Indie Highlight
May 8, 2025
The quest for great horse games continues as I hunt down newer options regularly. Recent promotions showing Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori give a very promising view of what looks to be a gorgeous game. Then there’s Equire by developer NobleCourt. Where Windstorm is an epic adventure that involves horses, this game focuses on the ranch and competition life of equestrianism. Your goal is to make it to the top of the equestrian world by making a name for yourself!
Equire isn’t just about competing, though. You run your very own ranch, which you get to build yourself. Of course riding and competitions are important for making a name for yourself, but so is breeding, training, and successfully trading horses. Through these endeavors, you’ll earn money to fund your next prospects and to expand your ranch. Even hire workers and open the ranch to visitors so they can experience what it is you do. You can even unlock different pretty areas to explore via horseback so you can kick back and relax with a peaceful trail ride after a long day of training!
Release Date
Equire currently has no release date listed, but is set to release on Steam!
Don’t forget to check out Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori if you like horse games!
- May 7, 2025
Immerse yourself in a unique blend of relaxing life sim and idle game featuring soothing music, home and island decorating, and much more in ChillTown. This cute game takes the best and most beloved features of cozy sim games and gives players an excellent fun experience. Customize your character using numerous hairstyles, colors, features, and more. Then, engage in a number of different activities like exploring, or complete a number of quests. There’s a little bit of something for everyone to love in this game. You can even just chill out and enjoy the music and beautiful scenery!
Wander your new island home and gather resources. Go fishing with your trusty fishing rod. Plant your dream garden. Even catch adorable little creatures and get busy with building and decorating the town or your own house. Move new neighbors in to populate your ChillTown little island. Then, use build mode to place tons of different decorations to create comfortable little gardens, island parks, or just turn your home into your personal oasis. You can even decorate the insides of the NPC homes, too. Your imagination is the limit here. And if you want to let the game run while you get some work done, you can do that too! There’s an auto function that allows your character to catch fish without your manual input. Or just hang out and enjoy what you’ve built.
Release Date
You can get ChillTown in early access on Steam now. The developers have created a familiar, but unique game that deserves some love. Their hard work and improvements show with every update!
If you enjoy the idle aspect, checkout these 10 Mini Desktop Games, too!
- Apr 30, 2025
Step into a brand new life as soon as you hop off the bus in To Pixelia. You’ve left behind your old life to begin an exciting new one doing whatever it is you desire. Carefully design your character and make choices to steer their life how you wish. Rent your first apartment, a dingy little thing, until you can upgrade to bigger and better things. Start work wherever you can just to make rent, then move into the career path you want. Become who you want to be!
The character creator lets you create whoever you want. Pick from a number of different hairstyles, facial hair, tattoos, accessories, and clothes. Even decorate your home with tons of different floors, walls, furniture, and decor options. To Pixelia lets your individual style shine through in almost every aspect. You also get to pick your career path. Start working at an entry level position like waiter, cleaner, baker, or others. Then, through dedication and hard work, you can pivot into the career path you desire. Become a famous musician, a renowned supermodel, a popular painter, or even the president. Just remember, there are hundreds of Pixelians in the city with you, and you can’t get along with everyone. Sometimes you just have to fight it out to get your point across!
The Ultimate Life Sim
I got to play To Pixelia a while back, thanks to the devs and publisher, and it really is the ultimate life sim. There’s just so much to do and accomplish. Not a moment went by where I was bored, because I could engage in small jobs or take on new hobbies or even train for a new career. Decorating my home was satisfying and easy to do. Plus, exploring the huge city by walking or using the bus system was fun all on its own. Each character you meet is unique and fun to interact with, too. You can even look forward to leaving the city for greener pastures (literally). There’s a nice farmland area you can eventually settle down on if city life becomes too much for you. So, there’s something for everyone in this unique life sim!
Release Date
To Pixelia hits virtual shelves tomorrow, May 1st! You can grab a copy over on Steam. Grab the game and see where your new virtual life takes you.
- Apr 23, 2025
From the creators of Sticky Business, comes Ritual of Raven, a cozy story-based farm sim set in a magical world. Different traditions of magic live side by side in this adorable little game. There were once grand plans to open portals between worlds, but the ritual to open those portals went terribly wrong. Everyone involved in the ritual lost something precious to them and the portals began producing random new arrivals. You became victim to such a portal and were tossed out the other side of one, where you met the local witch. This witch, Sage, deems you perfect to help her with her quest and off you go to search for her companion Flutterstoop!
Don’t worry, you’re not alone in this new place. Your cheeky raven companion will accompany you as you settle into your new home and get to work. Make friends with the Ritual of Raven cast of unique and quirky characters. Each one has a different backstory for you to hear about. Plus, you can trade valuable ingredients with them! Care for a flourishing herb garden, too. Use your magical abilities to collect and enchant Arcana Constructs to care for your crops. Harvesting by hand ruins the magical properties of the plants, after all.
Best of all is you can unleash your creativity to decorate! You’re in a brand new land, and it’s important to find a sense of belonging. The best way to do that is to personalize your home to suit your tastes. Visit Pistachio’s to pick up all the decor you could possibly want. Then, decorate your homestead, your garden, and even the town!
Release Date
While it has no release date yet, Ritual of Raven will be coming to Steam and Nintendo Switch! Add it to your Wishlist now to receive notification of its release.
- Apr 18, 2025
Pilo and the Holobook sets you on a cosmic journey in the XOP-642 star system where you’ll guide Pilo through vibrant worlds. An ominous substance called the Tar has spread across the galaxy. It threatens the beautiful ecosystems and creatures you’ll encounter. As you traverse through different ecosystems and encounter fun puzzles to solve, you’ll discover the origins of the Tar and how to defeat it. You also have a powerful, and exciting, tool to use on your journey!
Pilo and the Holobook focuses on a combatless gameplay that emphasizes a player’s creativity, kindness, and curiosity. To do that, you’re armed with the Holobook. This book lets you interact with creatures, the environment around you, and then solve problems you may encounter. You even turn things you find into useful stickers that track your progress, unlock new skills, and solve environmental puzzles. So dive into this heartwarming story about friendship, mentorship, and saving the environment to see what fun solutions you come up with!
Release Date
You can pick up this wonderfully wholesome and cozy little game on Steam and Nintendo Switch now! You can also check out the Pilo and the Holobook demo on Steam.
- Apr 16, 2025
Full-blown games with great graphics, fun mechanics, and in-depth storylines are great. They’re what take up the bulk of gaming, cozy or not, and offer some incredible experiences for everyone. However, you sometimes just want something scaled back. Something to play for a few minutes at a time while you work on homework or take a break from your work-from-home job. These 10 mini desktop games are perfect for that! They sit at the bottom of your screen (some can sit vertically down the sides, too) and run in the background while you do your thing.
Rusty’s Retirement
Rusty’s Retirement started it all for me. This was the first cozy bottom-of-your-screen game I encountered and it’s the perfect one to start with if you love farming sims. Start out small and grow your tiny farm piece by piece. Rusty will work while you’re busy, farming, caring, and gathering crops. You can even employ worker robots to help speed up the process, too. There’s also a Focus Mode to slow down crop production if you feel things are moving too fast while you’re busy with other tasks. This makes for an even less distracting game!
Bao Bao’s Laundromat
If you prefer a business-based game over a farm sim, then try Bao Bao’s Laundromat instead! This one doesn’t sit as tiny on the bottom of the screen as others, but it will sit in the background and continue playing as you work on other tasks. In this cute game, you help Bao Bao open a laundromat and turn it into a bustling mega-business. Install washers and dryers, buy land to expand, hire different types of pandas, and more. Relax to the excellent soundtrack and set the Focus Timers to assist you with study or work sessions. There’s not much better than a gamified productivity tool.
Tiny Vending Machines
Here’s another business-based mini desktop game. Tiny Vending Machines is about building your vending machine empire. Buy and manage a variety of vending machines. Stock them with products like drinks, candy, ice cream, fruit, fast food, salads, soups, and so much more. Keep your machines stocked as customers will show up randomly to make purchases. Upgrade the vending machines to increase their capacity. Their highest upgrade fully automates them, too!
My Little Life
Take a life sim and make it tiny, and you get My Little Life! Watch as your little character leads their life as you complete work. They’ll choose a career based on what they’re good at, and their paychecks increase based on their skills within that career. You can then spend their hard-earned money on items to decorate their home with. You can even recruit more people to play with and build separate homes for everyone, or make one mega mansion. It’s an idle game, but you have some fun choices to make!
Desktop Cat Cafe
Desktop Cat Cafe is another adorable business-based mini desktop game. This time, you get to design your dream cafe and serve cute cats. Design the outdoor cafe using hundreds of decor options. Unlock 150+ recipes to serve in your cafe. Serve tasty items like cannolis, bubble tea, and matcha cake. Automate the business by hiring some cats so they can serve customers while you’re busy with work. Happy customers means more money, after all.
Cozy Littlequarium
Cozy Littlequarium takes relaxing aquarium building to the next level by putting it at the bottom of your screen and letting you care for it at your own pace! Study, work, or even play other games while your aquarium hangs out at the bottom of your screen. Purchase a variety of tropical or freshwater fish to stock your tank. Decorate with a number of different items to create a peaceful, natural, vibrant, or magical look to the aquarium. You can even breed fish and discover new types to fill out your compendium!
Deskquarium
Deskquarium is another aquarium idler, but it sits comfortably in the corner of your screen. Choose which aquarium type you want, and get to work filling it how you want. Pick from different kinds and colors of fish. Decorate the tank with fun plant life or rocks. There are even different water pumps to simulate a real aquarium build. Play around with your options to create our favorite aquascape and let it hang out on your desktop for some relaxing vibes.
Ropuka’s Idle Island
Ropuka’s Idle Island is described as a “playable sticker”. It’s a small little game that sits anywhere on your desktop. On that tiny island is a cute frog who spends his days cutting the grass that grows constantly. Watch Ropuka cut the grass day in and day out, and watch him take naps, too. Then, use the grass as currency to upgrade his tools or buy decorations to make the island super cozy. You can change the color of the grass, add bushes and plants, decorations, and more to make things super cute!
Whimside
If you prefer creature collectors, then Whimside is the perfect bottom-of-the-screen game for you! Explore the tiny world of Whimside and adventure through some enchanting environments in search of Whimlings to capture. You can also breed Whimlings to get hybrids. Each biome you encounter has its own secrets and rare breeds to capture. Use decorations to create your very own Whimling paradise and have your favorite creatures live there. These Whimlings will keep you company throughout the day while you get work done!
Tiny Pasture
Tiny Pasture is last on our list, and also another idler that has to do with animals. Cozy up with a variety of adorable animals like red pandas, deer, rabbits, alpacas, and more. Feed them, interact with them, and watch them grow on your screen. Put up a Mystery Curtain in the pasture and choose two adult animals of the same species to breed them and get more cute babies. Also buy magical items to help you care for and clean up after the animals to keep them happy and in tip top shape! You want them to keep you company while you work, after all.
- Apr 11, 2025
Have you ever dreamed of fighting evil by moonlight, having magic powers and cute outfits, or just healing the world around you? Pretty Sweet Healing Guardian lets you take on that special magical girl role! Customize your very own character with fun hairstyles that are reminiscent of your favorites. Then, take on the job of local Magical Girl in a cozy little town full of people in need and beautiful pastel scenery. You’re in charge of helping the locals find balance in their lives by aiding them in overcoming problems.
The people’s emotions need balancing, and you’ll do that by ensuring you have the appropriate amount of candy magic! Pretty Sweet Healing Guardian is a light management sim, so you’ll need to be sure you have the inventory necessary to care for the townspeople. Visit the candy store to stock up on different candies, and start each level with what you need to succeed! As you help people, you’ll earn hearts that can be used to upgrade your powers and new locations to visit.
Can you help everyone in this nostalgic magical sim?
Release Date
Pretty Sweet Magical Guardian is coming soon to Steam. Add it to your Wishlist to be notified of its release!
- Apr 3, 2025
Remember those awesome Polly Pocket clamshell toys? You know, the ones shaped like a quilted heart or a flower or there was even a shell shaped one. They were tiny little scenes, like a living room on top and a park on the bottom, with tiny little people to play with. I loved those toys and had several growing up, which makes Tiny Garden such a perfect mix of cozy and nostalgic! Except, this game has a fun farming and puzzling element to it instead of being purely for your imagination.
This stress-free game is all about chilling out with some gardening and decorating. Grow a variety of vegetables, flowers, and more. Each plant has its own unique mechanics for you to learn, too. Once you harvest your plants, trade them for decorations to create your very own unique space inside the clamshell toy. Tiny Garden has no time-limits and no fail states. Simply garden and decorate ‘til your heart’s content!
Coming to Steam
I’ve been waiting for Tiny Garden for a while. The demo was really enjoyable, and just left me wanting the full game. Thankfully, it finally releases on Steam April 8th! That’s just next week, so be sure to check out the game, Wishlist it, and grab it when it’s ready!
