I've never really been that into video games. When I was young, I played a lot of RPGs on the SNES and PS1. Within the last couple of years, I dipped my toes back in the water and tried a few out. I tried Skyrim on a friend's recommendation, but it was just a little too involved and open-world for me. I got Cities:Skylines, which I love because I love city builder sims, but that game just does not run well on any of my underpowered computers. And I loved Ori and the Blind Forest, a beautiful platformer, and I'd play it again right now if it wasn't Windows-only.

Here are my requirements. First, it needs to run well on a low-powered machine without making the fan go insane. I've got a MacBook Air 2012 and a ThinkPad x250 (Linux). Neither of these are the ideal gaming experience, I know, but I'm not looking for amazing graphics or bleeding edge technology or something super immersive. Pixel graphics are fine with me. It reminds me of my youth, anyway. I played both Skylines and Ori on my Intel NUC 4th Gen and while it worked, they both really taxed that little machine. I was able to finish Ori, but once a city reaches a certain size in Skylines, it gets unplayable.

I'm not looking for stress. I like RPGs and sims. But it doesn't have to be really hard or frustrating. I don't want to feel chased in a game. I prefer to feel that I'm driving the action and I can go at my pace. I want to feel like if I look away for a moment, I'm not going to lose everything. I'm a casual. I also don't mind if there's no defined ending of a game. For me, I'm more looking for a diversion and a slow build over some kind of constant progression/achievement type scenario.

If it has full controller support, that would be ideal. I've got a Steam controller, and I prefer using a controller to play a game. I've never liked using the keyboard to play. I'm not totally against it, but I guess I just never got into computer gaming. I pretty much always played on consoles in the past.

Linux or macOS only, please. I did have Windows installed once so that I could play games, but I'm not bothering with that anymore. I don't want to have to boot into another operating system just to play a game. I want to be able to hop in and out of a game while using my daily driver computer.

So in my research, I've looked into Terraria and Stardew Valley. These might be what I'm looking for. But I really don't know. Do either of these scratch my itch? Is there another game that I would enjoy based on what I've told you? Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

EDIT: Thank you everybody for your awesome suggestions. I'm still happy to hear more, as I plan to add the ones that really interest me to my wishlist and revisit later. I ended up getting Hollow Knight yesterday and I spent the whole day playing it. It's very engrossing, and it's the perfect game for me. It's so much like Ori, and that game blew me away. Chilled out, go at your own pace, exploring dungeons, challenging but not impossible (though the first Hornet fight was pretty tough for me). The game runs fine on my ThinkPad x250 (i5-5300U) in Pop!_OS Linux, apart from the initial movie scene stuttering--I just had to skip past it, unfortunately. It's such an awesome game, and I'm glad to see they've already announced a sequel. If you know of any other games that are like Ori and Hollow Knight, let me know.

I made this an "event" over on reddit, and I figured I'd also mention it here.

The Steam summer sale is alleged to start on June 23rd, and I figured it would be nice if people could go into it with current information on Proton compatibility for games so we can better know what to buy and avoid. As such, it would be great if we could all submit a bunch of ProtonDB reports this coming week.

I plan to go through my library and test high-leverage games: either ones that lack reports or games whose reports are quite old. Let me know if you're wanting to join in the "fun!"

I know I'm late to the party, but do you have any recommendations, hidden gems? What's your favorite lately?

I've played most of the big games on console, so I would be looking for something that isn't on PS/Xbox.

Thanks!

Edit: I usually like puzzly games such as Limbo, Inside, Little Nightmares or story-driven epics like RDR2, God of War.

https://store.steampowered.com/steamawards/

Video direct link:
https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/store/promo/steamawards/Steam_Awards_2018_04_NoCountdown.mp4

Wikipedia table with results:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_Awards#2018

The "Game of the Year" Award	The "VR Game of the Year" Award
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Monster Hunter: World Kingdom Come: Deliverance Hitman 2 Assassin's Creed Odyssey	The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR VRChat Beat Saber Fallout 4 VR Superhot VR
The "Labor of Love" Award	The "Best Developer" Award
Grand Theft Auto V Dota 2 No Man's Sky Path of Exile Stardew Valley	CD Projekt Red Ubisoft Bethesda Rockstar Games Digital Extremes Square Enix Capcom Paradox Interactive Bandai Namco Entertainment Klei
The "Best Environment" Award	The "Better with Friends" Award
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Subnautica Shadow of the Tomb Raider Far Cry 5 Dark Souls III	Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Payday 2 Dead by Daylight Overcooked! 2
The "Best Alternate History" Award	The "Most Fun with a Machine" Award
Assassin's Creed Odyssey Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus Hearts of Iron IV Civilization VI Fallout 4	Rocket League Euro Truck Simulator 2 Nier: Automata Factorio Space Engineers