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.
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
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 !
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
