Farming simulators often require a lot of attention and thought, belying their cosy aesthetics and gentle, relaxing music. Even a game like Stardew Valley can feel like a part-time job occasionally. Rusty’s Retirement effectively sidesteps this issue. Not only is it a peaceful, pastoral farm and building game, it only occupies a portion of your monitor, allowing you to split your attention between your crops and anything else on your desktop. Little wonder it’s been such a huge success, selling 100,000 copies in a matter of days.
An idle farming game, the actual gameplay of Rusty’s Retirement involves planting crops, constructing buildings, and creating a whole farm. Helpful little robots take care of the ‘idle’ part of the game, quite literally automating several parts of the cultivation process. The best part, Rusty’s Retirement is designed from the ground up to be played in the background. You can pin it to either the bottom or the side of your screen, and check in and out whenever you feel the need.
Rusty’s unique selling point has clearly paid off, as just one week after its Friday April 26 release, the game is sitting comfortably at a 97% rating on Steam. Even more impressive is the fact that, according to a tweet from its developer Mister Morris, it’s already sold 100,000 copies, which is an incredible number for such a (metaphorically and literally) small indie game.
If watching a farm grow under the control of cute robots while you do literally anything else sounds like your kind of relaxation, Rusty’s Retirement is still 10% off thanks to its launch sale, available for just $6.77/£5.39 on Steam.
For more like this, take a break from a high-stress gaming with our list of the best clicker games on PC, and check out our list of the best indie games for more unique games from smaller developers.
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