Best Similar Games to Try

PsychoSteve

Farmhand
I just played Stardew for the first time and I loved it. I put in nearly 150 hours on mobile and it consumed my life for the last little while. That said, I'm not a big replay guy. At least right away. So I'm looking for suggestions of similar games to try. I looked up a list and saw a lot of farming-type games such as Harvest Moon and Harvest Town and Harvest Master, but it doesn't have to be farming. Just a good, addictive game like this. I have never played Harvest Moon before and it's pricy and has a lot of bad reviews. One of my all-time favourite games is Uncharted Waters: New Horizons, which is similar in play style, but obviously very different content.

Thanks in advance!
 

Odin

Moderator
Staff member
I'm not sure what platforms you have available to you, but I'd definitely recommend Littlewood! It's a pixel art game, you get to build relationships with members of the town, improve the town as you play, venture out to collect resources, and there's a well designed day cycle that's based on limited energy you can spend on tasks. I found the game to be a lot of fun and I think it's pretty similar, while being its own thing. The developer has said that Animal Crossing was their main influence. It's available on PC and Switch.
 
Terraria is another game you should give a try. It's somewhat similar to a few of the aspects of SDV but leans more into the grindy, boss fights, and mining aspects of the game. It does have some other similarities though. Another one that I can't help but recommend would be Moonlighter. I would say that has more similarities to what The Haunted Chocolatier (Concerned Apes' new game) is shaping up to be. It's about a shopkeeper who makes a living by clearing out dungeons by night and taking their resources to sell in his shop during the day. I really enjoyed it, and it is available on all major platforms, as is Terraria. (PC, Switch, Xbox, and Playstation, I think)

Edit: I also forgot to mention, but if you play on Xbox and have Gamepass, both of these titles are free to play with Gamepass.
 

PsychoSteve

Farmhand
I'm not sure what platforms you have available to you, but I'd definitely recommend Littlewood! It's a pixel art game, you get to build relationships with members of the town, improve the town as you play, venture out to collect resources, and there's a well designed day cycle that's based on limited energy you can spend on tasks. I found the game to be a lot of fun and I think it's pretty similar, while being its own thing. The developer has said that Animal Crossing was their main influence. It's available on PC and Switch.
Hey! Thanks for the reply. I'm specifically looking for mobile games. SDV was such an incredible value and it was easy to just pick up my phone and live out a day. I don't really have time for console or PC gaming right now, but I'll keep this in mind for when I can do that in the future.
 
Hey! Thanks for the reply. I'm specifically looking for mobile games. SDV was such an incredible value and it was easy to just pick up my phone and live out a day. I don't really have time for console or PC gaming right now, but I'll keep this in mind for when I can do that in the future.
Darn it! I also forgot to mention that Terraria is on mobile as well! (forgetful me) I don't think that Moonlighter is on mobile though :(
 

Odin

Moderator
Staff member
Hey! Thanks for the reply. I'm specifically looking for mobile games. SDV was such an incredible value and it was easy to just pick up my phone and live out a day. I don't really have time for console or PC gaming right now, but I'll keep this in mind for when I can do that in the future.
Ah, I'm not sure that I've played any mobile games quite like Stardew, but if I would recommend Alto's Adventure and Alto's Odyssey. Both are "endless runner" style games, but they have really great visual design and excellent soundtracks. I will say that if you just want to try one, they're very similar games and Odyssey is the newer one which improved on the first one in several ways.
 

NextPaige

Planter
I just played Stardew for the first time and I loved it. I put in nearly 150 hours on mobile and it consumed my life for the last little while. That said, I'm not a big replay guy. At least right away. So I'm looking for suggestions of similar games to try. I looked up a list and saw a lot of farming-type games such as Harvest Moon and Harvest Town and Harvest Master, but it doesn't have to be farming. Just a good, addictive game like this. I have never played Harvest Moon before and it's pricy and has a lot of bad reviews. One of my all-time favourite games is Uncharted Waters: New Horizons, which is similar in play style, but obviously very different content.

Thanks in advance!
I recommend Minecraft! It got a new update recently which completely shook up the game!
 

Lew Zealand

Helper
I finished My Time At Portia about a year ago after the final update and it was fun, but even a low-polygon 3D game like that needs at least in intro-level graphics card or old gaming PC to play well. So not an option for old potato-level hardware like my 7+ year old laptop options (I played it on a gaming PC).

The progression in the game works really well if you keep up with building the suggested machines. I didn't do that in mid-game, preferring to keep using the ones from early game and it stalled progress a bit. I liked the story well enough but didn't like the character models so much as they were simplistic and repetitive.

That's the advantage of Stardew Valley and similar games: with simple sprites and portraits, your imagination is doing all the heavy lifting and filling in all the RPG gaps. It seems that (for me) a 3D animated game steals all that away and I'm tied to the level of the devs' creativity. Loads of AAA games do a very good job here but MTaP was a lower-budget game, so was somewhat lacking here.

We'll see how My Time at Sandrock goes, I hope they take the time to do some good iterative improvement, especially to the character models.
 

Rowan Ravenwood

Sodbuster
Cattails was the first Game I ever bought, four Years ago when it came out, so it's very special to me, so I'll always be quick to Recommend it! It's smaller and simpler than Stardew, but just as charming. The Developer is also working on a Successor/Sequel!
It's only $15 on Steam IIRC :]
 
A great little game for mobile is Burnable Garbage Day. It's not much like Stardew but has a similar feel. You're a lonely little robot at the end of the world, looking for survivors, clearing debris, and doing little missions for the settlements you find. It's short, free, and really fun.
 

FilthyGorilla

Local Legend
I just played Stardew for the first time and I loved it. I put in nearly 150 hours on mobile and it consumed my life for the last little while. That said, I'm not a big replay guy. At least right away. So I'm looking for suggestions of similar games to try. I looked up a list and saw a lot of farming-type games such as Harvest Moon and Harvest Town and Harvest Master, but it doesn't have to be farming. Just a good, addictive game like this. I have never played Harvest Moon before and it's pricy and has a lot of bad reviews. One of my all-time favourite games is Uncharted Waters: New Horizons, which is similar in play style, but obviously very different content.

Thanks in advance!
You should play on 1.5 on any other platform, multiplayer is great and the game has way more late game content which makes it almost a different game and really fun to complete fully.
 

Odin

Moderator
Staff member
You should play on 1.5 on any other platform, multiplayer is great and the game has way more late game content which makes it almost a different game and really fun to complete fully.
I'm sure they might do so if they have the opportunity in the future, but not everyone has access to a game console or computer, especially with the popularity of Chromebooks (which can run Android apps, but not PC games.) And I know some people do prefer the controls on mobile.
 
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