Recommend me a game to run windowed while I do other stuff

[SoreWristed]

I'm looking for more small, short or brainless games I can run on windowed mode while I wait for video to compile or mails to come in. Or just while I'm watching netflix or youtube in another window.

Games i've played to death already :
- Plants vs Zombies
- Rogue Legacy
- FTL
- Game Dev Tycoon
- Hearthstone (haven't played it to death, but just sick of playing it)

Anything from freeware to cheap (below $5) suggestions are welcome

 

[Rozalia1]

WWE Supercards/Nba 2k14 card game/other sports and game equivalents.
Might & Magic: Duel of Champions (forget if there is a time limit against AI or not)
Command & Conquer whichever

 

[Username Redacted]

I would put for the (IMO) classic and fairly cheap turn based strategy game of 'Master of Magic' as more or less meeting your requirements.

 

[Bad Jim]

Deadly Rooms of Death

Here's the Flash version. It's part of the first game.

http://caravelgames.com/Articles/Games_2/FlashDROD/KDDL1.html

Other DROD games are on GOG

http://www.gog.com/game/drod_1_2_3
http://www.gog.com/game/drod_4_gunthro_and_the_epic_blunder
http://www.gog.com/game/drod_rpg_tendrys_tale
http://www.gog.com/game/drod_the_second_sky

They're a bit more than $5 but not unreasonable. Beware that while you can play them in the background, you can also find yourself playing them solidly until the sun comes up.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Progress Quest [http://progressquest.com/]. There isn't a game that exists that is better to play in the background while you do other things. Also it's free.

 

[SoreWristed]

Progress Quest [http://progressquest.com/]. There isn't a game that exists that is better to play in the background while you do other things. Also it's free.

I have been playing this in a sort of trance for a good hour. I'm considering doing a let's play about this game...

Go go ZouckWhiez the Demicanadian Birdrider!

 

[TheArcaneThinker]

Luftrausers !! Believe me that game is just the thing that you need or could try

Crypt of the necrodancer

Papers please

World of Goo

Retro City Rampage

Spelunky

Re-Volt , which is now free on its official website . Great Pc classic too ,
and of course , the already mentioned , Progress Quest .

If you can stand a bit old but still great games then try ,

Feeding frenzy 1 and 2 .

Alien Shooter 2 Reloaded .

Hamster Ball .

Zumas Revenge .

Tradewinds .

flOw .

And if your into casuals then you have many like bejeweled , peggle , etc .

For text based adventures , try Coc , etc.

You can also try some Visual novels which are really very interesting and perfect for this sort of thing .

 

[aozgolo]

Oh I have plenty of these:

-Spelunky is a good one, easy to pause, easy to take in small doses, easy to play while doing other things like watching videos.

-Banished if you like town building sims is great. There is a bit of learning curve for the game but after you understand the basics to keep your town alive it's easy to set the game on normal speed and do other things while keeping an eye on your town to make sure people aren't dying en masse.

-Gnomoria is in the same category as above, especially if you play in Peaceful mode, just give your gnomes the tasks to complete, and sit back and watch everything get done.

-Dungeons of Dredmor: Really any good turn-based Roguelike will work but this one never takes itself seriously, is turn based, easy to take in small doses or large marathon sessions, and has tons of replay value from the sheer number of skill combinations it offers.

-Terraria: Explore, Mine, Build, Fight. Tons of stuff to do in Terraria, and you can set it up to auto-pause in your inventory so when you tab out of the game it waits until you get back.

-Minecraft is probably the best one though of any of them. Seriously. I listened to the entire Wheel of Time audiobooks (14 heavy doorstopper books) while playing this game. There's no narrative to consider, nothing to distract you from your other tasks, just explore, mine, build, and have fun.

 

[baddude1337]

Desktop Dungeon is designed specifically to be played in very short intervals, that could be up your street.

Generally, if it's while you're focusing on other stuff, try pretty much any turn-based game you like the look of.

 

[babinro]

Marvel Puzzle Quest
Like Puzzle quest? Give this free to play game a try. It has all the horrible trappings of a free to play game but I absolutely love it anyways. Warning...you may get addicted.

Diablo 3
...or any game in that genre. It's all about getting into that relaxed zen mode where you can waste away hours if you so choose. Free to play alternatives to this are Path of Exile and Marvel Heroes. Each game has their pros and cons against one another but D3 has the best solo play and pure fun of combat/gameplay so I recommend it. PoE is about as good as it gets if you enjoy PvP and want to play a Diablo 2 clone. Marvel Heroes falls a bit in the middle of these two with the marvel theme of course.

Don't Starve
I'm not crazy about these types of games in general...but Don't Starve hooked me the most out of the bunch. I only wish it kept things realistic and did away with magic stuff.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

Factorio. Once you get your machines going and your defenses up you can sit there and wait for your machines to get you enough resources to progress.

 

[Gray-Philosophy]

Unturned

It's like the slightly retarded child of DayZ and Minecraft, but I find it surprisingly entertaining. Free to play and fairly small cpu usage. One downside though, is that it doesn't really pause, not even in singleplayer.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Binding of Isaac, either the original or the Rebirth version. Perfect for this kind of thing.

 

[SJXarg]

Frozen Synapse (Prime or vanilla, pick your visual aesthetic). It requires a bit of thought to play (not what you were asking for), but! it's turn based, so if you get stuck into whatever you're watching, or a task completes, it won't punish you in any way for taking a break. It can even be played in multiplayer, where players send turns to each other before the results are tabulated and displayed. You could spend a week playing a single match.

 

[False Messiah]

Factorio. Once you get your machines going and your defenses up you can sit there and wait for your machines to get you enough resources to progress.

I second this one but beware; I've sunk about 24 hours of gameplay in it in the past 4 days. This game is hell if you're a perfectionist. I was so happy after rebuilding part of my factory for 3 hours that my logic bus throughput was up by about 5%. It's one of the few early access games that I really trust.

 

[LaughingAtlas]

Dark Souls, if you're waiting to get summoned. The better part of my play time in that game is spent doing something else while waiting to help kill another boss.

 

[Doom972]

Talisman: Digital Edition (not to be confused with Talisman Prologue). It's a classic fantasy boardgame in which you mainly role dice. It's mostly luck based, so it doesn't require much thought. Note that when playing against human players, there's a time limit for each turn so you'll want to use it for single player only. It costs $15 on Steam right now, but you can get it whenever it goes on sale.