I’ve recently been playing Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator. Not for review. Not for guides. Not for work at all, actually — though I realise the irony of me now writing a piece on it for work. I can’t remember the last game I played just because I felt like it. Especially not a game as laidback as this. There are no high stakes to Garden Life. I’m not saving the world, defeating incredibly difficult boss monsters, or grinding for hours for the best gear. I’m just pottering around the garden and enjoying myself in peace.

Garden Life sees you take on the responsibility of caring for the local community garden. It’s in a sorry state after the last gardener sadly passed away, but you can breathe new life into it by tidying and fixing it up, removing the weeds and rocks, especially with a few helpful tips from the ghost of your predecessor.

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You spend your days planting, pruning, weeding, and tending to your garden, and you’ll unlock new seeds (and seed variants) as you progress, eventually being able to open up the garden into new areas. For that little cosy vibe, you can decorate your garden with different things, from benches to garden gnomes and everything in between. There are requests you can complete for the local villagers, such as delivering flowers or bouquets or having to craft a new furnishing for the community lot, as well as a to-do list left by the last gardener to add some sense of objective.

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You can unlock new features, such as a stall in the local town to sell your homegrown wares, and it’s easy to lose track of time trying to come up with new colour variants of plants. There’s a fair amount to do each day, yet it never feels overwhelming. There’s no real penalty to not being on your A-grade gardener game. Things will easily wait until tomorrow, or until whatever day you want to push them onto. You can just take your time, plant some seeds, then go and pet the cat if you want.

It’s the perfect game to pick up and play whether you only have a little time or all evening, and I’ve grown (get it?) rather fond of watching the plants flourish with Garden Life’s unique procedural generation and then pruning them back to create the perfect little garden. I’ve never been one for gardening in real life. Too much mud and too many bugs for my liking. However, I can handle digital mud and bugs just fine. Garden Life has given me a relaxing little respite away from the usual drama-filled, high-maintenance games I might otherwise play.

Playing Garden Life reminded me that I should regularly hit pause on the torrential downpour of triple-A game launches, highly viral indie, big games everyone is talking about… you get the idea. It’s important to take a step back and make time for a game you can play and enjoy without any strings or expectations attached. I think I need to make time for more relaxing games like this, the game equivalent of easy listening that’s laidback and enjoyable and acts as a palette cleanser between bigger games when you need it most.

So while there are many big and amazing games that have just launched, or are just about to launch, treat yourself with a break away from the usual and check out something unexpected. Even if relaxing sim games aren’t your vibe, try something new that you wouldn’t usually go for. It’s easy to get blinkered by all the popular game launches that land month after month, and it’s even easier to miss some of the great smaller games that get drowned out by the tide of big launches.

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