Bloat
I usually play puzzle games to relax after work.
This game is amazing. It’s both really calming and aesthetic in every way. The music and scenery is really original and both perfectly complement each other.
The tutorials are easy to follow and intuitive, so both children and adults can play and enjoy.
I find gameplay is a great experience overall and so far (I have yet to finish it) the difficulty is a perfect ramp up for where you are in the game. Showing mechanics as you progress in a slow and understanding fashion.
– Real player with 14.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Ambient Indie Games.
Loved it!
Good puzzles, but not too hard. So it’s one of those rare games that can give you a challenge, but you can actually beat it!
I love short games that don’t waste my time, and don’t have bugs.
This is why I love indie games.
Also amazing soundtrack. Spotify when??
– Real player with 6.7 hrs in game
![DeepStates [VR]](https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/1619350/header.jpg)
DeepStates [VR]
(Received this for free thanks to the thoughtful developer, after I provided a bunch of feedback during the ‘beta’. I had been planning to buy this on release and I think the asking price is just right!).
Absolutely stunning (highly realistic) environmental beauty, not just in visual fidelity but in sound, space, and spirit.
I’ve played and enjoyed a variety of ‘environment’ apps in VR, and none of them have impacted me like this. I’m on the Reverb G2, and these spaces feel so incredibly real I almost cried just looking out at the stars and moon from the desert landscape.
– Real player with 18.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Ambient Relaxing Games.
This is a great vr experience, my favorite worlds were the planet and the time lapse area. The guided meditation worked surprisingly well, especially with the humming interaction, that was awesome. The mixing of the voice kind of knocked me out of it though the more I heard it. I feel like it’s too present, too much low end EQ and not enough verb. It sounds like someone speaking right next to your ear when it might be more comfortable for it to sound like it’s coming from the heavens. And maybe some gentle effect that quickly ramps up into the voice to let you know you’re about to hear it so it’s less alarming when it starts. Comfort adjustments worked great, the strobing effect was super intense (which is a good thing, I’d rather have effects like that come in strong and be able to dial them back with settings). Great work, this is awesome and I look forward to what worlds you build next.
– Real player with 1.8 hrs in game
Sudokolorful
It’s a very relaxing game. Perfect for when you just want to chill out and still exercise your brain a little. I liked the idea of a color-based Sudoku. It would be interesting if we had an option for customizing our own palettes.
– Real player with 7.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Ambient Minimalist Games.
It’s very colourful!
Love a good puzzle game!
Nominated it for the Sit Back And Relax Award during the Autumn 2021 Game Awards event.
– Real player with 1.5 hrs in game
Deep Lake: Prologue
nice opening music. nice graphics. Story is okay- from what I can make of it. Bad translation in parts which made it hard to follow. For example the mc stepped in a ‘paddle’ twice and got his feet wet smh. I hope the later installments fix this. Might be pretty good if they do. I’ll give the benefit of the doubt and thumb this one up, but if there’s no improvement, I’ll have to change my recommendation.
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
This is the first ‘visual novel’ I have experienced. It isn’t a game; you don’t make any choices. So, having gotten over that expectation, I will proceed.
Obviously a novel needs an interesting story, and this is interesting. I imagine it is better in Russian, but since I don’t understand a single character of Cyrillic, I had to make do with the English version. It needs some work. I was able to get the gist of what they were saying most of the time, but an important part of a novel, to me, is how the story is told. So in order to make this a successful English visual novel, they’re going to need to find a fluent Russian/English translator. Google Translate just doesn’t do it. You can’t use the word ‘defile’ when you mean ‘define.’ Two totally different meanings.
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
My Hole is a Mouth of Dirt
‘We lose ourselves in the things we love. We find ourselves there too.’ - Kirstin Martz
In this surreal psychological horror made in RPGmaker MV, Mole enters a tunnel complex under the premise he is being guided by God to complete a purpose during the ‘Endtimes’. Throughout Mole’s time spent down there we see him seeking out the Voice to direct him and, it is here, we see the mental journey being taken until Mole is finally ‘told’ what he must do by the Voice which is to bring a baby to Him. It is this task that enables Mole to confront struggles & overcome challenges in order to complete this Purpose.
– Real player with 3.0 hrs in game
I feel physically sick after playing this because of how involved I got and how badly the jumpscares got me, and I think this is worth a shot, however I do have some notes:
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The speed: I get giving a run option would mean rethinking a lot of the chase parts, but it was kind of frustrating in some points.
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The music: I’d never recommend lyrics AND writing you have to read and understand (it’s not accessible for many people), and some of the music felt particularly out of place - in particular, the jukebox was playing something too cheery. It was not bad, just weird.
– Real player with 1.1 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
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
Marginalia
Super interesting. Didn’t quite get the story but I think it’s supposed to be vague in that regard. Really enjoyed the music, atmosphere and environment. I didn’t expect it to be inspiring but seeing the distant pink lights and hearing about an old family story really made me want to start brainstorming a new music project. I don’t know if any of these characters or events are real or based on real events, but I think researching it would remove its mystique, so I won’t. I played it again straight after finishing it (mainly because the ending dialogue cut out mid-way through) to see if there was anything I missed but I couldn’t find anything. A short fun little experience!
– Real player with 1.6 hrs in game
There’s a moment early on when you’re following the traditional walking simulator flow of moving from exposition drop to exposition drop that you’ll see something… weird.
And there’s a moment where you’ll get lost in the woods and stumble upon something unpleasant but unremarked upon.
And there’s a moment where you’ll realize something is extremely- well… the less said about it the better.
I really enjoyed this interactive story. The writing and voice acting is excellent and the level design is incredible. You won’t understand why I say that at first but… you will eventually.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
OVIVO
Quite an unusual game, fantastic visual design! It feels like half a post modern art installation and half a puzzle-platformer.
Although the core gameplay mechanic is very simple(you switch between two colors) they’ve managed to build surprisingly rich set of different gameplay elements with it.
Art design is definitely something. The amount of hidden references and allusions is just mind blowing and I definitely haven’t spotted all of them.
Special praise for the soundtrack, it goes perfectly with both the general feel of the game and specifics of each level.
– Real player with 30.2 hrs in game
My goodness this game is simply stunning. The visual style speaks for itself; if you’re interested in this almost sort of Native American or tribal white-on-black starkness, you know this game is for you already and you should play it. The mechanics feel just like they should and there’s only one annoying bit where left and right get reversed (I raged a little bit). The music is great but they are fixed songs on loops, not responsive to your actions or the progression of the level as in 140 for example. Still, excellent compositions that fit the game’s mood perfectly.
– Real player with 5.6 hrs in game
Relax Simulator
~really nice games, good graphics, great sound effects, absolutely horrible music. Does anyone know of any way to turn the awful ‘music’ off ? ..and it would be great if the added more puzzles -or the ability to import some maybe, or a DLC pack ..?
– Real player with 8.3 hrs in game
I feel relaxed.
– Real player with 3.6 hrs in game