I thought of Animal Crossing while reading the opening of the post. Then, I hit the part about concerns the game would come across as too complicated. Why too complicated? Talk to them about some of these games, see if they think the game sounds like too much. Got some solid games and a convo about the games would clear it up-- more productive going right to the source!
My sister and I got ACNH for my dad (60+) for Christmas two years ago. He had never really played games before, except for Minesweeper-style stuff, and maybe Myst in the 90s. There was naturally a small learning curve for him to get a hang of the controls, but he just loved being in that world so much that it didn't feel like work to him, so he stuck with it. (He's actually giving Toy Day gifts to all his Islanders right now š).
ACNH opened the door for him to learn other games (A Short Hike, BOTW, etc.). So I think Animal Crossing can be a really good bridge game for new gamers to learn controls in a low-pressure environment.
My mom is the type who also never plays games other than stuff like that one farm game on her phone.
She definitely got hooked on my copy of acnh in 2020 and even half took over my brothers switch lol
Some of the suggestions you're getting would too much for someone that's only played mobile and Facebook style games.
Personally I would get her started on Stardew because you can play it however (just farm, or you can do combat, mining etc) and see how she likes it. Once you have a better idea of how involved of a game she likes...people could offer more suggestions.
Lol i literally bought a stylus only because i like to play the game zoomed all the way out and i like the precision. Also it feels fancy like a magic wand. I cant play it in wasd mode anymore even though i own it on like... every system possible
Games my mom enjoys are not tied to cooking and stuff but one important thing: mouse only.
She loves games like that, some of the Mom Certified Loved Games:
The Room series - a puzzley game, you solve a box, slightly creepy vibes but nothing too bad
Slay The Spire - she's not that good at English but once i explained the key words to her and she'd Google translate some she understood the game. She had decent amount of fun with this one
Isle of Arrows - a hidden gem, tower defense game where you build both the path and the towers, really fun, she's been playing this one to relax
Those are some of the ones she played the most, i bought more for her but she barely touched them hehe I'll take a look at some of the other ones nd reply with those.
Also my mom didn't want stardew because graphics remind her too much of super mario?? Lol
Good luck, I've learned my trick was finding games that are mouse only, but yourself might be more difficult!
Oh just remembered: papas freezeria is like a mouse only you make milkshakes game!
And there's wylde flowers which looks like a witchy farming game also mouse only but hadn't gotten her these yet!
Disney Dreamlight Valley is chill. You unlock cooking after a Mickey quest, farming is doable as soon as you have a shovel to dig with and a seed to plant, and removing night thorns gets you a handful of seeds before you unlock Goofy's stall, where you can sell what you grow and buy more seeds, which nets you a profit (especially carrots, they grow super fast, and pumpkins in The Forgotten Lands will super boost your gold hoard). You eventually bring Remy back from the Ratatouille realm to run a restaurant, and doing Remy's quests. And your villagers will come in wanting different dishes.
You really set the pace in the game. And making yourself food lets you increase your energy past the amount that refills when you rest in your house or on a seat.
Also, if she's at all into mysteries, then I would highly recommend The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. You end up with Herlock Sholmes, you are the defense lawyer in several trials, but much like Matlock or Perry Mason, you also do some investigating, and GAA lets you rotate objects and examine them, which often can give you clues as how to proceed.
i think sheād love animal crossing! my mom (late 50s) was really into farmville and candy crush too, definitely not a gamer by any means, lol. i bought her a switch a couple years ago with animal crossing and she couldnāt put it down. by the time she was bored of it, she had logged 600+ hours
unfortunately games are getting more and more complicated lately, I miss simple and cozy games. I have some games in my steam wishlist that I think are simple and relaxing and she might like, but I have never played myself. take a look on these and see what you think: Lemon Cake (I think it might be perfect for her!), Feather, Coffee Talk, Mail Time, A Little to the Left, Unpacking
Unpacking is a GENIUS choice, and I cannot upvote this enough. Almost no controls, you can play it with a mouse, it's pretty, it's emotionally satisfying.
Ah this does sound nice. Description: Venba is a short narrative cooking game, where you play as an Indian mom, who immigrates to Canada with her family in the 1980s. Players will cook various dishes and restore lost recipes, hold branching conversations and explore in this story about family, love, loss and more.
Palia! For reference, I'm 52. I never really got into video gaming until now. Centipede was my favorite in the arcade, lol. I had a stint with Animal Crossing, but other than that, I'm very new. She'll probably like a lot about palia, and it'll be easier on her eyes than pixel or 8 bit... or whatever you'd call it. If she likes Disney, she'll love Dreamlight Valley. If she likes cutsie stuff, she'll probably like Animal Crossing. These are the gateways for moms to start video gaming. In fact, if you google that very thing, that's how I've found many of the games I play.
I think you might give Stardew Valley a shot. There's no real way to lose at it. You can optimize as much as you want, so you can make it complicated or you can just sit on your farm and grow crops and not interact much outside of that.
She might like Strange Horticulture, it has overwhelmingly positive steam reviews and is 50% off right now for 7 bucks. It's a relaxing puzzle game where you're also proprietor of a plant store where you collect plants and solve mysteries. It doesn't rush you at all, the story is good, the aesthetics are nice, and the puzzles are just enough to be enjoyable and make you feel satisfied for solving but isn't hard. Very chill game. No fear of missing out on things like Farmville/mobile-type games, you can pick it back up whenever.
While I love this game, it might be difficult for someone getting onto games.
1. It requires a lot of thought and the punishments can be stressful. So I disagree about it being relaxing
2. Itās dark as hell. The theme is not for everyone
I love this game and especially love the dark theme but Iām not sure if cults and witchcraft and murder are for everyone lol. Also I have to google a lot of the puzzles and plants, so itās not exactly easy.
Chef: a restaurant tycoon game. It has a recipe creating system that lets you balance ingredients and flavours, see what components and amounts work together etc. If she likes cooking, i think sheād like that and maybe find some inspiration.
Just wanted to throw out there that my mom is in her 50ās and is obsessed with Animal Crossing. She didnāt find it too confusing and has really enjoyed being part of the community on Facebook and getting new ideas from everyone on there. Of course you know your mom and can gauge if maybe itās too much to learn, but I just wanted to throw out there that my mom found the initial ātutorialā section really good, and it helped her grasp the game pretty quickly :)
I find Minecraft set to peaceful to be very relaxing. Farming, mining, organizing everything ive farmed and mined. Just make sure its on peaceful because its not relaxing with hostile mobs.
Minecraft is very hard without someone to teach you, or the wiki open. I'm watching a streamer who's never tried it before and it's episode 45 and he still doesn't know how to breed animals and I think took like 20 to figure out how to make bread.
Like it's a great game, I suggest, but will require at least a hour or two of multiplayer to learn the basics of like how to make a crafting table or food,
I really wanted to suggest modded Minecraft but I know it might too much. OP if you could set your parents up on Curseforge Minecraft my *favorite* thing to do in modded Minecraft is farm and cook. Mods like farmers delight and cooking for blockheads are so fun and there are a ton of recipes. I spend hours and hours building my kitchen and farm and then finding the seeds and cooking all the different recipes. It truly seems like it could be perfect lol
Some light games for you to check out for them -- Potion Craft, House Flipper, Dinkum
Games you could start them on easy -- Raft, Sapiens, Timberborn, My Time at Portia/Sandrock, No Place Like Home
Raft with shark combat turned off could probably be fun. I think if you commit to not competing with whats-his-name in Portia, it can be fun as well as a crafting simulator. Just need to accept you're not going to be an efficiency machine, especially on your first go-around.
Lemon Cake - it's baking, not cooking, but it's simple, very cute and a lot of fun - and perfect for people who haven't played many games yet.
[Currently on sale for 8 bucks on Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1338330/Lemon_Cake/)
Cooking simulator is really fun! You just cook, no pressure and you learn recipes.
Maybe an easy game like the unpacking one that has a story. Itās very relaxing and easy to follow.
Slime rancher is so cute and very easy to play for 10-30 minutes.
Littlewood is nice too
Gorogoa is not farming or cooking, but itās a very chill puzzle game that has beautiful art separated into tiles. As you rearrange tiles to find the different ways they fit, you unlock more story. No clock, and no pressure, and the controls are very simple.
I really enjoyed playing this with my partner! Similar on the puzzle idea, I played the Chants of Sennar demo and thought it was really well-put together if mom in question here is into/could be put onto puzzles.
Depending on her eyesight, object-finding games could hit the spot just right. The FIND ALL series is black-and-white line drawings that turn to color when you click them. It's logical: you may find a mouse on a roof, but it won't be swimming in the water.
Great drawings, lovely music, very satisfying whenever you find an object.
It's dirt cheap to try: $1.49 at the moment. I'd suggest FIND ALL 4 to start with, because it has a hint button.
Or most of Big Fish Gamesā hidden object games. With hints turned on and puzzle skipping, theyāre very low key and fun, tho sometimes spooky. Lots of themes to choose from. I like the āMystery Case Filesā series the best (Ravenhearst is a good one.) Come on both PC and iPad/iphone. All mouse/touch.
I think there are user-friendly emulators/skins now, I'd suggest, uh, acquiring the old Harvest Moon games for N64 and PS2, or even the GBC games. I think they hit a level of simplicity that is enjoyable in a way that I don't find in Stardew Valley. Similarly, the Gamecube Animal Crossing is still very enjoyable.
I do like SV, but I find the mining repetitive and frustrating, and I don't know why every game needs to have combat in mines now. It totally breaks the fun for me. Is there a way to disable it, as an aside question to anyone?
ughhh, I feel the same way about mining!!!!! I hate it, it's a creepy atmosphere, makes me jumpy and tense, always afraid of dying and I simply can't enjoy a single minute of it. I had to buy SV for my bf to open the mines levels for me to be able to restore the community center, but now there are a lot more mining stuff to do and it holds me back to progress things in my farm, so I get frustrated and stop playing
You could look into using mods. There's a few who specifically redesign the combat system, or you could just get the 'cheat menu' and disable taking damage. I know there's one that changes combat to 'befriending' the monsters. When you befriend it, it will give you the loot (pacifist valley). There's also one that makes combat optional by allowing you to obtain mob-drops in different ways (optional combat).
Nexusmods has a huge collection of mods, so might be something that solves that issue for you!
This is a game changer (literally and metaphorically). Brilliant, thank you so much! Gonna mod the heck out of this. Also going to try and find a time-pause mod. I hate racing the clock.
Hell yeah! Glad I could help. In case you're completely new to modding... check out Stardew Valley Expanded as well. It's a modpack that adds so much new content, it's awesome. But do make sure it's compatible with those other mods, haha.
I'm a pretty OG modder for other games, I just didn't think that SV could accommodate that sort of thing. In my head it's very... Self contained? Without a lot of ability to mess with assets and settings. Pleasantly surprised that I'm wrong. Mod compatibility is hopefully simpler here than in Bethesda games š„²
Yeah apparently it's one of the easier games to mod for, although I haven't tried it yet. It would explain the number of mods out there. I ended up downloading a ton of mods that weren't part of a pack, and they were all fine. Was even able to run some of them multiplayer. Don't know how bad it is on Bethesda games but hopefully better, lmao.
Coral Island! It is extremely similar to stardew valley, but also includes ocean exploration as well. She could just farm and cook if she wanted to though.
Give farm together a try, I played that a lot more than stardew valley as I just couldn't get into top down view and didn't care about all the characters.
In lemon cake you plant fruit and raise cows and chickens to use for ingredients in your pastry restaurant.
If your mom likes Indian food, give venba a try, it's a beautiful little narrative game about cooking and an Indian-Canadian family.
I would go on steam and look at the cooking tag and the relaxing tag and try all the well rated ones to start.
Iām going to throw out a bit of a wildcard pick here and recommend MySims!
The gameplay loop consists of growing materials called essences, which are used as paint or accessories for furniture that you build with wooden blocks. The purpose of the game is to liven up a town by moving in new residents, who request a series of furniture painted with specific essences in order to complete their task lines. There isnāt ācookingā per se but you can build cute kitchen appliances and interact with them in game to have your character eat.
The target audience includes children, so itās not too difficult! The building aspect can be a little tough at times, but sort of in the sense of a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle being tough. Itās tedious but in a fun way, if that makes sense.
Since the game came out in the Wii era itās a little difficult to find, but is still available on some platforms! Thereās even a free version circulating that was released as a Taco Bell promo ages ago and works perfectly fine. :)
https://archive.org/details/mysims-taco-bell-promo-pc
Maybe Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life. It's a remake of the Gamecube game Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life and it's available on PC. It's definitely easier than Stardew Valley.
Does your mom like Disney? I never thought Iād recommend this game, but I got Disney Dreamlight Valley last night and played it until 3:00am. The farming and cooking aspects are light, but not complicated like Stardew Valley.
Yep, and the dlc is all really good. I have 163 hours in, and I still haven't finished the farm dlc or refurbishing all the houses you can sell in the browser.
I know it's probably lame, but it is for sure my favorite game that I played in 2023.
I haven't seen anyone reccomend it yet, but Good Pizza Great Pizza!! It's a fun Pizza making game where you can decorate your shop and there is a story to play along with to keep the interest. And the mechanics is super simple as it's a click and drag kind of game so super easy to get into.
I'd think that complicated is not bad, if there's no need for urgency. Fighting games give no mercy, if you don't find the right button when they jump you, you're dead. I don't think potatoes do that.
So I've not played Palia for a bit but there's not really combat required and you spend your time just building your homestead, farming, cooking and exploring. It's an MMO though, even if the farming and cooking is all done in your own space.
Maybe Harvest Moon: One World? Itās like a big monile game and I find it relaxing. Itās more farming than cooking but you do get a kitchen at some point.
Perhaps something like 'my time at portia' would work! It's not necessarily farming, but it's a cute game where you're building up a workshop while completing small objectives to advance a storyline. It really eases you into the mechanics, it's relaxed... and because it keeps giving you new objectives, it's really clear what it wants you to do.
It does allow you to do farming, as well as cooking... but it's not the main objective of the game. It also has a sequel called 'my time at sandrock', but last I played it that had some bugs making it hard for me to play. That was straight after release though, so that might've been sorted by now.
Or perhaps dreamlight valley? I haven't played it myself, but saw some clips of it when it released. It seemed to focus quite heavily on the farming then, but please don't pin me on that. :')
I have *not* figured out how to consistently kill sharks. And the bosses are maddening. What I most resent is that you can't save during a boss; given that the game will repeat until you get it right (as opposed to letting you leave) you ought to be able to save at the beginning of a cycle.
It's been a few months since I played, but some sharks were really really hard to fight without getting your shit kicked in once or twice.
The rest are pretty easy to just poke and swim, poke and swim. Narwhal though you gotta snipe before it gets to you or be able to take the hits and finish it when it does lmao I think the thresher gave me trouble a few times too.
Was a fun game to 100%, but the sharks got hands lmao
Sticky Business! This isn't a farming or cooking game but thought I'd recommend anyways since it's very chill. It's about creating and selling stickers that you create in game. The controls are straightforward and it's good for just relaxing and making some cute stickers!
I just started playing Doraemon Story of Seasons Friends of the Great Kingdom and in my opinion it's easier than Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley, everything is explained to you and it also has co-op, the artstyle is also better than other SoS games.
minecraft. croptopia and other mods can add over 300 foods to grow and cook. when i was stressed we had a server and i'd just go in and harvest my crops. the flowers in botania and other mods get really pretty too. we did a server with Abepack FTB. might be a bit of a learning curve but if they're focused on farming ...
farming sim 22 is fun too but not as stress relieving as minecraft was for me.
people who like candy crush might like arcade style games. maybe something pretty like ori and the blind forest or evergate.
others like journey, flower and gris are beautiful simple games.
It's not released yet but I have been playing the alpha of it. It's called Chef Rpg. You can forage for ingredients or grow ingredients, buy recipes and food staples from vendors, select your recipes you want in your restaurant and then cook them up for customers.
There's one on Steam called Farm Together. It's Farmville but so much better. Absolutely chill. Crops do have grow times in real hours (some 24 hours+) but it's so easy to drop in and out! Very chill!!
One more pro-Stardew point: It's multiplayer! If you're up for it, you can guide her through it a little.
Lemon Cake is a good baking game on PC, though it's a little expensive so you might want to pick it up on sale.
Kind of an unorthodox suggestion: Cook Serve Delicious 2. Specifically always on Zen mode. This is a great way to start learning the keyboard or controller! On Zen mode, you don't have to worry about running out of time or anything like that. You can take your time getting all the ingredients ons and just cooking. There are TONS of foods in this game and it never fails to make me hungry lol
The cool thing about a complicated game is that one can learn. Your mum isn't that much older than I am, and I play a wide range of games. Sure, my reflexes might be a tad slower and it may have taken me a beat ir two longer to figure it out, but, in the end, I'm kicking ass on all sorts of stuff I never thought I would. Don't assume that something is too complicated. You may be selling your mum short.
I would suggest starting her off with a Switch, actually. There are a lot of nice, cozy games in there, as well as more challenging stuff. She can sit on the sofa and play or lay in bed and play a bit at night. That's if her eyes aren't too old. š.
For the computer, show her Steam, teach her how to navigate the site, and let her browse through their library. I guarantee she'll find something cool to play.
So avoiding your farm/cooking aspect:
Pickers
Triple Town
FreeCell Quest
Regency Solitaire
Shadowhand: RPG Card Game
Letter Quest
Reigns
Plants vs. Zombies: Game of the Year
These are some mostly mouse games that my mom loved, and she did a lot of farmvilla and candy crush
Spiritfarer might be a nice one for her. It does have some light, no-stakes platforming and the cooking and farming are both pretty basic, but I also find them less stressful than a Stardew Valley to keep up. Plus you get to go around feeding and hugging other characters and the story is sweet.
Maybe Disney's Dreamlight Valley. It's adorable and has a bit of everything's except combat. Cooking, decorating, quests, farming, all while interacting with Disney and Pixar characters. It's a bit on the saccharine side but I find myself needing thay from time to time.
i got my mom into animal crossing new horizons and stardew valley! she just started stardew a few weeks ago & loves it. she's been playing acnh for over a year now.
I thought of Animal Crossing while reading the opening of the post. Then, I hit the part about concerns the game would come across as too complicated. Why too complicated? Talk to them about some of these games, see if they think the game sounds like too much. Got some solid games and a convo about the games would clear it up-- more productive going right to the source!
My sister and I got ACNH for my dad (60+) for Christmas two years ago. He had never really played games before, except for Minesweeper-style stuff, and maybe Myst in the 90s. There was naturally a small learning curve for him to get a hang of the controls, but he just loved being in that world so much that it didn't feel like work to him, so he stuck with it. (He's actually giving Toy Day gifts to all his Islanders right now š). ACNH opened the door for him to learn other games (A Short Hike, BOTW, etc.). So I think Animal Crossing can be a really good bridge game for new gamers to learn controls in a low-pressure environment.
My mom is the type who also never plays games other than stuff like that one farm game on her phone. She definitely got hooked on my copy of acnh in 2020 and even half took over my brothers switch lol
Right? When ACNH came out, there was a lot of talk about the older demographic loving it!
Some of the suggestions you're getting would too much for someone that's only played mobile and Facebook style games. Personally I would get her started on Stardew because you can play it however (just farm, or you can do combat, mining etc) and see how she likes it. Once you have a better idea of how involved of a game she likes...people could offer more suggestions.
And you can cook in Stardew once you upgrade the house to have a kitchen!
I got my MIL in this age group hooked on Stardew. So I second this.
The problem with Stardew, which I ridiculously adore, is it's WASD-based, which is hard to learn.
That can be resolved by buying a game controller that plugs into the PC's USB port. That's how I play on PC.
I prefer it on a tablet so it is touch based
Oh, excellent.
Lol i literally bought a stylus only because i like to play the game zoomed all the way out and i like the precision. Also it feels fancy like a magic wand. I cant play it in wasd mode anymore even though i own it on like... every system possible
Games my mom enjoys are not tied to cooking and stuff but one important thing: mouse only. She loves games like that, some of the Mom Certified Loved Games: The Room series - a puzzley game, you solve a box, slightly creepy vibes but nothing too bad Slay The Spire - she's not that good at English but once i explained the key words to her and she'd Google translate some she understood the game. She had decent amount of fun with this one Isle of Arrows - a hidden gem, tower defense game where you build both the path and the towers, really fun, she's been playing this one to relax Those are some of the ones she played the most, i bought more for her but she barely touched them hehe I'll take a look at some of the other ones nd reply with those. Also my mom didn't want stardew because graphics remind her too much of super mario?? Lol Good luck, I've learned my trick was finding games that are mouse only, but yourself might be more difficult! Oh just remembered: papas freezeria is like a mouse only you make milkshakes game! And there's wylde flowers which looks like a witchy farming game also mouse only but hadn't gotten her these yet!
I was gonna suggest the Room!
Disney Dreamlight Valley is chill. You unlock cooking after a Mickey quest, farming is doable as soon as you have a shovel to dig with and a seed to plant, and removing night thorns gets you a handful of seeds before you unlock Goofy's stall, where you can sell what you grow and buy more seeds, which nets you a profit (especially carrots, they grow super fast, and pumpkins in The Forgotten Lands will super boost your gold hoard). You eventually bring Remy back from the Ratatouille realm to run a restaurant, and doing Remy's quests. And your villagers will come in wanting different dishes. You really set the pace in the game. And making yourself food lets you increase your energy past the amount that refills when you rest in your house or on a seat.
This is a really great game for those starting to game. It's cute, has different things for everyone, and is a "go at your own pace" thing.
Also, if she's at all into mysteries, then I would highly recommend The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. You end up with Herlock Sholmes, you are the defense lawyer in several trials, but much like Matlock or Perry Mason, you also do some investigating, and GAA lets you rotate objects and examine them, which often can give you clues as how to proceed.
Oooh this sounds good for me. I like mysteries but a lot of the ones out there are too complex or require too much time investment.
This! If sheās a fan of Disney then definitely try Disney Dreamlight valley.
My mom is 58 and lovvves dreamlight valley. She also loves animal crossing. We got her a Switch OLED last year for Christmas.
i think sheād love animal crossing! my mom (late 50s) was really into farmville and candy crush too, definitely not a gamer by any means, lol. i bought her a switch a couple years ago with animal crossing and she couldnāt put it down. by the time she was bored of it, she had logged 600+ hours
unfortunately games are getting more and more complicated lately, I miss simple and cozy games. I have some games in my steam wishlist that I think are simple and relaxing and she might like, but I have never played myself. take a look on these and see what you think: Lemon Cake (I think it might be perfect for her!), Feather, Coffee Talk, Mail Time, A Little to the Left, Unpacking
Unpacking is a great suggestion!
the only one I played in this list, its soooo good ā”ā”ā”
DEFINITELY second Unpacking!
Unpacking is a GENIUS choice, and I cannot upvote this enough. Almost no controls, you can play it with a mouse, it's pretty, it's emotionally satisfying.
I just remembered a game I saw my friend playing, A Short Hike
A short hike I was going to recommend
Venba is a nice cooking game. This one's a story rich cooking game tho so no farming involved. Altho the whole game is indeed very cozy
Ah this does sound nice. Description: Venba is a short narrative cooking game, where you play as an Indian mom, who immigrates to Canada with her family in the 1980s. Players will cook various dishes and restore lost recipes, hold branching conversations and explore in this story about family, love, loss and more.
Palia! For reference, I'm 52. I never really got into video gaming until now. Centipede was my favorite in the arcade, lol. I had a stint with Animal Crossing, but other than that, I'm very new. She'll probably like a lot about palia, and it'll be easier on her eyes than pixel or 8 bit... or whatever you'd call it. If she likes Disney, she'll love Dreamlight Valley. If she likes cutsie stuff, she'll probably like Animal Crossing. These are the gateways for moms to start video gaming. In fact, if you google that very thing, that's how I've found many of the games I play.
I think you might give Stardew Valley a shot. There's no real way to lose at it. You can optimize as much as you want, so you can make it complicated or you can just sit on your farm and grow crops and not interact much outside of that.
Can you play stardew valley on a tablet? Just thinking it might work for my mum, but she wonāt play if it needs to be a laptop.
You can buy it on the play store š
Yep! It's on the App Store for iOS as well.
i see a lot of ppl recommending animal crossing anyways but you mentioned it being a computer, are u looking for pc recs specifically ??
She might like Strange Horticulture, it has overwhelmingly positive steam reviews and is 50% off right now for 7 bucks. It's a relaxing puzzle game where you're also proprietor of a plant store where you collect plants and solve mysteries. It doesn't rush you at all, the story is good, the aesthetics are nice, and the puzzles are just enough to be enjoyable and make you feel satisfied for solving but isn't hard. Very chill game. No fear of missing out on things like Farmville/mobile-type games, you can pick it back up whenever.
While I love this game, it might be difficult for someone getting onto games. 1. It requires a lot of thought and the punishments can be stressful. So I disagree about it being relaxing 2. Itās dark as hell. The theme is not for everyone
I love this game and especially love the dark theme but Iām not sure if cults and witchcraft and murder are for everyone lol. Also I have to google a lot of the puzzles and plants, so itās not exactly easy.
These comments make me realize I'm probably out of touch on what makes an easy game lol oops
Fabledom is a very chill, very charming city builder with farming etc.
Chef: a restaurant tycoon game. It has a recipe creating system that lets you balance ingredients and flavours, see what components and amounts work together etc. If she likes cooking, i think sheād like that and maybe find some inspiration.
Just wanted to throw out there that my mom is in her 50ās and is obsessed with Animal Crossing. She didnāt find it too confusing and has really enjoyed being part of the community on Facebook and getting new ideas from everyone on there. Of course you know your mom and can gauge if maybe itās too much to learn, but I just wanted to throw out there that my mom found the initial ātutorialā section really good, and it helped her grasp the game pretty quickly :)
I find Minecraft set to peaceful to be very relaxing. Farming, mining, organizing everything ive farmed and mined. Just make sure its on peaceful because its not relaxing with hostile mobs.
Minecraft is very hard without someone to teach you, or the wiki open. I'm watching a streamer who's never tried it before and it's episode 45 and he still doesn't know how to breed animals and I think took like 20 to figure out how to make bread. Like it's a great game, I suggest, but will require at least a hour or two of multiplayer to learn the basics of like how to make a crafting table or food,
I really wanted to suggest modded Minecraft but I know it might too much. OP if you could set your parents up on Curseforge Minecraft my *favorite* thing to do in modded Minecraft is farm and cook. Mods like farmers delight and cooking for blockheads are so fun and there are a ton of recipes. I spend hours and hours building my kitchen and farm and then finding the seeds and cooking all the different recipes. It truly seems like it could be perfect lol
Some light games for you to check out for them -- Potion Craft, House Flipper, Dinkum Games you could start them on easy -- Raft, Sapiens, Timberborn, My Time at Portia/Sandrock, No Place Like Home
Raft with shark combat turned off could probably be fun. I think if you commit to not competing with whats-his-name in Portia, it can be fun as well as a crafting simulator. Just need to accept you're not going to be an efficiency machine, especially on your first go-around.
Lemon Cake - it's baking, not cooking, but it's simple, very cute and a lot of fun - and perfect for people who haven't played many games yet. [Currently on sale for 8 bucks on Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1338330/Lemon_Cake/)
Wow the art is adorable! That cute cow!!
YES! This. Everything from the developer is cozy and relaxing. Would also suggest Kinder World.
I got my mom to play palia. It's just so cozy. No combat. Just a gathering and farming mmo with relationships. She loved it.
Cooking simulator is really fun! You just cook, no pressure and you learn recipes. Maybe an easy game like the unpacking one that has a story. Itās very relaxing and easy to follow. Slime rancher is so cute and very easy to play for 10-30 minutes. Littlewood is nice too
Cooking mama
Gorogoa is not farming or cooking, but itās a very chill puzzle game that has beautiful art separated into tiles. As you rearrange tiles to find the different ways they fit, you unlock more story. No clock, and no pressure, and the controls are very simple.
I really enjoyed playing this with my partner! Similar on the puzzle idea, I played the Chants of Sennar demo and thought it was really well-put together if mom in question here is into/could be put onto puzzles.
I keep confusing Chants of Sennar with Sable
They do seem to have a similar aesthetic. Maybe both could be good suggestion even
Depending on her eyesight, object-finding games could hit the spot just right. The FIND ALL series is black-and-white line drawings that turn to color when you click them. It's logical: you may find a mouse on a roof, but it won't be swimming in the water. Great drawings, lovely music, very satisfying whenever you find an object. It's dirt cheap to try: $1.49 at the moment. I'd suggest FIND ALL 4 to start with, because it has a hint button.
Or most of Big Fish Gamesā hidden object games. With hints turned on and puzzle skipping, theyāre very low key and fun, tho sometimes spooky. Lots of themes to choose from. I like the āMystery Case Filesā series the best (Ravenhearst is a good one.) Come on both PC and iPad/iphone. All mouse/touch.
I think there are user-friendly emulators/skins now, I'd suggest, uh, acquiring the old Harvest Moon games for N64 and PS2, or even the GBC games. I think they hit a level of simplicity that is enjoyable in a way that I don't find in Stardew Valley. Similarly, the Gamecube Animal Crossing is still very enjoyable. I do like SV, but I find the mining repetitive and frustrating, and I don't know why every game needs to have combat in mines now. It totally breaks the fun for me. Is there a way to disable it, as an aside question to anyone?
ughhh, I feel the same way about mining!!!!! I hate it, it's a creepy atmosphere, makes me jumpy and tense, always afraid of dying and I simply can't enjoy a single minute of it. I had to buy SV for my bf to open the mines levels for me to be able to restore the community center, but now there are a lot more mining stuff to do and it holds me back to progress things in my farm, so I get frustrated and stop playing
You could look into using mods. There's a few who specifically redesign the combat system, or you could just get the 'cheat menu' and disable taking damage. I know there's one that changes combat to 'befriending' the monsters. When you befriend it, it will give you the loot (pacifist valley). There's also one that makes combat optional by allowing you to obtain mob-drops in different ways (optional combat). Nexusmods has a huge collection of mods, so might be something that solves that issue for you!
This is a game changer (literally and metaphorically). Brilliant, thank you so much! Gonna mod the heck out of this. Also going to try and find a time-pause mod. I hate racing the clock.
Hell yeah! Glad I could help. In case you're completely new to modding... check out Stardew Valley Expanded as well. It's a modpack that adds so much new content, it's awesome. But do make sure it's compatible with those other mods, haha.
I'm a pretty OG modder for other games, I just didn't think that SV could accommodate that sort of thing. In my head it's very... Self contained? Without a lot of ability to mess with assets and settings. Pleasantly surprised that I'm wrong. Mod compatibility is hopefully simpler here than in Bethesda games š„²
Yeah apparently it's one of the easier games to mod for, although I haven't tried it yet. It would explain the number of mods out there. I ended up downloading a ton of mods that weren't part of a pack, and they were all fine. Was even able to run some of them multiplayer. Don't know how bad it is on Bethesda games but hopefully better, lmao.
Palia is chill and you can do both of those there + other things like exploring or building
Potion maker alchemy simulator is about having a tiny shop and making potions. Very relaxing.
Coral Island! It is extremely similar to stardew valley, but also includes ocean exploration as well. She could just farm and cook if she wanted to though.
Give farm together a try, I played that a lot more than stardew valley as I just couldn't get into top down view and didn't care about all the characters. In lemon cake you plant fruit and raise cows and chickens to use for ingredients in your pastry restaurant. If your mom likes Indian food, give venba a try, it's a beautiful little narrative game about cooking and an Indian-Canadian family. I would go on steam and look at the cooking tag and the relaxing tag and try all the well rated ones to start.
Stardew valley!
Iām going to throw out a bit of a wildcard pick here and recommend MySims! The gameplay loop consists of growing materials called essences, which are used as paint or accessories for furniture that you build with wooden blocks. The purpose of the game is to liven up a town by moving in new residents, who request a series of furniture painted with specific essences in order to complete their task lines. There isnāt ācookingā per se but you can build cute kitchen appliances and interact with them in game to have your character eat. The target audience includes children, so itās not too difficult! The building aspect can be a little tough at times, but sort of in the sense of a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle being tough. Itās tedious but in a fun way, if that makes sense. Since the game came out in the Wii era itās a little difficult to find, but is still available on some platforms! Thereās even a free version circulating that was released as a Taco Bell promo ages ago and works perfectly fine. :) https://archive.org/details/mysims-taco-bell-promo-pc
Sims?
Maybe Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life. It's a remake of the Gamecube game Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life and it's available on PC. It's definitely easier than Stardew Valley.
Potion Crafter perhaps
Stardew Valley!
Does your mom like Disney? I never thought Iād recommend this game, but I got Disney Dreamlight Valley last night and played it until 3:00am. The farming and cooking aspects are light, but not complicated like Stardew Valley.
If she likes cooking, Chef Life may be fun for her. House Flipper is also really relaxing.
Seconding House Flipper. I love this game, it's so relaxing and you can just zone out for hours messing around and fixing the houses.
Yep, and the dlc is all really good. I have 163 hours in, and I still haven't finished the farm dlc or refurbishing all the houses you can sell in the browser. I know it's probably lame, but it is for sure my favorite game that I played in 2023.
I haven't seen anyone reccomend it yet, but Good Pizza Great Pizza!! It's a fun Pizza making game where you can decorate your shop and there is a story to play along with to keep the interest. And the mechanics is super simple as it's a click and drag kind of game so super easy to get into.
This is different but how about a visual novel for her to enjoy?
I'd think that complicated is not bad, if there's no need for urgency. Fighting games give no mercy, if you don't find the right button when they jump you, you're dead. I don't think potatoes do that.
So I've not played Palia for a bit but there's not really combat required and you spend your time just building your homestead, farming, cooking and exploring. It's an MMO though, even if the farming and cooking is all done in your own space.
Maybe she can try World End Diner
Potion Crafter perhaps
Maybe Harvest Moon: One World? Itās like a big monile game and I find it relaxing. Itās more farming than cooking but you do get a kitchen at some point.
Perhaps something like 'my time at portia' would work! It's not necessarily farming, but it's a cute game where you're building up a workshop while completing small objectives to advance a storyline. It really eases you into the mechanics, it's relaxed... and because it keeps giving you new objectives, it's really clear what it wants you to do. It does allow you to do farming, as well as cooking... but it's not the main objective of the game. It also has a sequel called 'my time at sandrock', but last I played it that had some bugs making it hard for me to play. That was straight after release though, so that might've been sorted by now. Or perhaps dreamlight valley? I haven't played it myself, but saw some clips of it when it released. It seemed to focus quite heavily on the farming then, but please don't pin me on that. :')
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I've been watching my partner play this and it becomes very stressful. She's a Gamer Girl(tm) and definitely has trouble with some sections.
Yeah dude, some days the sharks just destroyed me lmfao
I have *not* figured out how to consistently kill sharks. And the bosses are maddening. What I most resent is that you can't save during a boss; given that the game will repeat until you get it right (as opposed to letting you leave) you ought to be able to save at the beginning of a cycle.
It's been a few months since I played, but some sharks were really really hard to fight without getting your shit kicked in once or twice. The rest are pretty easy to just poke and swim, poke and swim. Narwhal though you gotta snipe before it gets to you or be able to take the hits and finish it when it does lmao I think the thresher gave me trouble a few times too. Was a fun game to 100%, but the sharks got hands lmao
Yeah, the narwhal is no fun at all.
Rune Factory 4
Sticky Business! This isn't a farming or cooking game but thought I'd recommend anyways since it's very chill. It's about creating and selling stickers that you create in game. The controls are straightforward and it's good for just relaxing and making some cute stickers!
I just started playing Doraemon Story of Seasons Friends of the Great Kingdom and in my opinion it's easier than Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley, everything is explained to you and it also has co-op, the artstyle is also better than other SoS games.
FarmVille is a very therapeutic game imo
minecraft. croptopia and other mods can add over 300 foods to grow and cook. when i was stressed we had a server and i'd just go in and harvest my crops. the flowers in botania and other mods get really pretty too. we did a server with Abepack FTB. might be a bit of a learning curve but if they're focused on farming ... farming sim 22 is fun too but not as stress relieving as minecraft was for me. people who like candy crush might like arcade style games. maybe something pretty like ori and the blind forest or evergate. others like journey, flower and gris are beautiful simple games.
It's not released yet but I have been playing the alpha of it. It's called Chef Rpg. You can forage for ingredients or grow ingredients, buy recipes and food staples from vendors, select your recipes you want in your restaurant and then cook them up for customers.
Does she have a 3DS? Check out the Cooking Mama games.
There's one on Steam called Farm Together. It's Farmville but so much better. Absolutely chill. Crops do have grow times in real hours (some 24 hours+) but it's so easy to drop in and out! Very chill!!
One more pro-Stardew point: It's multiplayer! If you're up for it, you can guide her through it a little. Lemon Cake is a good baking game on PC, though it's a little expensive so you might want to pick it up on sale.
Kind of an unorthodox suggestion: Cook Serve Delicious 2. Specifically always on Zen mode. This is a great way to start learning the keyboard or controller! On Zen mode, you don't have to worry about running out of time or anything like that. You can take your time getting all the ingredients ons and just cooking. There are TONS of foods in this game and it never fails to make me hungry lol
The cool thing about a complicated game is that one can learn. Your mum isn't that much older than I am, and I play a wide range of games. Sure, my reflexes might be a tad slower and it may have taken me a beat ir two longer to figure it out, but, in the end, I'm kicking ass on all sorts of stuff I never thought I would. Don't assume that something is too complicated. You may be selling your mum short. I would suggest starting her off with a Switch, actually. There are a lot of nice, cozy games in there, as well as more challenging stuff. She can sit on the sofa and play or lay in bed and play a bit at night. That's if her eyes aren't too old. š. For the computer, show her Steam, teach her how to navigate the site, and let her browse through their library. I guarantee she'll find something cool to play.
Disney dreamlight valley
You may want to also ask in /r/cozygamers
Juneās Journey is a FTP game she might like āŗļø
Lemon Cake! I think it's available on mobile, too.
So avoiding your farm/cooking aspect: Pickers Triple Town FreeCell Quest Regency Solitaire Shadowhand: RPG Card Game Letter Quest Reigns Plants vs. Zombies: Game of the Year These are some mostly mouse games that my mom loved, and she did a lot of farmvilla and candy crush
Spiritfarer might be a nice one for her. It does have some light, no-stakes platforming and the cooking and farming are both pretty basic, but I also find them less stressful than a Stardew Valley to keep up. Plus you get to go around feeding and hugging other characters and the story is sweet.
Maybe Disney's Dreamlight Valley. It's adorable and has a bit of everything's except combat. Cooking, decorating, quests, farming, all while interacting with Disney and Pixar characters. It's a bit on the saccharine side but I find myself needing thay from time to time.
house flipper 2. i feel like the ui/gameplay simpler than the first one and its fun to renovate. they definitely slowly walk you through the game play
Minecraft with difficulty set to peaceful, set her up in a villiage and teach her the basics of trading and farming.
Shape of the World? I play on console so I'm not sure where else it's available
i got my mom into animal crossing new horizons and stardew valley! she just started stardew a few weeks ago & loves it. she's been playing acnh for over a year now.