10 Cozy Games to Play in the Background While Working
With a high workload pressure and deadlines looming around, it’s not easy to find some time for relaxation. Being a freelancer myself, I understand how tough it can be to achieve the perfect work-life balance. Sometimes, all you need is a small break and a little leisure time while working. What you need is a cozy game that runs in the background on your PC, while you WFH.
The good news is that there are quite a few relaxing, low-pressure games that have calming visuals and music, allowing you to unwind for a few minutes without feeling distracted. You can take small breaks between tasks or have something to passively engage in during a long day’s work. I have put together a list of cozy games that can keep running in the background while you work. Some of these games sit at the bottom of the screen, others can be resized to a small window. I have included screenshots, which might give you a better idea of how they run on your desktop.
1. Rusty’s Retirement
This was my first “background-running” PC game and I enjoyed playing it a lot. An idle game, Rusty’s Retirement lets you manage a farm run by robots. You can assign tasks to your bots such as watering your plants and harvesting them.
The game has a desktop mode. It runs unobtrusively at the bottom of your screen, allowing you to multitask while Rusty and his robot buddies take care of your crops. Expanding your farm can be a whole lot of fun, as it lets you invest in new technologies and infrastructure to automate idle farming.
Rusty Retirement is one of the best cozy games that you can play in the background while WFH. If you are looking for a relaxing low-pressure idle gaming experience, then this game might be a good fit.
2. Chillquarium
Chillquarium is a relaxing aquarium simulator. There is no desktop mode, but you can choose “windowed” from the settings menu and then resize it to put the simulator at the corner of the desktop screen.
While working, you can interact with fish by feeding them. Right-click on the aquarium to release food, and watch as the fish quickly swim over to nibble on them. It feels so relaxing watching them swim with the soothing sound of aerated water in the background. You can turn off the background music and keep the ambiance and effects turned on to experience the sound of the low, calming whoosh as water circulates through the aquarium.
Chillquarium’s fish collection is inspired by gacha mechanics. You can purchase a fish pack from the shop. The demo provides in-game currency to buy them. Fish packs are available in five varieties – freshwater fish, rivers and ponds, reef fellas, marine dwellers, and giants. You get random varieties of aquatic creatures from each pack. Once you release fish, you can start feeding them. They take their own time to grow up and once they are fully grown, you can sell them for in-game money. You can then use it to purchase fish packs, another aquarium, or upgrade the current one.
You can get the demo from Steam or purchase the full game to unlock all fish packs and aquariums. You can also unlock decor, such as pebbles and lighting.
3. Wyerdlets
I love pet simulators like My Tamagotchi Forever. When Wyerdlets popped up on Steam, I couldn’t resist—I downloaded it to my PC immediately. I adopted my first virtual pet and was ready to feed, pet, and play with it when “Fetch”, the in-game helpful doggo, told me I could bring this cutie onto my desktop! Can you believe it? It’s like having your own Tamagotchi to keep you company while you work. To bring my pet to the desktop, I had to click the hamburger menu, aka “Hot Corner” on the lower-right corner of the screen and choose “Desktop”, the second option from the bottom of the menu.
The desktop idle pet experience was so endearing. While working on my writing project, I can directly interact with my Wyerdlet. It looks so adorable dancing around the desktop screen. Using mouse controls, I can grab my pet and move it around. And if I feel a wee bit distracted by its movement, I can order it to stay at a corner of the screen and it sits idly putting its head down and waddling its legs. While interacting with it I can also keep a check on vitals, such as health, happiness, hunger, hygiene, and fitness. The bottom minibar has a list of all vitals. Clicking on it reveals complete stats.
Besides picking it up and moving it around, I can also feed it and toss some toys toward it for entertainment, right from my desktop. The minibar has a favorites section that allows me to put food and toys for my new pet. And if it sits idle for some time, it will start digging the screen, giving you some goodies and XP. The more you interact, the higher the chances of digging up goodies.
To my surprise, there were also a few productivity tools hidden within the mini-bar. Expanding the top minibar, I found a Pomodoro timer and a to-do list that allows me to create tasks. Oh and did I tell you there’s a wellness tracker as well? There’s a slider that lets me log my feelings, whether I am feeling pleasant or sad, and it lets me keep a daily record of my feelings.
Wyerdlets is available free on Steam, however, you will have to sign up or log in with Steam to start playing. You can have more than one pet in this game, but you need to buy them using in-game coins. A few games similar to Wyerdlets have been released, with the latest being Desktop Mate.
4. Tiny Pasture
Tiny Pasture is another adorable pet simulator game that sits right at the bottom of your desktop. You begin playing with a starter pet, a bunny, and as you progress, you can have more animals on your pixilated pasture. There are cats, foxes, cute alpacas, and birds that can be kept as pets. You need to unlock them from the shop menu. Unlocking requirements vary from one animal to another – some require you to raise animals to adulthood, whereas others want you to earn an X amount of coins to unlock them.
I love the game’s pixel art graphics and the animated gestures of my pets whenever I click on them. I can feed them, pet them, and even clean their pixel poop, all while working on my lappy! As I write this blog, I’ve got Tiny Pastures running at the bottom of my screen. You can spot two bunnies hopping around in the screenshot below!
The demo game is installed on my PC, but the full game provides more features. You can unlock unique items, and facilities such as a money beehive, mystery curtain, cuckoo house, etc., and place them on your desktop. These facilities provide certain benefits. Oh, I forgot to tell you – the game has a breeding feature that lets you have baby animals, but you need a Magic Curtain facility and a cupid arrow to do that.
5. Spirit City: Lofi Sessions
Spirit City: Lofi Sessions uniquely combines productivity and playfulness. What looks like a cozy cute videogame is, in fact, a gamified focus tool. It’s one of my go-to games that runs in the background when I am doodling or writing a blog. The lofi music helps me relax, and I can also keep a journal and create a daily to-do list. To help with my productivity, I always use the in-game Pomodoro timer. Not only can I set the time, but also set the minutes break for each session. All productivity tools are available in the lower right corner of the screen.
Spirit City is more than just about the music. It also features cozy gameplay elements to provide a pleasant, engaging experience. You have your own virtual space where you can customize your avatar’s looks, decorate your space with furniture, and change the interiors by choosing the appropriate roofing and flooring to create a relaxing ambiance. The game doesn’t have a desktop mode, but you can choose the windowed mode from the settings menu and let it run in the background.
As you get more comfortable, you can summon cute spirit companions. They are like pets accompanying your avatar and are hidden in every nook and corner of your space. To lure them, you have to choose a combination of the right lighting, sound, and activity. You can get hints to unlock a particular spirit from the “SpiritDex” menu. Besides helping you lure spirits, the activity and lighting menu also create a perfectly relaxing ambiance that complements well with the lofi background music. From the activity menu, you can select certain actions and locations for your avatar. Maybe you want your character to sit and write on a desk or just laze around by the fireside. You get to choose such actions from the activity menu. To create a warm or cool ambiance, the lighting menu lets you choose the time of the day.
With the rise in popularity of Spirit City: Lofi Sessions, gamified focus tools and productivity apps have seen a significant surge in interest. You can get such apps for free. Look out for Chill Corner and Virtual Cottage on Steam.
6. Littlewood
Little Wood is a minimalist town-building RPG that lets players design their own village by placing houses, paths, resource-generating buildings, paths, fences, crops, and lots more. There’s also farming, but it’s way more simplified than other cozy games. I like the minimalist approach, especially when I want it to run in the background while working.
The game also lets you interact with NPCs to know their backstories. You can build relationships, and hang out with your friends – they will follow you wherever you go. Building relationships does have a romance angle as you can go on a date with an NPC once you increase the friendship levels. It has everything you want in a cozy sim game and includes crafting, mining, and fishing. The best part is that it can be “windowed” and resized so that you can get back to your game anytime you want when you need a break from your work. Littlewood has cute pixel art graphs and the relaxing soundtrack in the background won’t distract you while you work.
7. Viridi
If you are fond of relaxing plant-growing games, then you should have Viridi on your desktop. I never thought that growing a small pot of succulents could be so relaxing. The plants grow in real-time, so feel free to leave Viridi open in the background to keep you company while you work. The feeling of watching your plants grow gradually can be so calming.
You will need to take care of your plants at regular intervals. Take a break from your work or study and click on a seedling to water it, but make sure it’s not “overwatered”. When you click on a plant, you can view its water status – you don’t need to water if the status shows sate or overwatered. Water only if it is “thirsty”. Try not to overwater or keep them underwater or they will die, so some care and attention is needed for your plants.
Start your zen-like plant-growing journey by choosing a pot and starter succulent. The free version is limited to three starter succulents, but you can buy more from the in-game nursery. You can also get free seeding if you visit the nursery every week.
8. Gourdlets
Another cozy town-building game without constraints, Gourdlets lets you place buildings, nature, and decorative elements to design your town. There’s no resource-management headache. You can enjoy building your town at your own pace. A standout feature of this game is the adorable little creatures that occasionally interact with the structures you create. They can’t be controlled, but watching them catch fish, sit on park benches, enter houses, and play with your toys is fun. You can also decorate and place items inside houses. You might be interested in my Gourdlets guide if you have just started playing.
The game does have a desktop mode. Go to settings and choose window settings from the menu. Select half-screen and the game will sit on the bottom of the desktop.
9. My Little Life
It’s a minimalist life sim that lets you manage a tiny customizable world while multitasking. Inspired by gameplay elements from classic sim games, My Little Life enables you to manage the lives of cute pixel people. You can choose a career for them, fulfill their needs and wants, create and expand homes, and watch the little people live their lives without requiring constant attention.
The game sits comfortably at the bottom of the screen and its relaxing, low-maintenance gameplay style will appeal to those who enjoy a casual, stress-free experience.
10. Cozy Time
A very minimalistic productivity tool with cozy game aesthetics, Cozy Time has a focus timer (pomodoro), a to-do list, and relaxing music. Select the music genre of your choice from the jukebox menu (record icon) in the lower-right corner of the screen and listen to calm or lofi music while working. But if you feel a little bit distracted by the music, you can pause it and choose ambient sounds, such as the soothing sound of rain, ocean waves, crickets, birds chirping snowfall, etc. There’s also a lovely calendar that not only shows the current year and month but also records your focus time daily.
Cozy Time’s hand-drawn, painted graphics are something I really adore. They are a treat to the eye. The isometric view of a cozy home, with a cute cat lying beside your avatar, can be so relaxing. Both the cat and your character switch to a different action as time goes by. The app works in real-time, so it’s daytime when it’s day irl. But you can change the time, by clicking on the lock icon. If you want a nighttime viewing of your home, just drag the time slider to the right. You can also add new furniture and pets, but you will flowers, the in-game currency, to buy them. You earn 20 flowers every sixty minutes of focus time. Click on the book to open the focus time menu and choose 60 minutes. Now click on the cute cat at the bottom of the menu to start the timer.
Cozy Time is the perfect alternative to Spirit City: Lofi Sessions. You can leave it in the background and use its focus timer and to-do list to increase your productivity.
