Steam Deck

My list of endorphin-boosting games:

Dorfromantik
Unpacking
A Little To The Left
Tiny Glade - though this one barely qualifies as a game

If you want something a little more gamified: Balatro is amazing and addictive.

Spiritfarer, it's the most chill game I've ever played.

Oh, yeah and Dredge, one of my favourite games.

The Last Campfire is like being read a bedtime story - its delightful

I should preface this by saying I don't actually have a steam deck yet, so I haven't tested these on there. So I'm only commenting on the games themselves. These are listed as deck "verified" in the steam store, though.

One I haven't seen mentioned yet is Yoku's Island Express. Breezy summer vibes, not much difficulty. It's kind of a pinball metroidvania.

Tinykin is another game with a very cozy/low stakes feel. It's an exploration/collectathon platformer with cute environments made up of household objects.

Littlewood is a life sim sort of game, kind of like Stardew Valley, but it's extremely chill. There's no time limit or anything like that.

And others have mentioned these, but Toem, Alba, and Donut County are all very good and gentle games too.

Oh, and Tchia. That one has some dark moments at times, mostly in cutscenes, but when you're actually playing it's mostly gentle and island-y.

Maybe also Wuppo? It's a strange one. The story and humor and animation are pretty great in that one, but there are some boss fights that can get a little frustrating. It's mostly a fairly chill platformer, but then it's got kind of bullet-hell-adjacent bosses. I still really like the game, but it's not quite as purely relaxing as some of the others here.

Pikuniku is kind of in the same position as Wuppo, but I liked it a bit less. The humor feels a little more forced or stilted, and the frustrating bits are because the controls are kinda floaty. My niece really liked it when she was 8, though, so it had that going for it.

Hope this helps! I've been looking for this kind of game a lot the past few years

I expected to open this thread and see 30 recommendations for stardew valley but I don't see any. So stardew valley.

• Lost in Play - adorable game about two siblings and their imagined adventure...or is it?
• Tinykin - platform puzzler collectathon with zero enemies. Just cozy vibes.
• Freshly Frosted - Want to feel personally encouraged by a soothing narrator while making donut machines?
• Tiny Glade - make cute castles. That's it!
• KeyWe - kiwi mail delivery. Literally.
• The Were Cleaner - werewolf janitor.
• Little Inferno - silly game where you burn things to get more things to burn. Also, Sugar Plumps!
• A Hat in Time - puzzle platformer collectathon that's cute and creative
• Dangeresque: The Roomisode Triungulate - silly point and click adventure. Looks like I'm gonna have to jump...!
• Hidden Through Time - Where's Waldo but more animated.
• Thomas Was Alone - platformer where Thomas might not be as alone as he thinks (in a good way).

If you like english humor, check out "Thank goodness your here". Alternatively "Tiny terry's turbo trip" or "Untitled goose game".

helltaker

Awaria is the second game by the same dev. I won’t lie, it is kinda high energy. Enemies chase you in real time around the tile board rather than it being a turn-based puzzle game. But I still find it fun and it has a lot of the same story vibes. Also there is an easy mode if you want a truly chill experience.

20 mins till dawn Mario Mario kart Desk Job(it's more of a deck tutorial but funny)

Night in the Woods felt very comforting to me. Its not really the "cozy game. For me it felt more like the movie Juno. Cool and funny characters getting along with some everyday and some harsh toppics. Combined with a cool artstyle and soundtrack.

• Cult of the Lamb
• Vampire Survivors
• Halls of Torment

TOEM is usually the game that I suggest for this sort of genre. I got it from someone who had an extra key from a humble bundle, and in hindsight I wish I bought it because they deserve the money.

Journey to the Savage Planet is grossly underated: fun, simple game, just challenging enough and extremely well polished.

Some great games being listed already! Here are some nobody mentioned yet: Hoa, Abzu, Toem and Donut County.

Take it easy and pace yourself with the depressing stuff. We’re all in this together.

Monster Hunter series.

I recommend Cobalt Core. Super cute characters and story, and very satisfying even after completing the main quest. It and Balatro are currently my standing "twenty minutes on a lunch break" games.

Don’t think I saw these mentioned so here ya go:

• Little Kitty, Big City
• Any of the Atelier games if you don’t mind anime, though the upcoming one may not be as relaxing in terms of its story.
• Timberborn, though some might feel stressed about handling droughts. You can turn the difficulty down and it’ll just be a cute diorama where you build a city (or cities) with beavers.

And this is extra but grab your friends and family and play some couch co-op. It can help get your mind off things and just enjoy being in company of loved ones.

Aand if you want to eventually find something that will keep you hopeful in the face of despair, in a healthy way, I recommend the first part of Honkai Impact 3rd. It’s long, has lots of depressing moments, enough to make fans call it Depression Impact. The story touches on themes of existential horror, suicide, duty, death of loved ones, humans who have no morals and believe that all rights and wrongs as transient, cosmological threats, etc. Despite all that, I’d actually say that it’s a story about hope, and what can lay the foundations for hope. It’s definitely fan-service-y, and it’s a gacha game, but very much ignorable and playable without investing any money in it. It’s also made by a Chinese company, but maybe that can help with recalibrating perceptions on Chinese people, instead of what we’ve come to know through their government. Of course, if you’re susceptible to gambling addictions, please feel free to ignore this recommendation.

• Sable - but you'll want to use protontricks to install dxvk
• Stonefly
• Far - 1 & 2 are both good, but I still prefer the first one
• Vane
• Lightmatter

Various levels of puzzle/chill:

• A little to the left

• Viewfinder

• Unpacking

• Bonfire peaks

• Moncage

• Chronescher

• Humanity

• Superliminal

• Manifold garden

• Gridroad

• Dredge?

• Far (lone sails and the second one)?

• Vampire therapist (maybe)

Because you mentioned Islanders, maybe Dorfromantik?

I'm a huge fan of Mice Tea (nsfw), it's more comic than game (it's actually a choose-your-own-adventure) but I read it on my Deck <3

It's an erotic romance about a nerdy girl, a bookstore, and some magic tea that turns you into a furry. Tons of literal and metaphorical aftercare.

Have you considered Snowrunner, Farming Simulator and American/Euro truck simulator? All games capable of unplugging your brain for a while. Just remember to manually set Proton if you play either truck sim, they have a terribly unoptimized Linux native version that runs poorly on the Deck.