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！
Stardew Valley is the embodiment of chill
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 ?
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.
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.
How has noone mentioned Powerwash Simulator yet. There is no pressure (pun not intended), you just walk around dirty scenes and start cleaning them. The amount of satisfaction this produces is incredible. This is mostly because the dirt is actually fairly accurate and washing does not feel like brushing dirt of where the only options is 100% dirt or 0% dirt. All of the intermediates and the complex geometry of the objects makes cleaning a really chilling experience.
im not trying to be provocative
but have you ever considered actually cleaning things
you can get paid to do this
irl power washwers are fun
Same could be said for any game. The value mostly of a game is the controlled progression with little impact. If I go start power washing the driveway and then stop at a moments notice to go take a shower and head to work I’m gonna leave a giant mess laying around and a half done driveway.
Yeah I can see that, but currently that’s not a viable line in my career to take
Enter the Gungeon is another good bullet hell game. Slay the Spire if you like deck building. Both easy to pick up and stop.
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 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.
