I’m looking for PC games that I can play while listening to podcasts- games that don’t have engaging cut scenes or important dialogue, games that honestly don’t require a lot of skill or thought.
I used to be really into things like Farm Frenzy, Rescue Team, hidden object games, that kind of thing. I got heavily into MMOs and stopped downloading casual games for a decade or so.
Now it almost feels like this sort of game isn’t made anymore? Were they completely nuked by the existence of Gacha games, P2W, and anything that earns the dev a constant income stream? I’m happy to pay for a game once, but I can’t be constantly buying booster packs.
I also don’t want to play on mobile or on a console, PC Master Race here, haha.
Vampire Survivors for sure! It’s a very chill arcade game and it’s like 2-3€ when on sale.
FTL is fun and hard.
Also mindustry
FTL is such an interesting game !
Power wash simulator will be your best friend. No spoken dialogue, no important cutscenes, just you and a power wash gun. The only thing you’ll miss out on listening to podcasts is the admittedly very soothing sound of PSSSSHHHHHHHHHH from the washer itself.
Great suggestion. Also, if people are into it Lawn Mowing Simulator is good as well.
My father really likes Mini Motorways. You could try something like that
He’s a big fan of sim cities and zoo tychoon and stuff too
Love me some mini motorways and mini metro!
I have a Steam collection just for that purpose, called “zone-out games”:
- Factorio
- Euro Truck Simulator
- Viscera Cleanup Detail
- Satisfactory
- Space Engineers
- Hardspace Shipbreaker
- Rift Breaker
- Monster Train
- Jupiter Hell
- Vampire Survivors
- Dorf Romantik
- DOOM (any)
- Nethack
Some advice I want to give is that “games that require a lot of skill” is only a temporary blocker. If you enjoy a hard game enough to play through it repeatedly, it can become a podcast game. Many people play Bloodborne or Binding of Isaac to audiobooks, and roguelikes are generally like this.
That in mind, I have a list of games that are valid podcast games but I haven’t built enough familiarity with them yet:
- FTL
- Binding of Isaac
- Terraria
- Risk of Rain
- Against the Storm
Factorio is awesome. To make it even more chill - I turn off enemies and increase resources. Even without enemies that game gets so complex and involved. But still mindless.
This is my exact genre of choice. I’m only gonna list the games I play, because I can’t name them all.
Just about any sandbox survival game will fit the bill:
- Minecraft (obvi, but needs another mention)
- Satisfactory
- Rust
- Valheim
- Raft (there’s some story to read if you want to actually complete the game)
Then you have the simulators:
- Dreamlight Valley (a lot of story in this one, but once you get past the dialogue and tutorials it’s basically fetch quests and farming)
- My Time at Portia (same with this)
- Car Mechanic Simulator 2021
- House Flipper
- The Sims
- TABS (honourable mention; whimsical battle sandbox with some customisability)
Tetris effect, katamari damacy - these two are the epitome of replayability and pick up/put down mechanics IMNSHO
Many roguelites could fall into this category, and are generally cheap to boot (i.e. vampire survivors).
Any other games that you recommend?
I would just look through any number of online list of “Best Swarm Survivors”. There’s dozens of different themes and tweaks from the VS formula, including boat and train varieties! I also watch the YouTube channel Never Nathaniel as he’s a pretty awesome source of both info and entertainment on the matter (as well as other games). He’s literally the only streamer I’ve watched and I couldn’t tell you why, his formula just works.
One more that is outside of the swarm survival genre, Child of Light. Though there is a fun and endearing story that irecommend, once you get through the first 20 minutes, you can kind of just not care and enjoy the simple but interesting play style of an almost-turned-based RPG.
Minecraft creative mode can be very relaxing but time consuming, it takes a while to build a big project but looks awesome when completed, you can go for a small hobbit home too and give in some detail, it takes your mind off of things sometimes, especially when doing the math to even builds out.
https://classic-mahjong.com/ is free, entirely browser based, has no ads or other nonsense, and has the pleasant waterfall cascading effect when you clear all the tiles.
Oldschool Runescape. The perfect game for watching something on the side. Just get into a rhythm and grind away
Eufloria is that game for me.
Dang, I haven’t read that name in a literal decade. When was it last updated?
I guess they added a few levels to Eufloria HD in 2020, 9 years after release.
What about tycoon games ? Old school ones are usually still very playable. Or for something more recent Planet Zoo can be as slow and peaceful as you like
Cities: Skylines is worth a mention too! There’s a bit of a learning curve but it’s good fun. And pocket city 2 for a mobile version
Stardew Valley is a really chill and fun game. You can talk to the towns people but don’t have to and the dialogue is all very short if you do.
Yeah, I’ve played that game to death at this point, I’m afraid.
I’ll also add Urbek City Builder. It’s a city building game but it’s a more simplified one. Resource management is very easy and you can build your city as fast or as slow as you need.
Dorfromantik is a very chill puzzle game that runs great on Steam Deck if that’s your thing, a favourite of mine while the TV is going in the background.
If you’re into factory games I 1000% recommend Shapez, which is a shape-building game that doesn’t have the notion of grinding or currency or running out of resources. It’s immensely satisfying when you get the perfect mechanism together and you’re churning out shapes. Definitely one for mouse and keyboard though.
Definitely recommend Dorfromantik! Islanders is another super chill casual game (and also a builder) that I started and fell in love with the other day.
