If you’re like me, you’re always trying to gamify everything. Gamify chores, errands, bank balance management—anything to fool my brain into keeping its reward system alive and kicking. I can even gamify work by thinking of my lunch break like a bonfire Dark Souls; but what games can I play while doing those other things?
Enter idle games and desktop pets, the perfect refuge for an easily distracted mind. If you like the idea of Tamagotchi but find them a little too needy and guilt-inducing, you might just enjoy some of these instead. The genre has enjoyed something of a renaissance on Steam in recent months, so here are some of the most feature-rich and celebrated that I could find.
6Ropuka’s Idle Island
A self-described “playable sticker for your desktop,“Ropuka’s Idle Islandis an adorable little number wherein a frog leisurely cuts grass in the corner of your screen. Ropuka is always doing something in his garden, though he’s usually napping. Any grass he cuts can be spent on decorations, as well as upgrades for his gardening stats and tools.
It’s an ideal idle game for work, specifically as it’s truly low effort and only takes a sliver of your CPU. You won’t be clicking rapidly or anxiously checking in, as Ropuka’s languid pace sets the tone pretty well. He’s a great desktop companion nonetheless, and he’s with me now as I write this article.
5Bongo Cat
Bongo Catis probably the goofiest game on this list, and certainly the purest form of idle game imaginable. Any time you click or press a key, Bongo Cat will echo your activity with a smack of the taskbar. That’s it. You occasionally rake in rare drops and customization items for bongo cat, which might just qualify this as a Skinner box of sorts, but don’t think about that now. There’s clicking to be done.
It’s not the most stimulating program in the world, though I did find myself idly clicking a lot more just to watch the number go up. It’s also free, so I might recommend it as a beginner desktop pet just to see if you like this sort of thing.
4Rusty’s Retirement
One of the gamiest games on this list,Rusty’s Retirementis a farming game that takes up a healthy amount of screen real estate. That might sound like busywork compared to the other games on the list, but the catch is that you have a coterie of adorable robots doing a lot of the work for you. As you accrue money, you’ll expand your farm and diversify your crop output.
It’s as feature-rich as any game in the style I’ve seen; Twitch integration lets streamers and viewers work on a farm together, and different modes let you retool how frequently the game will require your input. There’s also aVampire Survivorscrossover, which I promise is less frantic than it sounds.
3Desktop Cat Cafe
One of the coziest games on offer,Desktop Cat Cafeis similar to Rusty’s Retirement in that it’ll run along your taskbar and take up a good portion of the screen by default. The hook is that, since you run a cafe, customers will occasionally wander in to order snacks and beverages. Don’t fret, though, as your staff will handle all the service. You just unlock new recipes and decorate the space as you see fit.
It’s nothing that’ll blow you away, but it’s one of the most visually pleasant and thematically amusing idle games around. If you consider yourselfa cozy game connoisseur, you’ll probably find your wavelength in tune with that of Desktop Cat Cafe.
2Tiny Pasture
If you love pixel art and animal husbandry, it’s hard to beatTiny Pasture. This desktop game lets all sorts of little critters loose to scurry around a resizable portion of your screen. Red pandas, llamas, ghosts, slims, zombies, and whatever else crawls out of the creature-spawning “mystery curtain” will happily show up to add some life to your workspace.
You’re free to interact with them at your leisure, feeding and petting them while automated facilities keep them happy. It’s a straight shot of cute pixel animation sure to make your Google Docs tab a little less dreary.
1Bao Bao’s Cozy Laundromat
Bearing my favorite aesthetic conceit on this list,Bao Bao’s Cozy Laundromatsees you manage a laundromat with the help of a pixel art panda. It’s that slow-paced routine of checking in and expanding you’ll recognize from the other games on this list, but there’s something pleasantly hypnotic about watching the pandas go through a little routine all their own.
It’s easy to tab out of this one in window mode and it comes equipped with a “focus timer,” so if you need to lock in occasionally, Bao Bao won’t give you any grief. If you’re passionate about pandas or, uh, laundry, this one’s a no-brainer.
The bottom line is that virtual pets are a joy to behold, whether you’re letting them frolic in the background or treating them better than your real-life relationships. While I wait forNintendogs 3, a revival of thePetzseries, or at the very least a sequel toSeaman, games like these satisfy my bottomless hunger for small, stress-free tasks.
If you’re looking formore ways to squeeze gaming inat the margins of your day, idle games might just be the perfect outlet.
