Mountain
I don’t think a lot of people don’t see the value in Mountain, and when people do they tend to simply overcomplicate the game for what it is. It’s not meant to be a ‘game’ exactly. The developers of the game purposefully say this originally: “Leave it open - it’s designed to run in the periphery of your life. Only interact with it when you feel like it. You can play Mountain while playing other games. If you are not playing it, it will play itself. “. Again Mountain is just mean to be left open and you can return to it when you feel like it. You might not see the aspect of it originally but you can find it later… hopefully. But then again, what are the standards of a ‘game’? Are we to simply segregate Mountain simply because it is possibly outside of the norm? On the contrary! Different experiences lead to different viewpoints which make you more open-minded. So can people truly state that Mountain is not a game but a screensaver? There are many ways to view Mountain and seeing it as a screensaver is one of the more popular demoralizing viewpoints to which many have so acquired. So one can only view Mountain as simply a standalone and not compare it to more contemporary issues. Or one can compare it but by doing so one loses the face value of the game itself. I think I’ve settled for now the dispute that this ‘game’ might be a screensaver or simply not a ‘game’ at all.
– Real player with 25831.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Ambient Indie Games.
I don’t really play video games. An old shoulder injury prevents me from manipulating a mouse at a computer for longer than what is required for work. A few weeks ago, I herniated a disc in my spine and was bedridden for several days. I discovered Mountain. A video game with no controls. Initially, I had the same reaction as everyone else. Neat, a pet rock to check in on occasionally with calm music and ambient sounds! Perfect!
But unlike everyone else, I kept Mountain up at the forefront of my computer screen while I knitted and listened to podcasts. I interacted with Mountain a lot. I spoke to it, cared after it like it was a plant. After 30+ hours of game play, I realized that this game actually has a few delightful little secrets.
! You actually do have some control in this game. The objects that land can be rearranged and moved by clicking and holding on them. But if you move an object too many times in a row, it can be lost, and too many lost items makes Mountain depressed. You can also literally shake off clouds. Mountain is intuitive to your interactions with it. The more you click on it, the more positive and happy the thoughts are. I once was rearranging objects and moving and clicking around for a solid 15 minutes and Mountain’s response was, “I’m a total babe.” Another time, I was rearranging objects and lost a cool item, so I closed out and reopened to the last save, and it responded with, “Wasn’t I just here?”
– Real player with 95.7 hrs in game
Kanso
How to describe Kanso? Well, you play with your mouse, and you have to draw a line around a shape! Sounds pretty simple right?
This is one of those relaxing, zen like games, where you think everything is all easy and simple, but quickly you realise that things take some skill. This is a “line following” game. Everything is very bright and colourful and really is a joy to play.
As you draw around the shapes, there are “Koi like Daemons”, they kind of look like giant sperms, or perhaps tadpoles, they are on their own little journey, come into contact with them and you will have to start again. As you draw your line, you cannot go backwards, only forwards, but you can speed up or slow down, or even stop, that will allow you to avoid the Daemons, and finish the shape. As you progress through the levels, the shapes become more interesting and there are more Daemons to avoid, some will try to follow you, some will avoid you, some do not care about you. But you must always care about all of them if you want to progress.
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Ambient Relaxing Games.
Linklight
I purchased this game a few day’s ago and I was immediately drawn to the gameplay. For someone who enjoy’s a lot of puzzle games, this was a good pass-time to play for a few hours at a time. The levels does continuously get harder and focus more on the problem solving. I definitely recommend the game for those who like to give your brain a small challenge.
– Real player with 62.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Ambient Indie Games.
Edit– Just beat it- Was a fantastic game– Looking forward for future content. Honestly- For the price this game is well worth the 8 bucks I paid for this and they plan on adding more content.
Really simple and relaxing game, kinda like that water pipe game. It does get challenging.
Ran into some bugs and a level issue, devs got back to me personally, which felt odd– Reflecting on it, it kinda made me think this is what early access is really about. Homie said he would fix and update the game quickly. Felt like the dude was personally making me a video game– It was odd, but, hell… These are the kinda devs I want to support.
– Real player with 16.5 hrs in game
Relaxicon
At some point, when you’re far along in terms of earned points and don’t want the particular run to end, it becomes less Relaxicon and a bit more Concentraticon and even Tensicon. Mainly, though, it is a simple, fairly easy and relaxing way to pass the time and work your brain and language skills. I really like the very detailed dictionary-based explanation of each applied word. It’s especially good for those learning the language - or just wanting to broaden their vocabulary.
Much recommended!
– Real player with 39.8 hrs in game
Pros
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Minimalist word game with great “feel” and responsiveness. Elements pop, float, and drift with natural animations.
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Gameplay is straightforward and self-explanatory. Like Scrabble or Boggle, it maintains its longevity through simplicity. Longer words score higher. Varied words prevent hitting the “same letter limit.”
Cons
- Dictionary is inconsistent. Sometimes word forms like past-participles, adverbs, and gerunds are allowed. Other times they are not. It all depends on whether the specific word is arbitrarily in the accepted word list or not. This becomes a problem when you’re at risk of a letter-limit game-over or fail a “minimum word length” challenge because you can’t add a -ing, -ous, or -tten suffix.
– Real player with 17.6 hrs in game
soundStrider
You will want two things: your headphones, and to read the game’s manual before playing.
Even then, this isn’t for everyone. If it is for you, you’ll find a hypnotic soundscape worth exploring.
I would describe it as an audio-only walking simulator; there are minimal graphics (as you can see in the screenshots), but you can even turn them off completely and play only by sound. There are waypoints that you can hear, and you can walk from one to the next on a trance-like journey, finding strangely relaxing varied soundscapes. There aren’t many games like this; of those somewhat similar that I played, it reminded me most of Proteus – but the focus on audio is of course much higher here.
– Real player with 0.6 hrs in game
Errrrrm, okaym well the ‘game’ does what it says you walk around and noises occur. pressing buttons on the controller did stuff and if I;m honest I have no clue as to what I was doing.
One big thing missing currently for a game that the Visually Impaired can play is Text to Speech in the menus. I dug around with my maginfier in hand and found a list of random settings, but no real accessibility options page.
I got in game and walked around randomly heading towards some sounds. Arrived at a sound and nothing seemed to happen, is this sound a ‘breadcrumb’? it got louder and more annoying as I approached. Found a button on the controller that made a boing noise.
– Real player with 0.3 hrs in game
RESONARK X
Played this in vrchat and honestly it’s really fun. ^^ I hope to see a option for custom songs? similar to BeatSabers mods. The problem I have is the blue note. They work better in this game then in vrchat. In vrchat, they kinda delay a bit? idk if that’s a vrchat issue or not, hopefully that gets fixed. Overall it’s not a bad game I hope to see more content.
– Real player with 2.2 hrs in game
Loved the VRChat world and bought it to support
– Real player with 1.0 hrs in game