There was a new version of the original Myst for the iPad that was promoted recently. For sure hours of fun and headaches in that one.

FTL for iPad. Just a brilliant game through and through that makes the transition from desktop to tablet perfectly.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dicey-dungeons/id1368013995

EDIT:

Hit the comment button early by accident

Anyway it’s a turn-based dungeon crawler where your actions cost dice rolls. Multiple characters with very different gameplay mechanics, all in support of the core loop.

I highly recommend it. Probs put over 100 hours into this bad boi

I looooove many of the Glitch games, like Forever Lost. If you haven’t played it, The Room is also a classic.

Check out Pocket City 2 if you like city builders. It threads the needle of depth, but also acknowledging the limitations of a touchscreen interface.

Stardew Valley! Time killer and loving it while traveling.

Papers, Please. I find having a touch screen for it makes the game more immersive.

Is ‘There Is No Game’ compatible with your iPad? That’s been one of my favorites!

The Room games are great puzzle/escape room type things where you use the screen to rotate items, flip switches, drag things, etc; it’s very tactile and clearly built for a touch screen. Each one takes about 2-4 hours.

I don’t normally use iOS devices so when I borrow my friend’s ancient iPad it is to play a couple of digital boardgame implementations that are available for iOS but not Android: Finished!, Dead Man’s Draw and Zombie Dice. So I guess those are my favorites. Probably not very relevant for most :)

Finished! in particular is pretty addictive and very satisfying when you finally get that win.

Thanks for these recs all! I will try to comment back after my trip with the one I spent most time with

if you like puzzle games, the Rusty Lake/Cube Escape series of games are pretty cool. They give off a sort of Twin Peaks vibe, if you’re into that.