I was using two other systems in the past before giving up and using Android. The first was Meego by Nokia and Intel, on the Nokia N9. This is not an option anymore since Nokia switched to Windows Phone and then stopped altogether (current Nokia brand not being the same company). The second was Sailfish OS by Jolla. It can still be installed on some older Xperia phones and is a viable option. Though the development could not keep up with iOS / Android. There is some Android app compatibility. For a while I thought KaiOS might become an option, if scaled up a bit, becoming more feature rich. But I think cheap Android phones with Android One have taken that niche now.

I’m not sure how well my suggestions fit.

• Terry Pratchett, any of the Discworld novels. I really liked Equal Rites. Pratchett does cover serious topics, but in a lighthearted manner.
• Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. It is a funny re-telling of the stories aber Odin, Loki etc., which were more whack than I expected.

Why not use good old signatures for that?

I guess some of this comes from making games more accessible. More people are playing nowadays and games are more inclusive. As a side effect, this leads to structures thay are less fun for some. There are games that break out of that, e.g. Elden Ring or Tears of the Kingdom. Both aspects, accessibility and player freedom are very important. I hope we are getting to a point where they don’t works against each other anymore.

My personal highlight was Genopanic. I cute-spooky pixelart metroidvania-inspired platformer with a good mix of exploration, puzzles and combat. No aspect is super deep, but nicely done.