Alright @LonelinessCorps I have a mission for you!
I need a new game. A cozy, non-stressful, can drop in and out, gentle focus but not cognitively challenging, take a break from reality and get some dopamine hits game.
Android phone, preferably free, easy to get started.
This is what I have been playing, but I am a builder not a battler and next phases of the game involve lots of stuff I don’t enjoy and plateaued on what I was enjoying.
@vlrny @LonelinessCorps Monument Valley?
@gretared
OMG this is sensory joy just to watch the demo vid. 🤩
#monumentValley
@LonelinessCorps
☝️
My brain is done for the day, so not much reading comprehension, but I am fekkin LOVING all this cozy game chat on this thread.
Talk amongst yerselves and I will catch up later. So many fun ideas! Thanks @LonelinessCorpsI’m a big fan of “idle” or “incremental” games. I’ve played just about all of them on iPad up to about 4 years ago when I had to get super choosy about which ones I tried because they most all turned into insulting ad-bloat grabby money grabs (and that’s with me being willing/able to pay a reasonable amount for a game).
This genre is one where typically it’s about making passive purchase decisions to cause the numbers to go up faster to purchase more things, and the numbers get really huge. Maybe it’s managing a restaurant or farming chickens or even military/combat/fantasy RPG themes — basically everything has been done. I like them because for most, it’s impossible to lose, so I can sit and space off and not be penalized. The numbers will go up with or without me, often even while not playing.
Very few of these (unfortunately per your request) are social games, though there are some that are MMO-style. I might be interested in joining if you find a nice social cozy game — I usually steer clear of social games because trolls.
I made a list awhile back but it was from memory, and these might have changed with updates or not be on android, so YMMV. A few that I’ve enjoyed that at least somewhat fit your criteria (particularly no combat) include:
BitCity (NimbleBit)
Idle Planet Miner
Zen Idle
Idle Dice Tycoon (Gaga Games)
Idle Dice (Lutz Schoenfelder)
We Happy Restaurant (has irreverent/weird themes)
Idle Idle Game Dev
Exponential Idle
Perception (Andrew Zuo)
Idle Pet Shelter
Idle Mystery Room Tycoon
Idle Ghost Hotel
Idle Ball: Tower
Egg, Inc.
Dawn of Crafting
A Dark Room
Crafting Idle Clicker (Bling Bling Games)
Idle Brick Breaker - Breakout (Tech Tree)
Idle Tower Builder (Alexey Izvalov)(IIRC this is a Ukrainian developer, and all of their games have a similar gear-building factory flow type deal that’s creatively fun)
Pincremental
Idle Game 1
Zen Shards
Leek Factory Tycoon
Church Tycoon (seems religious but it’s irreverently critical)@vlrny @LonelinessCorps One fun thing is that in most of these, just about when you think the game is “done,” you “prestige,” which means the game starts over but with changes or benefits that alter or speed up gameplay. Some have multiple layers of prestige resets. That really threw me many years ago the first time it happened. :) But it’s a very core part of this style of game.
@vlrny @LonelinessCorps Some notable non-idle mobile games (and I wish I’d kept a better list of these) that fit your request sans social are:
Wizards and Wagons (trading and inventory management game)
Fiz (run a microbrewery)
Shop Titans (selling fantasy weapons, but YOU don’t fight)
Project Highrise (building offices in skyscrapers)
The Final Earth 2 (building a space colony)
Pocket Frogs (collect and raise frogs)
IncrediMarble (build marble tracks)
Townsmen (town builder)
Hotel Story
Other Idlers I forgot:
Idle Tap Zoo
CraftBound
Wasteland OrchardOH, AND!!! (I’m so sorry.) There’s a company in Japan that makes a certain kind of game that is uniquely them… KairoSoft. Every once in awhile I get a hankering. Usually they’re pay up front, in the $5-8 range, which is nice because zero ads, ever. (They experimented with that model and it failed; those releases by them sucked.)
They’re super cute little tycoon type games where you run a mall or school or TV station or sushi bar etc. You make money and buy upgrades, research, new people come, rinse repeat. Just really cozy.
My faves from them include:
Mega Mall Story
Game Dev Story
Hot Springs Story
Forest Camp StoryProbably time for me to play another one of these! They have a ton of titles I haven’t tried and it’s been awhile.
@corbden
Oooo yaaaaas. Idle games would be the term I’m looking for.
And the game doesn’t necessarily need to be social, we could chat via hashtag or something-as a loose way to connect. I’d be mostly non-verbal when using the game anyway.
Will plunk away at this list and see if anything works for mah brain.
Thanks!
@LonelinessCorps
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@ShaulaEvans @vlrny @LonelinessCorps
I have an iPhone but they should be available on the Android App Store equivalent, I think?
@vlrny @LonelinessCorps Also Fields of Mistria has been GREAT for this, but is on Steam.
@oceanic @vlrny @LonelinessCorps
bookmarked, thank you!
☝️@[email protected]
Part of what I’m thinking is if we can get a group together who are all playing the same game, that might be a nice gentle way for folks to connect.So a collaborative game, or just one with light chat where we can drop in and ask questions or share tips. I’m a raging n00b at gaming, so often have dumb questions. But I also am gaming because I can’t human, so wouldn’t be able to cope with a chat-dependent game, though could lurk and enjoy.
It does sound lovely, but many games are hard for me to play. Gaming is really political and cutthroat under the table, even for cutesy farming games. I don’t have a phone, or a computer for playing games. Or money to buy one.
Not to say you shouldn’t do it, but… not sure I could participate. Might depend on the game!
@vlrny That sounds lovely 🥺 I hope if people choose a game, it comes across my feed!
Do you like farm sims? Like Hay Day, if you’ve heard of that?
@azure I like cultivating for sure. An ecology game where you rewilded a bareen landscape or something would be fun.
Haven’t heard of Hay Day but that might be worth considering.
I mostly need gentle focus, and light decisions.
Would also enjoy a Zamboni game where you just drove big arcing patterns to clear a rink.
Will bookmark and boop you if we settle on something.
Also, somebody #stealThisIdea for these games if they don’t already exist.
@vlrny The rewilding idea sounds great! I’ve heard of a *computer* game for that (Terra Nil, currently $25 on Steam, keeps getting discounts down to $10), but not a phone one.
Hay Day is like… hmm. You manage a farm and make it grow by adding new buildings and deciding how to arrange them. You collect crops and milk and stuff and sell them to NPCs and sometimes other players. There are guilds (maybe named something else), so we could have a closed Fedi guild!
I *think* there’s an in-game chat, but I have a hard time typing on landscape mode, so I don’t think I’ve used it (much?). The decisions are definitely light - there’s really no way to mess up as far as I remember, just ways to slow your progression down (like if you buy a lot of decorations, you’ll be slower at buying new cows or whatever and leveling up). I never had trouble figuring out what I was supposed to do.
Oh, we could make the game demolition themed. Like you start in some city, and have to take down all the buildings and revivify the soil, remove toxic waste. Maybe like Simcity except in reverse, where you take a sprawling paved hellscape and turn it into compact multistory public apartments surrounded by happiness and greenery.
Like, you get the big corporation to close and move out, and as your city sinks into economic depression, everything starts getting better (if poorer). Or even big cities split up into smaller more manageable towns and villages.
UnCity? Some sort of positive name like Reclamation, or BuildingSmasher.
