Longing for more games like Stardew Valley? Good news: casual farming sims have taken root on PC.
The life sims seeds have been sewn and now there are more games like Stardew Valley on PC than I can possibly play. Long gone are the days of 2016 when Stardew first revitalized the farm and town sim genre left largely fallow in the shadow of the console-bound Harvest Moon series Nowadays, official Harvest Moon games, their spiritual successors Story of Seasons, and dozens of indie game riffs on farming and befriending are all available on PC.
(Image credit: Eric Barone)
Stardew Valley mods: Custom farming
Stardew Valley co-op: Farm with friends
Games like Stardew Valley: More life sims
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In the early years of this list, pickings were slim and we settled for Stardew-adjacent games that had crafting or seasons, but weren’t always quite what I wanted. There’s no shortage of Stardew style games on PC now, with even more in development. Some focus more on building relationships and revitalizing a town while others are all about crops and crafting. Whichever end of Stardew Valley you prefer, there’s another game like it in our list to keep you playing for just one more in-game day.
Now that there are plenty of options to choose from, some are inevitably better and worse than others. We’ve collected a list of the best Stardew style games available so you can choose which homestead to put down roots in.
If you’ve already chewed through the lot, here are some Stardew-like games on PC just on the horizon:
Roots of Pacha – 2023 – Stardew but it’s prehistoricLightyear Frontier – 2023 – Stardew but in a mech
Potion Permit
Released: 2022 | Developer: MassHive Media| Steam
Potion Permit may not be about farming, but it has all the local denizens, relationships, combat, and upgrading of a Stardew style game. As the new Chemist in Moonbury village, you’ve got your hands full overcoming the mistrust of the townsfolk, healing the mayor’s daughter, and shoring up the dilapidated old medical clinic nearby. Instead of crops, you forage and fight for ingredients outside town and bring them back to create curative potions in your cauldron for everyone’s many ailments. Also, you’ve got a pet dog that follows you around, which I find very important.
Disney Dreamlight Valley
Released: (Early Access) 2022 | Developer: Gameloft| Steam
If you’ve got a fondness for Disney animated films, Dreamlight Valley is the way to go. It trends a bit towards Animal Crossing initially, as you’re put in charge of managing and upgrading the entire town, not just your own plot of land. But Dreamlight Valley has a proper main story, individual character relationships, and if you want, a lot of farming. The folks who enjoy painstakingly designing the perfect Stardew Valley farm will have no trouble getting sucked into designing the entire island, whether that means adorable courtyard path builds or giant fields of optimized crops.
Slime Rancher 2
Released: (Early Access) 2022 | Developer: Monomi Park| Steam
The Slime Rancher sequel is another exceptionally cute game about the slime wrangling Beatrix LeBeau. This time she’s headed off to a new plot of land: the Far, Far Range on Rainbow Island. Once again, Beatrix must build enclosures for her slimes and grow plenty of crops and chickadoos to keep them well-fed, and combine new types of slimes into special varieties. Slime Rancher doesn’t have the same focus on relationships with NPCs that other Stardew-type games do, but it has plenty of exploration and base building.
Immortal Life
Released: (Early Access) 2022 | Developer: YiFang Studio| Steam
In the style of cultivation genre fiction, Immortal Life is a farming and town sim about joining the Guiyun Sect clan as their new crop expert. Unfortunately the town gets destroyed right as you arrive, so now you’ll be helping rebuild instead—a much more dramatic opening than the typical slowly declining villages of other life sims. As ever, there’s farming, fishing, befriending, and fighting to be done in order to rebuild. Don’t let the trailer fool you; Immortal Life is also translated into English.
Dinkum
Released: (Early Access) 2022 | Developer: James Bendon| Steam
Okay Stardew fans, you’ve had enough of chickens and cows and sheep only, right? Dinkum is a town and farm sim based on the Australian outback, so you’ll have kangaroos, crocs, and giant wombats too. Dinkum is over on the Animal Crossing end of this spectrum, with more focus on bug-catching than combat. You’ll decorate your home, design the town, and choose the best biomes for your crops too.
Littlewood
Released: 2020 | Developer: Sean Young| Steam
Littlewood is plenty cute, with the same kind of jaunty music that makes you feel happy while playing Stardew. It has a long list of chores that you’ll recognize: farming, mining, bug catching, cooking, crafting, and so on. You’ve got a a lot more control over the topology of your town as well, which means customizing the layout to your exacting standards. With villagers to recruit, a museum to fill, and buildings to plan it’s almost as much a PC Animal Crossing as it is Stardew.
Doraemon Story of Seasons
Released: 2019 | Developer: Marvelous Inc., Brownies Inc.| Steam
Like Harvest Moon, Story of Seasons had never made its way to PC until it paired with the most unlikely of companions: a young manga protagonist from the ’70s. Doraemon Story of Seasons takes the pastoral life adventure into a setting full of distinctly Japanese setting unlike Harvest Moon and most of its derivatives that go for a more “anywhere” rural vibe.
This incarnation of Story of Seasons has Noby and his friends doing all the usual rural life activities like planting fields of crops, making friends, cooking, and attending festivals in the town of Natura. Its adorable watercolor visual style is a welcome change from other Story of Seasons games that have retained Harvest Moon’s chibi-style 3D aesthetic.
In the time since the Doraemon game, two official SoS games have also launched on PC: Pioneers of Olive Town and the Friends of Mineral Town remake. But like the new Harvest Moon games, the history doesn’t really compete with the quality of all the other excellent genre homages on this list.
My Time At Portia
Released: 2018 | Developer: Pathea Games | Steam
My Time At Portia is the rare 3D town sim of the bunch that ends up feeling like Stardew Valley by way of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. On the little island of Portia, your father leaves you the deed to his old workshop. Instead of just growing crops, you’ll be collecting and refining resources from all over the island to fulfill contracts requested by the locals. Its crafting system is heavily nested, with most recipes requiring a suite of special machines to be built and placed in the workshop yard.
Eventually you’re able to build garden plots as well, though you won’t be running a full-size farm operation like your neighbor Sophie, the actual local farmer. Portia has quite a bit more combat than Stardew, with dungeons to go spelunking through for loot and crafting components. It does have plenty of interaction with all of Portia’s residents as well. Over the course of seasons and years you’ll make friends with and be able to eventually marry one of your many eligible townsfolk by going on dates and delivering them gifts.
Portia’s sequel, My Time At Sandrock, shares its formula in a western setting instead of an island.
Verdant Skies
Released: 2018 | Developer: Howling Moon Software| Steam
Instead of a small town in the country, Verdant Skies has you become the newest member of a small colony on the planet Viridis Primus. The colony is small to begin with but after helping build more homes you’ll be joined by more residents each with their own expertise to help grow the colony and your operation.
As the new space farmer in town, you’ll need to turn native space plants into an agricultural operation. You can even catch and tame wild animal species as well. Both can be turned into the strongest and most efficient specimens with Verdant Skies’ genetic combiner machine.
Garden Paws
Released: 2018 | Developer: Bitten Toast Games| Steam
Garden Paws is the animal version of Stardew Valley where you’ll take over your grandparents’ farm while running a shop, gardening, and raising animals. For the multiplayer-inclined, you can invite up to three friends to your farm to play with you or, for Twitch streamers, integrate your chat so that viewers can have customers in your store named after them. There are currently 10 little creatures to play as while helping to rebuild the town with new shops that can unlock additional quests and areas to explore. It appears to be a combination of Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley with plenty of farming, building, and crafting.
World’s Dawn
Released: 2016 | Developer: Wayward Prophet| Steam
Only a few PC games follow the Harvest Moon formula as closely as World’s Dawn does. It is a bit rougher around the edges than Stardew, but all the same charm is there. You can befriend and marry villagers, grow and sell crops, fish, attend festivals, and bring prosperity back to a stagnating village.
World’s Dawn is more about coloring inside the lines than forging your own path. Your farming plots are predetermined and you won’t be constructing additional buildings on your property. There are plenty of clothing options, home décor, and cooking recipes. Despite the outdated 4:3 aspect ratio and initially confusing menus, World’s Dawn is full of cute characters that make putting up with a few petty complaints more than worth it.
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