Laid Back / Casual games

I've been a bit busy lately, and was wondering if anyone had any smaller games that are simple in the sense of I can pause them at any point, easy to run (might be using my laptop to run it), simple controls, and really anything with those are kind of on the table.

Games I can think of that sort of fit the criteria would be;
Baba is You
Cult of the Lamb (a bit more complex to manage right now, but doable)
Dave the Diver

Basically, with my two newborns being around and taking up the vast majority of my time, I find sometimes I have a small bit of time I could have a game running at leave in the background for an amount of time, then just continue after I've gone and dealt with them.

I was sure I had to have something that fit, as many games as I play, but the closest I come is very complex turn-based stuff that you could easily walk away from, like 4X and SRPG games. Or true roguelikes, I suppose. (That is, they have some ACTUAL resemblence to Rogue, and aren't just procedural generation with death ending an attempt.) I don't think anyone would call a true roguelike laid back, though...

First game that comes to mind is Mark of the Ninja, I've played through that game like 4 times over the years. Its really fun!

Other than that, I spend my days on vanilla Minecraft nowadays - i suppose the same rule applies, i can pause at any time. Same with factorio, but these games aren't really small. They're massive lol

Mini motorways is another good one, but its one of those games with high replayability. I just get bored after a while..

Didn't think about it before, but 4xs would probably work too, frankly. As long as It's something I can walk away from at the drop of the hat, that would work. And ideally not super in-depth as right now I can hardly remember if I ate in the morning, so there's no hope of me remembering too much in-depth in a game lol.

I've seen that game a few times here and there but never looked that deep into it. Might need to take a look at it again, thanks for the reminder!

Yeah factorio I'd never remember what I was doing, but Minecraft may be doable. I actually played mini motorways for a while, and I can agree with the getting bored bit for a while.

In that case, as much as I'd like to recommend Age of Wonders 4, I won't, as it's pretty complex even by 4x standards. Civilization 2, 4, and 6 are worth it as 4Xes in my opinion--3 was a disappointment, 5 wasn't quite ready and is basically supplanted by 6, Beyond Earth and Civ 7 are mistakes. Right now, they're overpriced, but Civ 6 has been as low as $6 before when on sale.

Endless Legend and Endless Space are great, but may be enough of a learning curve to annoy right now.

If you have any interest in a true roguelike, Z.H.P. on Steam is a silly, reasonably approachable one, and completely turn-based.

Oh lord I didn't even think about the Civ games, I do love some of them. Maybe I'll see about some sales one of these days, I probably have the most time in 4. I haven't really played any newer ones lately though, maybe like one game of 5? At a friends house a long time ago lol. I did play Age of Wonders 3, and I did like it well enough at the time, but yeah perhaps another time with those games.

ZHP looks interesting. I do like rogue-lites and likes, so perhaps I'll give that a go too. Kind of a weird game, but I do like me some weirdness as well.

Caveat on ZHP: I realized just now that I haven't tried the PC version. It was a PSP game and I played it natively there. I'm just so accustomed to whatever I buy on Steam working I didn't think twice before recommending it.

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A casual game which doesn't require much brain activity;

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What about Portal?

I suppose I could play through it again, but I've beaten it and the second many times in the past. Good idea, though.

Not sure if you like to keep your mind occupied or not but one I use for stress relief and memory retention is Vita Mahjongg I also have Vita Mahongg for Seniors on my cell phone .... you can play it right on the internet from the link below .....

Mods if not allowed please delete the link ....

If you need to shut it down immediately just shut down ... no need to save ....

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I realize you're after specific recommendations, but I just noticed Steam is running a sale that seems pertinent right now:

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I was unaware, those seem to exactly fit the bill. Time to find some time to go through them all.

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If your looking for laid back games, I can recommend Plants VS Zombies. Its a tower defense game that was made by POP CAP, way back in the Xbox 360 days. You can find it on Steam for your computers, consoles, hand helds, as well as Google Play, for your phones and tablets.


The obvious one is AisleRiot Solitaire. Puzzle game - Holotz's moving Castle (you can save what level you have completed and start from that).
Bejewelled equivalent is Gweled another one. And Tetris with a difference, Cuyo.

For adventure games you could install ScummVM and then install (adventure games):
Flight of the Amazon Queen
Beneath a Steel Sky (infuriating as I can't get off the top deck of the building!)
lure of the temptress (annoying because when I played it on Amiga I actually got out of prison!)

As you have 2 newborns you could install GCompris to give you practice on teaching the young ones fun learning on GNU/Linux!

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Funny you just mention Beneath a Steel Sky, as I just turned it on to see what it's about, and might continue it. Of course, I had about 10 minutes free then haven't had any time since lol

OMG .... this is really old school for me ... . never played these type games back in the day .... kept searching for a key ... normally ESC .... to open up the Menu choices for volume .... graphics ..... controls etc. ..... guess there ain't any .... :sob:

When all else fails go to DDG for answers .... so off I am to do the search ....

Well that was a waste of time .... it told me to load my floppy into the drive to play the game ..... but ... but I got rid of my floppy drive in the late 1990's ....

Just kidding there is a ton of information on the web about game play and what to do .... going to copy and paste some of this info to use so I don't tax my poor old brain while learning to play the game .... LOL

Thanks swarf

I really did try to like this game but this horrific music finally got to me .... tried turning it down but every time the scene changes the music comes right back and I can't find anything on the web to shut it off .....

Anyone have any ideas ??????