Chillout fish game Koi released on Steam

Originally released on mobile in 2015, Koi is a relaxing little indie game about a fish who opens flowers and fights pollution. Imagine the opening stage of Spore crossed with Flower (which also recently came to Steam (opens in new tab)), and you've got a good idea of the basic concept.

Sometimes there are puzzles, like memorizing a pattern of flashing leaves to revive a dead branch so it stops blocking your way, or obstacles like a huge black fish that patrols between you and the smaller, color-coded fish you need to rescue. Each of those smaller fish—green, purple, yellow—can help you open flowers of the same shade that float on lilypads.

Although the threat ramps up slightly in later levels it's mostly a calm and meditative experience, one where you meander around the levels looking for hidden puzzle pieces and stars while the soundtrack plinks away and raindrops spread circles over the water.

Koi came out on Steam (opens in new tab) this week. The blurb says it will help you "Escape the realities of life and achieve a level of mindful satisfaction." I don't know about that but it's worth a look if you need to zone out and look at some chill fish for a bit.

Jody Macgregor
Weekend/AU Editor

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games (opens in new tab). He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun (opens in new tab), The Big Issue, GamesRadar (opens in new tab), Zam (opens in new tab), Glixel (opens in new tab), Five Out of Ten Magazine (opens in new tab), and Playboy.com (opens in new tab), whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.