Bonfire: Forsaken Lands, created by a two person indie studio called Ximga, is a new resource management strategy game for iOS and Steam that turns the genre into a flow-inducing meditative experience.
The core gameplay loop isn't too much different than, say, Fallout Shelter -- you rebuild society from scratch, gradually increasing its size, reach, and sophistication -- but where many games of this kind can quickly become a stressful exercise in gratuitous multitasking, the overall experience of Bonfire: Forsaken Lands is uniquely soothing: With beautiful, abstract graphics, and a rich soundscape of ambient music and environmental cues (snowfall, wind, distant animal cries), it's easy to become immersed in this mini world that slowly evolves at your literal touch.
A more practical way of putting all that:
Bonfire: Forsaken Lands is one of the best mobile games to play on a long, otherwise annoying flight. I just spent a five hour cross-country trip utterly engrossed in this game while mountains and plains rolled beneath me, scarce noticing the cramped seat, the turbulence, the need for a bathroom break. Surprisingly, it's garnered some mixed user reviews on Steam, but I suspect it's less satisfying to play on a desktop/laptop, then getting to hold this window into another world in both hands.
Hat tip: TouchArcade, which has a good, extensive review.
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