Donut county

Old Popcap games like Bejeweled or Peggle are ideal for this!

Here are my go-tos for this exact type of scenario:

Bloons TD6

Cookie Clicker

Scarlet Tower

Definitely try out Dorf Romantik on Steam. It’s a non stressful landscape puzzle game. It can also be challenging when you want everything perfect, but it doesn’t need to be.

Source: https://www.polygon.com/reviews/23049119/dorfromantik-review-1-0-update

Not sure it’s what you’re looking for, but A Short Hike is a very comfy game. I first played it in the first few months of the pandemic and it was a pleasant escape from things. Fun exploration, nice aesthetic, and good music

• Brotato, you play with a single stick much of the time. Only need to push buttons between stages when you pick upgrades.
• Superflight, also single stick, you can make it as casual or risky as you want
• Dorfromantik, if you play casually and just make a pretty landscape

They all play great on the Steam Deck.

Have you played Gris? It’s a puzzler, but so calming and pretty easy. Beautiful too.

Minecraft is the coziest game for me. Whenever I want to just zone out, but feel productive, it’s a good option.

This is when I go to mobile gaming because I could play in my bed. For me it’s mostly:

• Stardew Valley
• Emulating JRPGs
• Doing dailies on my gacha games —> really brainless clicks lol
• Magic Survival - Could easily make me play for hours upon hours
• Night of the Full Moon

If you have any open world games you really like the setting for it can be fun to just load in and futz around. Especially if there are completion logs to be done like Red Dead.

Maybe an idle game if just want something to check on every once in a while. I’ve been playing a bunch of Melvore, which is a Runescape idler, and it’s got a few game modes/mods.

I have played Sudoku since 2014 when I had a broken neck and back and was stuck in bed. I have played in many forms over the years, but settled on Open Sudoku on Android as it is free and open source. I actually use it as a gauge of my physical and mental state now. If I am sharp and doing reasonably well, I can finish hard puzzles that have a logical solution (without guessing) within 6 minutes at the most, usually around 5 minutes. If my times are more than 8 minutes after a few puzzles, I try to avoid interacting with people. It means I’m in more pain than I may realize and these are the times I tend to be…difficult. I try to ignore the constant pain as best I can, but the disconnect has its consequences. I can still play Sudoku though.

I would recommend stuff like Stardew valley, Minecraft, Forager, or any other game that doesn’t punish you for taking things at your own pace. Sandbox-ish games and puzzle games would be a great choice in general imo. Mobile games (especially idle games, there’s a lot and they’re easy to search for) work well for this too, and the games I mentioned are available on both phone and pc/steam. Cookie clicker has both desktop and mobile versions too, if you’re interested in an idle game (mobile not as updated as the desktop version, but still good).

Dragon Quest Builders 2, its like a better more objective driven Minecraft with Animal crossing elements. I have been playing this on and off since it released when i have nothing else to play or when i am bored. the characters talk a lot but you can ignore it.

Oxenfree is on sale atm. And Oxenfree 2 just came out.

Do you have Netflix? If yes, there are some great little match-3 games and other laid back titles included in your subscription. Just browse the app on your phone or search for netflix in your app store and explore their other releases.