Available for: PC, iOS, Android

Desert Golf is exactly what it says on the tin, and nothing more. There’s a ball, a hole, and a few procedures done on the desert land in between. That’s it. No par, no club selection, no music, no items, no pause menu, no restart, not even an avatar. Just drag a cursor back to determine the angle and power of the next shot, and an attempt to get A to B. When you do, a new hole will appear, and you will continue, forever. (The game technically there is an “end,” but God bless anyone who plays long enough to see it.)

Desert Golf reads too simple on paper, and it makes sense as a subtle critique of time-sucking, player-sapping mobile games. Actually playing it, however, borders on the meditative. The game’s radical minimalism does everything and nothing at all. There is a shot counter at the top, but it doesn’t mean anything, it just means how long you’ve been playing. You can spend 60 shots on a hole, but no invisible eye will judge you. Instead, it allows you to focus completely on the simple joy of arcing the ball in the air, seeing that it kicks the sand and finally plank in the hole. It’s about the act of playing more than the rules of a game: golfingnot golf. And when something new appears – a water well, a sunset, a cactus – it feels important.