Gaming

• Nobody mentioned Kerbal Space Program yet? While it's no longer indie, it was during most of the development. It's the space game. While it's not claiming to be a perfectly accurate simulation, it captures the essence of orbital mechanics pretty well. The xkcd comic about it is on point.
• Cultist Simulator. It is a card game that lives from the cards' flavour text. The core gameplay is simple, but the mood the game creates is extremely captivating. You only get served small bits of information at once, and you have to connet the dots yourself (or get spoilers online...). Also, it's not an easy game, and unless you are really lucky you will not succeed in your first few playthroughs.
• Unreal World. This is roguelike survival game set in a fantasy version of ancient Finland.

Turmoil:

It's a 2d game where you drill for oil, then have some light logistics management to do to load it in to barrels on horse waggons and then sell it. It's a lot of fun.

A Short Hike has dialog and a shorter play time but you can just ignore that and soar around the island. It's got an isometric view with a pixel art style. I really enjoy it. I play it when I'm hung over.

Cookie Clicker

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1454400/Cookie_Clicker/

But then, to be a crazy person, you can learn some python and automate the clicking so you get more cookies

Not exactly an easy game, but Don't Starve has quite a lot of downtime that makes it great for listening to podcasts.

Also in the truck driving bucket - Snowrunner. The focus is on off road trucking, mud and snow physics, with a winch that you can use to unstick yourself.

Satisfactory.

If you want to "beat" it, then it requires a bit of thinking and planning, but honestly it's such a fantastic go-at-your-own-pace kinda game. It's an open world factory building/sandbox building game. There are objectives and missions, but you have no time limit, and there is some freedom in choosing what you want to work on next.

It's also multiplayer, so you could invite a friend(s) to join and help you explore or find resources. I frequently will watch streams/youtube while playing.

I just gave Cassette Beasts a shot and was instantly hooked. Fun PokeClone that is one of the best I've played and gets some stuff better than even Pokemon does. Also on gamepass if you've got that

Bloons TD 6. It puts out what you put into it. There’s definitely some skill required but you can largely avoid most of that stuff. Once you have a semi working strategy, you can kinda cruise into new levels for a while no problem. It’s my favorite game to playb while listening to stuff.

If you're a fan of Stardew Valley and games like that, might I suggest Disney Dreamlight Valley? While there is a story (and there are extra character-specific quests you can do), you don't have to do them (or indeed anything). You're free to do what you like.

It's currently my go-to game when I want to play something but I'm just not sure what. Running around collecting materials to craft new items to decorate my Valley (or even just seeing what my residents are doing) brings me joy and whiles away the hours before I know what's happening!

Another suggestion would be Slime Rancher, which is another low stakes (potentially no stakes, you can turn off the one 'enemy' in the game that might disrupt your cosy experience - the Tarr slimes) game which has you running (and renovating) a slime ranch (funnily enough). The slimes are adorable, the music is very chill, and the world is so colourful I often enjoy just roaming around enjoying the scenery.

Unpacking, Everything, A Little to the Left, Gorogoa (if puzzles are chill for ya), and Spiritfarer are a few that come to mind.

I'm using farming simulator for this.

Tetris effect, katamari damacy - these two are the epitome of replayability and pick up/put down mechanics IMNSHO

You should try House Flipper

Diablo games are easy to play while listening/watching other things. Diablo 4 does have a story, but you don't need to watch it if you don't want to. And after it's beaten, the story will never bother you again. Diablo 2 Remaster is also great if you're feeling a bit more old school.

Far Lone Sails

Racing games, once you are good at them, fit this bill. I can win online races while watching YouTube videos in Forza Horizon.

But I'd say Farming Simulator is my favorite game to play while listening to podcasts or watching YouTube videos on the side. It's got enough going on to keep you engaged but you aren't doing any actions that are time critical or require deep focus.

Superflight

If you are into roguelikes noita is really easy to pickup and put down with tons of spells and modifiers and a huge map to explore.

Warframe is good for this. Lots of ways to tune your level of engagement through build choices. Most content rarely requires your full attention and story is only progressed in specific story missions that you usually play only once.

What about tycoon games ? Old school ones are usually still very playable. Or for something more recent Planet Zoo can be as slow and peaceful as you like

Astroneer is pretty low stakes, I played it mostly while listening or watching other things

This is my exact genre of choice. I’m only gonna list the games I play, because I can’t name them all.

Just about any sandbox survival game will fit the bill:

• Minecraft (obvi, but needs another mention)
• Satisfactory
• Rust
• Valheim
• Raft (there’s some story to read if you want to actually complete the game)

Then you have the simulators:

• Dreamlight Valley (a lot of story in this one, but once you get past the dialogue and tutorials it’s basically fetch quests and farming)
• My Time at Portia (same with this)
• Car Mechanic Simulator 2021
• House Flipper
• The Sims
• TABS (honourable mention; whimsical battle sandbox with some customisability)

Mordhau is definitely one of few casual games medieval fighting game where you can mindlessly kill other players and laugh your ass off. But at the same time its the type of game you can get really good at too. So it has a very in depth combat experience

The X3 games, I think?

They may be ancient, and weird, and buggy, and huge time wasters, and frustrating, but hey I have like 500 hours of playtime on them