Townscaper

Townscaper

Just an honest to goodness chill time. It’s definitely not a game, as the description itself even admits, but it excels as a tool to fulfill myriad purposes, be that of a creative outlet or simply a way to unwind for a few minutes. No time commitments, no goals and no real mechanics make Townscaper one of the purest sandboxes I’ve ever had the pleasure to spend some time in.

There is honest joy in placing random blocks on the grid and seeing them develop into houses, buildings, towns and discovering new shapes in the process, new special interactions between blocks.

Real player with 42.4 hrs in game


Read More: Best Relaxing Procedural Generation Games.


It speaks volumes that most of the admittedly positive reviews of this game were made by people who clocked around 5-10 hours total. Townscaper is cute and fun for a day or two, but is severely lacking in features and diversity of content to be anything more than that. I was excited to explore it during Early Access, in the expectation that more features were on the way for the full release. A few months ago, however, the project exited Early Access, as the dev revealed that he has no plans to keep working on the project. This is extremely disappointing, as the project does have potential, but as it stands, it is extremely barebones, akin to an alpha build (sans the bugs), and with nothing on the horizon to turn this into an actual fully-fledged game, I unfortunately don’t recommend spending any money on it.

Real player with 30.0 hrs in game

Townscaper on Steam

Insane Creations

Insane Creations

Welcome to Insane Creations. Build crazy contraptions! Destroy vases!

50 levels of building contraptions to creatively find ways to ensure the vase’s doom.

Collect coins to unlock different backgrounds and unique music packs.

Collect coins and unlock new backgrounds and music packs.

Insane Creations is all about finding creative ways to accomplish shattering the vase, so you may have to think outside the box. There are multiple solutions to most of the puzzles, so find your own solution.


Read More: Best Relaxing Family Friendly Games.


Insane Creations on Steam

Castle Flipper

Castle Flipper

i had 9 games on my wish list for the last 6 months and finally one of them came out—Castle Flipper. I love House Flippers and have about 400 hours on it. My first thought was this would be similar, but after reading the numerous negative comments, I realized it wasn’t. There were also complaints that the quests were completed in 10-12 hours and that was also a turn off. However, the Devs responded and explained the concept of building a castle after the quests.

The game was listed for about $5 (i live in a lower priced Country) and after some thought, I decided to give it a try. After all, everyone has different tastes. Boy was I glad. The setting and music are beautiful. I started by completing a couple of tasks and then was told to build my house. It only required a 4X4 floor plan and took no time to build. Then there were 2 new tasks, one of them was to clean up a ship. While that sounded cool, I realized that was the problem those negative reviewers had. They rushed, rushed, rushed. For example, one player I won’t name gave it a bad review saying there was little to do except the quests that took just a few hours. Yet, this player took the time to make a You Tube video of him playing the game. I watched it to pick up some tips. He rushed, rushed, rushed to complete the quests. This isn’t real life where we live in the fast lane. Slow down. Take a breath and enjoy the game. There is no prize for finishing the game quickly. He even commented that it only cost $10 so not worth the time to ask for a refund. What? Not worth the time. It takes less than a minute to ask for a refund on Steam (I know, I’ve refunded over half my games because they were too difficult.) If someone’s one minute of time is worth more than 10 bucks, then I’m in the wrong business.

Real player with 42.9 hrs in game


Read More: Best Relaxing Family Friendly Games.


First off all, I love these kinds of games. Building and maintaining your own settlement is something I can spend many hours on. Saying that you would think I would recommend this game seeing the endgame is based all around that. But sadly I cannot. The idea is there, build your own castle and collect rent. But the way this has been implemented simply isn’t satisfying. The world feels empty and barren, nothing happens beside the occasional ‘clutter everywhere incidents’ that makes you run around all the houses n clean stuff up. The visuals are great but without life within the game you quickly lose the drive to do anything.

Real player with 13.0 hrs in game

Castle Flipper on Steam

huts

huts

I was eyeing this game for a while now and i finally decided to pick it up. I enjoyed it very much.

I kinda just zoned out and built a cool fort in the middle of a lake for two hours lol, the game is very zen~

Real player with 1.7 hrs in game

Build the fort your 8 year old self would build.

Real player with 0.5 hrs in game

huts on Steam

Kity Builder

Kity Builder

Summary

Kity Builder is a relaxing and cute city building and exploration game about searching for lost blueprints around a desert archipelago to decorate its islands. You’ll get creative designing dreamlike cities for other kitties to live in, while you calmly explore the peaceful ocean.

Key Features:

  • A relaxing exploration and construction experience.

  • Pixel art combined with low poly graphics for a cute, nostalgic aesthetic.

  • Collect blueprints around the place. These will grant you new buildings to place.

  • Three islands with different environments and biomes.

  • Lots of buildable objects to decore however you want.

  • A short and easy game to beat, but you can spend as many time as you want.

Kity Builder on Steam

Light Up the Holidays

Light Up the Holidays

good game

Real player with 4.4 hrs in game

Love this game. Has a lot of the same and standard building tools for simulators. Love the Christmas fun. Would like to see more decoration options but super Christmasy. 3 Love it and great purchase.

Real player with 3.1 hrs in game

Light Up the Holidays on Steam

Noda

Noda

I love 3D data visualization. It really works when the interface is intuitive and you can focus on your data. It’s also amazing to feel the benefit of externalizing your thoughts in a 3D space - the model that you have in your head gets visualized, so that your mind’s eye is in a feedback loop with your real eyes. From imagination to creation, your idea can take form.

Noda makes this process seamless and easy. The visual design of the world and interface is elemental and intuitive, and the resulting creations are beautiful. I used Noda to organize my music library into different genres, something that I’ve always wanted to do. It’s great when you feel at ease and meditative when creating, and Noda is the ideal VR experience for this.

Real player with 10.7 hrs in game

Hi devs !

I bought Noda and immediately spent a whole night on it, working on my story.

It felt amazing, so thanks for that !

Here are my observations and suggestions :

  • My first working environment choice was “Sky only”, but i had to renounce it when i noticed the teleport couldn’t be used there. Could you add an invisible floor to make moving possible there, and in the empty environment ?

  • I made mistakes sometimes, deleted elements, moved this or that and then changed my mind…. I had to redo a lot of things. I don’t know what kind of coding it would implie, but i would definitely have gained some efficacy, had i had a “Ctrl Z” of some sort.

Real player with 10.5 hrs in game

Noda on Steam

IncrediMarble

IncrediMarble

Great game if you used to enjoy making marble tracks as a kid, there’s a good amount of variety in the part types and the physics are fun to watch, it’s fairly simple but allows for a lot of creativity with what you can do and the kinds of tracks you can make

(you can even disable parts snapping to a grid if you want to be really precise)

It also throws in the idle game mechanics for gradual progression, even while you aren’t actually playing, letting you unlock access to more interesting parts and higher numbers of parts over time, which is cool if you are into idle games or only play a little bit at a time

Real player with 30.0 hrs in game

Cool little game to tool around with and make fun courses for the marbles to run. Not much to say on it, just don’t expect anything super enthralling; this is just a cozy little casual ball game.

you like playing with balls? I do.

Real player with 13.5 hrs in game

IncrediMarble on Steam

ISLANDERS

ISLANDERS

Islanders Review

This adventure never ends!

Some key points that this game offers:

  1. Procedural Generation; the fun never ends!

  2. Two gameplay modes

  3. Indie Gem 5/5

Gameplay & Controls:

The game is played with your keyboard and mouse; the layout and keys are pretty simplistic. This is in no way whatsoever a bad thing! This is simply a minimalistic game that doesn’t require much to offer you hours of joy.

You start the game on one island, choosing between two build packs. Once chosen it is up to you to determine where to place your buildings. Depending on the position that you build, you will receive a score for each placed building. There are several factors that multiply the score; it can either be increased or receive a loss. It comes down to some strategic thinking.

Real player with 122.9 hrs in game

THE ONE-SENTENCE SUMMARY…

Islanders is a simple yet sophisticated city builder that is both incredibly relaxing and delightfully addictive—and a VERY worthy addition to your game library!

[➕] THE POSITIVES

  • The ART STYLE. The game makes the absolute most of its colors and shapes to provide a minimalistic setting where you can build and grow your idyllic island city. Everything is themed to “fit” together—from the sprawling farmlands to the Tetris-like cities and manufacturing areas—and ultimately results in an island-scape that feels like your own, personal creation!

Real player with 73.9 hrs in game

ISLANDERS on Steam

Mason: Building Bricks

Mason: Building Bricks

The game is as advertised. You build, build, and build more. If you expect anything else, you will be disappointed. Overall, a relaxing experience.

Real player with 83.3 hrs in game

I liked it simplicity and focus on personal creations.

Real player with 81.5 hrs in game

Mason: Building Bricks on Steam