This underwater city builder had me more emotionally invested in my corals than SimCity does in my human citizens, and you can try it at the next Steam Next Fest

A jellyfish-like ocean guardian watches over an organic structure on the sea floor.

I love metropolitan city builders, but once I'm done turning fertile riverside plains into a mess of eight-lane highways and coal plants, I can't help but wonder if I've maybe been a net negative for the world around me. When I saw Life Below on Steam—a city builder all about constructing reefs that opens its Steam description with "the ocean is dying"—I was flooded with the exact blend of guilt and intrigue I look for in my entertainment.

After trying a demo build, I walked away pretty taken with its marine premise. The basics are similar to something like SimCity; you walk that line of territory expansion and resource management, mitigating random disasters while making sure your populous has a stable income of food, energy, and housing. Instead of electricity and traffic stops, though, you're working with fish, the algae they eat, the anemones that shelter them, and various resource-rich corals.