Need help turning your brain off after a busy day? Try tapping into the soothing power of play. Here are some favourite games that App Store Editors enjoy to help us slow down and unwind. You won’t find any adrenaline-fuelled battles or clocks to beat in these titles, just relaxing fun.

Straighten the paintings on a wall, organise the kitchen utensil drawer and put the bookshelf in order to the tune of A Little to the Left’s gentle melody. Even if your own world feels like a mess, finding tidy solutions to these scenes of disarray offers that unique sense of satisfaction that can typically only be achieved by cleaning out your closet. Each puzzle brings you one step closer to clearing the clutter in your mind.

If your idea of unwinding is getting lost in someone else’s drama, it’s time to visit Gossip Harbor. Quinn, the leading lady in this storyline, has all kinds of problems – a messy divorce, a destroyed restaurant – luckily, most of those issues can be solved by merging food items to make increasingly impressive meals for hungry diners. As you work your way from simple bags of flour to a sandwich with all the fixings, you’ll clear the board and your mind.

You’ll get lost in the beat of surprisingly catchy compositions in this game, where you populate islands with musical monsters who each provide a unique sound to the quirky chorus. Breeding and feeding the monsters is important, but it’s their strangely captivating harmonies that keep us coming back to make progressively more intricate tunes. Don’t be surprised if your racing thoughts fade into the island’s rhythmic songs.

There’s something soothing about turning a new place into a home as you unpack moving boxes in this game, which takes you through many moves across the years. You’ll fill shelves with books, open cupboards to organise dishes, hang pictures on the walls and choose how to display trophies and trinkets. Slowing down and lingering on the items you unpack often rewards you with delightful surprises, such as when you tap the radio to turn on the music or discover how to solve the Rubik’s cube.

Wish you could live in an idyllic seaside village surrounded by friends? Welcome to the charming town of Heartopia. In this adorable animated simulation game, you can build your dream house, adopt a pet and spend your days fishing, gardening or cooking. It’s just like real life – if it were easy and worry-free. There are tons of beautiful places to explore, friends’ houses to visit and no pressure to do anything, making it the perfect change of pace from your busy schedule.

A cafe is where you go to have a break in the real world, so why not head there in a game? As the new barista in town, your main job in Good Coffee, Great Coffee is perfecting the beverages you brew, from a simple shot of espresso to some fancy whipped cream-topped concoctions. The offbeat clientele and their critiques of your coffee make for an entertaining – never anxiety-inducing – challenge. After all, life is pretty good when your greatest worry is too much foam in your latte.