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