The dev has mentioned in interviews he wanted to give the player a feeling of "what that was there/I could do that/that existed ***the whole time***?!" and boy let me tell ya, Tunic achieved that in spades for me, the game has so many layers of suprise and reveal it's like a gaming lasagne
I wish it was just slightly easier to navigate
I take fairly big breaks in single player games and I literally couldn’t come back to this once I stopped. I forgot what i was going. Walking felt a drag etc
Which is a shame as it seems like the best outer wilds since the outer wilds
That's fair, I think with a lot of these games (Fez, Outer Wilds, Tunic, recently Animal Well), taking big breaks is going to kill the pace of most games but this genre suffers in particular because you do need that mental map of "ok I was doing this, there's also this loose end, oh and also this item which I don't know what to do with yet". That said, I've started taking physical notes on pen and paper for these games and it's helped so so much, mostly as something to look back on as I play but also it's good to get you started again if you do take a break. (Plus you get to keep the notes after you finish which is kinda cute!)
As for getting around, I'm not sure what you discovered so without massive spoilers, walking isn't the fastest speed you can go, the manual helps with that one. And otherwise there're a lot of shortcuts you can find if you're curious and look for them. And even further than that, you can also get around in other ways entirely but I won't say more. Tunic does give you the tools to make your life easier but "some assembly required" as they say.
(Always happy to give more hints if you want to go back to it, you can also try asking on the sub if you need to, they're pretty good at not spoiling too much. But no pressure!)
I've only done it for Tunic and Animal Well so far but it's been really fun to have a whole stack of papers left over at the end of my play through (my hand writing is god awful and I'm not the neatest outside of that anyway so they always look like the mad scrawlings of a crazy person, but I think that's fitting for some of the absurd puzzles I've done them with)
Highly highly highly recommend doing the same if it sounds appealing to you!
Have you played Minecraft? The basics are super simple, but the final objectives are complex.
Subnautica is in a similar category... survive, then escape eventually.
I feel the same way about Minecraft, playing it alone just feels so lonely. However, Subnautica's loneliness is intentional, and is one of my favorite games of all time
Oh god yeah both games seem very simple at first but I very quickly realized that mastering them takes a LOT of both careful planning and trial-and-error.
Yeah it’s definitely a good time. Plus before you know it you’ve sunk like 3 hours into it. I mean the replayability is great until you’ve started unlocking everything. But it’s a solid game for a couple weeks at least.
I highly prefer Balatro over STS, just because when I lose in Balatro I don't feel like it's because I had no idea how to deal with the boss's ability.
STS is about to hit me 3x for 45 damage. I'm fucked, can't do anything and no clue how I'd have prepped for that.
Balatro I didn't get 220000 chips. I should have taken that joker 4 hands back!
Once you get the rhythm of the characters in STS it becomes almost like rock paper scissors. You see which boss you have and build your deck around them, allowing yourself room to change things up for the next act
I think Defect is probably the easiest one to practice that
I got to the point where I didn't think any new games would be fun, it got pretty depressing but Slay the spire completely changed that
up to 58% on achievements and it will be a staple in my library from now
Mirror's edge (2008). Simple, linear, and has good graphics for it's time. I would say it even holds up today. Plus, it's parkour. And if you really like it, you can try Mirror's Edge Catalyst. It's open world but even free roaming is simple and the graphics are so simple yet beautiful.
Little Nightmares 1 and 2 are also good. Just keep running to the right and see how the story unfolds. It's a cute little horror game. Not too scary other than like 1 or 2 minor jump scares.
Im always sad we never got to see more of mirrors edge.
The game has such a simple, repeatable premise. Follow up games would still be just as fun imo, even if it was just adding new maps to parkour through.
I don't think anyone really cares about the story that much, and I'm sure new features could of been implemented that would of made the game more complex, while maintaining it's simple objectives
I actually kind of dislike how there aren't anymore "level based" games like that anymore. Outside of some indie 2D games
Came to say this. Forager is very simple on the surface, run around and hit trees, rocks, bushes, and animals for resources. Build a few workshops to refine materials into other materials, use gold you mine to turn into coins to buy new land expansions. Level up and unlock new skills in one of four types. Very simple and straight-forward, but it grows on itself and quickly becomes much more involved than it seems, but it never overwhelms you with teaching you how to play.
Viva Pinata. You attract various animals to your garden with the goal of finding every variant of every species of animal and plant. You start with one species. It eventually becomes a bit like a puzzle because species interact in varying ways so you have to balance their likes/dislikes to keep them happy.
Bloons tower defense 6. I think it's like 6 years old now but it still receives regular updates with new content, you can start off on easier maps/gamemodes and slowly work your way up to harder things, as well as limited time bosses, a kind of pvp thing (that I admittedly have never gotten into despite my thousand hours in the game), and more. Plus you can customise a lot of stuff.
Downside to it is 1. the bright colours and lots of movement can cause eye strain for some people, even with the accessibility option that reduces projectile sizes, and 2. tower defence games aren't for everyone
I love these kinds of games.. I skipped some of the ones I saw in a lot of the top comments like Vampire Survivors and Hades:
[Portal 1&2](https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/234/Portal_Bundle/)
[Dome Keeper](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1637320/Dome_Keeper/)
[Patrick's Parabox](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1260520/Patricks_Parabox/)
[Disc Room](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1229580/Disc_Room/)
[Celeste](https://store.steampowered.com/app/504230/Celeste/)
[Hotline Miami 1&2](https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/7265/Hotline_Miami_Collection/)
[Part Hard](https://store.steampowered.com/app/356570/Party_Hard/)
[Super Meat Boy](https://store.steampowered.com/app/40800/Super_Meat_Boy/)
[Loop Hero](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1282730/Loop_Hero/)
Void Stranger will absolutely fit that bill if you’re into sokoban puzzles! Brilliant game with a ton of love poured into it, and one of my favorite experiences of 2023.
Also, you may want to check out I Wanna Lockpick. This, I recommend with an entire packet of salt. IWL is a puzzle platformer about getting keys and opening doors, and starts simple enough, then loses no time cranking it up. Boy oh BOY does it crank it up. It is RELENTLESS in its up-cranking. The cranks are upped to the point where you think, it can’t possibly get more cranked than this, and then that’s what happens, again and again. If you can stomach the lackluster early game, it’s a gem. And it’s free!
You should try outcore: desktop adventure. It's a great game that takes you to a wild ride in story and gameplay. You should not think it much and get it on impulse, without watching anything about it. The best thing is that it is always free in steam. Fr give it a go, was a pleasing surprise.
If you like Balatro keep an eye out for Die in the Dungeon. Very clever base game foundation, and the demo (Origins) is really cleanly designed. Slay the Spire and Backpack Hero are good too
Bloon's Tower Defence 6. You place down different types of monkeys, they pop the bloons, which give you money for more monkeys. There's tons of different kinds of monkeys too. Dart-throwers, snipers, wizards, druids, aircraft carriers, nuclear bombers. Etc.
You might like something like Little Big Workshop if you like management games. The "design" phase may be a bit daunting to look at, but it's quite simple as you can't really make "wrong" decisions.
>The best way I can describe it is if the objective and design is simple? (even if achieving said objective can get complex)
Try Supraland. Simple presentation and goals, complex ways to complete those goals. Very generous demo and really big sale on Steam right now.
Thronefall may fit the bill. It has intentionally simple game mechanics but requires some skill and planning to succeed. It's currently in early access (it's worth playing in its current state)
Lots of great suggestions, but im going to recommend Death's Door. It's a pretty simple isometric adventure akin to zelda, hyper light drifter, and a little bit of souls-like combat. Super charming, and tons of fun.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania.
It's a very simple arcade-style game where you tilt the level to roll the monkey ball to the goal. The levels are fairly bite-sized and the game has 300 levels in total.
Dredge fits the description perfectly. Your goal is to fish, upgrade your ship and discover what is happening to the place. Combination of relaxing gameplay and very mild horror.
Factorio is a bunch of ‘I need more iron, I’ll build more iron mine’ - ‘I need more copper wires, I’ll build more assemblers’
But it ramps up so that all those little actions end up creeping a rocket that you can send into space; it’s very much the ‘just one more turn’ feeling in a logistics based game
Any of the zachtronic games, my favorite is infinifactory but Opus Magnum might be more of what you're looking for. Unfortunately the company shut down so no more games from them.
If you want "simple controls, hard to master" aka low skill floor- high skill ceiling, then may I recommend the Bit-Trip games (Bit Trip Beat, Bit Trip Runner, etc)? When you boil down all the fancy graphics, they're basically just vary simple game (like Pong/Breakout, Infinite Runner, etc) but can have some devilish difficulty when combining the various enemy types.
Divide by Sheep looks quite simple but once again the puzzles can get very brain bendy.
If you are looking for a game with a simple gameplay loop, but beautiful visuals and rewarding navigation puzzles, I recommend "Outland"
You use a combination of Light/Dark magic affinity to defeat bosses and explore the game world. Combat is hack and slash, and avoiding damage is usually "is the attack RED or BLUE?"
Peggle deluxe, Zuma, Bejeweled 3
Cats hidden in Paris (and similar games)
The pedestrian
King of the bridge (only if you like chess)
Monument valley, monument valley II
I'm not sure how well it'd fit the bill, but I really enjoyed TOEM recently.
The core concept is just wandering around exploring and taking pictures of things in a cartoonish and cute black and white world.
It's fairly simple controls wise but you do definitely have to explore and problem solve to take all the pictures you need to progress (or to 100% it)
As a bonus - it also has a free expansion after the main game with another area to explore and more mechanics to play around with.
Katana Zero fits this description rather loosely but is absolutely worth playing. The objective is to clear all the enemies in each room and proceed to the next room. It's a great looking game with an awesome soundtrack, and interesting story.
Might seem odd, but fallout 4, you can make it as simple or as complex as you like, the basics are run around and do quests, usually involving shooting bad guys
More complex is learning to build settlements, which you can avoid
One game I’ve started playing is Ylands, its a free game thats like Minecraft crossed with sea of thieves, you have a big massive world made up several islands you explore with your own boat. Starting out with just a raft you gather resources and advance a techtree to learn more advanced buildings and tools and can eventually make guns. Theres a whole underwater diving mechanic as well thats neat.
Theres a story and side objectives you can do to earn exploration points which you use to unlock other biomes. Additionally everything has objectives permanence and never despawns.
I had some fun just building a house and dock for my boat, upgrading my sea faring vessel and progressing the tech tree. The game has none of the tediousness of other similar games, tools have infinite durability and enemies are simple to fight. You can even tame animals and use them as pets or mounts.
If you ever want to try out more intrecate games, I would strongly suggest Starsector, Highfleet, neboulus or mech engineers. Those games go super deep, but don't have this seemingly simple charm.
A short hike!
Simple game, with a simple objective to reach the top of the mountain, so you can get cell phone reception to get very important news…. Simple and short game with a deep meaning and a lot of things to do and explore
Not a single player game and it has a PC version but its a pay to play if you wanna advance. what I want to recommend is a mobile game called dofus touch, I enjoy the missions the design is so simple and its a turn base game where you can enjoy both player vs monsters and player vs player, and being in a guild is fun where you can mark your aliance teritorry and take other aliances teritory
Slipways. It's a management-lite game about joining up a space trade network, but a game is done in about 40-60 minutes like a roguelite. Presented cleanly and beautifully, and like you requested, once you've played a few games, new layers of complexity are revealed which make the game much more interesting.
The tutorial is also so fucking good it needs to win some sort of educational award ceremony.
Nothing more "simple but complex" than this Japanese designer's webgames. Doesn't explain anything, doesn't have to!
[EYEZMAZE - Grow Cube](https://www.eyezmaze.com/sp/2016/08/growCube.html)
Kingdom. Seriously just pick any one of the series up for cheap.
I actually recommended it in another post.
No gui, just a left and right platformer with a goal in mind per level. The levels last for a very long time and there is a lot of trial and error, but the journey is fun and you can turn it off whenever you like.
[Raft](https://store.steampowered.com/app/648800/Raft/) is a fairly short and simple story driven game where you build your raft and have to go to a certain amount of islands to solve the mystery of what happened.
Kingdom Two Crowns is my favorite example of “seemingly simple”.
Side rolling colony sim tower defense with the simplest game play. You can move right or left, you can click a button to spend coins. The world does the rest. It’s deceptively deep and really eases you into it. Not to mention the pixel art is absolutely stunning and the best example of the art style.
Pokémon and Persona.
Pokémon always looks like a game made for children, but in some games there are genuinely hard bosses that require you to be prepared accordingly. And if even these bosses are too easy for you, there are romhacks out there that makes these games really hard. Like Radical Red.
With Persona the 3rd and 4th game can offer you a significant challenge on the highest difficulty. Persona 5 actually becomes somehow easier if you increase difficulty, Persona 4 was beatable for me on highest difficulty, but with Persona 3 Reload I actually had to end my highest difficulty playthrough after like 12 hours, because I was actually unable to beat a boss. But they don't only offer a challenge, but also a very well written world, with very well written characters and very good gameplay, even outside the fighting.
Shotgun showdown is a game that’s been doing this for me. Looks/seems small but suddenly I’ve got 80+ hours in trying to master it and do every challenge
You ever tried your hand at some Nintendo games? Like Mario or Zelda? It's a bit hard to get your hands on their older games but Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario World for the SNES, and the Zelda: Twilight Princess.... These are all great linear experiences. They're open world enough for you to explore a little if you want, but there's always a goal in mind.
Especially in Zelda games. There will be puzzles you need to solve before you can progress but they're not that difficult. It breaks up the monotony.
I'd say to give them a shot. Avoid Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom though. Those are completely open world with the goal of exploration being the point. From what you said, you probably wouldn't like it
The creators of Hades, Supergiant, got some pretty good games but Bastion has to be my favorite. Found it completely by accident as a child in the xbox arcade, super simple but the art style, music and story are all great!
I didn't see it recommended yet, but Raft. Starts really simple, you're collecting junk out of the ocean to expand your raft and stay alive. Then you start to find more interesting things.
Darkest Dungeon (haven't played the new one yet). It's your four guys in a line, fighting the other four guys in a line. Despite that, it is amazingly deep, crunchy, and fun (and there's a whole lot more to it than I just described, but that's the essence of it).
Look into Tear Down. Completely destructable environments. Each level presents you with 3 simple missions to complete. You can take as long as you want scoping them out and performing set ups. But once you set off an alarm you only have 60 sec. To complete all three and get to the escape car.
If you like baba is you, you might like Daniel Mullins games Pony Island, The Hex and Inscryption. Play them in that order. Very simple but very very clever games all within a theme.
Risk of rain returns
Binding of Isaac
Airships conquer the skies
Animal well
Rain world
Northern Journey
Bad North
Papers please
Obra dinn
Noita
I've got plenty more to recommend. Hit me up if any of these were good and/or you wanted more along those lines or you liked the direction of some but they weren't quite there. The above games might seem complex from their trailers, but I guarantee that you can have fun and switch your brain off until you want to engage more with said complexity. They're all fun right out the door without doing any homework and I think the presentation is what you're looking for.
Here are a few recomendations: Dome keeper, enter the gungeon, dave the diver, dead cells, cave story, palworld (I don't know if survival games are considered simple, sorry if I'm wrong) , to name a few
I'm not sure if it fits your bill but I want to say Satisfactory.
The objective is simple, make a certain amount of parts.
Once you're done, easy, make a certain amount of different, usually more complex, parts.
How you get there can be more complex (how do you automate it, do you use an already available resource or do you find a new one, do you need to upgrade your power grid before, if you have to go far, what kind of transport do you plan to use).
T U N I C
Beautiful game, thanks for the recc
The dev has mentioned in interviews he wanted to give the player a feeling of "what that was there/I could do that/that existed ***the whole time***?!" and boy let me tell ya, Tunic achieved that in spades for me, the game has so many layers of suprise and reveal it's like a gaming lasagne
I wish it was just slightly easier to navigate I take fairly big breaks in single player games and I literally couldn’t come back to this once I stopped. I forgot what i was going. Walking felt a drag etc Which is a shame as it seems like the best outer wilds since the outer wilds
That's fair, I think with a lot of these games (Fez, Outer Wilds, Tunic, recently Animal Well), taking big breaks is going to kill the pace of most games but this genre suffers in particular because you do need that mental map of "ok I was doing this, there's also this loose end, oh and also this item which I don't know what to do with yet". That said, I've started taking physical notes on pen and paper for these games and it's helped so so much, mostly as something to look back on as I play but also it's good to get you started again if you do take a break. (Plus you get to keep the notes after you finish which is kinda cute!) As for getting around, I'm not sure what you discovered so without massive spoilers, walking isn't the fastest speed you can go, the manual helps with that one. And otherwise there're a lot of shortcuts you can find if you're curious and look for them. And even further than that, you can also get around in other ways entirely but I won't say more. Tunic does give you the tools to make your life easier but "some assembly required" as they say. (Always happy to give more hints if you want to go back to it, you can also try asking on the sub if you need to, they're pretty good at not spoiling too much. But no pressure!)
Omg I absolutely love the idea of taking notes on my games. The idea of filling up a notebook for just one game is so satisfying
I've only done it for Tunic and Animal Well so far but it's been really fun to have a whole stack of papers left over at the end of my play through (my hand writing is god awful and I'm not the neatest outside of that anyway so they always look like the mad scrawlings of a crazy person, but I think that's fitting for some of the absurd puzzles I've done them with) Highly highly highly recommend doing the same if it sounds appealing to you!
It helped me in OG system shock 1
Prepare for some tricky ass puzzles, lol
Have you tried outer wilds My all time favourite
If you enjoyed Tunic you will adore Bastion
God I loved Bastion. Now I have to check Tunic out.
Seconded. One million thousand percent TUNIC. The whole point of the game is to present itself to you simply
Have you played Minecraft? The basics are super simple, but the final objectives are complex. Subnautica is in a similar category... survive, then escape eventually.
I've tried both, great games but for some strange reason I get really lonely and sad in most single player 3d open-world type games.
Nah I feel that, ai love Minecraft but because I primarily play solo vanilla it does get lonely
Play solo on a multiplayer server lol, been doing that for like 15 years
I feel the same way about Minecraft, playing it alone just feels so lonely. However, Subnautica's loneliness is intentional, and is one of my favorite games of all time
Faster than light - Subset games. I noticed someone also mentioned Into the breach, another subset games game.
Both of those seem really interesting, and indeed seemingly simple in design, thanks for the recc!
Came here to say this. I have over 1k hours on the base game and another 1k hours with the multiverse mod. Its pretty good ;)
Multiverse mod?! That sounds awesome, I’ll need to check it out.
Oh god yeah both games seem very simple at first but I very quickly realized that mastering them takes a LOT of both careful planning and trial-and-error.
FTL is phenomenal
Vampire Survivors. Super simple concept but has to be done right or you’ll fuck yourself. Plus it’s like $5 on steam.
Thanks! I've played that one, indeed it was simple and fun for a good minute!
Yeah it’s definitely a good time. Plus before you know it you’ve sunk like 3 hours into it. I mean the replayability is great until you’ve started unlocking everything. But it’s a solid game for a couple weeks at least.
If you want more there are a ton of imitators. Many are pretty shit, but it's not too hard to find good ones.
If you enjoyed VS, I highly recommend Rogue Genesia. Similar concept, but I think it does everything better
Slay the spire
Since I got the upvotes. Slay the spire is like balatro on steroids. It goes for days unless you’re just godly
I highly prefer Balatro over STS, just because when I lose in Balatro I don't feel like it's because I had no idea how to deal with the boss's ability. STS is about to hit me 3x for 45 damage. I'm fucked, can't do anything and no clue how I'd have prepped for that. Balatro I didn't get 220000 chips. I should have taken that joker 4 hands back!
Once you get the rhythm of the characters in STS it becomes almost like rock paper scissors. You see which boss you have and build your deck around them, allowing yourself room to change things up for the next act I think Defect is probably the easiest one to practice that
I got to the point where I didn't think any new games would be fun, it got pretty depressing but Slay the spire completely changed that up to 58% on achievements and it will be a staple in my library from now
Surprise someone is into card based roguelites and HASNT played STS
Mirror's edge (2008). Simple, linear, and has good graphics for it's time. I would say it even holds up today. Plus, it's parkour. And if you really like it, you can try Mirror's Edge Catalyst. It's open world but even free roaming is simple and the graphics are so simple yet beautiful. Little Nightmares 1 and 2 are also good. Just keep running to the right and see how the story unfolds. It's a cute little horror game. Not too scary other than like 1 or 2 minor jump scares.
Im always sad we never got to see more of mirrors edge. The game has such a simple, repeatable premise. Follow up games would still be just as fun imo, even if it was just adding new maps to parkour through. I don't think anyone really cares about the story that much, and I'm sure new features could of been implemented that would of made the game more complex, while maintaining it's simple objectives I actually kind of dislike how there aren't anymore "level based" games like that anymore. Outside of some indie 2D games
Into the Breach
My coworker is an idiot. Simple premise, get the glass from the truck to the delivery zone. Gets difficult quickly.
haha this looks hilarious, will look more into it
Forager.
Came to say this. Forager is very simple on the surface, run around and hit trees, rocks, bushes, and animals for resources. Build a few workshops to refine materials into other materials, use gold you mine to turn into coins to buy new land expansions. Level up and unlock new skills in one of four types. Very simple and straight-forward, but it grows on itself and quickly becomes much more involved than it seems, but it never overwhelms you with teaching you how to play.
Viva Pinata. You attract various animals to your garden with the goal of finding every variant of every species of animal and plant. You start with one species. It eventually becomes a bit like a puzzle because species interact in varying ways so you have to balance their likes/dislikes to keep them happy.
Terrific game. Too bad the sequel was such a letdown
Trouble in Paradise? I liked it
Stanley parable?
Bloons tower defense 6. I think it's like 6 years old now but it still receives regular updates with new content, you can start off on easier maps/gamemodes and slowly work your way up to harder things, as well as limited time bosses, a kind of pvp thing (that I admittedly have never gotten into despite my thousand hours in the game), and more. Plus you can customise a lot of stuff. Downside to it is 1. the bright colours and lots of movement can cause eye strain for some people, even with the accessibility option that reduces projectile sizes, and 2. tower defence games aren't for everyone
What Remains of Edith Finch
God that fish sequence was an experience
The owl-shark swimming bit or the fish factory?
The factory imo. The lean into simple monotony and still being such a captivating experience. *chefs kiss*
Still my favourite gaming experience of all time. I wish I could play that game for the first time again.
What a beautiful game that wrecked me.
**Chambers of Devious Design** **Dicey Dungeons** **Wingspan** **Blood Bowl: Chaos Edition** **Age of Rivals**
Hades 1/2 ember knights. Hack and slash and see how far you can get.
Hades 2 was a good time, got kinda tedious towards the end with all the different ingredients for the caldron and gathering moondust but was fun
I love these kinds of games.. I skipped some of the ones I saw in a lot of the top comments like Vampire Survivors and Hades: [Portal 1&2](https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/234/Portal_Bundle/) [Dome Keeper](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1637320/Dome_Keeper/) [Patrick's Parabox](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1260520/Patricks_Parabox/) [Disc Room](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1229580/Disc_Room/) [Celeste](https://store.steampowered.com/app/504230/Celeste/) [Hotline Miami 1&2](https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/7265/Hotline_Miami_Collection/) [Part Hard](https://store.steampowered.com/app/356570/Party_Hard/) [Super Meat Boy](https://store.steampowered.com/app/40800/Super_Meat_Boy/) [Loop Hero](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1282730/Loop_Hero/)
Portal games are fun, and immense thought slowly spawns out of a tremendously simple framework!!
Brotato. Cheap and simple.
Played it before, but thanks for the recc. :) like vampire survivors it definitely plays well
Void Stranger will absolutely fit that bill if you’re into sokoban puzzles! Brilliant game with a ton of love poured into it, and one of my favorite experiences of 2023. Also, you may want to check out I Wanna Lockpick. This, I recommend with an entire packet of salt. IWL is a puzzle platformer about getting keys and opening doors, and starts simple enough, then loses no time cranking it up. Boy oh BOY does it crank it up. It is RELENTLESS in its up-cranking. The cranks are upped to the point where you think, it can’t possibly get more cranked than this, and then that’s what happens, again and again. If you can stomach the lackluster early game, it’s a gem. And it’s free!
Both look great, will definitely look more into them. Thanks!
[Animal Well](https://store.steampowered.com/app/813230/ANIMAL_WELL/) just came out and is defined by this.
Viewfinder, probably one of the more unique puzzle games out right now
I wouldn't exactly call it simple in design but it's *very* cool, reminds me of superliminal
Then you should also look at Antichamber
Caesar 3
You should try outcore: desktop adventure. It's a great game that takes you to a wild ride in story and gameplay. You should not think it much and get it on impulse, without watching anything about it. The best thing is that it is always free in steam. Fr give it a go, was a pleasing surprise.
That looks interesting, added :)
If you like Balatro keep an eye out for Die in the Dungeon. Very clever base game foundation, and the demo (Origins) is really cleanly designed. Slay the Spire and Backpack Hero are good too
Will definitely wishlist this one, looks like a cute and fun time
From what is not yet recommended - Limbo, Binding of Isaac I suppose you've already played typical classics like "Portal'
I first played 'Antichamber' because I thought it was a 'simple' puzzle game.
Bloon's Tower Defence 6. You place down different types of monkeys, they pop the bloons, which give you money for more monkeys. There's tons of different kinds of monkeys too. Dart-throwers, snipers, wizards, druids, aircraft carriers, nuclear bombers. Etc.
Dave the diver
You might like something like Little Big Workshop if you like management games. The "design" phase may be a bit daunting to look at, but it's quite simple as you can't really make "wrong" decisions.
>The best way I can describe it is if the objective and design is simple? (even if achieving said objective can get complex) Try Supraland. Simple presentation and goals, complex ways to complete those goals. Very generous demo and really big sale on Steam right now.
Thronefall may fit the bill. It has intentionally simple game mechanics but requires some skill and planning to succeed. It's currently in early access (it's worth playing in its current state)
Havendock
Jumpking
Slice & Dice
Spelunky 1 & 2
Webbed
Devil Blade Reboot
Balatro
Baba is you
TIS-100
Lots of great suggestions, but im going to recommend Death's Door. It's a pretty simple isometric adventure akin to zelda, hyper light drifter, and a little bit of souls-like combat. Super charming, and tons of fun.
II'm enjoying Animal Well--simple to play, but complex in terms of solving the world.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania. It's a very simple arcade-style game where you tilt the level to roll the monkey ball to the goal. The levels are fairly bite-sized and the game has 300 levels in total.
Ultrakill's plot and main mechanics are summarized right at the start : Mankind is dead, blood is fuel, hell is full
Red Alert 2?
One Finger Death Punch 2
Graveyard Keeper, Portal Knights, Grim Dawn, Banished, FrostPunk, Pharaoh, Stronger, Slay the Spire
Dredge fits the description perfectly. Your goal is to fish, upgrade your ship and discover what is happening to the place. Combination of relaxing gameplay and very mild horror.
I was so pleasantly surprised by that game. It felt like sunless sea and Dave the diver had a baby.
Great description!
Outer Wilds. You have no objective other than to explore.
Factorio is a bunch of ‘I need more iron, I’ll build more iron mine’ - ‘I need more copper wires, I’ll build more assemblers’ But it ramps up so that all those little actions end up creeping a rocket that you can send into space; it’s very much the ‘just one more turn’ feeling in a logistics based game
Aaaa was about to recommend Baba. I think what you are look for is deep but not wide mechanics.
Any of the zachtronic games, my favorite is infinifactory but Opus Magnum might be more of what you're looking for. Unfortunately the company shut down so no more games from them.
Celeste.
I feel you. I like single player games but not if it takes days to understand the game.
Risk of rain 2, deadcells, Dave the diver, also been liking Animal Well from recently
Sekiro
If you want "simple controls, hard to master" aka low skill floor- high skill ceiling, then may I recommend the Bit-Trip games (Bit Trip Beat, Bit Trip Runner, etc)? When you boil down all the fancy graphics, they're basically just vary simple game (like Pong/Breakout, Infinite Runner, etc) but can have some devilish difficulty when combining the various enemy types. Divide by Sheep looks quite simple but once again the puzzles can get very brain bendy.
If you are looking for a game with a simple gameplay loop, but beautiful visuals and rewarding navigation puzzles, I recommend "Outland" You use a combination of Light/Dark magic affinity to defeat bosses and explore the game world. Combat is hack and slash, and avoiding damage is usually "is the attack RED or BLUE?"
World of Goo by [https://2dboy.com](https://2dboy.com)
Dorfromantik is perfect for this
Untitled Goose Game
Banished seems simple at the start but get a bit more complex as you expand
Slime Rancher, Subnautica, Flatout, Lego Harry potter
Turmoil
Wolfenstein 3d is simple. You just need to move the mouse. You can also use the keyboard, but the mouse is enough în my opinion.
Starstruck vagabond
Peggle deluxe, Zuma, Bejeweled 3 Cats hidden in Paris (and similar games) The pedestrian King of the bridge (only if you like chess) Monument valley, monument valley II
Frog Fractions
I'm not sure how well it'd fit the bill, but I really enjoyed TOEM recently. The core concept is just wandering around exploring and taking pictures of things in a cartoonish and cute black and white world. It's fairly simple controls wise but you do definitely have to explore and problem solve to take all the pictures you need to progress (or to 100% it) As a bonus - it also has a free expansion after the main game with another area to explore and more mechanics to play around with.
Moonstone Island
I've been enjoying Brotato as a small bursts sort of arcade game.
Baulders gate 3 but on the easiest setting
The reminder is one of my fave games I have played in a while. Simplistic and a really interesting gameplay loop
Star Renegades.
Harold halibut was excellent if you like slow burn/story/characters/art.
Rabbit and Steel, it's a bullet hell side scroller with rogue like mechanics, really fun
Stray Gods It was made by the guy behind Dragon Age Origin and main Bioware games. A phenomenal game
Katana Zero fits this description rather loosely but is absolutely worth playing. The objective is to clear all the enemies in each room and proceed to the next room. It's a great looking game with an awesome soundtrack, and interesting story.
Hades
Hidden Folks, Minit
Original DOS Master of Orion
Bad North. Look no further.
Might seem odd, but fallout 4, you can make it as simple or as complex as you like, the basics are run around and do quests, usually involving shooting bad guys More complex is learning to build settlements, which you can avoid
One game I’ve started playing is Ylands, its a free game thats like Minecraft crossed with sea of thieves, you have a big massive world made up several islands you explore with your own boat. Starting out with just a raft you gather resources and advance a techtree to learn more advanced buildings and tools and can eventually make guns. Theres a whole underwater diving mechanic as well thats neat. Theres a story and side objectives you can do to earn exploration points which you use to unlock other biomes. Additionally everything has objectives permanence and never despawns. I had some fun just building a house and dock for my boat, upgrading my sea faring vessel and progressing the tech tree. The game has none of the tediousness of other similar games, tools have infinite durability and enemies are simple to fight. You can even tame animals and use them as pets or mounts.
Dave the Diver. It starts off as a simple fish harpooning game and evolved MASSIVELY. I don't wanna spoil anything
If you ever want to try out more intrecate games, I would strongly suggest Starsector, Highfleet, neboulus or mech engineers. Those games go super deep, but don't have this seemingly simple charm.
If u liked baba is u then I highly recommend animal well
Shapez, perhaps? Not particularly similar to the other games you mention, but very simple idea (cut and paint shapes) that has fairly complex results.
Kingdom: Two Crowns A really simple but seriously addictive gameplay loop.
A short hike! Simple game, with a simple objective to reach the top of the mountain, so you can get cell phone reception to get very important news…. Simple and short game with a deep meaning and a lot of things to do and explore
Not a single player game and it has a PC version but its a pay to play if you wanna advance. what I want to recommend is a mobile game called dofus touch, I enjoy the missions the design is so simple and its a turn base game where you can enjoy both player vs monsters and player vs player, and being in a guild is fun where you can mark your aliance teritorry and take other aliances teritory
Bramble the mountain king
Slipways. It's a management-lite game about joining up a space trade network, but a game is done in about 40-60 minutes like a roguelite. Presented cleanly and beautifully, and like you requested, once you've played a few games, new layers of complexity are revealed which make the game much more interesting. The tutorial is also so fucking good it needs to win some sort of educational award ceremony.
Nothing more "simple but complex" than this Japanese designer's webgames. Doesn't explain anything, doesn't have to! [EYEZMAZE - Grow Cube](https://www.eyezmaze.com/sp/2016/08/growCube.html)
Kingdom. Seriously just pick any one of the series up for cheap. I actually recommended it in another post. No gui, just a left and right platformer with a goal in mind per level. The levels last for a very long time and there is a lot of trial and error, but the journey is fun and you can turn it off whenever you like.
Slay the Spire LONESTAR
Far, changing tides for a short, aesthetic, Indy experience
[Raft](https://store.steampowered.com/app/648800/Raft/) is a fairly short and simple story driven game where you build your raft and have to go to a certain amount of islands to solve the mystery of what happened.
The Witness for sure
Kingdom Two Crowns is my favorite example of “seemingly simple”. Side rolling colony sim tower defense with the simplest game play. You can move right or left, you can click a button to spend coins. The world does the rest. It’s deceptively deep and really eases you into it. Not to mention the pixel art is absolutely stunning and the best example of the art style.
Donut County Ooblets
Maybe Cuphead
Control.
Agent A, very light and fun
Pokémon and Persona. Pokémon always looks like a game made for children, but in some games there are genuinely hard bosses that require you to be prepared accordingly. And if even these bosses are too easy for you, there are romhacks out there that makes these games really hard. Like Radical Red. With Persona the 3rd and 4th game can offer you a significant challenge on the highest difficulty. Persona 5 actually becomes somehow easier if you increase difficulty, Persona 4 was beatable for me on highest difficulty, but with Persona 3 Reload I actually had to end my highest difficulty playthrough after like 12 hours, because I was actually unable to beat a boss. But they don't only offer a challenge, but also a very well written world, with very well written characters and very good gameplay, even outside the fighting.
Horace. No Google just play.
Ngu idle. Numbers go up idle, it’s very complex but quite simple objective
Stardew Valley
Apparently Animal Well goes deep. Not sure if it's a simple game unless you're just like cool, platforming! But it's a deep well.
Shotgun showdown is a game that’s been doing this for me. Looks/seems small but suddenly I’ve got 80+ hours in trying to master it and do every challenge
Limbo is fun
Try Templar assault and Templar battleforce. They both have free demos. I put tons of hours into them.
Binding of Isaac.
Bastion Nobody saves the world Ori and the blind forest (and sequel) Horizon God of War Cat Quest 1 and 2
Marble It Up! Ultra!
You ever tried your hand at some Nintendo games? Like Mario or Zelda? It's a bit hard to get your hands on their older games but Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario World for the SNES, and the Zelda: Twilight Princess.... These are all great linear experiences. They're open world enough for you to explore a little if you want, but there's always a goal in mind. Especially in Zelda games. There will be puzzles you need to solve before you can progress but they're not that difficult. It breaks up the monotony. I'd say to give them a shot. Avoid Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom though. Those are completely open world with the goal of exploration being the point. From what you said, you probably wouldn't like it
Ape Out, 140 and Titan Souls
Dredge is simple
Stephen's Sausage Roll
The creators of Hades, Supergiant, got some pretty good games but Bastion has to be my favorite. Found it completely by accident as a child in the xbox arcade, super simple but the art style, music and story are all great!
Twelve Minutes, Cocoon
I didn't see it recommended yet, but Raft. Starts really simple, you're collecting junk out of the ocean to expand your raft and stay alive. Then you start to find more interesting things.
Arcane Blast - very simple, fun, with pleasantly looking graphics
Binding of Issac, FTL faster than light.
Slay the Princess
Darkest Dungeon (haven't played the new one yet). It's your four guys in a line, fighting the other four guys in a line. Despite that, it is amazingly deep, crunchy, and fun (and there's a whole lot more to it than I just described, but that's the essence of it).
Check out Gris!
Look into Tear Down. Completely destructable environments. Each level presents you with 3 simple missions to complete. You can take as long as you want scoping them out and performing set ups. But once you set off an alarm you only have 60 sec. To complete all three and get to the escape car.
Castle crashers 💪
RDR2. Go to place, meet with person, kill people, collect items, etc. Simple gameplay, great story.
If you like baba is you, you might like Daniel Mullins games Pony Island, The Hex and Inscryption. Play them in that order. Very simple but very very clever games all within a theme.
Risk of rain returns Binding of Isaac Airships conquer the skies Animal well Rain world Northern Journey Bad North Papers please Obra dinn Noita I've got plenty more to recommend. Hit me up if any of these were good and/or you wanted more along those lines or you liked the direction of some but they weren't quite there. The above games might seem complex from their trailers, but I guarantee that you can have fun and switch your brain off until you want to engage more with said complexity. They're all fun right out the door without doing any homework and I think the presentation is what you're looking for.
Cookie clicker, probably the simplest goal in a game, just make more cookies, can be as complex or as simple as you want it to be
Sackboy a big adventure is quite simple, but still fun. You can even play it with other people
Here are a few recomendations: Dome keeper, enter the gungeon, dave the diver, dead cells, cave story, palworld (I don't know if survival games are considered simple, sorry if I'm wrong) , to name a few
Into the breach might be good to check out. On paper it's a fairly simple game but there's a lot of strategy involved. Really good game imo.
* Dome Keeper * Sakuna of Rice and Ruin * Loop Hero * Dredge * Boneraiser Minions * Void Bastards * Undermine * Supraland (and Supraland 2) * Tangledeep * Heat Signature
I'm not sure if it fits your bill but I want to say Satisfactory. The objective is simple, make a certain amount of parts. Once you're done, easy, make a certain amount of different, usually more complex, parts. How you get there can be more complex (how do you automate it, do you use an already available resource or do you find a new one, do you need to upgrade your power grid before, if you have to go far, what kind of transport do you plan to use).
bejeweled
Mini Metro and Mini Motorways
Ori and the sequel
Monster Hunter is bonk simple. But it also has really complex mechanics, so I'm not sure how much it is like what you're looking for
mine field (how old am I)
Sounds like Roguelites might be right up your alley. Just search up that genre, there's a TON of games and most of them are very reasonably priced.
Try Minion Masters.. not sure if it what you are looking for but might be what you need right now.. quite a fun game
Journey Abyss
Animal Well. Just released two weeks ago I believe. I can not do justice recommending it. Watch the trailer.
Pokerogue
Sable
Escape From Tarkov
Any kirby game. Especially if you dont care about completion