i'm not much of a gamer. but the iphone isn't a traditional game device and i don't consider the games i play on it to be traditional games. i'm really enjoying the ones that bring me into a state of flow.

wikipedia describes flow as "the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity." it's a wonderful experience and i hope you've felt it at one time or other.

the two games that have made me aware of this are zen bound and eliss. i introduced a friend of mine to zen bound and a week later he told me how he kept missing his bus stop and while playing eliss on the train to gatwick a week ago i didn't notice we had arrived at the airport and was about a minute from going back to victoria station when i realised i needed to get off the train... that's the kind of immersive mental state these games get you into.

zen bound has a "designed for headphones" splash screen when loading and the picture shown above is taken from the eliss 'how to' screens. both games have beautiful soundtracks and i'm sure the game designers want to make sure you get to hear them clearly. but much more than that, headphone use helps focus your concentration and makes it more likely that you will achieve flow while playing the game - i'm positive that's the real reason.

there's no way to filter the app store for games that recommend headphone use and i'd love to know of any other flowful games or apps available... do you know of any?