This is a very strict bar with a limiting price requirement. As for the title of the post, I fully mean giving the enjoyable feeling 100% of the time. Put forth the niche games which do this, because I do not know of any popular AAA or popular/fairly big developer indie which does this. The game must be playable for 100 hours at least, or must be replayable with the same enjoyability if it is shorter. This includes older games which have dropped their regular price.
I do not want games which "nearly do this" in your opinion (because I have plenty of those already), but which do this in your opinion. I'm looking for these for a specific reason. Do not want replies like "there's no such thing" because there are. I know of one game which nearly does this completely, while many others which do this in a major degree. And then there are the relatively unknown games which few have ever heard about but are well made, even if drowned in negative reviews (Driftland: The Magic Revival, for example, is a very decent single player real-time-with-pause strategy with bad reviews because it doesn't follow popular norms, and the makers chose to also market the multiplayer which removes the important pause. It is more enjoyable than many popular time-tested AAAs from the 2010s I have played). I've played some games which most people haven't heard about that are really well made.
I'm going to start writing a book series (it will be completely free to download and read, and share) which will follow this method. It is not easy to make such a book such that I've not read more than a very small number of long-ish books which nearly manage it, and that has frustrated me so I'm attempting to do it myself. To go the 100% enjoyable route, I need to know more things which naturally put people in this state. I do such things by experiencing them myself, and once they get there I know this is something which would fit in such a work. Some of the things I've decided on already are—
- Not-good guys shown to be going exclusively after bad guys
- Persons making use of technical knowledge and the knowledge of reality in general, making use of them towards a specific end like resolution of problems by their own hand. In a practical manner.
- Making individuals, who do some or another deed(s) which is intended to harm others, feel loss and pain (not by engaging in cruelty to do so) and generally denying them what they want so they feel pain due to it.
I'm looking to expand on this by knowing more things which give me the feeling.
Any genre and type of game will do, as long as you've played it substantially and the enjoyment comes from only playing the game itself—and not things like talking about it or sharing what happened in it with others. The feeling comes even if you play it alone and have no one to talk to about it.
A game which has 100% enjoyability has no parts which get more frustrating the more you play the game, or replay the game. It doesn't matter if the game has very old graphics (early 1980's as well) or no animation. It doesn't matter if it does not fulfill modern sensibilities like full voice acting. Putting aside all concerns of what a game should be, looking at what a game is—is that 100% enjoyable. I would both like to enjoy such a game as well as possibly learn from it.
Games from any source will do. Thank you if you've read this long post till the end.
I have a lot of games which were enjoyable 100% of the time, but none which I played for over 100 hours. I'd be absolutely exhausted if I was in "oh neat haha wow!" mode for that long, personally, my dopamine receptors would be fucking fried.
Good luck with your search, and below I have some which fit your criteria outside of the 100 hour requirement.
List
A Short HikeBeacon Pines
Heart of the Woods
Citizen Sleeper
I would also add the following to your list (also outside the 100 hour req, but still 100% enjoyable):
Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip
Outer Wilds
Outer Wilds may be obvious to anyone who has played it, but it would be a shame to leave it unmentioned as it is my favorite game of all time and seemingly universally loved. And Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip is just stupidly entertaining - impossible to stop once you start playing.
Outer Wilds is an absolute banger, I don't know how I forgot to mention it.
BTW if you enjoyed OW, play Tunic!
Thanks for the suggestion! Ill add it to my wishlist 😊 I also added the games I hadn't played from your list so thanks for that as well!
Hope you enjoy! Feel free to poke me to talk about any of them if you so desire :)
I didn't receive notifications for these—thank you for the suggestions. There have been complaints about the newer edition of Outer Worlds. Which version is fine to just get and start playing, if I decide to get it?
Of course! And it's actually Outer Wilds I'm referring to; I haven't played Outer Worlds yet so I can't comment on it. They have very similar names unfortunately so it's easy to mix them up.
Ah yes, I misread it
Citizen Sleeper was phenomenal. I really liked how it handled branching choices and the limitations of time.
It really did so much right. Strong recommend for Becky Chambers' Wayfarer books if you enjoyed the writing in sleeper.
My experience is that while the tendency for physical reaction numbs a bit, the actual feeling pf enjoyment does not go away.
I haven't looked at any of these before so this is particularly helpful.