What Games Are You Playing To Cope With Stress?

You know what sucks? Everything. This weekend, instead of engaging with the world, I crawled under the covers like an enormous baby and played some puzzle games on my phone.

Being politically engaged and reading the news is pretty important, but it’s just as important to recognize that sometimes you need a break. After Friday, oh boy did I ever need a break—not just from the wider world, but from all media that required interpreting or understanding a narrative whatsoever. There’s a folder on my iPhone that I open in times of stress and it contains exactly three games: Drop 7, Two Dots, and Dots & Co

I actually started playing the games from the developer Dots (where my friend and Kotaku freelancer Amanda Cosmos does QA) during the Presidential debates, and it felt great. The game is adorable, and it’s both shallow and deep enough to occupy my mind without overloading my brain. You connect dots to make squares. Perfect. Drop 7 I picked up after reading Kirk Hamilton’s description of it on our list of best iPhone games

Indulging in these games are less a matter of putting my fingers in my ears and ignoring the outside world than acknowledging that if I think too hard about “alternative facts,” my brain is going to explode. What games do you play to cope with stress, readers? Bonus points for new puzzle games to check out.