After selling 100,000 copies of its idle Stardew Valley-like, Rusty's Retirement dev celebrates "spawning a genre" of games that run at the bottom of your screen
May. 2, 2024The dev has inadvertently started a new indie game trend
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The developer of idleStardew Valley-like, Rusty’s Retirement, has seemingly started a new indie trend of games that run at the bottom of your screen.
Last week was a busy week for game releases. Not only did we finally get our hands onPS5-exclusiveStellar Blade, but extremely popular city-builderManor Lordsand the action-RPG adaptation of Akira Toriyama’sSand Landalso launched, not forgetting indieRusty’s Retirement- an adorable little farming sim that runs at the bottom of your screen.
The latter of the four, Rusty’s Retirement, had an extremely good first week as itsold 100,000 copiesjust five days after its release - which is especially impressive considering all of the other games that could have stolen attention away from it. It seems the Stardew Valley-like has done more than just populate players' screens though, as it may have also started a new indie game trend.
As highlighted by the devs themselves, Mister Morris Games isn’t the only one to have the idea of a game that can be played at the bottom of your PC screen. “We’re spawning a genre!!” the developer shares, quote tweeting the post above which features a tiny kingdom builder that also sits at the bottom of your screen.
This is just one example of the trend popping up following Rusty’s Retirement. Developer Nine Finger Games also recently announced theirTamagotchi-inspired life sim that operates on the bottom of your screencalled My Little Life. Similar to the farming sim, players can idly play the game while getting on with other things, or be completely distracted by it and neglect any work they were supposed to get done.
Find out what other hidden gems are on the way with ourupcoming indie gameslist.
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After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training. My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I’m also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.
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