For a fun sidestep from the main game, Creature Isle is a great, easy-going detour.
The Creature Isle expansion is the perfect solution!
The gameplay is still the same as the main game, which is what helped me fall in love with it. The screen is devoid of almost all icons, and it is completely controlled with either the keyboard or through mouse-movement. The creature can be controlled by use of a leash, and you can perform various miracles to take care of the land.
The game starts out with three musical missionaries on a boat. They should probably seem very familiar to you. Upon making land, they call you to share their discovery. Creature Isle! An island inhabited by a vast number of other creatures - and no gods!
The bottom line of Creature Isle is a series of minigames (trials). Each of these is run by a different creature, and when successfully completing them all, you're creature will be accepted into this brotherhood (more of a cult, if you ask me) of creatures, and he (yes, there's no question it's a "he") will be allowed to meet one last mystery creature, but telling you about it would be a spoiler.
The trials are all very immersive, if not original. Ranging from bowling, to board games, to battling, (Hey! That was clever!) they're generally easy to learn, but if you think they'll all be easy, think again. You'll most surely be challenged, and require a steady mouse and keen eye to succeed. Overall, there are 20 challenges that face you. They provide an excellent time and hours of enjoyment.
I hope you trained your creature well in the main game, however, for in Creature Isle there is a new task involving training. Your main creature will now have an apprentice creature to train. After it hatches (it's a chicken, by the way) it'll be barely any bigger than the villagers, and it will be your creature's job to train it himself. Don't think that you won't have anything to do with the chick's training, but from now on, your creature does the scolding and praising based on it's own knowledge.
Now, when I said that this game is a break from managing your villages, that is mostly true. There are still three villages in Creature Isle, but they are generally small in size and population and will not require much work to maintain.
On the downside, there isn't a whole lot of replay value to Creature Isle. Once you've completed everything, you can go back and replay the trials, or do battle with the other creatures, but really, it's old after you've done it all the first time. So although the game can be completed in just a day or two, it's still well worth playing.