From Rusty’s Retirement to Tiny Pasture. The new wave of desktop buddies on Steam
Chill, Click, Repeat. Why low-maintenance desktop games are more than just background noise.
I've never really been into idle games like Cookie Clicker – honestly, I never quite got the hype. And that whole thing with the Banana clicker still pulling in nearly 150K players daily? Absolutely wild to me. But there's a new trend on Steam that I’m totally on board with – those little cozy games that just hang out at the bottom of your screen. And yeah, they’re still kinda idling around there, but there’s so much more to them!
- The success of Rusty’s Retirement
- A frog, some grass, and pure chill
- My Little Life is like a low-key The Sims
- Tiny Pasture lets you grow the weirdest farm ever
- Why modern idle games are more than just mindless clickers
The success of Rusty’s Retirement
Low-maintenance desktop games aren’t exactly a new thing, but it looks like they’ve been making a pretty solid comeback over the past few months. The first time I really noticed it was when Rusty’s Retirement from a solo dev Mister Morris Games, launched and pulled in over 20,000 players on Steam back in April 2024.
Source: Rusty's Retirement
In Rusty’s Retirement, you run a cozy little farm, harvesting crops, making biofuel, and letting your robot assistants handle the hard work. You can upgrade and customize your helper bots while expanding your farm to make things even more efficient.
These days, it’s sitting at just over 2,000 concurrent players, but with every update, it seems to grab a little more attention. So, it definitely wasn’t just five minutes of fame.
A frog, some grass, and pure chill
Next up is Ropuka’s Idle Island made by Moczan, Little Chmura, and Begona Pereda, which dropped in January 2025. This one's a more straightforward clicker where you just hang out and watch your little frog buddy tirelessly mow the grass around his house. The grass you collect works as currency to upgrade his tools and deck out his tiny island.
Source: Ropuka's Idle Island
With chill lo-fi tunes and ambient nature sounds, it’s the perfect little relaxation game to have running while you work or do other things. It didn’t attract as large of a player base as Rusty’s Retirement, but its popularity is still going strong even after a few weeks.
My Little Life is like a low-key The Sims
Right after Ropuka’s Idle Island, My Little Life from 9FingerGames popped up. In this one, you manage a tiny person’s life and help them pick a career and decorate their home with tons of unlockable items. As you progress, you can bring in more characters, each with their own goals, so it’s like a mini The Sims.
Source: My Little Life
While it didn’t quite get the same recognition as the froggy and little robot games, it still has very positive reviews on Steam and a steady daily player base of just over 200.
Tiny Pasture lets you grow the weirdest farm ever
Another month, another new cozy game. Today, on February 18th, Tiny Pasture by CaveLiquid made its debut, and within just a few hours, it already had 5,640 people playing at the same time!
Source: Tiny Pasture
In this one, you can buy all sorts of baby animals, from rabbits and foxes to alpacas – and even slimes and zombies. As they grow, they drop coins, which you can use to expand your pasture and bring in even more cute (or creepy) creatures.
Why modern idle games are more than just mindless clickers
So, what’s the deal with all these idle games, and why are they popping up everywhere all of a sudden? As I pointed out before, this isn’t exactly a new thing. Games with background progression have been around forever – starting with old Flash and browser games, then moving to mobile clickers, and now making their way to Steam. They’re just evolving and finally getting their moment in the spotlight.
ZM Desktop Elf is another desktop buddy - kind of like Clippy, but way better dressed.Source: ZM Destkop Elf; Developer: Duoyi Games
Of course, a few factors have helped these new idle games take off – low prices and remote work certainly play a role, but there’s more to it than that. The games I mentioned aren’t just low-effort cash grabs meant to hold your attention for a few minutes before making you regret your purchase. They’re actually well-made and designed to keep us engaged over time. They might not be your typical indie titles like FlyKnight or A Game About Digging a Hole, but they’re still absolutely worth playing.
These developers pour a lot of heart and effort into their games, it’s not like they threw them together in a week using the same cheap assets you’ve seen a hundred times before. Nope, these games are carefully crafted, with a lot of thought put into them. Some have little unique twists or an artistic touch, but they all nail that satisfying, well-designed repetitiveness and chill, laid-back vibe that we all need sometimes. And that’s exactly why we’ll keep seeing more and more indie idle gems rolling out every now and then, earning positive reviews and building dedicated player bases.
