After starting work, I feel so tired every day, so I just want to play some casual games. Recently, I’m playing survivor-like games like Vampire Survivors and Darkchaser. They’re simple and fun, but after a while, they get a bit boring. So, I’m looking for other casual game recommendations, preferably single-player games that can be paused at any time, like Plants vs Zombies. Thanks！
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The ones I’ve played of late are:
Disney Dreamlight Valley
Dungeons of the Endless (Casual, but a tad addictive)
Dungeon Defenders
Noita - Action 2D platformer
Ale & Tale Tavern - survival food service
Satisfactory - Open world Factory builder (my current addiction)
IMO your selections are a weird fit for the term “chill” as they seem to be more action games but the above should have a similar “intense at times, with breaks” vibe i get from yours.
Factorio, it can be casual, but eventually it will steal your sleep
factorio is not casual. now that i have space age, I actually haven’t played because i know ill be sucked in.
Available on PC, Steam (if you’re willing to pay), and android (through F-droid, not sure about play store or any of the others):
Shattered Pixel Dungeon. Run though randomly generated dungeon floors. Every 5th floor, fight a boss. I suck at it, so I’ve only gotten past the 2nd boss once, but that’s because I suck. Currently 5 different classes with a 6th in development (unless I’m wrong and it’s already out), each playing differently for the most part. You’ve got a warrior, rogue, huntress, mage, and duelist, with all but warrior being locked until you do easy enough requirements to unlock them for subsequent runs.
Can pause, exit, and come back to a run whenever during a run.
Available on PC and android (both F-droid and play store);
SuperTuxKart. Cart racer with a lot of fan made content like maps and carts. Has varying difficulties, but the lower the difficulty the lower the max speed in a race, if that matters to anyone else besides me. Not exactly full-on single-player since there is the option of online play, either against friends or random players if you find an open lobby.
Can pause pretty much any time offline but backing out makes you have to restart a race from the beginning. Same thing applies to the multi-race cup things.
Dave the Diver. I had put down gaming because of tiredness and this game was such an unexpected joy of exploration and cute story for me. Easy to pick up and do a quick dive, decent progression based on a mix of skill and leveling up your character, and the writing was excellent. First game I 100% in forever and it was while playing it 30 minutes at a time.
Sounds chill.
It’s the perfect combo of cozy but not zero challenge - this would be my pick in op’s shoes
Yeah. I would probably start with Dave the Diver, in their case.
It’s so good. Decently chill. Great vibe throughout. The Boss fights each have a simple gimmick to win, and they don’t try to be clever about it. (Nothing pisses me off like “we changed the pattern of interaction five to turn a narrow victory win into a loss”. Game designers need to cut that out.) Thankfully Dave the Diver has the classic two patterns per battle, and aims for predictable fun. And the Boss fights are rare, anyway.
Enter the Gungeon is another good bullet hell game. Slay the Spire if you like deck building. Both easy to pick up and stop.
Gungeon is not casual though, one of the hardest games I’ve played!
Hard as shit and also my favorite musical artist ever
Balatro in addition to Slay the Spire, gaming crack (and game of the year).
HoloCure is another take on Vampire Survivors genre, but with slightly more complex mechanics (closer to a twin stick shooter) and VTuber themed characters. It’s also completely free on Steam as it’s a fan made project, but that does not detract from its quality in any way.
Halls of Torment and Brotato are both similar to Vampire Survivors, but better in my opinion. Great art styles and the weapon system in Brotato is really fun.
Casual-wise, story-based games are nice, like Frog Detective, Florence and the like.
Project Highrise might fit the bill - it’s pretty relaxed, and lasts forever.
UFO 50
If you enjoyed arcade or NES style games
UFO50
Casual
NO
Dredge has been one of my favourites. Just be aware that the game starts harder than when it ends.
I tried playing it last night, and I really reaaaaally wanted to play through it. It’s really fun and original, but boy, does it stir up some primal fear in me when the fog rolled in. Also, it doesn’t help that murky water and things in said water just absolutely fuck me up. So, needless to say, I can’t play it unless I have people around me because my anxiety goes from 0 when I’m fishing and 100 when it gets spooky.
Try some cozy games, like Animal Crossing, or any of the dozens of other farming / crafting games. If you want 3D, Slime Rancher is a good option in this category.
Destide has already mentioned Stardew Valley, which is also a great choice.
You can also try some not-difficult side-scrolling game, like Rayman Legends, it has some difficult levels, but most of the game is very chill.
Stardew Valley is the embodiment of chill
As long as you realize you don’t have to eat and the time constraints aren’t as tough as it first seems.
As long as you have enough monitors for all the spreadsheets and wiki pages you need to consult!
This really depends on the type of person you are. I find with the time pressure each in-game day that every time I launch it I get caught up in a mess of wiki pages and spreadsheets figuring out the ideal crops to plant and when, what gifts people like and when to gift them, etcetera etcetera. It became stressful and I stopped playing it after finishing most of the main objectives.
You can play it, at your rythm,
Performance isnt mandatory,You can learn the game before going “meta”, discovering things by yourself, etc.
Do not compare yourself to others or directly going on a wiki, to start paying it…Perfection is fun with time. Its a solo game, why you should run it for real ?
Seconded
Tetris :)
I am running Tetris for the PSP on my Steam Deck and I love it!
I asked a similar question quite a while back. What ended up feeling good for me from the recommendations was Oxygen Not Included surprisingly. I thought it would be too much but just trying to figure things out on my own was fun, and I found myself falling asleep to thoughts of plans for my colony. Surprisingly addictive and chill, maybe because I could pause and think anytime things started going wrong.
But I also gotta recommend Outer Wilds if you haven’t played it already. Exploration, mystery solving in a chill solar system environment. Go in blind is the best advice for that game but I found it super chill and relaxing.
I used to love this game but later I found myself optimising little things too much and my PC couldn’t keep up with a well grown colony
Yeah, for me I always end up starting a new colony after getting to rockets. It’s my brain that can’t keep up with the colony past that point
Yeah mid game the cpu load gets bad. Some tips.
Cleaning up debris into piles to simplify physics calculations.
Removing gasses you don’t need that are floating around the map.
Walling off sections of the map with only one door to simplify path planning.
Killing off or consolidating the wild creatures.
Setting dups (like cooks) that don’t need to leave your base to not be able to leave.
