In praise of slow, quiet mobile games

We spend a lot of energy defending intense games, so let me defend the opposite: the slow ones. The lamplighter walks, the fisher waits, the café hums along. Games that let you exhale.

Lanterns of the Hollow is the clearest example I've played recently. It never pushes. You explore at your own pace, and the story rewards patience instead of speed. I played it with the lights off and let it wash over me.

These games work especially well on a phone precisely because we reach for phones in the in-between moments — the bus, the queue, the last few minutes before sleep. A calm game meets you there.

You don't always need adrenaline. Sometimes you just need somewhere gentle to put your attention for a while.