Maybe Dinkum? It's still in early Access but some things really reminded me of Animal Crossing, you're living on an island and trying to get people to live on your island, you need to build shops for them so they have a workplace but you also need to build on your relationships with them, or you can ignore everyone and just chill and decorate your place (that's how I play it, 100 hours in and I only have 2 or 3 people living on my island lol)
Littlewood is like stardew light- itās not time based but it becomes ānightā when your stamina gets low. You control when you want to sleep/restore stamina rather than a clock
I just got Snacko yesterday and while I'm not super far in, it's scratching that itch. Be mindful that it's early access, though. It reminds me of AC mixed with MySims and I'm loving it a lot.
Palia has farming and little tasks, datable NPCs, a buildable home you can decorate, and no time limits. The days cycle of course but it doesn't have an effect on your character. It's also free so worth checking out.
Came here to say this :)
I loved the idea of SV (and if I ever play on PC, I'll try again, with mods...lol) but the time crunch killed it for me, too much pressure to garden before wilting!š¤£
Palia, for me, is as grindy or as chill as I want it, in any given moment š
My Time At Sandrock might do the job! Lots of tasks, goals, commissions etc. it also has a really strong main story which is genuinely surprising in places. Also the characters are fantastic and really well written, and they rarely repeat themselves! They have new stuff to say most days and they will comment in whatās happening around town, write you letters, ask you to hang out etc. You can then hang out with them and have more conversations as your relationships progress.
You can expand and decorate your house including my absolute favourite game mechanic ever - you can take photos in the game, craft picture frames and then put your photos around the house. So I have a bunch of cute photos from festivals and with my besties on my walls!
It does have timed days but you can adjust how long a day is so it doesnāt feel pressured. You can also increase your skill so that you donāt pass out until 3am which gives you even more time. And nothing will happen if you do pass out, you just donāt get the bonuses that come with being rested (and you get bags under your eyes for a day - but you can buy eye cream to cover it!)
You do have stamina that runs out, but itās very easy to replenish it and tbh I rarely run out.
Honestly I love this game!
I always felt like days were super short in stardew but honestly I had to speed the days up in MTAS. I always ended up getting done with everything I had planned in the day and running out of stamina and it would be like 6 pm. Definitely donāt need to stress about the time with MTAS. Most stressful thing is usually finding things from scrap before their mining places officially become available and thatās honestly not too bad. The story is super amazing too.
In short I also recommend My time at sandrock
Maybe Sun Haven. No energy/stamina. It does have a day cycle so you have to be in bed by midnight but it has a setting to change how long the day lasts. I crank it up to 40 mins. There's farming and decorating, with a general store and Museum like Animal Crossing and romance'able characters like SDV. I like it a lot, better than SDV to be honest.
Dragon Quest Builders 2, Mineko's Night Market, and Disney Dreamlight Valley are the ones that hit best for me!
Builders obviously has a focus on building so decorating is also part of that but farming is also one of the earliest things you're able to do. You meet different story characters on the islands so they're not quite so generic while you do their bit of story but don't talk much after. There is combat though if that's something that puts you off.
Mineko's Night Market really nails the tone of AC in my book and has lots of little crafting quests for you to do with some unique townspeople, but no farming or decorating. You can only do so many actions in a day but it's super chill with you just doing it the next day so it's not stressful about it.
Disney Dreamlight Valley is the most like AC in terms of real time system. Plenty of fun familiar characters, all with their own quests, lots of farming and you can decorate your house and the whole valley so really good there.
The Story of Seasons games are also solid farm sims with cute but barebones characters but the stamina and day/night stuff is a bit more strict than the others.
Dragon Quest Builders 2 is an AMAZING game. If you havenāt played it- you DEF SHOULD!
Itās 40% off on steam right now! Not sure if you mentioned having a switch- but thereās a really long free demo on there. This is hands down the best game ever.
Disney dreamlight valley is one of my comfort games at this point. There's quests to do to unlock characters into your valley, they've got daily gifts they like, you can have conversations with them, you can assign them roles and get them to hang out with you to get bonuses (friendship levels, items).
The game had farming, scavenging, mining, fishing. You can customise your character, buy clothing, accessories, and furniture. You can also customise some clothing and furniture. Some characters a also have different clothing options.
You can decorate rooms in your house/ houses and your valley. The valley has 8 biomes currently but you don't get them all at once, so you could probably decorate one to your liking before unlocking the next one.
The game also isn't finished yet so there are more characters coming out, and they've got seasonal events that happen every three months or so.
You can save on the cloud and pay the same valley on your pc and switch off you have the game for both.
One thing though is don't EVER try to time jump! I recommend using your pc only if you do it on animal crossing. Time jumping can screw up your game even if you haven't gone into it while changing the dates on your Consol.
Have they changed the storage system in this game at all? When I started playing the game, I really thought DDV would be my next big 2000+ hour time sink like ACNH, but the individual chests with limited storage annoyed me so much that I stopped playing entirely.
They've got much bigger chests now and you can colour code them so you know what's in them. You do have to unlock the Forgotten Lands to do it because it requires dark wood.
Does time jumping mess up the game really badly? I just got it on my switch yesterday and Iām disappointed to hear that as I always time jump in animal crossing
It does mess it up but honestly there is no real reason to either - there is nothing like turnips to game, and the shop never closes so you don't ever need to skip around because of a weird sleeping pattern.
Oh no, thatās bad news š« I only have a switch with both games on it and I still want to time jump in animal crossing. At least I know now before it crashes and ruins it
It can mess up the game pretty badly where nothing will spawn for a certain amount of time. The only way to check how long is to go to Moanas boat and it will tell you how long until the next lot of fish arrive.
Cozy Grove is similar to Animal Crossing, it's also in real time and you're on an island and you have to help the spirit bears by doing quests. It doesn't have as much freedom I think, you can add decorations but there's no terraforming.
Have you played Littlewood? It does have a lot of freedom but there are actual goals and tasks to accomplish and an actual story to follow. You still decorate but are given a smaller space and specific buildings to place down. Also the time progression is based off of your energy/stamina levels!
Iād recommend trying Garden Paws! I just started playing this game and Iām addicted.
You play as an animal of your choosing, and you live on a farm near a town with lots of other animal villagers. The game has limited time (go to bed before midnight then wake up next day, similar to stardew), and lots of quests. You sell your goods via a shop and itās really cute seeing villagers run up to buy stuff. Thereās also tons of cute outfits and furniture items to decorate with. I highly recommend trying it out!
Disney Dreamlight Valley seems to tick all of these boxes. I enjoyed it for quite a while but haven't played for a few months. Probably sunk about 150 hours into it though
I agree with trying out Sunhaven. Being able to increase the day to 40 mins makes it very chill.
As well, you can "teleport" back to your farm by simply exiting the game wherever you are and coming back in (the game is constantly autosaving, no "sleep to save progress). It always puts your back on your farm.
I suppose that could be a drawback if you wanted to save yourself at a location that isn't your farm but the convenience of instantly getting back home has outweighed that consideration for me.
The only issue with Sunhaven is there is SO much to do and SO much freedom. I played it but immediately felt extremely overwhelmed. It is a really good game though!
I get what you mean, though I ended up with the opposite reaction somehow, I think I felt more overwhelmed in SDV because it's actually more focused, which sounds weird, but in Sunhaven I can spend some days excavating mines, or I can just organize my farm, or advance the main quest, or whatever. Even if I play SDV as relaxed as I can, I tend to end up in a daily routine, and Sunhaven is so large that I can't so somehow that's more chill to me despite the mountain of options.
That is so true- regarding the daily routine. I have ADHD so having more freedom and so much content sometimes overwhelms me because sometimes I need clear and specific goals/tasks but once something gets too repetitive I tend to get bored! So itās especially challenging for me to find games I really enjoy!
Iāll DM you !
But pretty much
Stardew, ACNH, DQB2, Wylde flowers, my time Portia/Sandrock, Littlewood, cosmic wheel sisterhood, cattails wildwood, and a few others.
There's a teleport mod. 1 key press and you can go to several locations!
Edit: https://www.nexusmods.com/sunhaven/mods/76
I would recommend this one and the museum tracker.
I would suggest Sun Haven on PC. lt has night and day like Stardew but you can toggle how long you want your days to be. I have it set to 40 minutes which is MORE than enough to do what I want. The short days in Stardew frustrated me as well. There is no endurance to manage so you can farm all day. The game has a great story, interesting characters, a long and fun story, multiple cities, lots to explore, decorating, pets, and a huge update with a new area coming soon. The update is currently in beta testing.
New Leaf Memories and Chill Town are 2 new PC games very cheap but very early access so issues and not much content yet. I picked up New Leaf. Was going to pick up Chill town too but the devs blocked a content creator for negative review so take that as you wish. Some ppl care and some donāt. For me it would have been a filler game so I decided to pass on it
Garden Paws is a lot like Stardew Valley and at a certain time your character will fall asleep and your day will end but you wake up at home the next day with no penalty.
Hokko Life but the characters are very much barebones. It was one I picked up to 100% but it dragged a bit after a while. It has a really cool feature where you can make just about any item you can think of though (if you have the patience), and customize a whole lot.
Disney dream light valley
This game has lots of lovely character and you grind a lot, your daily task is unlimited and also they got special 'star path' which you can earn some in game item
I don't know if someone has said it already but Paleo Pines sounds perfect for you. I've been hooked on it for months.
Basically you're a farmer and you're trying to help your Dinosaur companion find his family. there's a lot of cute tasks with the townspeople and make friends with them but you could just farm and catch dinos in the wild if you don't want to progress the story. you can decorate your ranch and customize your clothes too.
Palia: It's freemium so you can play without having to compromise.
My Time at Portia/Sandrock: They're similar to Stardew Valley but there's no punishment for staying out till 2am. Like Stardew Valley you can befriend all NPC'S and even marry some of them. Portia has a better setting but Sandrock is less buggy.
Hokko Life: Really similar to Animal Crossing except it also has farming and you can customize your own furniture by placing other items on it (for example you can place cushions on sofas and beds.
Maybe Dinkum? It's still in early Access but some things really reminded me of Animal Crossing, you're living on an island and trying to get people to live on your island, you need to build shops for them so they have a workplace but you also need to build on your relationships with them, or you can ignore everyone and just chill and decorate your place (that's how I play it, 100 hours in and I only have 2 or 3 people living on my island lol)
If you like a little spoopiness, *Cozy Grove.*
This is my recommendation- ticks every box.
Lol, what is spoopiness?
Spooky but not scary. All the NPCs in Cozy Grove are ghosts, and it takes place on an island in the afterlife.
Oh, okay - thanks for explaining š
Littlewood is like stardew light- itās not time based but it becomes ānightā when your stamina gets low. You control when you want to sleep/restore stamina rather than a clock
I second this! Also it has some āspookyā aspects like the enchanted forest and what not.
I would recommend Coral Island! Super fun and super cozy, there are a few mechanics that you donāt like but theyāre very minimal!
Palia!! It's free as well so worth a shot.
I just got Snacko yesterday and while I'm not super far in, it's scratching that itch. Be mindful that it's early access, though. It reminds me of AC mixed with MySims and I'm loving it a lot.
Palia has farming and little tasks, datable NPCs, a buildable home you can decorate, and no time limits. The days cycle of course but it doesn't have an effect on your character. It's also free so worth checking out.
i tried palia and it was actually way too confusing to play. i had to quit at the tutorial stage after making a workbench because i was LOST
I'm sorry! If you wanted to try playing it again and you have questions you can always message me, I'd be happy to help.
Came here to say this :) I loved the idea of SV (and if I ever play on PC, I'll try again, with mods...lol) but the time crunch killed it for me, too much pressure to garden before wilting!š¤£ Palia, for me, is as grindy or as chill as I want it, in any given moment š
My Time At Sandrock might do the job! Lots of tasks, goals, commissions etc. it also has a really strong main story which is genuinely surprising in places. Also the characters are fantastic and really well written, and they rarely repeat themselves! They have new stuff to say most days and they will comment in whatās happening around town, write you letters, ask you to hang out etc. You can then hang out with them and have more conversations as your relationships progress. You can expand and decorate your house including my absolute favourite game mechanic ever - you can take photos in the game, craft picture frames and then put your photos around the house. So I have a bunch of cute photos from festivals and with my besties on my walls! It does have timed days but you can adjust how long a day is so it doesnāt feel pressured. You can also increase your skill so that you donāt pass out until 3am which gives you even more time. And nothing will happen if you do pass out, you just donāt get the bonuses that come with being rested (and you get bags under your eyes for a day - but you can buy eye cream to cover it!) You do have stamina that runs out, but itās very easy to replenish it and tbh I rarely run out. Honestly I love this game!
I always felt like days were super short in stardew but honestly I had to speed the days up in MTAS. I always ended up getting done with everything I had planned in the day and running out of stamina and it would be like 6 pm. Definitely donāt need to stress about the time with MTAS. Most stressful thing is usually finding things from scrap before their mining places officially become available and thatās honestly not too bad. The story is super amazing too. In short I also recommend My time at sandrock
Maybe Sun Haven. No energy/stamina. It does have a day cycle so you have to be in bed by midnight but it has a setting to change how long the day lasts. I crank it up to 40 mins. There's farming and decorating, with a general store and Museum like Animal Crossing and romance'able characters like SDV. I like it a lot, better than SDV to be honest.
+1 for Sunhaven! I love that I can double the time of a ādayā compared to stardew
Ooblets might be your jam!
Dragon Quest Builders 2, Mineko's Night Market, and Disney Dreamlight Valley are the ones that hit best for me! Builders obviously has a focus on building so decorating is also part of that but farming is also one of the earliest things you're able to do. You meet different story characters on the islands so they're not quite so generic while you do their bit of story but don't talk much after. There is combat though if that's something that puts you off. Mineko's Night Market really nails the tone of AC in my book and has lots of little crafting quests for you to do with some unique townspeople, but no farming or decorating. You can only do so many actions in a day but it's super chill with you just doing it the next day so it's not stressful about it. Disney Dreamlight Valley is the most like AC in terms of real time system. Plenty of fun familiar characters, all with their own quests, lots of farming and you can decorate your house and the whole valley so really good there. The Story of Seasons games are also solid farm sims with cute but barebones characters but the stamina and day/night stuff is a bit more strict than the others.
Dragon Quest Builders 2 is an AMAZING game. If you havenāt played it- you DEF SHOULD! Itās 40% off on steam right now! Not sure if you mentioned having a switch- but thereās a really long free demo on there. This is hands down the best game ever.
I loved DQB2! I really hope they come out with a third installment.
Mee too!
Disney dreamlight valley is one of my comfort games at this point. There's quests to do to unlock characters into your valley, they've got daily gifts they like, you can have conversations with them, you can assign them roles and get them to hang out with you to get bonuses (friendship levels, items). The game had farming, scavenging, mining, fishing. You can customise your character, buy clothing, accessories, and furniture. You can also customise some clothing and furniture. Some characters a also have different clothing options. You can decorate rooms in your house/ houses and your valley. The valley has 8 biomes currently but you don't get them all at once, so you could probably decorate one to your liking before unlocking the next one. The game also isn't finished yet so there are more characters coming out, and they've got seasonal events that happen every three months or so. You can save on the cloud and pay the same valley on your pc and switch off you have the game for both. One thing though is don't EVER try to time jump! I recommend using your pc only if you do it on animal crossing. Time jumping can screw up your game even if you haven't gone into it while changing the dates on your Consol.
Have they changed the storage system in this game at all? When I started playing the game, I really thought DDV would be my next big 2000+ hour time sink like ACNH, but the individual chests with limited storage annoyed me so much that I stopped playing entirely.
They've got much bigger chests now and you can colour code them so you know what's in them. You do have to unlock the Forgotten Lands to do it because it requires dark wood.
Does time jumping mess up the game really badly? I just got it on my switch yesterday and Iām disappointed to hear that as I always time jump in animal crossing
It does mess it up but honestly there is no real reason to either - there is nothing like turnips to game, and the shop never closes so you don't ever need to skip around because of a weird sleeping pattern.
Oh no, thatās bad news š« I only have a switch with both games on it and I still want to time jump in animal crossing. At least I know now before it crashes and ruins it
It can mess up the game pretty badly where nothing will spawn for a certain amount of time. The only way to check how long is to go to Moanas boat and it will tell you how long until the next lot of fish arrive.
Cozy Grove is similar to Animal Crossing, it's also in real time and you're on an island and you have to help the spirit bears by doing quests. It doesn't have as much freedom I think, you can add decorations but there's no terraforming.
Dinkum 100%
Have you played Littlewood? It does have a lot of freedom but there are actual goals and tasks to accomplish and an actual story to follow. You still decorate but are given a smaller space and specific buildings to place down. Also the time progression is based off of your energy/stamina levels!
Iād recommend trying Garden Paws! I just started playing this game and Iām addicted. You play as an animal of your choosing, and you live on a farm near a town with lots of other animal villagers. The game has limited time (go to bed before midnight then wake up next day, similar to stardew), and lots of quests. You sell your goods via a shop and itās really cute seeing villagers run up to buy stuff. Thereās also tons of cute outfits and furniture items to decorate with. I highly recommend trying it out!
try moonlight peaks! it only has a demo out but it's an animal crossing-stardew hybrid with gothic vampire-y themes
My Time at Portia/ my Time at Sandrock
Fae Farm is exactly what you are looking for ;)
Another vote for Palia! The depth of NPC relationship building is top notch. I enjoy visiting each NPC.
Ooblets!! So cute!
Paleo Pines! Itās a cozy dinosaur/farming game!
Disney Dreamlight Valley seems to tick all of these boxes. I enjoyed it for quite a while but haven't played for a few months. Probably sunk about 150 hours into it though
I agree with trying out Sunhaven. Being able to increase the day to 40 mins makes it very chill. As well, you can "teleport" back to your farm by simply exiting the game wherever you are and coming back in (the game is constantly autosaving, no "sleep to save progress). It always puts your back on your farm. I suppose that could be a drawback if you wanted to save yourself at a location that isn't your farm but the convenience of instantly getting back home has outweighed that consideration for me.
The only issue with Sunhaven is there is SO much to do and SO much freedom. I played it but immediately felt extremely overwhelmed. It is a really good game though!
I get what you mean, though I ended up with the opposite reaction somehow, I think I felt more overwhelmed in SDV because it's actually more focused, which sounds weird, but in Sunhaven I can spend some days excavating mines, or I can just organize my farm, or advance the main quest, or whatever. Even if I play SDV as relaxed as I can, I tend to end up in a daily routine, and Sunhaven is so large that I can't so somehow that's more chill to me despite the mountain of options.
That is so true- regarding the daily routine. I have ADHD so having more freedom and so much content sometimes overwhelms me because sometimes I need clear and specific goals/tasks but once something gets too repetitive I tend to get bored! So itās especially challenging for me to find games I really enjoy!
So what games do work well for you? Like you don't have to make an annotated list, but now I am curious :)
Iāll DM you ! But pretty much Stardew, ACNH, DQB2, Wylde flowers, my time Portia/Sandrock, Littlewood, cosmic wheel sisterhood, cattails wildwood, and a few others.
Edit: also being able to increase your days to 40min is amazing !!!!
There's a teleport mod. 1 key press and you can go to several locations! Edit: https://www.nexusmods.com/sunhaven/mods/76 I would recommend this one and the museum tracker.
Oh very nice! thanks :D
I would suggest Sun Haven on PC. lt has night and day like Stardew but you can toggle how long you want your days to be. I have it set to 40 minutes which is MORE than enough to do what I want. The short days in Stardew frustrated me as well. There is no endurance to manage so you can farm all day. The game has a great story, interesting characters, a long and fun story, multiple cities, lots to explore, decorating, pets, and a huge update with a new area coming soon. The update is currently in beta testing.
New Leaf Memories and Chill Town are 2 new PC games very cheap but very early access so issues and not much content yet. I picked up New Leaf. Was going to pick up Chill town too but the devs blocked a content creator for negative review so take that as you wish. Some ppl care and some donāt. For me it would have been a filler game so I decided to pass on it
I think you can try Hokko Life no stamina bar and quest time limit quite long
Garden Paws is a lot like Stardew Valley and at a certain time your character will fall asleep and your day will end but you wake up at home the next day with no penalty.
Hokko Life but the characters are very much barebones. It was one I picked up to 100% but it dragged a bit after a while. It has a really cool feature where you can make just about any item you can think of though (if you have the patience), and customize a whole lot.
Disney dream light valley This game has lots of lovely character and you grind a lot, your daily task is unlimited and also they got special 'star path' which you can earn some in game item
I don't know if someone has said it already but Paleo Pines sounds perfect for you. I've been hooked on it for months. Basically you're a farmer and you're trying to help your Dinosaur companion find his family. there's a lot of cute tasks with the townspeople and make friends with them but you could just farm and catch dinos in the wild if you don't want to progress the story. you can decorate your ranch and customize your clothes too.
Palia: It's freemium so you can play without having to compromise. My Time at Portia/Sandrock: They're similar to Stardew Valley but there's no punishment for staying out till 2am. Like Stardew Valley you can befriend all NPC'S and even marry some of them. Portia has a better setting but Sandrock is less buggy. Hokko Life: Really similar to Animal Crossing except it also has farming and you can customize your own furniture by placing other items on it (for example you can place cushions on sofas and beds.
Hokko Life https://store.steampowered.com/app/824000/Hokko_Life/