If you're interested in creating a sense of discovery/wonder, you absolutely must play Cinco Paus:
https://smestorp.itch.io/cinco-pausI can't express in words how exactly literally perfect this game seems to be for what the OP is wanting.
The first several hours are a process of trying to understand the cryptic icons and language (well.. unless you speak portuguese) that explains cause and effect rules in the world, using only inference from the results of the player's actions. You do something, you observe the results, and you try to piece together (a) what happened, (b) why.
This process has plenty of moments of trial and error and miraculous discoveries as you finally understand why something happened, or correctly predict a result. It can be very frustrating, but it's one of the most rewarding learning experiences I've found in a game.
(And then, once you understand everything, the second phase of the game begins where you use your knowledge to progress further in the game -- but that seems less interesting from the POV of this thread).
Another game that's full of "sense of discovery" is Starseed Pilgrim:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/230980/Starseed_Pilgrim/This one is maybe a bit too cryptic -- but then again it perfectly emulates the process of being in a world of rules which are unknown, and trying to understand what they are and how they function. I just found that (unlike Cinco Paus) the feedback from the world wasn't so clear or easy to grasp, which led to a lot of confusion and frustration. But it *definitely* has some good moments of discovery, which I don't want to ruin -- if you keep playing you'll eventually figure this out and make the discovery for yourself.