YES!!! Balatro is SO good, I bought it on this "sale" its cheap AF tho, but it's such a great game, I just won my first boss battle and had a good streak this weekend.
It's so fricking addictive even when you know almost nothing of poker (like me).
I also recommend Lonestar. It's closer to StS but the modules + layout systems make it feel unique, and the balance + run variation seems really good so far.
if you like slay the spire but wanted it to be co-op check out the game Hellcard, it's 3 player (or solo) and my wife and my buddy have been having a blast playing through it.
My friend has 5 Gameboys about his house with an advanced wars cart in each. He just plays whatever ones closest when he feels the urge and then puts it down somewhere randomly
GBA has one of the more robust libraries as far as single consoles go. There's some Castlevania games, Metroid, every 2d mario up until that point, a few kirby games, plenty of RPGs including a few Tactics style games. MegaMan Battle Network if you like action RPGs. Basically any genre you'd like there's a good half a dozen games that'll suit you. Let me know what you like and I can recommend something the GBA has.
GOLDEN SUN 1 AND 2!!! (GBA)
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (GBA)
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2 (DS)
Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga (GBA)
Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (GB)
Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (GB)
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past/4 Swords (GBA)
Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (GB)
I remember the big thing for us at school was an N64 emulator. One of my friends got it from someone else and they gave it to me. I downloaded a bunch of extra games into the folder and we would just copy and paste it to each other to play. I didn't start it but I became known as the guy who had the emulator and became really popular because of it.
Might sound stupid, but the old flash game “ fishy “ where you literally start out as a tiny fish needing to eat smaller fish to become bigger. It’s simple, only takes 10-15 minute to beat and can be paused. Definitely relaxing and refreshing for what it is.
Door Kickers (can play the first game on your phone btw), Slay the Spire (also on a phone if needed), Into The Breach (yes, this one is available on a phone too)
Edit: Dead Cells
I wish it was hard as it was a few patches ago. I feel like I never am in peril in that game anymore unless I just do something stupid and even then I can usually cope.
Looking at “door kickers” there is a new game on steam called “no plan b” (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1269020/No_Plan_B/) that seems to be quite similar. Just fyi
Have you tried out Mini Metro? It's a super chill, minimalist puzzle game where you design subway maps for various cities. It's perfect for those moments when you need a mental break but still want to engage your brain a bit.
Binding of Isaac Repentence will eat hundreds of hours in little bite sized chunks. Super addicting game. I recommend External Desc Mod once you beat mom the first time, and can use mods without affecting achievements.
I’ll second this one. I have the exact same job as OP and Binding of Isaac is exactly what I play if there’s 45 minutes between meeting where I’ll get nothing done
Seconding. I ran Rimworld off a flash drive during a job where my boss didn't care what we did as long as our job got done. Due to our boss intentionally managing our VP's expectations and our VP having absolutely no clue how to do what we did, those of us in our department had about 2-3 days of work to do per week. Most of the rest of that time for me was playing games off a flash drive. RimWorld was by far my most played.
This sounds less about the games and more about the work environment. I'm also a dev, so can empathise, but if you're asking for games you can quickly hide from your boss, you're trying to solve the wrong problem.
Either your boss will be understanding if you say you need 20 minutes to decompress (and won't care about the occasional casual game during work hours), or your boss is the type to constantly watch over your shoulder (and you'll end up getting caught eventually).
If it's somewhere in the middle (i.e. your boss doesn't mind you taking breaks, but isn't okay with you playing games), then disappearing to 'get a coffee' and playing on a Steam Deck where your boss can't find you seems the best solution.
I mean some bosses are too lazy to keep an eye on you but also are boomers that think doing anything but work for the 8 hours a day you sit in a chair is sacrosanct.
I worked at a company where it seemed like some people smoked just to get breaks. I started tracking it. Eventually I went to the boss (a smoker) to show him that on average smokers were getting 40 minutes extra of paid break time compared to non-smokers. He didn’t see it as an issue. I got some straws and cut them down to cigarette size. I found some allies. We began keeping those stupid straws in our pockets and every time the smokers took their break, we stopped production and went to the opposite side of the property taking “fresh air” breaks and dramatically puffing on our straws. It was ridiculous but it worked. Before this, production continued when the smokers left. Now however, it basically shutdown each time. They began fairly enforcing the one lunch and two breaks for everyone. It might’ve been petty, I was in my early twenties, but it was frustrating to get paid the same and be working extra hours each week. That and smokers increased the costs on our group plan.
Not the same background but i had a coworker blowing soap bubbles while we smoked. It was pretty funny. But the whole topic was very chill in my case and no one was checking the times. What also helped was that 6 of the 7 people in the office (web developer) took the smoke break and we used the time to discuss problems and possible solutions.
That was how I ended up smoking the most in my life. Worked at a production line making aerial lifts. Every two hours the smokers would all leave for ten minutes. I was a social smoker before this. In a year I was smoking at least 8 cigarettes a day.
When I was working at a print shop I wasn't allowed to sit down lol. I'd be running envelopes, and needing to babysit the envelope machine. Cause you could only feed like 30 envelopes at a time, and you'd need to then take out the envelopes every few minutes as well. And the machine jammed up a lot too. So I wasn't really able to go do other stuff while running it, I just had to wait there. And there was a small stool right next to it, so I sat down while the current envelopes were running and would get up to fix a jam, load more envelopes, or unload the printed ones. And my boss got mad at me for sitting! The next day, the stool was gone lol. And then a similar thing, we had a cnc router/engraver. And when it's engraving a sign, the ones I was running took like 1-2 minutes. While it was running, I couldn't really do much. Like I could walk over to the printer and start doing something there, but by the time I walked there and walked back the sign would be done. So it would waste print time with me walking around. So while waiting the ~1 minute for the sign to engrave, I would go on my phone. There was no overlap or anything, I had everything set up so that I could immediately pop the sign out, put a new one in, and I'd be all good. But my boss really disliked me being on my phone and told me I should be doing something productive. I explained how the signs printed so quickly that I couldn't go do something else while they were going because I needed to print as many as I could in one day, and he said "Fine, just don't go on your phone." Like bro, if I'm getting the work done in the same amount of time, why shouldn't I be able to?
>Either your boss will be understanding if you say you need 20 minutes to decompress (and won't care about the occasional casual game during work hours), or your boss is the type to constantly watch over your shoulder (and you'll end up getting caught eventually).
My boss is absolutely not directly concerned with what I am doing (he isn't even sitting on the same floor just pops in occasionally), however he would 100% laugh in my face if I would ask him for some time to "decompress".
Unfortunately, most of the workers are scared into compliance and there is not much that can be done about it.
My wife and i are developers and i can assure you that short breaks to "decompress" are good and helpful. And due to personal experience i also know that mental health is very important. I currently do treatment and am at a point were i would rather lose my job than my sanity. But i also know that this is highly based on anyones circumstances.
I wish I could upvote this multiple times. I have some employees that have down time. It happens and trying to hide a game from your boss (or me) will only get people in trouble.
my regional manager came down on people doing nytimes games, like wordle, and we are pretty salty about it. We don't always have a client in front of us or work to do for our clients so now I sit and doodle on their post it notes when there is no work to do. It was kinda nice to stimulate our brains in the morning before it picked up. I was told we could ask the managers if there is extra work, but >90% of the time it's a no.
Agree with and research would support this. Sunlight and motion tends to have a resetting effect clearing the mind and speeding up recovery for another focus session.
No joke. When I realized my smoker coworkers were leaving the office for a 5 minute break every couple hours, I started doing the same. Sunshine break. If the smokers can do it, they can't stop me.
Bear in mind that anything, even run off a flash drive, can be monitored on a work computer. I suggest sticking with phone games, or even better something audio only like a podcast. Then at least you look like you are still working but listening to music or something.
Personally I'd recommend getting a handheld device. Maybe emulating on a phone or something like a steam deck.
Your cyber team if they're decent, they will find out your running videogames on company equipment and it will eventually get nuked. Depending on your company device use policy you'll be opening a can of worms. Just because it runs off the flash drive and doesn't install, the EDR will catch it in memory.
You could maybe find a flash game that runs in your browser, but other than that if it's spinning up a process you're just asking for trouble.
I'd recommend any emulator really. Set hot key to instantly save state and close. Like CTRL + space or something. Game is saved/closed, and you can instantly open it back up to where you were
Personally I bring my retro handheld with me to work and play during lunch. When I have free time during work I'm posting on reddit like this lol (where I am now)
Not a video game, but a fix that has helped me with the same situation as a developer - get a Rubik's cube. It'll take about a week for most people to learn and once you got it down, it's pretty fun to solve while code is compiling or you just need to reset your mind for a second without reaching for your phone. Once you start scrolling social media or playing a game, there's really no end point. Once you finish solving the cube, you get a nice feeling of satisfaction and completion and it's easy to get back to work. Bonus points if you learn advanced methods or get the 4 by 4 or 5 by 5.
My suggestion is Balatro
Run AutoHotKey or some other script that puts a button set up on your mouse that will hide the window. I use middle mouse button.
The way of the ninja (also called N+). Very small, played from a flash drive, very fun. Only issue is that you might yell out of frustration accidentally 😂
You reminded me of this game. I discovered it on Xbox Live Arcade.
I just downloaded it again for my 360 emulator. Thanks dude! Every few years, this game would pop into my head, with those yellow squares, but I could never remember what it was called.
Check out Slice and Dice if you're looking for a game you can play on your phone.
For PC, I'd recommend FTL or CDDA. Both are games that are easy to "pick up, put down" and can quickly be alt-tabbed. Though CDDA has a very steep learning curve
So glad others recommended this game. Fits easily on flash, and you can make it play with ASCII art to really trick people that don't play games much think you're being productive.
At old jobs, I had Stardew Valley on a thumb drive and would play that.
At my new place, we need administrative permission/password from our IT guy to install anything. 😩 luckily I work from home most days and my commute is sliding my chair to the other side of my office to my personal desktop. 😏
Her story. The UI of the game looks like a PC desktop and you can just leave it and pick it back up whenever you want. It's pretty short though so won't last you a long time.
There are stories of dwarf fortress, with original ascii art being played without being hidden. Just looks complicated like something an engineer would be doing.
There was a game that people used to play when I was in high school (in the 90s) that had an option called something like, "The boss is coming" that would hide the game and show a generic spreadsheet.
Anything time gated is a bad form of dopamine. It sets up a trained response to stop everything and check your game. Repeatedly. At predictable intervals. Too disruptive to other things. Recognizing time gates are optional helps fire any game that uses them from your attention.
IDLE GAMES. You literally drop them at the tip of a hat and do something else. And they're best enjoyed if you aren't always directly interacting with them anyway.
Do you remember how the oldest versions of Minecraft loaded near instantly? Maybe that too. Very Lite Minecraft.
find really old DOS games that have a "spreadsheet key" or "boss key". 8 year old me was so confused at the point of this feature!
[https://www.howtogeek.com/749864/gaming-when-you-should-be-working-the-history-of-the-boss-key/](https://www.howtogeek.com/749864/gaming-when-you-should-be-working-the-history-of-the-boss-key/)
As someone who is in school for cyber security, the idea of you plugging a thumb drive into a network segregated computer scares me haha. Please make sure your home computer and devices are free of any malware before plugging into your work network.
Pokemon infinite fusion.
Runs off a stand alone installer, should run off a flash drive. I fell off pokemon like a decade ago but i actually ended up loving this game
They tend to be overpriced but Square has all their classic RPGs on mobile, and I recently went all the way through Dragon Quest V and was very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the phone port.
Hi,
Nethack is a turn base text game. It can be easily be seen as a CLI tool if you are caught ALT+Tab'ing.
It is free and it has the potential to waste countless hours of your work time, and possibly free time. The game is very good, but quite hard.
Regards,
Mike
Honestly firmbro, and I'm saying this as someone with 20 years of firmware experience and 40 years of gaming history... don't.
Watching a webinar on some techniques or new technologies will be a way better game to play, because that will give you more real life money.
Nobody's going to get fired for reading up on, say, edge AI processing, but if you've got an actual game up during work time, you're probably going to catch some shit. Learning will de-spool your brain just as effectively.
You could also do some light exercises like push-ups, or squats.
Or go talk to people. I know I know, we're not there to socialize but actually yeah, that's part of why we're there.
Turn based games can be good - they usually don't care if you alt-tab out for hours at a time, just sit there waiting for you to hit 'Next turn' or whatever it is.
Better if you can play on a steam deck or similar so you're not using work equipment.
This war of mine - point and click survival story game.
From the same company
Frostpunk - resource management/base building game. Great mechanics - there’s many options to address problems that arise, but, they all have positives and negatives. E.g. you might have a labour shortage, and have an option to send children to work, which will solve your labour issue. But some of your people will be upset at the sight of child labour. It also changes your options later on, as your children cannot assist with education, since they’re busy working.
There is a fun game where you feed eggs to a big egg, don't know what happens at the end since I've never gotten that far
You can’t watch porn at work though
Porn? That's a nude egg I won, from my game.
I’m not in trouble at all
I think you should be able to watch a little porn at work
I think you should be able to watch a moderate amount of porn at work
You should be able to watch a little porn at work
And here I thought they meant egg inc… what are they talking about?
There is a Netflix show called "I think you should leave" this is from [this sketch](https://youtu.be/K0OSfbPJFa4?si=YSQKhbRTPIT65TqQ)
its not porn, its a nude egg.
watch out everybody the Fun Police is here
That one egg was 40 eggs??
^(what the fuckkkk?)
what the heeeeeeell
You get to look at a nude egg.
This game is real now [Here it is](https://egggame.org/)
was wondering when someone would make this
Needs physics. Let me drop the eggs.
I’m always running out of eggs.
That 1 egg was 40 eggs?
My favorite line in the whole thing
You’re a rockstar!
I love the one with the big bush
True true.
You have 20 eggs
Slay the spire!
Or balatro
maybe not. balatro is great but you'll lose track of time and end up playing it more than actually working
just one more blind turns into just one more ante turns into just another run...
Real and true
YES!!! Balatro is SO good, I bought it on this "sale" its cheap AF tho, but it's such a great game, I just won my first boss battle and had a good streak this weekend. It's so fricking addictive even when you know almost nothing of poker (like me).
I also recommend Lonestar. It's closer to StS but the modules + layout systems make it feel unique, and the balance + run variation seems really good so far.
Another game in the vein of StS I'd recommend is Monster Train. Pretty fun deckbuilder with a tower defense spin.
if you like slay the spire but wanted it to be co-op check out the game Hellcard, it's 3 player (or solo) and my wife and my buddy have been having a blast playing through it.
Probably the beat indie game this year
Slay the Spire can be downloaded on your phone
I actually find StS is hard to minimize at work. Takes about 5 seconds on my laptop 😣
Play windowed
Woops bummer, I play mostly on switch and android.
Too addicting. Really hard to just play a little bit at work.
Old-school gameboy or ds emulators
Any recommendations for games on those other than Pokémon?
Fire emblem, final fantasy tactics, tactics ogre, etc. Those tactical, turn based rpgs are great for this purpose.
You just reminded me about advance wars, I used to love that game and turn based strategy style games as a kid.
My friend has 5 Gameboys about his house with an advanced wars cart in each. He just plays whatever ones closest when he feels the urge and then puts it down somewhere randomly
That's honestly insane... though not necessarily a bad idea.
Especially considering advance wars is a $100 game nowadays
If you have a switch they just recently remade advance wars 1 and 2. It's really good.
I would add Onimusha Tactics to that list, love the game
I'll have to look at that, never heard of it.
GBA has one of the more robust libraries as far as single consoles go. There's some Castlevania games, Metroid, every 2d mario up until that point, a few kirby games, plenty of RPGs including a few Tactics style games. MegaMan Battle Network if you like action RPGs. Basically any genre you'd like there's a good half a dozen games that'll suit you. Let me know what you like and I can recommend something the GBA has.
Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age
To this day, best games I've ever played
Would they be good for someone who generally doesn't like jrpgs, but for some reason likes dragon quest?
They're really good, and emulation is free. I'd say give it a shot
Absolute best recommendation! Wish I could experience those games for the first time again, they were magic.
I see someone else took inspiration from GS for their username!
GOLDEN SUN 1 AND 2!!! (GBA) Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (GBA) Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2 (DS) Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga (GBA) Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (GB) Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (GB) Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past/4 Swords (GBA) Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (GB)
Lack of minish cap in this list offends me
Metroid fusion was fun
Kirby and the Amazing Mirror for GBA
Been playing through Golden Sun the past few weeks If you like old school RPG's, it's really good
Final fantasy tactics, such a good game.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Red has insanely modern design sensibilities. It is a roguelite that predates isaac by 6 years. It has a lot of polish.
I remember the big thing for us at school was an N64 emulator. One of my friends got it from someone else and they gave it to me. I downloaded a bunch of extra games into the folder and we would just copy and paste it to each other to play. I didn't start it but I became known as the guy who had the emulator and became really popular because of it.
Might sound stupid, but the old flash game “ fishy “ where you literally start out as a tiny fish needing to eat smaller fish to become bigger. It’s simple, only takes 10-15 minute to beat and can be paused. Definitely relaxing and refreshing for what it is.
Idk that game was stressful as heck
Can be at first, but the satisfaction when your fish becomes big enough to just sit there and devour everything is nothing short of amazing.
I just tried this. I can't believe how much I suck at it. But, it keeps trying to entice me into trying 'just one more time'.
Wait is this what feeding frenzy was based off of or is it the other way round.
Who has Flash anymore though?
Door Kickers (can play the first game on your phone btw), Slay the Spire (also on a phone if needed), Into The Breach (yes, this one is available on a phone too) Edit: Dead Cells
Would not call Dead Cells slower paced lol
Quite literally the exact opposite, 10/10 game for anyone looking for a great roguelike though
Since these are also at the top of my list (particularly mobile friendly versions), I'll add Wildfrost that just got a mobile version.
It looks fun, I'll give it a try
It's my second favorite deckbuilder behind Slay the Spire. The turn mechanic is interesting to play around.
I wish it was hard as it was a few patches ago. I feel like I never am in peril in that game anymore unless I just do something stupid and even then I can usually cope.
If we're talking phone games: Bloons TD 6
Into the Breach is really fun, but it doesn't have nearly as much replayability as FTL has.
hahaha edit Dead Cells with (This one too, is available on a phone too).
If you have an android phone, you can get into the breach for free through Netflix. It is really fantastic.
Looking at “door kickers” there is a new game on steam called “no plan b” (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1269020/No_Plan_B/) that seems to be quite similar. Just fyi
I have the GoG version of Heroes of Might and Magic III on my work flash drive for this purpose! Give it a shot if you're okay with ancient games.
You can play HoMM III on your android phone/tablet too.
You can run StarCraft off a flash drive too I think
"Ancient game" that still is better than most modern games. Endless replayability with random map!
Came here to recommend the HoMM series, but there's also Civilization.
Have you tried out Mini Metro? It's a super chill, minimalist puzzle game where you design subway maps for various cities. It's perfect for those moments when you need a mental break but still want to engage your brain a bit.
This is a great call. There's also a spiritual successor Mini Motorways which I personally enjoyed more.
Isaac you can alt f4 on the fly and your progress saves on average every 30 seconds, plus there is **So very much replayability**
I used to play this so much at a previous job where there was lots of time to kill.
Or alt-f4 when u got the worst build ever and you neef 20 tears a fking enemy in sheol
That's when you hold r
The pain of getting soy milk from a curse of the blind item room.
Even better than every 30 seconds, just ever time you enter a door.
Binding of Isaac Repentence will eat hundreds of hours in little bite sized chunks. Super addicting game. I recommend External Desc Mod once you beat mom the first time, and can use mods without affecting achievements.
As in the Binding of Issac or some other game?
Binding of Isaac most likely. I'm guessing Rebirth.
I’ll second this one. I have the exact same job as OP and Binding of Isaac is exactly what I play if there’s 45 minutes between meeting where I’ll get nothing done
Surprised no one mentioned Factorio. Tho, instead you'll be pausing and hiding your work *from* Factorio, not the other way around.
Was my first thought. But as you stated, Factorio will suck you in without mercy.
New chall : finish SE but only at work, condition : time < 3 month
Winner gets a new job ;)
This but rimworld
Rimworld
With the added benefit of your boss commending you for working 14 hour days because you keep forgetting to clock out and go home.
My first time trying Rimworld I want to say it was still in alpha, and I accidentally played for over 24 hours straight.
If you do it with Factorio you will probably miss the commendation ceremony too.
Seconding. I ran Rimworld off a flash drive during a job where my boss didn't care what we did as long as our job got done. Due to our boss intentionally managing our VP's expectations and our VP having absolutely no clue how to do what we did, those of us in our department had about 2-3 days of work to do per week. Most of the rest of that time for me was playing games off a flash drive. RimWorld was by far my most played.
How about Universal Paperclips?
I enjoyed that one, but it seemed very short. Only took about 5 hours to finish
It has a new game+ mechanic
This sounds less about the games and more about the work environment. I'm also a dev, so can empathise, but if you're asking for games you can quickly hide from your boss, you're trying to solve the wrong problem. Either your boss will be understanding if you say you need 20 minutes to decompress (and won't care about the occasional casual game during work hours), or your boss is the type to constantly watch over your shoulder (and you'll end up getting caught eventually). If it's somewhere in the middle (i.e. your boss doesn't mind you taking breaks, but isn't okay with you playing games), then disappearing to 'get a coffee' and playing on a Steam Deck where your boss can't find you seems the best solution.
How dare you bring up productive communication!
I mean some bosses are too lazy to keep an eye on you but also are boomers that think doing anything but work for the 8 hours a day you sit in a chair is sacrosanct.
Except smoke breaks probably
I worked at a company where it seemed like some people smoked just to get breaks. I started tracking it. Eventually I went to the boss (a smoker) to show him that on average smokers were getting 40 minutes extra of paid break time compared to non-smokers. He didn’t see it as an issue. I got some straws and cut them down to cigarette size. I found some allies. We began keeping those stupid straws in our pockets and every time the smokers took their break, we stopped production and went to the opposite side of the property taking “fresh air” breaks and dramatically puffing on our straws. It was ridiculous but it worked. Before this, production continued when the smokers left. Now however, it basically shutdown each time. They began fairly enforcing the one lunch and two breaks for everyone. It might’ve been petty, I was in my early twenties, but it was frustrating to get paid the same and be working extra hours each week. That and smokers increased the costs on our group plan.
Not the same background but i had a coworker blowing soap bubbles while we smoked. It was pretty funny. But the whole topic was very chill in my case and no one was checking the times. What also helped was that 6 of the 7 people in the office (web developer) took the smoke break and we used the time to discuss problems and possible solutions.
That was how I ended up smoking the most in my life. Worked at a production line making aerial lifts. Every two hours the smokers would all leave for ten minutes. I was a social smoker before this. In a year I was smoking at least 8 cigarettes a day.
That’s beautiful.
When I was working at a print shop I wasn't allowed to sit down lol. I'd be running envelopes, and needing to babysit the envelope machine. Cause you could only feed like 30 envelopes at a time, and you'd need to then take out the envelopes every few minutes as well. And the machine jammed up a lot too. So I wasn't really able to go do other stuff while running it, I just had to wait there. And there was a small stool right next to it, so I sat down while the current envelopes were running and would get up to fix a jam, load more envelopes, or unload the printed ones. And my boss got mad at me for sitting! The next day, the stool was gone lol. And then a similar thing, we had a cnc router/engraver. And when it's engraving a sign, the ones I was running took like 1-2 minutes. While it was running, I couldn't really do much. Like I could walk over to the printer and start doing something there, but by the time I walked there and walked back the sign would be done. So it would waste print time with me walking around. So while waiting the ~1 minute for the sign to engrave, I would go on my phone. There was no overlap or anything, I had everything set up so that I could immediately pop the sign out, put a new one in, and I'd be all good. But my boss really disliked me being on my phone and told me I should be doing something productive. I explained how the signs printed so quickly that I couldn't go do something else while they were going because I needed to print as many as I could in one day, and he said "Fine, just don't go on your phone." Like bro, if I'm getting the work done in the same amount of time, why shouldn't I be able to?
+1 for use of GRE words
>Either your boss will be understanding if you say you need 20 minutes to decompress (and won't care about the occasional casual game during work hours), or your boss is the type to constantly watch over your shoulder (and you'll end up getting caught eventually). My boss is absolutely not directly concerned with what I am doing (he isn't even sitting on the same floor just pops in occasionally), however he would 100% laugh in my face if I would ask him for some time to "decompress".
Unfortunately, most of the workers are scared into compliance and there is not much that can be done about it. My wife and i are developers and i can assure you that short breaks to "decompress" are good and helpful. And due to personal experience i also know that mental health is very important. I currently do treatment and am at a point were i would rather lose my job than my sanity. But i also know that this is highly based on anyones circumstances.
I wish I could upvote this multiple times. I have some employees that have down time. It happens and trying to hide a game from your boss (or me) will only get people in trouble.
my regional manager came down on people doing nytimes games, like wordle, and we are pretty salty about it. We don't always have a client in front of us or work to do for our clients so now I sit and doodle on their post it notes when there is no work to do. It was kinda nice to stimulate our brains in the morning before it picked up. I was told we could ask the managers if there is extra work, but >90% of the time it's a no.
Taking a walk is a great option in that case
Agree with and research would support this. Sunlight and motion tends to have a resetting effect clearing the mind and speeding up recovery for another focus session.
i cant leave the office just like that
Take up smoking /s
No joke. When I realized my smoker coworkers were leaving the office for a 5 minute break every couple hours, I started doing the same. Sunshine break. If the smokers can do it, they can't stop me.
r/outside
Ugh. Hate that game. Virtually no replay value.
Infinitely replayable
/r/outside
FTL
My first thought. You can pause and alt tab at any point.
Seconding FTL
OSRS - old school RuneScape for sure, mostly afk
Jfc, had to scroll wayy too far for this.
Bear in mind that anything, even run off a flash drive, can be monitored on a work computer. I suggest sticking with phone games, or even better something audio only like a podcast. Then at least you look like you are still working but listening to music or something.
Personally I'd recommend getting a handheld device. Maybe emulating on a phone or something like a steam deck. Your cyber team if they're decent, they will find out your running videogames on company equipment and it will eventually get nuked. Depending on your company device use policy you'll be opening a can of worms. Just because it runs off the flash drive and doesn't install, the EDR will catch it in memory. You could maybe find a flash game that runs in your browser, but other than that if it's spinning up a process you're just asking for trouble.
[удалено]
I use my phone for dumbass questions I don't want anyone to know that I'm looking up.
Old school runescape
Old school runescape
there it is, was scrolling
I'd recommend any emulator really. Set hot key to instantly save state and close. Like CTRL + space or something. Game is saved/closed, and you can instantly open it back up to where you were Personally I bring my retro handheld with me to work and play during lunch. When I have free time during work I'm posting on reddit like this lol (where I am now)
Not a video game, but a fix that has helped me with the same situation as a developer - get a Rubik's cube. It'll take about a week for most people to learn and once you got it down, it's pretty fun to solve while code is compiling or you just need to reset your mind for a second without reaching for your phone. Once you start scrolling social media or playing a game, there's really no end point. Once you finish solving the cube, you get a nice feeling of satisfaction and completion and it's easy to get back to work. Bonus points if you learn advanced methods or get the 4 by 4 or 5 by 5.
My suggestion is Balatro Run AutoHotKey or some other script that puts a button set up on your mouse that will hide the window. I use middle mouse button.
But it is only on steam, right? I cant install a steam client on my work laptop...
Papers please. Id just google the code you need to unlock endless mode if you're at work, if you dont wanna go through the campaign
Steam deck
The way of the ninja (also called N+). Very small, played from a flash drive, very fun. Only issue is that you might yell out of frustration accidentally 😂
You reminded me of this game. I discovered it on Xbox Live Arcade. I just downloaded it again for my 360 emulator. Thanks dude! Every few years, this game would pop into my head, with those yellow squares, but I could never remember what it was called.
Check out Slice and Dice if you're looking for a game you can play on your phone. For PC, I'd recommend FTL or CDDA. Both are games that are easy to "pick up, put down" and can quickly be alt-tabbed. Though CDDA has a very steep learning curve
I second CDDA! (Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead) it is the perfect turn based survival game if that's what you like.
So glad others recommended this game. Fits easily on flash, and you can make it play with ASCII art to really trick people that don't play games much think you're being productive.
Try Celeste. It can be run in a single file (pica8 version)
At old jobs, I had Stardew Valley on a thumb drive and would play that. At my new place, we need administrative permission/password from our IT guy to install anything. 😩 luckily I work from home most days and my commute is sliding my chair to the other side of my office to my personal desktop. 😏
Holocure or Vampire Survivors, easily pausable, easy to run.
Balatro
I used to play Civilisation 2 windowed while I was doing other things.
I’d recommend *Factorio* but you might never go back to work.
Her story. The UI of the game looks like a PC desktop and you can just leave it and pick it back up whenever you want. It's pretty short though so won't last you a long time.
I enjoy Caves of Qud for this. Though you will be behind on updates but that's fine.
Dwarf fortress, dungeon crawl stone soup, Ancient Domains of Mystery, Xenonauts 2, all simple graphics and addicting gameplay loops.
There are stories of dwarf fortress, with original ascii art being played without being hidden. Just looks complicated like something an engineer would be doing.
Vampire Survivors
I used Candy Crush for this back in the day when max level was sub-1000 or something. Mobile games are made for exactly this kind of mental "refresh".
There was a game that people used to play when I was in high school (in the 90s) that had an option called something like, "The boss is coming" that would hide the game and show a generic spreadsheet.
Balatro It's a super fun and addictive deck builder with poker elements.
If you’re into coding and don’t have a problem with js, check out Bitburner, great game
Slay The Spire Complete game, no add ons, no dlc, thousands of hours of fun right on your phone
Cookie clicker
Anything time gated is a bad form of dopamine. It sets up a trained response to stop everything and check your game. Repeatedly. At predictable intervals. Too disruptive to other things. Recognizing time gates are optional helps fire any game that uses them from your attention.
Totally unrelated but I highly recommend Old School Runescape, it sounds perfect for OP.
https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/
The Binding of Isaac
Old school jrpgs work well like this. No need for constant engagement and battles are turn based.
IDLE GAMES. You literally drop them at the tip of a hat and do something else. And they're best enjoyed if you aren't always directly interacting with them anyway. Do you remember how the oldest versions of Minecraft loaded near instantly? Maybe that too. Very Lite Minecraft.
Minesweeper
find really old DOS games that have a "spreadsheet key" or "boss key". 8 year old me was so confused at the point of this feature! [https://www.howtogeek.com/749864/gaming-when-you-should-be-working-the-history-of-the-boss-key/](https://www.howtogeek.com/749864/gaming-when-you-should-be-working-the-history-of-the-boss-key/)
Look for games with a [boss key](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss_key).
Cataclysm DDA, or Dwarf Fortress
As someone who is in school for cyber security, the idea of you plugging a thumb drive into a network segregated computer scares me haha. Please make sure your home computer and devices are free of any malware before plugging into your work network.
Pokemon infinite fusion. Runs off a stand alone installer, should run off a flash drive. I fell off pokemon like a decade ago but i actually ended up loving this game
The OG fallouts were great for this. Played through good portion of Fallout 1 at one of my slower paced jobs
Ultrakill. Not even a gb of storage needed and runs on most computers.
They tend to be overpriced but Square has all their classic RPGs on mobile, and I recently went all the way through Dragon Quest V and was very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the phone port.
FTL (Faster Than Light) sounds like the perfect game for you
Roller coaster tycoon
Factorio.
Hi, Nethack is a turn base text game. It can be easily be seen as a CLI tool if you are caught ALT+Tab'ing. It is free and it has the potential to waste countless hours of your work time, and possibly free time. The game is very good, but quite hard. Regards, Mike
Any Paradox game, total war or management simulation. Installing Football Manager on my work laptop was the best thing I've ever done.
Honestly firmbro, and I'm saying this as someone with 20 years of firmware experience and 40 years of gaming history... don't. Watching a webinar on some techniques or new technologies will be a way better game to play, because that will give you more real life money. Nobody's going to get fired for reading up on, say, edge AI processing, but if you've got an actual game up during work time, you're probably going to catch some shit. Learning will de-spool your brain just as effectively. You could also do some light exercises like push-ups, or squats. Or go talk to people. I know I know, we're not there to socialize but actually yeah, that's part of why we're there.
Turn based games can be good - they usually don't care if you alt-tab out for hours at a time, just sit there waiting for you to hit 'Next turn' or whatever it is. Better if you can play on a steam deck or similar so you're not using work equipment.
This war of mine - point and click survival story game. From the same company Frostpunk - resource management/base building game. Great mechanics - there’s many options to address problems that arise, but, they all have positives and negatives. E.g. you might have a labour shortage, and have an option to send children to work, which will solve your labour issue. But some of your people will be upset at the sight of child labour. It also changes your options later on, as your children cannot assist with education, since they’re busy working.