"Simulation" doesn't necessarily entail stimulating interactivity and a pleasing aesthetic. As of writing, I don't know if there's a better term than "game" for what this is. (Maybe we can coin a new term, like "game-lite" -- somewhat akin to what "rogue-lite" is to the "rogue" genre).
Plenty argue that these aren't games either (usual complaints involve lack of problem(s) to resolve, and no win-lose dynamic); but, then, what are these? The closest category I can think of would be "computer-animated film", but... these are interactive, and you can navigate and look in any direction you want, which yields a very different experience than watching a film like "Toy Story".
I think "demo" or "toy" or "exhibit" would be a better term than "game", since there's not really any story, or rules, or objectives, or anything resembling a normal gameplay loop. The level of interactivity is well below what you would typically expect from a game, and there's effectively no agency in affecting the outcome of what happens. Even walking simulators have at least some of those things.
I remember reading an article which talks about the difference between games and these interactive demos: games have objectives and goals, and for the demos without such, they're better to be called as "toys".
There are tools in the upper right corner. You can pick one and use it on a beetle. ;) This introduces various faults in the simulation that the database has to recover from.
Minor spoiler: there's another tiny game hidden at the end of the third level.
That adds some interactivity, but I still wouldn't call this a game yet. Games generally have some sort of challenge you must overcome. This is more like a highly polished interactive simulation of a distributed db. Still really cool and well done.
See "walking simulators":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Remains_of_Edith_Finch
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stanley_Parable
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Flights_of_Loving
Plenty argue that these aren't games either (usual complaints involve lack of problem(s) to resolve, and no win-lose dynamic); but, then, what are these? The closest category I can think of would be "computer-animated film", but... these are interactive, and you can navigate and look in any direction you want, which yields a very different experience than watching a film like "Toy Story".