Garden of Cogs

Garden of Cogs is a relaxed simulation about assembling a garden out of little machines. You plant, connect gears and pipes, and watch the whole contraption slowly come alive and tend itself. There's no timer pressure, which is exactly what I wanted from a sim like this.

The satisfaction is in optimizing quietly. You'll rearrange a corner for twenty minutes just to make the flow a bit prettier, and the game is totally fine with that. It saves cleanly and doesn't punish you for stepping away.

It's not a demanding game and doesn't try to be. As something to open at the end of a long day, it's genuinely calming.

What we liked

• Zero time pressure
• Deeply satisfying tinkering
• Perfect wind-down game