Cloud Gardens
When I first went to play Cloud Gardens, I didn’t know what to expect. Come to find out, that’s exactly how you should approach this game.
Cloud Gardens is a unique experience that’s hard to describe or compare. It’s partly a gardening simulator, partly a Dystopian landscape builder, and partly a puzzle game that is both satisfying and without frustration. Any and all preconceptions I had about the game were dashed as soon as I started playing it.
Not only is the game beautiful and unique, but it also hits all the right marks: The controls and level design are absolutely on point. It’s so much effortless fun working your way through level after level, and when you fail a level it’s no big deal to go back and try it again. As a matter of fact, you’ll look forward to it.
– Real player with 35.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Procedural Generation Sandbox Games.
This game is so satisfying! At first it’s so simple you might think you’re playing a repetitive and boring experience, but it quickly gets more and more creative and captivating. Some levels are shorter and offer less room for wild creativity, which creates a good pacing considering the large amount of levels in the game (I’m not even halfway through apparently).
I almost never write a review before completing a game, but this is something else. Good vibe with simple and solid mechanics, charming pixel art, and a surprising amount of player agency: you’re growing plants, sure, but also placing (or dropping) all kinds of objects near your plants to make them grow. Those objects let you create storytelling in every scene, then make great foundations for more procedurally-creative plant growth. This is also why the initial simplicity might be misleading: at first, there’s not much room to expand, but wait until you add vehicles and buildings on larger levels to see the true potential of the game. There’s a puzzle element to it, too, for reaching 100% and completing each level.
– Real player with 19.2 hrs in game
Terra Nil
Terra Nil, from eco-warriors Free Lives (Broforce) and recycled publisher Devolver Digital, presents players with the task of environmental rejuvenation.
The phases of wasteland reclamation
Begin with the water system, slowly purify the soil, and cultivate pioneer greenery. Embark on more ambitious tasks, restore biodiversity, fix the climate, introduce wildlife, and finally recycle all the structures you used to get there, leaving the environment pristine.
Unique, procedurally generated maps
Each region of the game has its own flavour and procedural generation palette. Yet even within a region, no two playthroughs will be the same.
Picturesque landscapes
Navigate sprawling, verdant, hand-painted environments where everything but the rocks move and breathe. A meditative soundtrack and stunning audio palette will accompany your efforts.
Read More: Best Procedural Generation Puzzle Games.
Chrysalis
Chrysalis is a hybrid tower-defense/survival RPG set in a world of natural mythology, with an emphasis on procedural generation, customizability, and replayability. Play the role of an incorporeal Wisp tasked with defending a magical chrysalis against forces of corruption and darkness. Search for resources and enlist the aid of friendly plants and animals as you explore each randomly generated level. Fend off waves of monsters, with each level offering new challenges, specialized wave types, procedurally generated bosses, and more.
Key Features:
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Symbiosis: take control of any friendly plant or animal in the game.
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Metamorphosis: level up your creatures and plants, transform them into more powerful versions, and apply elemental Spirits for further customization.
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Mutation: a complex mutation system combines different species to create new creatures with unique sets of abilities and metamorphoses.
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Customization: at the beginning of each playthrough, you choose a Chrysalis that caters to a specific style of play, with unlockable abilities that increase your power as you progress. By defeating waves of monsters, you will earn Boons which grant additional passive or active abilities, offering further ways to enhance your controlled creatures.
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Modability: add new creature and plant species, abilities, art, and more by simply editing text files and dropping your images into the appropriate folder. Specific instructions and documentation will be forthcoming.
Read More: Best Procedural Generation Indie Games.
Quiet as a Stone
The game is well done and though super simple and even limited in the actual gameplay (can’t save maps you’ve developed, no!real goal other than just clearing the landscape searching for magical stones). But despite the games limitations, it’s easy gameplay and simplicity are actually addicting. Tried it for the first time today and when I’d stopped it was 3 hours later! LOL Only three downfalls I see are that you can’t save maps, can’t create a map from scratch, and there needs to be a gamma control as the game is predominently dark and its difficult to see the landscape clearly. Hopefully the developer will add some updates. I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a relaxing experience that only costs pennies.
– Real player with 43.0 hrs in game
Love the concept and the calm vibes, its very beautiful and relaxing! I do wish there were more variation in landscapes though, I imagine it gets same’y quite fast. Different climates and plants would have been fun! It is also much too dark, with no way to adjust the lighting up (as far as I can tell). Sometimes I cant see whats going on at all, its literally just pitch black, lol.
There are also some minor issues, like street lamps cant be picked up again once you place them.
– Real player with 7.6 hrs in game
Beetle Uprising
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Very cute.
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Very relaxing.
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The evolution system is realistic.
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You can feel the power growing.
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Kind of dislike the fact that we must kill our own beetles.
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Don’t be too boldy. It is a relaxing game. Not a “Conquer as quick as possible” game.
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You end up with a mess on the floor.
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Decorations are useless and lack of potential.
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Kind of annoying how the inventories work. Lack of organization. Annoying to navigate.
Conclusion :
I am really not sure if this game is supposed to be beautiful or efficient…
– Real player with 22.2 hrs in game
While at this time it is still in early access, this title has a lot going for it even with some of the drawbacks.
Its a nice little management game with some real time tactics for the combat, that grows in depth once you start playing around with the genetics to improve your combat abilities. You go from simply looking at your highest stat numbers and trying to combine them, into looking at the genetic tree of your particular units then breeding based off that to improve on your entire gene pool, which does lead into one aspect of the game that needs some work in my opinion at this stage as you spend a lot of time just sat there, combining genes then throwing the inferior beetles into a blender to make room for the next set.
– Real player with 21.3 hrs in game
Fossil Corner
Decided to pay for this one as I spent countless hours on Overfull Games previous game, “Plant Daddy”.
I do not regret the money I spent! And I am kind of stingy, especially when it comes to entertainment.
If you like breeding, if you like paleontology, if you like puzzles, if you like decorating, if you like making pretty things! I recommend this game. Fun, intuitive, calm or fast paced depending on your own mood, work as slowly or quickly as you like.
Simple controls.
Few bugs, as it is early release, very minor, sometimes fun/funny!
– Real player with 27.8 hrs in game
Super relaxing, super satisfying, super adorable game about completing fossil puzzles and adding them to your ever-expanding fossil collection. It’s the fun kind of addictive!
Initially I was a little hesitant to try it, since in my experience random-generated content tends to be pretty samey, and I wasn’t sure if generated puzzles was something that could even be pulled off. I was pleasantly proved quite wrong, though - the puzzles usually aren’t major brainteasers, but they are enough to keep your attention, and at the end you get to add a new item to your collection to display, which gives the game this well-built, satisfying feedback loop; doing chill puzzles, earning money and fossils, spending money to decorate your room and put more of your cute little fossils on display. Something I especially like is how the game takes something that actual paleontologists do - sort fossils by minimum changes each generation to find their evolutionary paths - and turns it into a puzzle game! A few seemingly simple mechanics make for a surprisingly fun and engrossing game. I’m very excited to see the content updates the developer is adding soon, too. :
– Real player with 14.0 hrs in game
We Took That Trip
Imagine you and your best friends tripping and enjoying every moment with no worries and no hurries. This game its about that!
We Took That Trip is a chill road trip game. You drive your beloved van through procedural roads with no hurry, relaxing and enjoying the company of your best friends. Chill out with the dynamic weathers and the wide variety of biomes. Customize your van and enjoy this emotional ride.
#### Key features:
Drive
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Travel through procedural roads, the road is never the same
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Variety of biomes (hills, forests, deserts, beaches, swamps, fields…)
Chill Out
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The soundtrack puts you in the mood with tracks by awesome artists of the internet
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Enjoy the beautiful landscapes
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Dynamic weathers
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Dynamic time with gorgeous sunsets, sunrires, moonrises…
Friends
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Grab them all on the way, the ride is much better with the ones that you love
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Discover their stories and revive great moments
Cat
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Yes, theres a cat, and he’s inseparable. So he is gonna enjoy the ride with you
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You can pet him and he loves it
Customize
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Paint your loved van
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Change cosmetic parts and make it feels like home
Zen mode
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If you are just looking to relax and refresh your mind, this mode is just for this
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Choose who you want to go with or drive alone
Guppy
Relaxing fun, especially when you get good at swimming fast.
Controller support didn’t work for me (Steam/Linux) but configured as keyboard instead.
For the price well worth a punt.
– Real player with 2.9 hrs in game
Guppy is a poetic game, which lets you control a fish by moving its tail left and right.
No other control is used; and every movement of the tail is propelling the fish in the direction of the movement. Used alternatively, left and right movements allow the fish to progress forward, or any way you so desire; by gauging how much of each movement to produce.
Both the left and right sticks can be used; but the game really shines when shoulder controls are used, epecially the analog ones. I am unsure as if the game is using them in an analog fashion (I think not), but using them feels most natural to me.
– Real player with 2.7 hrs in game
Tree Bonsai
This game is essentially an interactive art piece.
Though I do hope the time and camera controls get improved and communicated better, I have found this game very endearing and enjoyable, and there is nothing else quite like it on Steam that I’m aware of. If you enjoy simulations that you can watch play out while giving them nudges here or there, or like interactive art projects, give it a try. As a child I could just sit and watch a lava lamp for a long time, and somehow this has a similar combination of simplicity and complexity that tickles my brain. It would make a great screensaver as well.
– Real player with 54.5 hrs in game
The game delivers on what it offers and its very aeshetic and pleasing, I look forward to spending more time on it. Unfortunately though it’s kind of hollow at the moment.
Some requests I immediately had when playing was a more clear understanding of time passing, it keeps saying no need to prune your tree in the first year but unless I’m missing something there’s no time shown or life of the plant, so I just have to keep waiting. I know I can see the Chinese zodiac year and season but can I have an option to display something on screen at all times? (e.g. Plant age 323d planted Rat Year Spring currently Ox Year Winter or something small in the corner, even just more info in the current tab like a loading bar for the season/year)
– Real player with 15.7 hrs in game
Ecosystem
I have more hours than my playtime states, as I usually launch this directly when steam is turned off when I go to bed.
I am a long time fan of ecosims and evolution games. This game is very pure to those genres. It has little to no
“gamification” and exists merely for simulation sake. If you are looking for a “game” here outside of watching
fish being really bad at surviving, you will be sorely disappointed. However, if you are already familiar with other games
of this genre, like the Creatures series, this game will absolutely capture you.
– Real player with 50.4 hrs in game
The Disco Slug team seems dedicated to breathing new life into the oldschool Maxis sim genre. First they released Empires of the Undergrowth, the spiritual successor to SimAnt, and with Ecosystem, they seem to be testing the waters (ha!) for a run at SimLife.
First thing’s first: This is an Early Access game. At this stage, it’s not terribly “gamey” at all; the only challenge currently coded into the game is raising your “life points” through the successful propagation of species and strengthening of the ecosystem. There are 8-10 tiers of Life Points through which you can progress. Each tier reached allows you to unlock three new plants, shells, or simple lifeforms (think plankton) to diversify the base of your food chain.
– Real player with 48.9 hrs in game