Anyone who's ever wished they could play a game like Stardew Valley without leaving their desktop will be thrilled to know that the adorable Tiny Pasture is now available for purchase. The recently launched indie title is meant to offer players a delightful idle task to interact with when they need a little boost throughout their day. The game features adorable pixel art and a large variety of pets to collect, and is already receiving praise from players just two days after its release.
Tiny Pasture launched on Steam on February 17 to very positive reviews (95% out of 290 reviews are positive at the time of this writing). The cute title was created by a small two-person indie dev team CaveLiquid and brightens up players' desktops by filling the bottom of the screen with desk buddies who, according to the Steam description, "snooze, scratch, and scamper around while you work or study (don’t worry, they’ve been trained not to invade your workspace)."
Idler Game Tiny Pasture Brings Adorable Pixel Animals To Your Desktop
Level Up Your Pasture And Get More Animals
Tiny Pasture is a pixel-art style game that changes the bottom of players' desktops into a cute animal-raising idler reminiscent of other cozy pixel games like Stardew Valley and Fields of Mistria. The game tasks players with raising various animals like rabbits, foxes, deer, capybaras, and many more by feeding and interacting with them. Players can create more animals and strive to find the cutest colors as their little pasture grows. Though it's shown across the bottom of the screen in the game images, Tiny Pasture can be resized and placed anywhere on the screen, making it easier to multitask and adapt the game to players' current desktop tasks.
Cozy Games Give Players "Warm & Cozy" Feelings With Research Claiming They Might Improve Mental Well-Being
Several studies show that cozy games like Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley really can be beneficial for mental health and reducing stress.
The game is already receiving plenty of praise from early players. "I have had this game for half an hour and I am already OBSESSED," writes Steam glorp, pointing out the way the game pays special attention to even the smallest detail, like "how you pet different animals." This review from Zylerious seems to be the consensus across the title's Steam reviews:
"It reminds me of Rusty's Retirement in that it's not intrusive if you're trying to multitask, and within 30 minutes I had a corgi running along the bottom of my screen. It's peaceful, delightful, and is charming in its own right."
Several other reviews also mention Rusty's Retirement, a similar desktop idler whose UI looks quite a bit more involved than Tiny Pasture's.
Our Take: Tiny Pasture Is A Little Midday Motivation
Get A Little Dopamine Boost From The Cute Critters As You Work
The delightfully adorable screenshots are what first attracted me to this title, but now that I know more about Tiny Pasture, I need these little critters in my life. Seeing the little pixel animals wander around on my screen as I work would be the ultimate dopamine boost needed to overcome any lack of motivation.
Players curious about multitasking games can pick up Tiny Pasture, Rusty's Retirement, and My Little Life as part of the "Bottom-of-your-screen Bundle," for $14.69. Tiny Pasture is now available to buy on Steam for a limited-time introductory offer of just $5.39 through March 3, with a full listed price of $5.99.
Source: Steam, Zylerious/Steam, glorp/Steam
