Longing for more games like Stardew Valley? Good news: casual farming sims have taken root on PC.
In the time since Stardew Valley was originally released, I have played it into the ground. I've reached year 10 in my first save, pushed myself to complete the community center upgrades in a single year for my second save, and supported Jojamart just to give myself an excuse for a third save. Like many others, I was obsessed with Stardew Valley for bringing the casual farm and life sim genre to PC where I thought it was destined never to take root.
Years later, games blending farming with life and town simulation are flourishing. I've updated our list with the best Stardew-adjacent games in 2022. There's no shortage of games like Stardew Valley on PC now, with even more in development. Some focus more on building relationships and revitalizing a town while others are all about 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:
Released: 2022 (Early Access) | Developer: Sunny Side Up| Steam
One of many potion shop sims of 2022, Little Witch in the Woods asks you to overhaul an old witch's hut instead of a family farm. Like Stardew, you'll befriend and help the locals of your new home. Instead of growing crops, you'll bring ingredients back to your shop and create remedies to solve their problems in your cauldron. Its main characters are a bit on the verbose side, leading to some rather overlong conversations, but this is definitely a cute new contender in the town and crafting sim stable. During early access, Sunny Side Up plans to add new characters, areas, and items, and complete the game's story.
Released: 2022 (Early Access) | Developer: Pugstorm | Steam
Core Keeper is a mashup somewhere between Stardew, Valheim, and Minecraft. You'll mine and fight underground with up to eight players, creating base in the ever-expanding darkness. Like Stardew, you'll plant crops to sustain you underground, and like Minecraft you'll mine for resources to build new tools and structures. Throughout early access, Core Keeper is planning to add new biomes, plants, crafting stations, and more.
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.
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 past Story of Seasons games that had retained Harvest Moon's chibi-style 3D aesthetic.
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.
Released: 2018 | Developer: Lazy Bear Games | Steam
In Graveyard Keeper you'll be planting corpses instead of crops. Your protagonist has become the new caretaker of the medieval graveyard by way of potential death and amnesia and will need to clean the place up to discover his origins. You'll spend time collecting resources and building new devices for your graveyard to refine materials and exploit the bodies dropped off in your yard. Graveyard Keeper is much more of a grindy crafting simulation than other Stardew-like games, but it shares that "one more day" lure. You'll just be coming back to chop a few more trees and refine more materials rather than harvest your pumpkins.
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.
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.
Released: 2017 | Developer: Monomi Park| Steam
As is tradition, Slime Rancher begins with the protagonist Beatrix LeBeau being gifted a property to take over. This time, it's a slime ranch lightyears away from planet earth. As a newly indoctrinated slime rancher, Beatrix must build enclosures for her slimes and grow plenty of crops and chickadoos to keep them well-fed. Along the way you'll explore the Far Far Range, upgrade your spacey vacpack tool, and combine your slimes into new 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 customization.
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.
