James here with a quick note to clarify that, despite the fact we haven’t added to the blog in quite some time, Non-Violent Game of the Day is still alive and well.
Rebekah and I are both juggling a lot of other commitments, and you’d be surprised how hard it is to find the time to research and write even a short entry. Plus, a quick poll of our followers on other social media platforms, the vast majority of our audience either didn’t click through the blog or didn’t know it existed.
So for the time being, we’re focused on the Twitter account. You can get a new recommendation (very nearly) every day at Twitter.com/nvgotd. Each tweet has the usual information, a short summary and a link to the game’s website or store page.
The blog will return at some point (and in the meantime, I’m working on another non-violent games project that I’ll share here when the time is right)
Thank you for your continued support and interest.
Ynglet is a meditative platformer with no platforms. Controlling a jellyfish-like creature, you’ll swim, launch, and bounce your way through colorful, relaxing, floating worlds. In Ynglet, you’ll jump between bubbles, dash into walls and bounce off them, and encounter other strange floating creatures like and unlike yourself.
Your swim is backed by a reactive soundtrack that shifts as you move through the hand-drawn environments, solve puzzles, and interact with objects.
Ynglet includes granular difficulty settings that allow you to adjust the game to your liking.
[ PC, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, PS4, Xbox One, Switch / 2016 / Uplay Games ]
This simulation/management tycoon game puts you in the role of a budding Youtuber and gives you the chance to build the massive following most people imagine they would if they actually started a YouTube channel. Players can choose from four specialities to theme their channel around - gaming, music, cooking and fashion - deciding what to feature in each weekly video they upload. As their channel gains traction and they earn more followers, they can choose how to monetise their channel, using their earnings to splash out on luxury goods or more tools and items for the content of their videos. Youtubers Life also aims to simulate the ‘life’ of a top-tier influencer as you attend parties, try to ignore the negative comments, and eventually become a billionaire with a mansion in space. That’s right - space!
Back in 2019, we ran a post listing every non-violent game shown during E3. Given this year’s array of E3 and E3-adjacent events produced 115 upcoming non-violent games (as you may have read somewhere), that just wasn’t practical. Instead, Rebekah and I have each picked out five our our faves. Enjoy!
- James
REBEKAH’S TOP 5
Pekoe
There is perhaps nothing cozier than tea and cats. Pekoe puts the player in the shoes of the newest resident and teahouse owner in a town of sentient cats. The cats want your tea, and you can learn to make it for them, learning about different tea varieties and tea making styles as you go while building relationships with the town’s inhabitants. You can upgrade and customize your teahouse, visit other teahouses for inspiration, and learn about different rituals, customs, and preparation styles for tea. Pekoe is developed by (appropriately) Kitten Cup Studio, and is planned for release in 2022.
Bear and Breakfast
Build and run a bed and breakfast in a tranquil wood…but also, you’re a bear! Startout with a rundown old inn, and build it up into splendor again while attracting and awing tourists who come to stay. Bear and Breakfast is a laidback management sim about growing a cozy woodland business, but with the added bonus of a forest mystery that unravels as your bustling breakfast nook grows. Developed by Gummy Cat, and planned for release later this year.
Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery
Behind the Frame follows an artist living alone, preparing a masterpiece for a gallery submission. It’s a puzzle game focused on both her day to day activities, her interactions with a fellow painter and neighbor (and his cat!), and painting itself. You’ll use a painting and sketch mechanic to solve puzzles that explore memory and emotion, all of which takes place in a hand-animated world that looks like it was pulled straight out of a Ghibli movie. Developed by Akupara Games.
Bird Problems
There are a lot of unique ideas for non-violent games and mechanics out there, but one I had personally never seen before was modeling a game after a sitcom. Bird Problems follows a young bird named Tweeter Gregory who’s clumsy and awkward, but just wants to make friends and enjoy a nice boba tea. We haven’t seen much of this game from Lithic Entertainment just yet, but its trailer at the Wholesome Direct stood out due to its resemblance to the goofy sitcoms of the 90s. But with birds!
A Little to the Left
Many of the non-violent games shown over the recent E3 weeks were narrative-focused, but sometimes all you want is a pleasant little puzzle game. A Little to the Left is less complicated, and in that way seems straightforward and soothing: it’s about reorganizing, tidying up, and setting things right. You’ll spend it arranging objects into patterns that look pleasant, with occasional “help” from a mischievous interrupting cat. Developed by Max Inferno, it’s planned for launch this October.
JAMES’ TOP 5
Forza Horizon 5
If you know what Forza Horizon is, you’re likely already looking forward to this one and/or have pre-ordered it/subscribed to Xbox Game Pass. For those who don’t, here’s a quick crash course (pun absolutely not intended): Developed by UK studio Playground Games, Horizon is the open-world spin-off series from Microsoft’s acclaimed Forza Motorsport franchise. While Motorsport focuses on simulation racing, Horizon offers a slightly more arcade-like experience, letting players loose behind the wheels of some of the world’s most powerful cars. You explore the landscape (Mexico, this time) to find more race locations or other ways to raise your Influence. Doing so unlocks the Top Gear-esque showstopper challenge. New to the mix are Expeditions, which take you on guided tours of the most beautiful places of the map, and Horizon Arcade, which lets you create your own tracks, stunts and races. Forza Horizon 5 is due for release on November 9th.
Sable
This indie sci-fi exploration game has been in the works for several years, but it’s finally approaching release. Set on a desert planet, you play a young woman from a nomadic tribe sent on a ritualistic quest to explore the world - on a hoverbike. Akin to Luke Skywalker’s landspeeder, or more accurately the giant USB dongle Rey drove in The Force Awakens, your task is to discover more about the world as you learn more about yourself. Investigating the wreckage of old ships will help you find the components you need to upgrade your bike, and as you meet other tribes, you can complete side quests to help them and forge new friendships. Developed by Shedworks, Sable will be available from September 23rd.
Phantom Abyss
This game has a bit of an Indiana Jones meets Mirror’s Edge kind of vibe. Players race through ancient temples, leaping chasms and dodging booby traps, in the hopes of being the first to reach the relic at the centre. You don’t technically compete with other players in real time; instead, you race their ghosts, following their leads and learning from their mistakes. Each temple is randomly generated, but as soon as someone claims the relic, they are declared champion of that particular temple and the course is removed forever, cementing their victory. And yes, you have an Indy-style whip to swing across gaps. It’s developed by Team WIBY and launched in Early Access last week.
Lake
Most video game stories present the player with world-ending stakes, sending them on an urgent quest where the clock is always ticking. Lake is a much more personal and relaxed affair. Set in 1986, you take on the role of Meredith Weiss, a forty-something career woman taking a break ahead of her software company’s big launch. She heads back to the fictional lakeside town of Providence Oaks, Oregon, her childhood home, to rediscover old friends and see what (if anything) has changed. She also takes on her father’s role as a mail carrier, delivering letters and parcels each day while he is on holiday. During the two weeks, she can forge friendships, find love, or even choose to give up her career and make a new home for herself - the choice is up to you. Lake is developed by Gamious and is due for release by the end of the year.
Schim
This 3D puzzle platformer has a simple but wonderfully creative premise: jumping between shadows. You control a schim: the soul of a living creature or object. This particular schim has become separated from the human being it was attached to, and it’s up to you to reunite them. You can hop between shadows as if they were pools of water, and if a shadow is moving (for example, the shadow of someone walking about or a bird flying) that pool will move and take you with it. Working out the best route between shadows is the only way to navigate each level, set across various urban and rural spaces. Timing is the key, because as soon as you leap out of a shadow and land in the light, it’s game over. As you can see, all of this is presented in a beautifully distinct style. Schim is being developed by Ewould van der Werf, although a release window has yet to be decided.
[ PC, Mac, Linux, Xbox One, Switch / 2019 / Coldwild Games ]
Merchant of the Skies is a relaxing trading game set in a fantasy world where traders sail flying ships between floating islands in the sky. You are captain of one such ship, selling items and gathering resources in the hope of one day building a trading empire. At first, you take control of a small ship but as you gather wealth, you can upgrade and expand it, enabling you to reach islands that are further away. You need to refuel your ship at each island you find because if you run out of fuel, you need to pay to be towed to the nearest station. Eventually, you can earn enough to buy unoccupied islands and set up factories and other facilities that provide resources and items for you to sell. You can even build a mansion to call home. You can also learn more about the world as you explore, meeting the giant fish god that asks you to bring him water, the mysterious giants that let you level up skills and abilities, or, er, a carrot with a top hat. The game is designed to be played at your own pace, and offers a different take on the base-building and tycoon genres.
[ PC, PS4, XBox One, Switch / 2021 / Banana Bird Studios, Whitethorn Digital ]
Beasts of Maravilla Island is an adventure game about wildlife photography. The titular island is home to beautiful and mysterious creatures, but the magic that keeps the island so vibrant is fading. Following in your grandfather’s footsteps, you set out to find and photograph each of the animals that live on Maravilla, and in doing so see if you can solve the mystery. There are over 50 creatures to find, each as fantastical as the next - from the prism-winged butterfly to the Maravillan mango kakapo. Players will have to approach carefully and search thoroughly if they want to find every species hiding place and some, like the banana bird, will be camoflagued. Photos will be stored in your grandfather’s journal, and you can customise this with different pictures of the same animal. It’s not just about photography either; helping the wildlife, whether it’s seeking a mate for a bird monkey or playing hide and seek with an otter-crocodile, will earn their trust and they may even unlock new areas of the island for you to explore.
You’re alone in your apartment on a snowy Christmas Eve, away from your family. Your friends have ditched you, and all you have for company are the ingredients for a hot dinner intended to be served to up to six people. Hot Pot For One is a short experience about loneliness and the comfort of food, where you make a massive hot pot just for yourself.
[ PC, PS5, PS4 / 2021 / Greg Lobanov, Alexis Dean-Jones, Lena Raine, Madeline Berger, A Shell in the Pit ]
You’re the janitor and number one fan of Chicory, the “Wielder” of a magical brush that brings color to the otherwise black and white world of Picnic. But Chicory vanishes, and all the colors vanish with her, leaving you to pick up the brush and color the world back in.
Chicory is a top-down, Zelda-like puzzle adventure where the entire world is a coloring book. Solve puzzles using your paint to interact with the world around you, color the world back in to make its inhabitants happy again, and find collectibles like clothes, decorations, new styles for your brush, and lost kitten kids. All while discovering yourself as an artist and empathetically exploring the real internal struggles of having your work on display for the world.
Continuing the ever-expanding line-up of Random Thing Simulators comes the good clean fun (pun wholeheartedly intended) of PowerWash Simulator. As with most sims, the premise is self-explanatory: equipped with a powerwasher, you need to blast everything in sight with water until everything looks its best again. The fictional UK town of Muckingham is living up to its name with everything from cars to houses covered in filth. Career Mode challenges you to complete missions, but there’s no time pressure or score to worry about – just the relaxing feeling of getting the job done. If you don’t care to follow the mission structure, you can instead enjoy Free Play. Players are free to clean how they see fit, although they’ll need to experiment with the range of nozzles and extensions to tackle any dirt that’s particularly hard to clear. And if they want to experiment with these to create a little artwork, perhaps spell out messages… Well, who’s stopping them?
PowerWash Simulator is currently in Early Access and you can find out more here.
Snowtopia is a management game all about running a ski resort. Players must carve out and mark ski routes from the top of the mountain to the resort at the bottom, creating a variety of courses to delight skiiers of different proficiency levels. They also need to provide plenty of access, building ski lifts that lead to the beginning of each course. As with many management titles, a great deal of focus is on keeping customers happy. This means not only keeping queues short and maintaining the different routes, but also providing plenty of food, drink and activities at the resort itself. You can even define the look of the resort, opting for more modern buildings or leaning towards a more traditional mountain village aesthetic. Currently in Early Access, the developers are working on more features to expand how players can improve their resort.
Backworlds is a puzzle platformer about travelling through two parallel worlds. Players explore a Metroidvania-like 2D world, collecting rainbow drops that open up new parts of the map, but exploring it takes creativity. Players are able to paint areas on the screen that offer a seamless way to switch between worlds. This can reveal new platforms or other secrets, or if you can use it to create new gaps, platforms and tunnels. Sometimes switching between worlds even changes the gravity. All of this is presented in a painting-like art style. Fun fact: despite releasing quite shortly after announcement, the game was in development for nine years.
e[ PC, Apple Arcade, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, PS4, XBox One / 2019 / Agens, Snowman ]
Skate City is a side-scrolling take on the skateboarding genre made famous by the classic Tony Hawk’s games. Whereas the latter drops you into a 3D skate park, a building or something more outlandish like a cruise ship, this sees you skating from left to right and performing tricks with the objects and structures you pass. The game’s simplified controls aim to make it easier to pull of tricks, and if you just want to roll past potential trick points, you can do so. There are two modes: Endless Skate, which is self-explanatory, and challenges – more than 100 missions where you’re called on to perform specific stunts or achieve a certain score. All of this is set cross minimalist representations of three cities – Los Angeles, Oslo or Barcelona – with a calming colour palette and a lo-fi soundtrack conveying the more chilled out atmosphere of this particular skateboarding game. And for those who become proud of their skills, there are built-in recording tools to capture, edit and share videos of your runs. Originally exclusive to Apple Arcade, Skate City was released for PC and consoles earlier this month.
The title should tell you everything you need to know, but in case you need to spelled it out for you: An Airport For Aliens Currently Run By Dogs is a first-person comedy adventure set in an airport (with me, so far?) that’s run by dogs. Not real dogs, mind you. Stock photos of dogs that, despite being literally two-dimensional characters, each have their own personality and role in the airport (current favourite from the trailer alone is Chad Shakespeare, a beagle that speaks as if from the 17th Century). You play one of the only two humans left alive in the universe, attempting to meet up with your fiancé, who is working on a mysterious projects for the dogs. This means you spend your time navigating a surreal network of airpors, guided only by an alien language which (once deciphered) not only tells you where to go but also reveals tons of hidden dad jokes. There are puzzles, and mini quests to help all the canines on duty. And yes, you can pet all of the dogs - in fact, the developer boasts there’s “an infinite number of hands” with which you can do so.
[ PSVR, Oculus, Vive, Index, Windows MR / 2017 / Charm Games ]
Form is a sci-fi virtual reality puzzle game in which you play a scientist trying to uncover the secrets of a mysterious artifact: the Obelisk. The game takes place in your laboratory, but as you experiment with the Obelisk, the environment around you transforms, presenting you with a series of puzzles. The game relies on motion-tracking controllers to give players the ability to manipulate almost everything around them in order to solve each puzzle. Some interactions will be as simple as placing orbs of light in the designated places to complete a patter, but you can even grab the thought bubbles that appear as your character mulls over his discoveries and throw them around. There is no timer and it is impossible to die, so players are free to explore the game at their own pace. Will you solve the riddles, or will you stay trapped in your own mind?
Good Company is a management game with a greater focus on direct involvement - rather than acting as some omnipotent being issues commands from above with your magic cursor, you actually take control of the CEO of a growing business. At first, you are all on your lonesome, a plucky young start-up with dreams of creating something that will change the world. Buy raw materials, research potential ideas and create an invention that will sell to the masses to get your business going. The game has a retro-futuristic theme to it, so products you can create range from ingenious devices like calculators or handheld games consoles to household appliances. As you gain wealth and success, you can hire employees to take over parts of this process and train them in their tasks in order to automate production. The more people you hire, the more efficient your business, until you eventually find yourself running a factory, casually strolling around the factory floor while your worker bees busy themselves with manufacturing and delivering your product (although it’s probably best to spend your time researching your next big idea).
Good Company is currently in Early Access, with plans to release the full version later this year. You can find out more about the game here.
