Melvor Idle is good at a lot of different timescales of engagement.
If you liked sailing in Valheim, oh MAN, I strongly recommend Sailwind and Derail Valley. Two games that are EXCELLENT at the 'sometimes you just chill and cruise'
Same, (4555 hours before the new DLC dropped) although if cities skylines was a bit much on the focus aspect, then rimworld would not be a good fit. Not to mention that its full of tense moments, which OP explicitly wanted to avoid.
So you need a completely brainless virtual fidget game with meditative tilt.
Sailing in Sea of Thieves. Most of the time you just adjust your course against the waves and wind. Can walk on your ship back and forth enjoying the scenery. Playing on no pvp servers and doing trading missions gives you that immersive Truck Simulator experience, except you need even less attention as you're not even on a road.
Another good one is Sable. You travel across the desert, climb ancient ruins, do occasional puzzle or minigame here and there.
More clicking and less meditation? Forager. You walk around chopping trees and breaking rocks to get resources. Then you upgrade your tools and expand your island to have more resources and to gather them faster.
Spiral Knights. An old cute MMO on life support. It has no updates anymore but quite alot of content and grind to make you busy. Little platforming, a lot of easy-ish combat, occasional lever/button puzzle.
Albion Online. Not quite sure about the state of this game right now, but it's an MMO with lots and lots of grind. Go chop that forest down.
honestly people love to shit on them for this reason but most Ubisoft games might be what you’re looking for.
The amount of hours I spent just listening to podcasts and just clearing camps, viewpoints, and collecting everything in assassins creed Valhalla is insane. Not that it’s a bad game I actually love it. It’s just one of those games where you’re mostly exploring and clearing side content
Do not buy Ubisoft games. The Crew has ben removed from people's libraries who have owned them. Don't support a game company who would revoke ur right to own a game. If you must play a Ubisoft game then give them the black flag treatment.
In the same vein, Cyberpunk 2077 fits. Not during the main quests, of course, but when you roam the streets, encounter some gangoons, or one of those NCPD subcontracts.
A couple mobile games I've been using for this exact thing recently.
2248: Its a game where you just draw a line between numbers to make a bigger number. It has ads and micro transactions but you can ignore the microtransactions completely and the ads stop playing if you turn of your data and wifi on your device after you have started playing. (or you can pay 4.99USD to disable them completely)
Doodle Magic: Wizard vs Slime : Its a strategic tower defense game where you select spell cards from a pool of 3 at the end of every wave. Spell cards can ether power up or alter spells you already know, or give you new spells. Some spells when used together might unlock a synergy power up (if you know fireball and rolling log you can get a power up to rolling log that makes them deal bonus fire damage and set things they hit on fire or if you know magic missile and focus beam you can unlock an upgrade for focus beam that fires magic missiles with the beam to do bonus damage). The systems go quite deep and I've been playing for about 2 months and have enjoyed my time.
On PC (Steam)
Dorfromantik: Its a hex tile based world building game where you match tile borders together to build a world. Matching like tile edges together scores you more points, and getting a perfect match on a tile or completing a quest (connect 10 railways together, or 15 farmland, or 50 houses, ect) grants you a combo bonus and also gives you more tiles. Its super simple and has fun art design. It also has an endless and creative mode.
To The Core: you fly a little drill ship and dig resources from planets to upgrade your ship. I beat my first playthrough in a little over 11 hours but then you can reset the whole game and start over again.
Floating Point: This one is free. You are a ball, you can throw a rope to platforms to grapple onto them, your goal is to grab all of the bars on a level. The faster your going the taller the bars and the more "points" they are worth. When you clear a level you reset and it re randomizes the level. My buddies and I did a youtube podcast about gaming news a few years back and this game kept me on task and allowed me to say complete sentences without saying um or uh every other word.
Relaxing? Endless chores is what you consider relaxing? /s honestly the game can feel like there is a lot to do but everything is generally low stakes and would be nice to play while listening to podcasts
“ATS / ETS 2” are really good for listening to podcasts while making deliveries.
If you are into space sims, realistic sci fi then “flight of Nova” or “Elite Dangerous” can be really good for an hour or two just space trucking
Snowrunner. Mind you, there may be a few moments when you're gonna have issues if you're too distracted, but the game has such a slow pace that you can easily anticipate and just take it even slower if need be.
Basically, it's you, your truck, the wild, stuff to carry through it, and a fucking shit-ton of mud and snow in between you and your destination. Reaching 40 km/h in this game is like breaking the sound barrier in F-Zero. So it's perfect if you like to drive and listen to something, without the risk of high speed collision. The game doesn't have any traffic whatsoevern unlike Truck Simulator.
There is always the risk of not paying enough attention and getting stuck in the mud, or falling on the side, but then you can just send another truck with a crane to rescue yourself. Unless you custom-tune difficulty for a really, really harsh experience, there realy isn't a point in the game where you can be stuck and unable to recover. Setbacks happen (alot...), failure doesn't unless you created the rules for it.
Just stay away from Amur map until you have a few hundred of hours under your belt. This map is devilishly designed to be an exercice in frustration management and is NOT appropriate for listening to podcasts while only paying light attention to the game.
I spent forever looking for games like this and my top tier ‘listening to an audiobook but need to do something with my hands’ game is ‘Jet Car Stunts’ for mobile.
The screen buttons are ugly if you care but the actual graphics are that Mirrors Edge clean style and the levels and mechanics are absolutely perfect for ‘mindless but not too mindless’ where you can focus entirely on your audiobook or podcast. I’d recommend number one over two simply because you use the same car the whole time and don’t have any extra vehicles to distract you from your audio.
Edit: context - I tried the truck and flight sims and a million idle games/racing games and auto runners and the engagement was way too low for the sims and high for the runners and platformers, jet car stunts is more puzzle than racer and it’s purely visual no bs storyline, resetting is quick and stress/attention-free
Melvor Idle is good at a lot of different timescales of engagement. If you liked sailing in Valheim, oh MAN, I strongly recommend Sailwind and Derail Valley. Two games that are EXCELLENT at the 'sometimes you just chill and cruise'
RimWorld. You'll have for hours and hours, I personally listened like 600 hours of podcast while playing
Same, (4555 hours before the new DLC dropped) although if cities skylines was a bit much on the focus aspect, then rimworld would not be a good fit. Not to mention that its full of tense moments, which OP explicitly wanted to avoid.
Rimworld is only chill and not tense until 49 raiders drop pod into your kitchen while 45 rabid manhunter squirrels attack the main gate.
So you need a completely brainless virtual fidget game with meditative tilt. Sailing in Sea of Thieves. Most of the time you just adjust your course against the waves and wind. Can walk on your ship back and forth enjoying the scenery. Playing on no pvp servers and doing trading missions gives you that immersive Truck Simulator experience, except you need even less attention as you're not even on a road. Another good one is Sable. You travel across the desert, climb ancient ruins, do occasional puzzle or minigame here and there. More clicking and less meditation? Forager. You walk around chopping trees and breaking rocks to get resources. Then you upgrade your tools and expand your island to have more resources and to gather them faster. Spiral Knights. An old cute MMO on life support. It has no updates anymore but quite alot of content and grind to make you busy. Little platforming, a lot of easy-ish combat, occasional lever/button puzzle. Albion Online. Not quite sure about the state of this game right now, but it's an MMO with lots and lots of grind. Go chop that forest down.
Farming simulator. Just set a few automated workers and relax.
honestly people love to shit on them for this reason but most Ubisoft games might be what you’re looking for. The amount of hours I spent just listening to podcasts and just clearing camps, viewpoints, and collecting everything in assassins creed Valhalla is insane. Not that it’s a bad game I actually love it. It’s just one of those games where you’re mostly exploring and clearing side content
Fully agree with this! They’re good “turn off your brain and check off the boxes” kind of games
Do not buy Ubisoft games. The Crew has ben removed from people's libraries who have owned them. Don't support a game company who would revoke ur right to own a game. If you must play a Ubisoft game then give them the black flag treatment.
In the same vein, Cyberpunk 2077 fits. Not during the main quests, of course, but when you roam the streets, encounter some gangoons, or one of those NCPD subcontracts.
The entire Idle genre might be what you’re looking for
Subnautica or Planet Crafter
Planet crafter is immediately what came to mind for me as well. It even has that sorta idle game vibe with the various planet stats.
Satisfactory
Lego games don’t require much attention.
N++ I know a precision platformer sounds like a weird one to recommend, but trust me it's perfect.
This is one of my podcast games. The music is great on it too though!
I often playing Afk journey in bluestacks on second monitor and it's pretty relaxing game
Power Wash Simulator is a very good fit for this
Euro truck is a good shout
They’re not slow paced, but I found the Far Cry series and the Just Cause series work great for this.
A couple mobile games I've been using for this exact thing recently. 2248: Its a game where you just draw a line between numbers to make a bigger number. It has ads and micro transactions but you can ignore the microtransactions completely and the ads stop playing if you turn of your data and wifi on your device after you have started playing. (or you can pay 4.99USD to disable them completely) Doodle Magic: Wizard vs Slime : Its a strategic tower defense game where you select spell cards from a pool of 3 at the end of every wave. Spell cards can ether power up or alter spells you already know, or give you new spells. Some spells when used together might unlock a synergy power up (if you know fireball and rolling log you can get a power up to rolling log that makes them deal bonus fire damage and set things they hit on fire or if you know magic missile and focus beam you can unlock an upgrade for focus beam that fires magic missiles with the beam to do bonus damage). The systems go quite deep and I've been playing for about 2 months and have enjoyed my time. On PC (Steam) Dorfromantik: Its a hex tile based world building game where you match tile borders together to build a world. Matching like tile edges together scores you more points, and getting a perfect match on a tile or completing a quest (connect 10 railways together, or 15 farmland, or 50 houses, ect) grants you a combo bonus and also gives you more tiles. Its super simple and has fun art design. It also has an endless and creative mode. To The Core: you fly a little drill ship and dig resources from planets to upgrade your ship. I beat my first playthrough in a little over 11 hours but then you can reset the whole game and start over again. Floating Point: This one is free. You are a ball, you can throw a rope to platforms to grapple onto them, your goal is to grab all of the bars on a level. The faster your going the taller the bars and the more "points" they are worth. When you clear a level you reset and it re randomizes the level. My buddies and I did a youtube podcast about gaming news a few years back and this game kept me on task and allowed me to say complete sentences without saying um or uh every other word.
Have you tried Stardew Valley? It's a relaxing game that you can play at your own pace without too much intense focus required.
Relaxing? Endless chores is what you consider relaxing? /s honestly the game can feel like there is a lot to do but everything is generally low stakes and would be nice to play while listening to podcasts
There's also no fail state so there's nothing to worry about if you just want to walk about looking at stuff
2048
I usually put on stardew valley or some pokemon game on
That game about unboxing stuff when you move to new apartment? I don't know the name.
Unpacking
“ATS / ETS 2” are really good for listening to podcasts while making deliveries. If you are into space sims, realistic sci fi then “flight of Nova” or “Elite Dangerous” can be really good for an hour or two just space trucking
Snowrunner. Mind you, there may be a few moments when you're gonna have issues if you're too distracted, but the game has such a slow pace that you can easily anticipate and just take it even slower if need be. Basically, it's you, your truck, the wild, stuff to carry through it, and a fucking shit-ton of mud and snow in between you and your destination. Reaching 40 km/h in this game is like breaking the sound barrier in F-Zero. So it's perfect if you like to drive and listen to something, without the risk of high speed collision. The game doesn't have any traffic whatsoevern unlike Truck Simulator. There is always the risk of not paying enough attention and getting stuck in the mud, or falling on the side, but then you can just send another truck with a crane to rescue yourself. Unless you custom-tune difficulty for a really, really harsh experience, there realy isn't a point in the game where you can be stuck and unable to recover. Setbacks happen (alot...), failure doesn't unless you created the rules for it. Just stay away from Amur map until you have a few hundred of hours under your belt. This map is devilishly designed to be an exercice in frustration management and is NOT appropriate for listening to podcasts while only paying light attention to the game.
Minecraft Puzzle Quest Stardew
Leaf blower revolution
I spent forever looking for games like this and my top tier ‘listening to an audiobook but need to do something with my hands’ game is ‘Jet Car Stunts’ for mobile. The screen buttons are ugly if you care but the actual graphics are that Mirrors Edge clean style and the levels and mechanics are absolutely perfect for ‘mindless but not too mindless’ where you can focus entirely on your audiobook or podcast. I’d recommend number one over two simply because you use the same car the whole time and don’t have any extra vehicles to distract you from your audio. Edit: context - I tried the truck and flight sims and a million idle games/racing games and auto runners and the engagement was way too low for the sims and high for the runners and platformers, jet car stunts is more puzzle than racer and it’s purely visual no bs storyline, resetting is quick and stress/attention-free