Meditations is a thought-of-the-day calendar for games

The holidays are over, and now we've got to remember how this 'work' stuff goes again - it's stressful stuff. Meditations is like a mindfulness calendar but with games that may help soothe frazzled nerves. Organised by Rami Ismail of Vlambeer, each day the Meditations launcher serves up a short, personal game and a quote to accompany it - a little window into someone else's mind, and what helps hold them together. It's free, and you can snag it here, and enjoy a clever little digital distraction to start every day of 2019 - the work of over 350 contributing developers.

Despite Rami Ismail's involvement, Meditations feels (so far, at least) a world away from the twitchy shooters that defined his work with Vlambeer. Today's experience is a short, one-button challenge about finding balance, created by Adriel Wallick. Click to expand the circle, but remember to ease off every now and then, or you'll burn out. It feels almost like a breathing exercise, and after a while I found myself completing it with my eyes closed. Simple, thoughtful, and over in a minute or two - a good note to start the year on, and hopefully the days to come.

Ismail talks a bit about his reasons for putting together Meditations here, and a little bit about the shape of things to come on its FAQ page here. Part of the driving force behind Meditations is the concept of games having a language of their own, and so will be devoid of text outside of their accompanying daily thought. Interestingly, the full list of creators involved won't be unveiled until the coming new year's eve, although you can see the contributors involved on each given day, and a few of the key organisers listed here.

Meditations is free and available here for Windows and OSX. On first launch it downloads a month's worth of games in advance, so you might have to wait a few minutes before you can unwind.

Disclosure: RPS friend and contributor Jupiter Hadley was also involved in assembling the swarm of talent that makes up Meditations. There's probably a few other people we know involved, too, but the full credits are shrouded in mystery until December 31st.