The year is 2012, and you are scrolling through your Facebook feed. An advertisement pops up with bright lettering and a bubbly font, and “Candy Crush Saga” flashes before your eyes. A video plays and a poorly crafted animated thumb floats about the screen, swiping here and there, solving the free-to-play candy puzzle and winning points, moving through the levels with ease. You think to yourself, “what an easy game!” You click on the ad, thus bringing you to your mobile app store to download. You have now entered the world of background gaming.

Background gaming is best defined by myself and the general public as games that require the least amount of effort. Background games are typically seen via mobile apps, such as social apps like Facebook and Snapchat, or the IOS messaging games. Other such categories include simulation games like The Sims, Unpacked and puzzle PC games commonly found on game developing companies like WildTangent.

Now why am I telling you about background gaming? Well, I believe everyone should invest in background gaming. Yes, I’m telling you to spend time playing a game. Background gaming has the appeal of customization, flexibility, continued use and is on its way to take over the gaming industry so you need to get on board

Games like Stardew Valley are one such example, being massively popular across many different gaming platforms like mobile, Nintendo Switch and PC. And beyond its easy playability, Stardew Valley has been credited in an article published on The Sixth Axis by Douglass Kidd, a therapist, as a huge factor in aiding mental health during the initial 2020 spring quarantine.

“From my viewpoint, as a therapist, there is a lot of evidence that demonstrates that playing positive games, exactly like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, can contribute to positive emotions and stability,” read the article.

This is a huge factor of background gaming in general, which all feature calm aesthetics, thrilling adventures or side quests, and easy to follow instructions and methods of playing. You have choice and creativity in these games, essentially building your own personal hideaway.

Background gaming in comparison to other types of games and gaming consoles are easy to use, easy to learn and easy to keep. Oftentimes on the Xbox console, you would need additional external storage to keep all of your game libraries downloaded and accessible at the same time without having to download or stream the game. Mobile games have a significant advantage being small in storage, taking up less space on a device not necessarily made to host games and stream media.

For example, a popular newly released multi-platform anime-style open-world role-playing game named Genshin Impact is available for download on the app store for mobile devices. What is different about Genshin Impact is that it is not only changing its accessibility to mobile devices but also changing its formatting to fit on a mobile device. This is a major difference between background games and other mobile games.

Next time you go onto your mobile app store, take a glance at the newest mobile game and consider downloading that one random indie aesthetic game. You’ll surely find something within your taste and style, no matter if it is a restaurant simulation or a puzzle game, It may turn out to be your new favorite pastime.