Games

Open Roller Coaster Tycoon!

Turned based on pausable stuff can reduce stress by allowing for thoughtfulness, and even single player games can be done together through strategizing, while also not requiring the 2nd person if they aren't available. To that end, I'm going to recommend Slay the Spire, Dicey Dungeons or Broken Age. Then probably some kind of tactical game, Darkest Dungeon, Loop Hero or Shadowrun. After that, maybe some kind of management game, Cities: Skylines, SimCity, Stardew Valley, Humankind or Against the Storm. If you want to go deeper, Crusader Kings, Dyson Sphere Program or Wartales.

Real-time games that require using multiple sticks/buttons/aiming+moving at once are inherently more difficult to start without the muscle memory, so I'd look to build that up with games that have simpler controls starting with Vampire Survivors or Brotato. Then I'd probably do some kind of non-shooter first or third person game, thinking of Escape Academy, Firewatch or Superliminal, Amnesia (maybe). Then a combat first/third person game Assassin's Creed, Battlefield (Campaign), Mass Effect. Then maybe something that's got combat plus extra stuff, Atomic Heart, Deep Rock Galactic, Dead Space (maybe), Doom, Prey, Wo Long, Remnant. After that is really PvP stuff.

If you just want more readably accessible stuff, A Short Hike, Disneyland Adventures, Peggle, Plants vs Zombies, Bejeweled, The Walking Dead from Telltale (maybe).

I also pulled every game on this list off of Xbox Game Pass, so that might be a good way to try a bunch of different games for cheaper.

Phogs

If she would like to get in to more action games, one with a strong story, like the last of us could be a pathway, played on easy/story mode.

Id also second casual games as a pathway to more involved games. Overcooked is white hectic and introduced a few gaming mechanics from others. It's essentially crafting against a timer. To progress, she'll need to get better at controls, but the learning curve is gradual enough that she'll.have fun.

Rayman (legends?), I play coop with my kid. He dies often ,but it's not an issue as you only lose progress when you both die.

Factorio works, but it would probably help to give a guided to tour the store and genres, to figure out what she would like.

If she has really no exposure at all, playing just factorio is limiting yourself to eating one flavor of ice cream.

My wife loves House Flipper. It's very much about organising, it sounds like it would fit well for her.

Me and my wife love playing a game called "Out of Space" it's essentially a procedurally generated clean the house game. It has Overcooked vibes but it's a lot more chill.

Factorio might be a bit heavy for someone who hasn't played anything, but the peaceful mode might be interesting for just building. Also depending on what else she likes Cities Skylines, Rimworld, Stellaris or Parkitect are all very management focused.

If you give us more info on what she likes we might be able to give better suggestions.

Play some old classics like Mario, they are a lot fo fun to play together! I'd say she'd be better off with a controller, K+M is tricky to get used to when you have never used it to game before.

My girlfriend likes jrpg games.. I think you could try thoses... There are plenty. Final fantasy etc. Can play with an emulator.

Otherwise she loves Tetris! Playing against her is a ton of fun.

Doki Doki litterature club (visual novels that is kind of funny, I played it with my girlfriend)

Spyro the Dragon (my sister just play this and the Sims lol)

Here are a few I didn't see already. I've played these all on switch.

Untitled Goose Game - casual and goofy 1/2 player puzzle game

Far Lone Sails - casual 1 player puzzle adventure game

Figment - light action adventure platformer one player game

Minecraft, stardew, factorio or satisfactory are good ideas. Fortnite's lego mode. Dragonquest Builders 2.

For stuck inside though and I've been there nothing beats those big open world games. Maybe Cyberpunk or BG3 or Yazuka or Fallout or Elder Scrolls are my personal faves but anything where you get to be the boss of the world like those are so fun when you can't roam or socialize much.

Take a look at Apico pixel game all about beekeeping (is more akin to Stardew in how much the is to do however). Fantastic game

If you think she might like a 3D platformer that's also one of the best ever licensed property videogames, give SpongeBob Battle for Bikini Bottom a try. The original was the first videogame I think I ever finished, and I thought the remastered version from a few years ago is very well made.

Also this game is how I got my girlfriend to start playing videogames

Rimworld. It's like the sims, but with war crimes.

Xonotic, minecraft

We were here series. Coop puzzle game

Any of the overcooked style games like tools up.

Maybe some raft coop.

Return to Grace! It's a short AWESOME sci-fi adventure in FPS perspective but no fights, no hard puzzles, the controls are very well explained and quite basic.

Stray is an awesome game that’s easy to learn, fun, and really beautiful. Makes for a great starter game

Hummm easy games. I think it depends of their tastes and what they like to do.

I can think of a few games which might be fun, but perhaps she should watch some lets plays to see if it peaks her interest.

Lil Guardsman is a fun game my SO showed me recently.

Stardew Vally

Potion/crafting games are something else, Potionomics might be fun.

Oh point and clicks might be fun too, but I can think of anything outside of Grim Fandango or Monkey Island

Animal Crossing is always relaxing

My SO and I played Persona 5 together too, I played the game while she was my navigatior who made conversation choices.

LocoRoco

It's the only game I've got my wife to play that she enjoyed. It's cute with simple controls. But there's enough there to keep her entertained for awhile.

Maybe Timberborn once she's slightly more familiar with keyboard controls? It's a cute city builder type game with beavers and the big thing with that is building dams and redirecting water, but it's still in early release and I don't think it does an amazing job of explaining its mechanics, but at the moment it still has a fairly straightforward resource management and supply chain mechanic.

i played civ 6 with a non-gamer partner and it was pretty fun

Maybe she would like to learn programming or Linux stuff?

Escape from Tarkov