Sometimes, we just gotta get our minds off of things and turn to our favorite hobbies. Let’s ignore the nihilism of Twitter to play some video games. Today, let’s look at short happy games that I played that you could try out, all pay-what-you-want (of course, it doesn’t hurt to spread the joy to developers with money).

Flower Park

Flower Park is by Noxlof and HarleyGlitch, a short game made in two weeks. You play as a little girl born from a seed, tasked with helping the kind animals of flower park in hopes of saving it.

The game consists of a few screens where you run around, picking up and carrying stuff to reach the game’s end goal. You meet up with a local resident of the park and they’ll ask you to do a real easy task. Get it done and they happily thank you. It’s just a sort of easygoing game with nothing to really worry about. While it lacks difficulty, it makes up for it with good vibes that the animals give and the music, a pleasant dreamy tune that I feel wouldn’t be out-of-place in Animal Crossing.

The game looks nice and bright, reflecting the mood of the game. I especially love the visual effect of things in the game swaying, including the text boxes. It gives off this feeling of a nice easygoing breeze going through the park, a fine beautiful day. It’s real short and simple, but the experience was delightful.

MORNING POST

12/21/19 Update: The developer is a domestic abuser and I’ve deleted my glowing review in response. Don’t play this or any other HappySnakeGames.

Hot Date

People sometimes find happiness in more specific ways. Like maybe you find happiness in love. Or maybe you find joy in small animals. You can have the best of both worlds with the pug-dating simulator, Hot Date. This Unity game is by George Batchelor (an almost fitting last name) with music by Levi Pack.

You play as somebody (probably as another dog) on the speed dating circuit, meeting up with pink pugs. A clock ticks down in the background, a full revolution ending your good time. Well, the date might not go so hot, but you’ll have fun.

You spend every session asking your date a bunch of questions. You can ask the ordinary date questions, like what they like to do in their free time. You can also ask ridiculous questions like their belief in minotaurs or if they’d like to live in space. The pug’s answers are random, so one dog may love that you have an amphibian collection while another gets embarrassed by your very existence. The date goes on as Levi Pack’s frantic beat plays in the background, creating this odd sort of tension that’s strangely funny to me as you get dunked on by a dog. Sure, the dogs might insult you, but it’s hilarious instead of disheartening since they’re, you know, dogs.

There’s a lot of questions to ask and reactions from your date vary, so it’s worth playing a bunch of times.