Cozy games that don't try to steal your whole day

There's a quiet category of mobile games designed to relax you rather than hook you. After reviewing a lot of aggressive time-sink titles, I've come to really value them.

A good cozy game has no fail state and no guilt. You grow a town, tend a garden, arrange a room. You make progress just by showing up, and you can stop the moment you feel like it without losing anything.

Simulation and management titles do this best. The trick is generous offline progress, so the game keeps ticking gently while you live your life instead of nagging you to log in.

If you tend to feel burned out by games that treat play like a job, look here. Pick one cozy title, give it ten minutes at the end of the day, and see how much better that feels than another round of stress.