You’re sitting at your computer working… well, you should be working, but you’d much rather be doing anything else. You head over to Steam and start looking through your games. You find something that looks interesting, launch it, and your work becomes a distant memory. Hours later, you’re happily tending your crops and making new friends. You suddenly remember that you have a project to submit in the morning. You glance at the clock and a moment of panic ensue, it’s already midnight. Not again. You have to stop doing this!

A new kind of idle/semi-idle games have started to crop up lately. You might have seen some of them if you keep up with new releases. These are games that live at the bottom of your screen while you go about your work or browse the internet. Most of these fall into a couple categories: simulation, farming sim, or management. Games like Rusty’s Retirement have made this genre well known in the cozy gaming community. You might not be aware that despite their novelty, there is already a good selection of desktop idle games in the Steam store. If you want a game to play in small doses while you are tending other things, this genre might be what you are looking for.

The first desktop idle game I’ve tried is Desktop Cat Cafe. It was recently released on Steam by Zippyzappy Games. It’s a cozy sim/management game where you run your own cafe. Initially your cafe is pretty bare-bone, and the goal of the game is to make it thrive with lots of customers. You start with the minimum, but by adding more tables and simple decorations, you start to quickly attract more customers. The more customers visit, the more money you make. You’ll then be able to afford more lavish furniture and decorations which in turn will of course attract more customers.

The game uses the bottom of your screen and leaves the rest for browsing the internet or any other program you are running. While you are working on other important stuff, you can hire cute feline staff to run your cafe and serve the customers. You can get back to it whenever you have a moment, and decorate, personally serve some customers, or look at how successful your cafe has become. I love that you can zoom in and out. It makes it easier to see details when you are decorating while still having most of the screen available the rest of the time. It’s nice not to be locked in to a whole third of your screen being dedicated to your game like a lot of these other games. It makes it easier to see your work when you are not playing while still keeping an eye on your cafe. In the settings, you can also make it more or less opaque and have it always on top of your work, or in the background until you want to play. It could easily get frustrating if you are doing something that require more space, and I think it’s a nice thoughtful detail that makes a big difference for the player. It’s the best of both worlds.

There are so many ways to customize your cafe that it will truly be unique. You can access all of the decorations which includes furniture, decorations, plants, and different coffee machine, teapots, and so much more from the start as long as your have the funds to buy them. Desktop Cat Cafe also has a special building system that lets you change landmarks. You can add rivers by drawing them so there’s unlimited ways you can utilize them. In addition to rivers, there’s wooden roads, rocks, bridges and even animals that roam your cafe. In time you’ll also unlock many recipes for different drinks and treats. It has 150 recipes to unlock in total.

The artwork in this game is so cute and colourful. The cat staff and customers are fun to watch going about their business. I enjoyed playing Desktop Cat Cafe, however players getting this game should be aware there are still some bugs. I would still recommend it, but only if this sounds like a game you’d love and you’re willing to be patient.

The next desktop idle that I’ve played is Plantasia. It’s developed be Cave Bear Games. Plantasia is their first title. While it’s in the same genre as Desktop Cat Cafe both the style and gameplay are completely different. Plantasia is a sci-fi farming sim/management. The Early Access tag means that even though it’s available for purchase, the development is still ongoing. The game’s core and all of the important features are there, but there are planned additions in the coming months like a story mode, additional craft-able blueprints, and much more. There is already the outline of a story, and I am looking forward to see it evolve with further development.

Long ago in the Milky Way Galaxy, what became known as the Nexus of Echoes destroyed all life on the planet Coatl-IV. It’s 2258 and you have just arrived at the garden station. Your job as a researcher has never been as important as it is now. The stakes are high, you’re trying to restore life on Coatl-IV.

You’re in charge of the garden which means that you have to plant the seeds, water the crops, and of course harvest. You can then either exchange the harvested material for another material or use it. At the moment there are two sections available with more to come. These two sections are; the garden which is pretty self-explanatory and a workshop. In this workshop you can do several things. Firstly once you’ve bought a blueprint, you can use it to build some decorative items for your garden room. It’s also where the Vault is situated to exchange materials. Finally this workshop also contains a research lab where you use the harvested plants to create hybrids.

Plantasia is the perfect game for this genre. You can do your work and come in once in awhile to water your plant or do whatever is needed. It’s an interesting game, and I think a story mode will take it to the next level. I had fun playing it for a while, but the content is still limited. There are however already a good amount of plants that you can breed and grow. If you want a simple game that you can play quickly in between work session or would like to be part of the development process and watch the game evolve Plantasia might be for you.

Sometimes you just need a break while working or you’re in the mood to play something casual and simple for a short time. I think these new types of idler are great because let’s be honest who want to waste time waiting for resources? Having the option of doing something else during downtime is perfect for people like me. I find it much more relaxing. I also love that there are such a big variety of styles. It makes it easy to find something that appeals to each player. If you like casual games you should definitely check out this new genre of games.

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