An hour or two a day keeps the doctor away
In 2025, gamers are spoiled for choice more than ever. Yes, there are dozens and dozens of high-quality games that take 60-100 hours to beat. But, every day it also feels like there’s a new, unique, and most importantly time-friendly indie game released. So, for the gamer whose time is restricted to playing games somewhere between 15 minutes and a couple of hours each night, here are 5 games that you can still enjoy while being a busy, functioning member of society.
Slots & Daggers
Slots & Daggers is a slot machine-based roguelite that you can play a quick run of in about 5 minutes or take on a longer play session that can last up to 30+ minutes. In Slots & Daggers, you play a slot machine filled with a variety of freaky monsters and beasts trying to cut you down before you can roll a good attack on them.
Each run of slots and daggers will be different depending on what items you equip inside your slot machine. If you want to build for defense, you can take a few shields to prevent enemies from knocking down your health each crank of the machine. Or you can take multiple weapons to really build up damage on the various pixelated enemies in the game.
There is a good bit of variety to the items and weapons you can equip and unlock throughout your time in Slots & Daggers, allowing for fun high-stakes combos that don’t always roll your way. When I first saw Slots & Daggers on Twitter a few months ago, I was caught by the overall aesthetic of the game, but was hooked by the Quick Time Events some items use to alter how strong or weak each move can be. Rather than just playing off of pure luck, Slots & Daggers allows the player to “nudge” the machine a little, like you’re at a pinball cabinet, for a little more or less each roll.
Slots and Daggers is currently $7.99.
Rusty’s Retirement
For the gamer who loves a management simulator but sitting down to learn the myriad of systems a game can offer isn’t in the cards this holiday season, Rusty’s Retirement may be the idle game for you. While it didn’t launch this year, Rusty’s Retirement has seen a handful of updates in the last 12 months. This idle clicker game takes up just the bottom third of your PC screen and will run on autopilot while you work, study, or do any other task on your PC.
At the time of writing this, I currently have 224 hours in Rusty’s and, at one point before some updates, I had unlocked every achievement in the game on Steam. The appeal of Rusty’s Retirement to me, compared to a lot of other idle-type games, is the ability to make an entire farm that looks both appealing and can be fully self-sustaining. While it doesn’t appear to be a “traditional” management simulator, Rusty’s Retirement actually has a good bit of depth and functionality that scratches that top-down management game itch, even if it’s only for a few minutes at a time between working or editing.
From animal handling to farm beautification, there is a lot of pull from classic management-type games that those who miss the days of spending 30-40 hours a weekend on SimCity will find enjoyable. Since I last really sunk my teeth into it, Rusty’s Retirement has done a handful of seasonal updates, with the most recent being the mini autumn update in October of this year, and also has a handful of crossover events, most recently being a new Balatro-themed map.
Rusty’s Retirement is currently $6.99 on Steam.
Shape Of Dreams
Let’s be honest. Walking around amongst us are those who were or still are League of Legends or DOTA 2 addicts. While I can’t get behind these people’s styles, I do understand the addiction these games feed off of. Shape of Dreams may be the game for those people who would miss that style of play but don’t have the time to learn a new meta, deal with toxic teammates for the little time they have to play, or simply want something that plays similarly to their favorite MOBA but at a more casual pace.
Shape of Dreams is a top-down roguelite that combines dungeon crawling with a MOBA-like UI and leveling system. Personally, it’s a game I even wish I had a little more time for right now. Each run can take up to 45 minutes to an hour, but the loop of each run has felt unique to me in my first 6+ hours of playing. The game is fully playable solo or up to 4-player co-op and has 8 unique characters and worlds to traverse through. There are a few difficulty options at launch and a few more to unlock as you play, and if you want a challenge, Shape of Dreams sure does offer it. At the medium difficulty, you can go from 100-0 in a flash if you aren’t careful.
On top of being able to collect and tinker with new items throughout each run, Shape of Dreams also has an expansive skill tree for each character, and one that affects every character. While it’s not the same as build crafting in a game like Destiny 2, Shape of Dreams takes the in-game leveling you see in most MOBAs and combines it with a dynamic skill tree that gives each character a plethora of different play styles.
Former and current MOBA players will definitely feel at home in this game, but those who like a good roguelite, with or without friends, Shape of Dreams is one to keep an eye on for sure.
Shape of Dreams is currently $24.99 on Steam.
Gemporium
For those who grew up with Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum as I did, Gemporium will feel very familiar. The main hook of the game is to mine for gems underneath your grandparents’ house to sell them for a profit at the end of each day. The mining mini-game is almost identical to the Pokémon mini-game played to get the Cranidos and Shieldon fossils from Gen 4. Each swing of your pickaxe unearths each gem hidden in the walls, but also has a chance to crack the gem or collapse the wall you are currently digging through.
The loop of Gemporium is very straightforward. Mine gems during the day, clean them off when you get home, sell what you have to customers for the best price possible, then either spend your money on upgrades or pay off your grandparents’ exorbitant $1,000,000 loan, then head to bed. Gemporium has two modes. The standard day timer or the Cozy mode, which allows you to mine, polish, and sell at your own pace. I preferred playing in the Cozy mode as I could collect each available gem from the mines and had them ready to sell without feeling rushed to complete a day.
Each day of Gemporium in Cozy mode can be just a few minutes long, as you just get started, but as you expand the mineshaft, the length of each day depends on what you are looking to sell and how much of it.
Gemporium is currently $9.99 on Steam.
Ball X Pit
Ball X Pit is one of my favorite games this year. Each run takes between 10 and 15 minutes and is filled with chaos, absurd combinations, and, of course, balls. Lots of them, too. The main hook of Ball X Pit is its a modern take on the brick breaker genre, but the roguelite is more than that in my opinion. To me, Ball X Pit is a bit of Plants Vs. Zombies and a splash of Peggle/Pinball. (Both great time respecter games)
Ball X Pit is one part brick break and one part base builder. The Brick Breaker portion is all about blasting rows of enemies with balls that have special abilities and combine to create different abilities until you take down each level’s boss. The base building portion is about building new structures, by bouncing off them like a pinball, to empower your characters and their base stats or equipment slots. The base building part is hit or miss for some, but a funny touch in a game that would be just as good with or without it.
Each run is based on the wild combination of balls you can make that will sometimes make the game a walk in the park or set you up for failure. One of my go-to playstyles was all about getting as many balls on screen at one time as possible. Mixing the egg sac with the baby rattle while using the Cohabitants would turn any boss into a ball-filled sponge in seconds.
Ball X Pit is great to play a few runs at the end of a day or even just one quick in-and-out session. A full completionist playthrough of the game is only about 35 hours, but the majority of the game and what there is to unlock can be done in about 20 hours of ball blasting.
Ball X Pit is currently available on Xbox, Xbox Gamepass, Steam, Playstation, and Switch.
Green Thumbs Magazine 
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