All posts tagged in Casual
Oct 3, 2024
In Map Map – A Game About Maps, you’re tasked with making maps! Indeed, you’re a cartographer whose job requires you to explore the world and create accurate maps. You’ll need to use your sense of direction to explore the different islands. Use your skills and an array of tools to expertly create maps that mark the interesting landmarks on each island. But there’s more to this grand adventure than just marking landmarks on paper!
There’s treasure to be found on the islands in Map Map. Explore ancient ruins and beautiful environments as you search for exciting pieces of treasure. Of course, you’re not alone, either. In fact, you have a whole crew with you! Each one is unique and you’ll have the chance to get to know them as you explore the beautifully handcrafted world before you. Each one has their own story for you to get to know, after all.
Release Date
Map Map is set to come to Steam some time. There is no release date available, but you can add it to your Wishlist to keep an eye on it!
- Oct 3, 2024
If you love the plethora of room design games that have hit the gaming market lately, but are truly craving one that lets you design fantasy themed rooms instead of modern ones, look no further! Fairytale Furnishing by developer Challenging Games is exactly what you’re looking for. You’re furnishing and customizing homes for fairytale heroes like princesses, the hero of the story, and even the wicked witch the hero fights. You’ll even uncover the story that connects each character together as you progress through different homes!
You’ll start each home, like the princess’s tower or witch’s den, completely empty. That means you have the freedom to decorate everything as you see fit. Carefully place furniture and decor items and reveal the personalities and stories of the owner. There’s no rush in Fairytale Furnishing, though, so take your time! There aren’t any challenges to overcome, either. As you decorate each home, you’ll unlock new items and furniture to use in each home. You can even hop back to previous levels and redesign them once you have new stuff. It’s a relaxing sandbox game without constraints, after all.
So, kick back and relax with some fairytale decorating!
Release Date
You can find Fairytale Furnishing on Steam now!
- Oct 3, 2024
Hell’s Gate Cafe is an adorable little restaurant management game that you can play for free right in your browser. You play as Baabette, the cute little Baphomet-like character as she’s stuck in Hell. It’s not a fun place to be, at all, and your options are limited. To leave, your only choice is to open up a cafe, earn soul shards, and open the portal out of Hell!
So, you do just that! Run your surprisingly cozy little cafe every day in order to earn soul shards. Purchase items like coffee beans and dragons to roast those beans. An octopus who makes cookie and donut dough will help you serve even more fun treats. Then, interact with the cast of fun characters in Hell’s Gate Cafe as they show up in your cafe. Serve them freshly brewed coffee and fresh baked cookies. Even talk to some of them to learn their stories. Satisfy them, and they’ll pay you in money that you can use to buy more upgrades, but they’ll also leave you precious soul shards! Can you make it out of Hell?
Release Date
You can find Hell’s Gate Cafe on itch.io right now and play for free!
- Oct 2, 2024
Wie Anders Games presents Equiverse, a cozy casual ecosystem building game! Create an ecosystem and carefully care for it to help animals thrive. Fill it with fuzzy little rabbits and sleek foxes and watch as they grow and develop over time. Earn leafpoints to buy new animals and upgrades for an even livelier ecosystem. Even unlock special chests with leafpoints to earn a special animal companion. These companions possess special skills that will help you further improve your ecosystem. Deploy up to three different companions to maximize efficiency!
Not everything is safe and cuddly in Equiverse, though. Sometimes invading monsters will travel through portals to threaten your ecosystem. Each type of enemy presents a unique challenge for you to defeat. The swamp golem has a one track mind and targets a single thing, but the Granite Guardian uses distance laser attacks to cause chaos. Defeat each enemy quickly to receive useful rewards!
Release Date
Equiverse is coming soon to Steam. Add it to your Wishlist to receive notification of its release!
- Oct 1, 2024
The developers over at Sunny Lab have recently launched their Kickstarter campaign for their upcoming game The Witch’s Bakery. In this charming 2D adventure RPG, you play as an adorably joyful witch named Lunne. She has just opened her very own bakery in Paris. Lunne also possesses a very special, very specific talent, too. She can see into people’s hearts and heal emotions using her magic. So, get ready for a magical adventure full of baked goods, magic, and a heartfelt story!
Your days in The Witch’s Bakery are split into three phases. You’ll start each day managing your bakery and serving customers. In the evening, explore the beautiful city of Paris. Discover what secrets The City of Light (and Love!) has to offer, but also get to know other characters. Delve into their troubled hearts to help them out. To do this, Lunne enters their Heart Palace to guide the locked away emotions back to the heart. Inside each Heart Palace, you’ll uncover each person’s deepest personal struggles. You’ll even collect the necessary ingredients to make tasty breads to heal them!
At night, once your bakery is closed and you’ve explored the alluring city, take time to practice your magic. There’s always room for improvement. You also can spend time decorating your bakery to make it the coziest, most welcoming shop around. Or just take time to hang out in your atelier. Each day brings you the chance to earn money, solve deep, emotional problems, and get to know a varied cast of characters. So, what will you accomplish in The Witch’s Bakery?
Release Date
You can find The Witch’s Bakery listed on Steam now, but you can also head over to their Kickstarter campaign to help support this gorgeous cozy game. There are a ton of fun stretch goals for backing the project like expanded romance storylines, new recipes, expanded maps, and more bakery decor. Plus, you can unlock fun rewards depending on the backer tier you support. There are things like beta access, digital artbooks, stickers, the chance to have your loved one’s name placed on a monument in game, and more!
It’s expected to release on Steam and Nintendo Switch next year!
- Sep 26, 2024
If you grew up playing with the Polly Pockets that came in the hard plastic clamshell cases that doubled as houses and scenes, then Tiny Garden is for you! Only instead of playing with tiny little dolls, you’re running a tiny farm. This is a relaxing strategy game that takes place inside one of those fun plastic clamshell toys. Grow some veggies, then trade them to upgrade your little scene.
Plant your seed, turn the crank, and watch your crops grow to maturity. Harvest them and trade them in for new seeds or items like furniture and outdoor decor. Some of the plants in Tiny Garden will even change the soil as they grow. Cacti turn the land into desert, bushes grow grass around them, and fountains flood the ground to make it perfect for growing water lilies. Whatever you choose to grow, discover all possible items to turn this classic piece of nostalgia into the perfectly decorated home you want!
Release Date
Tiny Garden is listed on Steam with no set release date. Add it to your Wishlist and check out the free demo in the meantime!
- Sep 26, 2024
Soup Pot is a cooking game that focuses on freedom and creativity. Developed by Chikon Club and Chryse, you get to experience the open nature of home cooking from the comfort of your computer screen. Experiment with over 100 different dishes in a beautiful 3D environment. Whether you’re a seasoned cook or brand new to making tasty meals, this game is perfect for you with its welcoming and easy to learn gameplay.
Cook over 100 different recipes using hundreds of different ingredients. Put your own twist on things by experimenting and tossing in whatever you feel like. Perhaps even stumble upon something completely different while you play around in Soup Pot! Each item shouts its name when selected so you always know what you’re using. Dough reacts to being punched. Plus, there are many other whimsical touches added to the game to make the cooking experience all the more fun and cozy. As you create your delicious recipes and plate them perfectly, take pictures of your creations to share with your followers. They’ll even leave your comments based on how the dish turned out. So, get to chopping, grilling, boiling, and stirring!
Release Date
Soup Pot is set to release on Steam soon. Add it to your Wishlist to be notified when it does!
If you want a mobile cooking game, check out BTS Cooking On! It’s adorable and quite fun.
- Sep 25, 2024
Thank you to Carbon & Kay for the opportunity to play Little-Known Galaxy!
Stardew Valley has been THE pinnacle of cozy games for 8 years now. There have been a great many other cozy games that have tried to follow in its footsteps that have succeeded in earning a spot on many players’ lists. Roots of Pacha, DREDGE, My Time at Sandrock, and Echoes of the Plum Grove are good examples of excellent games that have been released in the past few years, but none of them have quite scratched that itch that SDV left behind, at least for me. However, I’ve been spending my time playing Little-Known Galaxy, whose development I’ve followed for a while now. It has honestly given me the cozy comforting vibes that SDV gave me without being a clone. It’s unique, but familiar and has absolutely devoured my time lately.
Sci-Fi Fun
In Little-Known Galaxy, you play as your own customizable character who has been employed as the captain of a run-down spaceship. You’re a brand new captain-in-training and this is your first real captain assignment. In order to rise through the ranks and prove you’re worthy of being a full-fledged captain, you need to show the Space Alliance you can handle running your own ship!
Alongside your crew, who are a cast of quirky and fun characters, you need to accomplish quite a bit. Restore the old, run-down ship you (and the crew) call home. It’s seen better days and really needs a facelift. You also need to make sure crew morale stays high by providing them with fun new things to do on the ship. And don’t forget to do a little farming, gather microbes for your scientists to study, and solve the mystery of the relic found on the Grey Planet!
Of course, your day-to-day life in Little-Known Galaxy doesn’t have to be solely filled with work. Take time to get to know your crew members. Each one has a unique personality with some fun backstory for you to learn. They also each have their own role to play on the spaceship. The shopkeeper, the gardener, the food bar owner, and more all brighten up what could be very dull space travel. Some of them are even single and you can date them!
So What’s Great About This Game?
Well, all of it. It really does scratch that cozy, immersive itch that Stardew Valley left behind. It has that addictive “I’ll play just one more in-game day” quality to it. Some days I go explore the different planets, which function much like the mines in SDV. Break rocks with your trusty laser to gather resources and fight a few enemies. You search for the travel point hidden in one of the rocks, or buried in the sand in order to progress. It’s easy and familiar while being unique with a different atmosphere (literally!).
Perhaps the best addition is that the NPC list in Little-Known Galaxy allows you to locate which floor of the ship someone is on! No wasting your whole day looking for that one person you want to give a gift. Schedules are fine, but this is by far the better way to find someone in game. Plus, the crew you start with isn’t the whole crew you’ll have. As you progress through the game, you pick up a few more members to flesh out what’s already a wonderfully diverse cast of characters.
I also have really enjoyed the fact that your upgraded tools get delivered to your quarters when they’re ready. No chasing them down and realizing the shop is closed today! The upgrades do take several days to complete, but I’ve found there’s plenty to do while you wait. Catching microbes, for example, was a tedious task to begin with. However, the developers have been eagerly listening to the critiques and made some great updates already. The microbe minigame is now far more enjoyable than it was. And of course the overall storyline and mystery surrounding the relic from the Grey Planet make this game so much fun. It’s hard to put it down.
Final Thoughts
If you’ve been looking for something to dive into and get lost in, or some cozy sci-fi game to relax with after work, this is it! Little-Known Galaxy is so cute and has such a diverse cast of characters with depth. The story is great, and even the grinding is fun. Plus, the developers are so passionate about this game it’s hard not to get swept up into their enthusiasm. I would (and do) recommend this game to anyone who will listen to me!
I give it:
You can grab Little-Known Galaxy on Steam!
