After a long day: simple, slow games for tired evenings

The best games for a tired evening ask very little of you. They have simple controls, few or no menus, and goals that are suggestions rather than demands. The picks in this playlist share three traits, in our editorial view: you can understand them in a minute, they move at your pace, and they look and sound soft.

Games that are mostly about moving

Flower has you guide a current of wind across fields, picking up petals as you go. Its developer, thatgamecompany, describes how everything you pick up changes the world around you. There are no menus to manage and it is rated PEGI 3.

Journey, from the same studio, invites you to explore an ancient, mysterious world, soaring above ruins and gliding across sand. You can play alone or in the company of a fellow traveller, whose identity stays anonymous.

ABZU, from Journey's art director, swaps sand for sea: you swim among schools of fish that respond to you and to each other. PEGI rates it PEGI 7 with Violence and Fear descriptors, and the game's own description mentions dangers in the depths, so it is calm for most of its length rather than all of it.

Games that are mostly about looking

A Short Hike is set in a small provincial park. Its Steam page invites you to hike at your own pace, fish, swim and chat with other hikers on your way to the summit, with a soundtrack that changes as you explore. It is rated PEGI 3.

Townscaper describes itself as having no goal and no real gameplay: you choose colours, place blocks and watch an algorithm turn them into houses, arches and bridges. It is ideal when you want to make something pretty without making decisions that matter.

Setting up for a tired evening

• Lower the volume a notch or two. Soft soundtracks feel softer still.
• Dim the room lights or the screen. See our no screen glow evenings playlist for brightness settings on handhelds, phones and PCs.
• Decide when you'll stop. Tired players are more likely to drift on. A timer set before you start helps; our wind-down routine guide explains why.
• Keep the hour before bed screen-free. This is NHS advice, not ours, and it applies to calm games too.

When tiredness is something more

If you find you are exhausted most evenings, or using games to cope with stress or low mood, it is worth looking at NHS guidance and speaking to a GP. This site offers game suggestions, not health advice.

If you only have energy for one

Choose Townscaper if you want to make something, Flower or A Short Hike if you want to move through a pretty place, and Journey or ABZU if you would like to glide through a vast, beautiful world. There is no wrong pick; the right one is whichever you feel like opening.

Each description here is drawn from official store and developer pages and PEGI's database. How calm a game feels is personal, so trust your own reaction over any list.