Definitely check out INFRA (https://store.steampowered.com/app/251110/INFRA/) if you're into exploration puzzle games. I absolutely love the atmosphere in this game. It's on sale right now!
It seems really dumb to play on such a device, but I've been playing a few rounds of Bejeweled 3 when looking for something in short bursts. There's a controller profile that works surprisingly well with the dpad + face buttons.
For laid back / cozy games, I recommend A Short Hike, TOEM, the Frog Detective trilogy & Dave the Diver.
Portal reloaded and Tony hawk pro skater 3(ps2 emulator) are super chill games I can pickup and put down any time.
Sea of Stars. Nice RPG, inspired by Chrono Trigger. I've been playing that for some nights on my deck. Easy to engage, nice story and difficulty can be adjusted depending on how much time you want to invest.
I'm in a similar situation to you, except that I've got a Switch rather than a Steam Deck.
I've been playing Lego Jurassic World, and it should tick all your boxes. I've got no idea how the Lego games work on the Deck though.
A place to discuss and support all things Steam Deck.
Replacement for r/steamdeck_linux.
As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title
The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.
Some more Steam Deck specific flairs:
[Boot Screen] - Custom boot screens/videos.
[Selling] - If you are selling your deck.
These are not enforced, but they are encouraged.
Rules: