Factorio.
this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2026
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What's that about falling asleep 14 times in a day? What do you mean? That's not how it works...
Anyway, here's Wonderwall:
- Terraria, Minecraft in 2D.
- Dwarf Fortress. It's chill. In a very, ah, neurospecific kind of way.
- Luanti, it's basically open source Minecraft. Moddable in Lua, which is easy enough to pick up.
- Subnautica. Stranded alone on an underwater planet. Not 'relaxing' in the original sense, but there's a sense of discovery few games can replicate. Aside from maybe...
- Outer Wilds. Explore a mini solar system in a rickety spaceship. Everything else would be a spoiler, but you owe it to yourself to play it someday.
Terraria really cannot be compared to minecraft honestly. Terraria is much more focused on bosses for progression, and it isn't really a sandbox like minecraft is.
Absolutely fantastic though, and IMO much more enjoyable than Minecraft.
I agree, except I on the other hand prefer Minecraft for the same reasons; it's a sandbox with little focus on bosses or progression, and the 'goals' are only ones you decide for yourself :)
I'm just going to plug here that Luanti is best referred to as "Luanti plus Mineclonia.".
My aologies for the Stallman reference.
I find that whether folks enjoy their first outing in Luanti tends to highly correlate with whether they know to try Mineclonia inside of Luanti, first, before the other more esoteric games available.
True, Luanti is just the engine and OP, you'll have to install a 'proper' game from within it. I've been messing with it for so long that this part has actually slipped my mind.
Thanks for the Stallman reference, appreciate it :)
Not OP, but I've tried getting into Stardew multiple times and the fatigue mechanic absolutely ruins the game for me. "14 times" is an exaggeration but what it feels like.
People describe it as a cozy game but it is genuinely one of the most stressful games that I've played. As in I start clearing the land and then after a very short time my character is exhausted. Either I sleep it off and I'm worried I'll plant late enough the crops will die in winter or I work through it and end up in the hospital with a bill. Sometimes I've used the time to explore the town (as it seems the game mechanics are telling you to do), whereupon I find the shops are closed and I collapse on the way back home.
The one or two times I've played long enough to harvest crops I end up eating all of it just to get to the end of the day. Most of the money I make is from selling actual literal garbage I've found lying around.
The result of that mechanic is that the game is basically telling me the most cozy part of the game (farming) I'm not allowed to play until I've invested enough time to stock up on energy drinks. I'm left with fishing, which just isn't my thing, and mining, which is what I'll mostly do until I get bored because it's honestly kinda mediocre on it's own. I just can't get into this game.
(I'm aware that the main pull for the game is the characters, which if you enjoy that that's good. I've just never had much of a reason to be invested in them)
I promise it gets better! Improving your farming skill increases your energy efficiency while farming, that helps a lot. There are other ways to raise your energy as well. But yeah, I've been playing it for so long that I actually forgot that the first start was a little rough. So, thanks for the reminder. :)
I guess the one reason why SDV is filed as 'not stressful' in my head is because I know that it's impossible to permanently mess up in that game. Every little thing you do helps you, little by little.
Mods my friend
Multiple leviathan class creatures detected.....are you sure what you're doing is worth it?
See? It's chill. The narrator even helps you. What can be more chill than that? :)
X4 is an economy simulator masquerading as a flight simulator. It also goes on sale regularly!
OpenTTD!!!
Also Satisfactory.
Mindustry a defense strategy game, you collect minerals and conquer unexplored territories
huge shoutout to mindustry! it's foss and technically free but you can buy it through steam to donate to the developers.
Cities: skylines
This one doesnβt even require Proton, since itβs Linux native. Itβs also a very chill game.
Minecraft, especially modpacks like that of FTB
+1 to modded minecraft. The Create mod and its many many many addons would fit right in with OPs tastes I think. A team of modders even made a mod adding physics that allow for building planes, cars, and more. Itβs pretty wild.
said mod adding physics is single-handedly making an august 2024 hotfix update the most popular minecraft version
(Java Edition of course. There's several different launchers you can choose from after purchasing a legitimate forever copy of Minecraft, but PrismLauncher is the one I use and it's a native Qt application.)
I love sky blocks. Currently playing ATM10 To The Sky.
If you haven't played it, Terraria. One of my all time favorite games, after all those years. Should also be really cheap on sales.
I'm trying to persuade my partner to play it with me at the moment. He seems open to it, but experiences inertia around starting a new game.
Tux Kart ! ftw
If you like Rimworld the obvious suggestion from me is Dwarf Fortress. It's on steam but if you're not sure I believe there's a free version with the original ascii graphics on the bay12 games website (at least there was when I last played).
Also Factorio might interest you, but for a laid back experience you'd want to turn down biters (mostly disabling expansions). May be mentally taxing.
Another comment mentions modded minecraft, which gets a +1 from me. Though if you want a "forever world" I'd suggest playing unmodded (save for some client side graphics / QoL if desired), as there's at least some guarantee you can keep the world as the game gets updated. If you do go modded though I'd suggest using prismlauncher and browsing through premade modpacks on modrinth and curseforge. P.S. if you don't already own the game somehow you'll want java edition, not bedrock
Project zomboid, once build 42 finally comes out that is. Shouldn't be more than a few more months right? Haha
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Vintage Story is worth looking into imho.
Do you need to tinker to make it work? I remember reading that the creator had no plans to put it on Steam.
It has native Linux support, works out of the box for me using KDE Fedora 43.
It is written in C#/.Net, which depending on your Linux system can be a bit of a hassle to get up and running (like me on Gentoo).
That said, the Flatpak version is incredibly easy to get up and running no matter which distro you use, which is what I opted for.
If you're into strategy I can highly recommend some TBS Games (Turn Based Strategy) in no particular order:
- Heroes of Might and Magic 3, 5 and the new Olden Era
- Civilization 5 and 6
- Age of Wonders
- Battle Brothers
- Old World
- Songs of Conquest
All of them got something to do with building up and watching grow but in a more "laid back", strategic way π
Factorio is definitely worth a try.
+1 for mindustry and luanti.
I'll add Wesnoth, Widelands and OpenTTD too.
Satisfactory
Hundreds of hours in Linux played, can confirm it's great. Also Coffee Stain studio just dropped the 1.2 update yesterday.
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CoreKeeper is a good one for multiplayer. Like Terraria x Stardew. I self hosted a server that we played for months, including at a LAN party, but I do think they use a nat hole-punch server to ease connectivity. Not sure if it was possible to direct connect via IP. It's a big world with boss/gear progression and some mining automation.
Nothing has quite scratched the Rimworld itch for me, anything in that realm just makes me wanna play RimWorld more. But technically I have to mention Dwarf Fortress.
If you haven't played a factory sim, Factorio is a classic. If you don't want to have to fight buggers, you could try Dyson Sphere Program or Satisfactory instead.
Modulus is a recent factory sim with a unique twist: instead of having a fixed tech tree you work through, you're given arbitrary 3D block configurations, and you lay down the configuration of buildings to make them. I really like the open-endedness. Some designs nicely complement others, so that the pieces you cut out to make part A can be stuck into the line that makes part B.
Btw, for Stardew, you need to eat foods that give your stamina back. Early on it's harder to get the foods, but later you grow tons.
Postal Diplomacy has been around longer than the internet, so why not.
X-plane runs natively on Linux, and you have countless hour of simming. While not fully single-player, Elden ring works perfectly through steam/proton, and the ordinary interaction with other players is about letting message
Kerbal Space Program runs better through proton than it does either natively in windows or natively in linux.
It's the game I have the most hours in, by a large margin.
Mewgenics! Itβs weird, itβs funny, the music is top tier.
Endless Sky is great.
Vintage Story is a slowburn survival game with a Linux version from the developers, not a compat layer. It's focused on realism.
Ranch Sim is a game in which you design your own ranch.
Starship Evo, formerly Sky Wanderers, is still in development but has reached a very playable stage. You build bases and ships out of predefined shapes but with highly variable scaling, as in ranging from 12.5cm grid up to 1m with all the standard slopes, panels, etc. It has logic systems, inventory and production systems, and control systems for space ships, hovercraft, mech walkers, and space stations, all using that heavily customisable building system. Then you can fly around doing little missions, trading, space ship combat, etc.
Archean is similar building but with more realism and programming but more sandboxy with no NPCs.
I've heard some good things about Steamworld Build.
I have heard someone say Icarus was like Ark but better.
7 Days to Die ticks much of those boxes as well.
Stationeers is another struggle, survive, thrive game with very realistic mechanisms.
Foundry is Factorio in 3D. Satisfactory is Foundry without a GΓΆdel grid.
Wrong post, sorry.
I enjoy Xonotix once in a while. Old school shooter like Quake or Doom. You can play online or solo against computer players. Lots of weapons to nab with odd effects.
Steamworld Dig
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