Nine games for when you just want to water some digital plants

There's a certain kind of game that doesn't want anything from you. No deadlines, no fail states, nothing chasing you round a corner, just a small, well organised task and permission to take as long as you like over it. These nine are the current best of that particular genre, whatever it's technically called.

• Stardew Valley. You inherit a farm, some tools and a startling number of parsnips. Sixteen years after launch it's still the reigning champion of "potter about and grow something," and the Switch 2 edition now supports up to seven people if you'd rather do it as a group.
• Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Less a game, more a slow-motion decorating hobby with a raccoon landlord. There's no way to lose, only ways to make your island slightly nicer than it was yesterday.
• A Short Hike. A couple of hours, at most, spent climbing a hill on an island full of extremely relaxed birds. Genuinely finishes before it outstays its welcome, which is rarer than it should be.
• Unpacking. You unpack boxes. That's the whole game, told entirely through which possessions turn up in which house, and it's oddly moving by the end.

• Dorfromantik. A tile-laying puzzle where you build a gentle little landscape one hexagon at a time, with a soundtrack that seems designed specifically to lower your blood pressure.
• Coffee Talk. You run a late-night coffee shop for what turns out to be elves, vampires and the occasional human, and mostly just listen to people's problems while you make their drinks.
• Spiritfarer. Technically a game about death, in practice a game about hugging people goodbye while running a rather charming boat. Handles a heavy subject with a surprisingly light touch.
• A Little to the Left. Tidy things into their correct place. That's the entire pitch, and it's inexplicably one of the most satisfying things you can do with a controller.
• Bear and Breakfast. Run a bed and breakfast, as a bear, in the woods. Somehow works better than that sentence suggests.

None of these will ask you to remember a combo, keep up with a meta, or finish before your save expires.

They'll just be there, exactly as you left them, whenever you've got twenty minutes and want to feel vaguely productive without actually being productive.