Alekon
This is a very simple game idea. You take photos of mostly happy, colorful creatures, solve some simple puzzles, play minigames. What makes Alekon very interesting is the memorable creature design, but it’s worth mentioning that, as you go further, it’s getting harder to memorise all of them.
It’s fairly easy to move forward in the game, you are not forced to finish everything (but some skills make your life easier, specially if you try to make every photo 10/10) I would say childfriendly, if we don’t count some of the minigames are kinda hard (But as far as I see, the devs are taking feedback and fixing those, so you can partly ignore this comment) and the situation with the Shrooma minigame, that felt a bit odd.
– Real player with 19.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Photo Editing Relaxing Games.
Playing status: 100% achievement
Grindy Achievement(s): No.
Optional Achievement(s): Yes (35 achievements).
Difficult Achievement(s): No.
Guide: Click here
Intro
Alekon is a first-person photography game where you have to explore islands and take photos of the creatures living in them. Fictions, as what the game called them, are going to show up in the hub world afterward, giving you some tasks to finish.
– Real player with 19.6 hrs in game
TOEM
I was very charmed by the demo of this game on one of Steam’s special events, so I purchased it at launch. I was not disappointed with the final product. The game is equal parts charming and relaxing with an adorable, hand drawn art style and calm, lovable music.
This is a point and click adventure game. It controls exclusively with the mouse (though developers claim they’re working on adding keyboard support as well). The gist, like in most of these games, is to travel to different places, meet lots of people and solve puzzles for their benefit in order to reach a personal goal. There’s no combat here, of course. Your only tool is a camera, which you can use to take pictures, zoom in to see things far away and even interact with certain characters and objects in more than one way.
– Real player with 10.8 hrs in game
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There’s so much I want to say about this lovely game, so I’ll break it into sections.
Gameplay: The main mechanic of the game is taking photos. But don’t be fooled by this seemingly simple premise, there is so much to do! In each area of TOEM, I had tons of things that I could complete, or I could just sit back and take in my surroundings. You will need to fulfill a certain number of requests to move onto the next area, but after that it’s up to you how you want to spend your time. I’m already 5 hours in but I’m not even halfway through the game yet! Pro tip: wearing the clogs helps you play at a more relaxed pace.
– Real player with 10.0 hrs in game
Umurangi Generation
Either a fresh, laidback, visual experience or an engaging, arcadey, bumpin game; Umurangi Generation is one of those games where the pleasure is found with your view on gaming in general.
To a common player, it may just look like a straightforward “Find objective, complete objective” game. Of which, let’s not lie to ourselves, it is and that can be pretty dull for some people. But, I found myself playing each level twice: Once to intake my surroundings, keeping mental notes, understanding the worldbuilding and crackin' lil gags with the NPCs around the stage because I enjoyed putting myself in the character’s (invisible) shoes. The second time, with the information I had gathered, to go with a more arcade “speed clear” approach since trying to map out an effective path to knock out every objective in under 10 minutes was a fun little challenge. Now, I didn’t go HAM on it to try and get the best darn time there is but more like a little trial of “Okay let’s see what I can do…”
– Real player with 14.0 hrs in game
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Umurangi Generation is pretty much the ultimate “lo-fi beats to relax/study to” game. There’s not really a whole lot to playing it. You just walk around taking pictures of things in environments that are totally static except for characters going through animation cycles. And yet its culmination of lo-fi graphics and music is still absorbing enough that I played through each level multiple times and got 100 percent completion.
It’s one of those games with low-poly, low-resolution graphics designed to look like it was made in the late 90’s (other examples like Paratopic or Sagebrush deliberately evoke the original PlayStation but Umurangi is more like the Dreamcast). But instead of being a horror game its vibe is somewhere between Jet Set Radio and Neon Genesis Evangelion – colorful urban landscapes, anime-inspired characters, rap music, impending kaiju doom. It works so well that during my first run I kept playing just to see where each new level would take me. These levels aren’t just attractive in a sort of retro, cozy way, they’re also packed with small details, just begging you to photograph every inch of them. The chillhop music fits all this perfectly. I bought the soundtrack and still listen to it.
– Real player with 13.7 hrs in game