What are some of your favorite "meeting games?"
Here's a first world problem: I work remote and sometimes I get bored during meetings. Wondering if you guys had any game recommendations for games I can play on a second monitor or something while I kill boredom in my meetings. Mouse only is probably the biggest requirement, and also something more "turn based" so if I need to I can still pay attention to the parts that I need to.
Some of my recommendations:
Slay the Spire (+ Downfall) - I "beat" all of it (A20H for all characters) so I wanted to take a break, but I loved it.
Monster Train - I didn't get into it as much as StS tbh, it's fineeee but not my personal favorite
Super Auto Pets - I'm not really an Autobattler kinda guy but the slow pace and the rotating sets make this game kinda perfect for what I'm looking for!
Brotato - I've been playing mouse only, but can't really stop it in the middle of an intense run tbh.
Steam or Android games if possible!
Darkest Dungeon and Civilization (5 in my case but they're all turn based) are two games I played the fuck out of when I got kids because of how easy it is to walk away and come back when necessary.
Darkest Dungeon has been sitting in my backlog for forever, I really should learn the mechanics of that one haha. Civ 5 might be a bit too intense for me during meetings though, I played a lot of it years ago but it's surprisingly involved for a turn based game.
Civilization Revolution (2) is light weight civ game. It is easier, faster, not that complex. I plyed it on PS Vita and it also existed on iOS. I don't see any reason why it won't be on Android or Steam, but haven't checked myself.
EDIT: I checked it - Android version is not available on modern Android system - WHY??? This is why I love PC gaming, I can play all the old games whenever I want and I'm not limited by such (artificial) problems. This game is not available on Steam though :-(
I'll have to take a look for that one! lol I have my vita somewhere in my house.... It would be kinda cool to dig that out. plus people wouldn't even know what I pulled out so there would be a funny aspect there
Vita is such a great console, I love it! Too bad I got my hands on it basically at the end of life (Vita... life...) - still loveit though!
Check out The Battle of Polytopia on Android or Steam! Fantastic game that's pretty similar to Civ, but designed for mobile and very streamlined/shortened compared to Civ. Single player is free (at least on mobile) and you only have to buy one of the $0.99 tribes to start playing multiplayer
FTL is a good one.
Into The Breach.
Dorf Romantik.
Songs of Conquest.
Wayward.
All good suggestions! I'll have to take a look back into FTL, it's been a while since I've played that. I have Dorf Romantik, played it for a bit but not too much tbh, it didn't really click with me
If you like isometric strategy games that reward you for careful planning and tactical skill, I cannot recommend Into the Breach enough. Great suggestion @bkimmel
Into the Breach is made by the same developer as FTL. It's a tactical turn based game and procedurally generated. So the matches are different every play through.
Ohhh, did not know the FTL devs made into the breach, will definitely try it out.
Yeah, Dorf Romantik is not my "fav fav" either, but it ticks the box of "turn based with very little game state needed to mentally slide in and out of" which is kinda my "meeting game" criteria. Civilization is one of my favorites, but it tends to not be great for this criteria for me: I need to be immersed in a long session with undivided attention or I end up making dumb mistakes when I come back ("oh yeah, I forgot I started a war with them before I left").
Loop Hero and Terra Nil are two others I'll throw out there as good "meeting games"
Very fair! I think I've played one round of Dorf before i got bored of it already lol
Civ is that kind of "I'm gonna sit there for hours and not move" kinda games for me lol. I'll have to try Loop Hero! I think i have it free from epic or something somewhere. Terra Nil was okay in the demo I played at PAX, it seems very Civ like.
I sometimes fold origami during meetings. Keeps my mind active, and doesn't tie up my verbal mental resources since there's nothing to read.
I've found modular origami to work extremely well for this purpose. Instructions. I've made 30 unit balls, 90 unit balls, 120 unit balls, 240 unit balls, 360 unit tori, and a 540 unit ring made of 18 interlocking 30 unit balls.
good suggestion! i used to read a lot of reddit and stuff during meetings haha but maybe i should be doing stuff offline. I was close to my old manager who always knew i was on my switch because we were friends on Animal Crossing.
Along these lines (physical things rather than electronic) a nice rubik's cube. One of the modern magnetic speed cubes. The O.G. is just terrible.
I picked it up a few years ago and learned the simple algorithm so i can solve it in about a minute. Works great and you don't have to really conceal it from your employer!
Tents from Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection
the whole collection is great but that one is my favorite, sort of Minesweeper-esque but with a bit more logical deduction required (especially on "tricky" difficulty)
Is this basically Voltorb Flip from Pokemon Soul Silver? That's amazing, I'm actually addicted to that game lol
Trees & Tents on Android is my go-to idle game!
Mini Metro is another great meeting game - it's a sim where you build subway systems on demand for various cities.
Dunno how big a fan you are of idle/clicker games but Pokeclicker has enthralled me lately. It's a Pokemon idle/clicker game. It's sucked me in for like 3 weeks straight. Definitely recommend checking it out. It's got so many different minigames on top of the base click/catch pokemon on routes as you progress through all the regions (at least up to Galar so far, it's in active development) starting from Kanto. Very different from real Pokemon but it's cool!
oh no, I tend to get very addicted to clicker games haha so this might be right up my alley! Good recommendation, thanks!
No problem! May the brainworms be sated.
This has spread rapidly in my friend circle since Friday. Thanks for the suggestion!
Glad to hear that! I love passing the brainworms around. There's also a pretty active discord community too if you're into that sort of thing.
Oh man this is right up my alley! Thank you for sharing.
Melvor idle is my favorite idle game, based on RuneScape. Lots of content small price
Honestly surprised Vampire Survivors hasn't been mentioned yet. Easy to play mouse-only, and easy to pause as needed. Also has a free mobile version. Super addicting for how simple it is!
We are talking about games that don't require much focus.
I've been playing Fights in Tight Spaces which is a card-based fighting game on Steam.
I think I have that in my library! I'll have to download it and take a look.
i'd say X-Com, but you may have difficulty hiding the rage/joy you'll feel when RNJesus plays his hand.
I feel so vindicated that there's so many folks that do the same thing during long meetings.
I sometimes feel bad for playing games, but when I have nothing to contribute and just need to listen I tend to play a game or two. At least something with normal pause that doesn't require my full mental attention.
lol yeah it's honestly probably not a big deal unless your job is to take meetings, i feel like 90% of the meetings i'm in are unnecessary anyways.
Universal Paperclips - https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/index2.html
It’s a bit like cookie clicker, but much more depth. I hate cookie clicker, but this has so much verity, and the best part is it actually has an end goal, rather than going on forever.
I thinj Dicey Dungeons or Slice&Dice would be my recommendations - both are roguelites to some extent, are turn based, so you don't need to focus all your attention on them. Both are available on PC and Android.
If you enjoyed Slay the Spire and Monster Train, I can guarantee you'll like Across The Obelisk. It's another card-based roguelike, with the shtick being you're running a party of 4 heroes (each with their own deck).
It also has multi-player, which can be fun outside of meetings.
Across the Obelisk is hardly a guarantee. It's much more aggressive about meta progression than StS, being able to max out one character's skill tree (of which your party will have four out of... sixteen?) Will take many hours. It also has extremely basic sound design, enough to grate (though if it's on mute during a meeting, I guess that won't be an issue).
Not saying it's bad, mind you. But it's enough of a different beast for it to not be every StS player's cup of tea.
I'd wager Vault of the Void is a safer bet for enjoyment, it felt more like StS to me.
Space Haven (Steam) is pretty good, and very pausable. It says early access, but it's still very playable.
Flipon, on Steam. I played it on my Deck through meetings I had nothing to contribute to.
Oooh interesting. I'm a fan of Tetris and have been trying to learn Puyo Puyo so this might help!
I would second the civilization recommendation or any of the other similar turn based games like Humankind, Old World or Endless Space/Legend.
Backpack Hero is a fairly light turn-based inventory management dungeon crawler that's easy to take a break from. I usually play it while watching something on the side - though you might want to wait for its full release, which will be relatively soon.
I forgot about backpack hero!! i actually backed it on kickstarter lol and I have an early access key, totally forgot that I wanted to try that, I'll have to go through it!
I will also recommend Backpack Battles if you're into that kind of game, it's basically Backpack Hero + Super Auto Pets, which i think is an interesting combo.
My football manager addiction loves being a remote worker. Im the greatest manager ever and its 2043 in my save.
Xcom2 is also epic for this.
I saw a different post saying you like idle/clicker games, and I can recommend Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms. Dungeons and Dragons based cookie clicker/ side scroller.
It's out on Android, Steam and Epic, but unfortunately none of the accounts talk to each other.
It’s not turn based but Old School RuneScape can be as afk / secondary monitor as you want.
Pretty sure like half of the people afk during work on that game. I even did some afk training today during work not in a meeting on my phone
Both in Steam and Android is the wacky turn based hack and slash game HyperRogue.
Doesn't require a lot of focus but is maybe my favorite 10 minute game ever. The mild amount of strategy for navigating hyperbolic geometry areas is interesting, and there's a lot of variety in the levels you can unlock over time.
Can't believe (Shattered) Pixel Dungeon hasn't been recommended here yet. It's a turn based roguelike dungeon crawler.
You can save/quit anytime and doesn't need full attention to play the game.