shooting or swinging I like to play roguelites. Slay the spire and faster than light are classics I keep returning to. Interested in trying out cobalt core soon which looks like a mix of STS and FTL

Damn, was gonna say subnautica but you already put that

It might be more catharsis than unwinding, but dark souls/sekiro. I've been through them enough times that it's just comfortable.

The Talos Principle (+ DLC) and its just-released sequel really fit this niche for me. I'm fighting severe burnout and was specifically looking for a game without time pressure, reflex-based gameplay, or (because I keep bouncing off of turn-based strategy games even though I believe that I love them) complicated stats-based systems.
TTP is about first-person puzzles in the vein of Portal. While some of the puzzles can be difficult, you can work through them at your own pace. The level structure makes it easy to drop in and out of the game whenever, and the gorgeous environments and soundtrack make the world just a generally soothing and immersive place to walk around in.
- Baba is you, is also great in this category
  Fun puzzles that are turn based so you can sit and ponder however long you feel like
  
  Try Noita by the same company who did Baba then. It's one of those games that leaves you with "oh holy shit what the fuck just happened.... Oh, that was my fault. Oops." in an endless loop. I'm up to like 400 hours and have never gotten anywhere near that many hours out of another game. Not even FF7 (the OG, of course)

Kerbal Space Program
- Wouldn’t that be a bit complex to learn/hard to spend just 30 minutes a day playing? I haven’t played, but from what I can tell it’s basically rocket science the game.
  
  Sure, but once you know how it's very chill.
  
  That's what's chill, you have no stakes and just build and fail over and over until you succeed and it's pretty hard so when you do succeed it's an awesome payoff

Tetris Effect. The funny thing is I used to hate Tetris with passion, but somehow Tetris Effect has won me over. The music and sound effects are so ASMRish it's almost trance-inducing...

BeamNG. Logged hundreds of hours just mindlessly driving around crashing into stuff and fucking around with vehicle customisations.

Animal Crossing New Leaf, Stardew Valley, Starfiled, Minecraft and Fortza Horazion 3,4 or 5.

Rimworld for me.

I'm really in the same boat. Lately it's been these:
Dorfromantik
Mini Motorways
Halls of Torment
Vampire Survivors
Brotato
Firewatch was great but it's really a one or two sitting game. Same with Unpacking.
What I'm REALLY looking for but having trouble finding is something like a city builder or house builder that there is no money, nothing like that. Just creativity in building. Way back when I first tried the Sims, I loved the house building part more than anything.
I've been searching for something new though. I tried Satisfactory but really just wish it had a creative mode. I tried Terraria but I can't get the Minecraft allegory out of my head so this game infuriates me.
- Not a city builder / house builder, but Planet Zoo might scratch that itch. Takes a bit to really learn the building mechanics, but people can build amazing things in it.
  
  i'll look into it. thanks for the recommendation.
- There was a neat city builder a year back that had no end goal - just the building itself. I can't remember what it was called. You could pick like three themes: medieval, modern. ,or renaissance (?). I wish I remembered the name.
  
  I'd be interested if you wind up remembering the name.
- What I'm REALLY looking for but having trouble finding is something like a city builder or house builder that there is no money, nothing like that. Just creativity in building.
  Not sure if it's quite what you're looking for, but building in Valheim is quite fun, and it has a creative mode, so you can just go crazy without having to grind for materials.

Outer Wilds
I will always shill for Outer Wilds, simply because it's such a niche that only 2 games have come out in its unnamed genre: Majora's Mask and Outer Wilds.
Yes, Outer Wilds is a spiritual successor to Majora's Mask.
And the worst part is that talking about the game would probably spoil half of it. All I can say that it's an adventure like Majora's Mask.
If you ever were to trust an internet stranger to buy a game blind, now is the time. If you loved MM, you'll at least like OW.
Happy adventuring, stranger ;)
- I’m really lucky that I didn’t cave in and watch any videos at first. (I think I watched the game’s version of a tutorial, but that was it.) Its fantastic.
- Thanks for the reminder, I'm gonna go straight in with the VR mod. Haven't even seen the trailer.

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