In the time since Stardew Valley was originally released, I have played it into the ground. I've reached year 10 in my first save, pushed myself to complete the community center upgrades in a single year for my second save, and supported Jojamart just to give myself an excuse for a third save. Like many others, I was obsessed with Stardew Valley for bringing the casual farm and life sim genre to PC where I thought it was destined never to take root.

Over three years later, games blending farming with life and town simulation are flourishing. There's no shortage of games like Stardew Valley on PC now, with even more in development. Some focus more on building relationships and revitalizing a town while others are all about crafting. Whichever end of Stardew Valley you prefer, there's another game like it in our list to keep you playing for just one more in-game day. Now that there are plenty of options to choose from, some are inevitably better and worse than others. We've collected a list of the best Stardew-style games available so you can choose which homestead to put down roots in.

Doraemon Story of Seasons

Released: October 10, 2019 | Developer: Marvelous Inc., Brownies Inc.| Steam

Like Harvest Moon, Story of Seasons had never made its way to PC until it paired with the most unlikely of companions: a young manga protagonist from the '70s. Doraemon Story of Seasons takes the pastoral life adventure into a setting full of distinctly Japanese setting unlike Harvest Moon and most of its derivatives that go for a more "anywhere" rural vibe. This incarnation of Story of Seasons has Noby and his friends doing all the usual rural life activities like planting fields of crops, making friends, cooking, and attending festivals in the town of Natura. Its adorable watercolor visual style is a welcome change from past Story of Seasons games that had retained Harvest Moon's chibi-style 3D aesthetic.

Plenty of town sim fans will tell you that Story of Seasons is the true inheritor of the Harvest Moon series after the developers best known for the HM series lost the rights to continue using its name and subsequently rebranded. Doraemon Story of Seasons' routinely higher review scores than Light of Hope suggest that the talent has remained, even if the title hasn't.

My Time At Portia

Released: January 23, 2018 | Developer: Pathea Games | Steam

My Time At Portia is the rare 3D town sim of the bunch that ends up feeling like Stardew Valley by way of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. On the little island of Portia, your father leaves you the deed to his old workshop. Instead of just growing crops, you'll be collecting and refining resources from all over the island to fulfill contracts requested by the locals. Its crafting system is heavily nested, with most recipes requiring a suite of special machines to be built and placed in the workshop yard.

Eventually you're able to build garden plots as well, though you won't be running a full-size farm operation like your neighbor Sophie, the actual local farmer. Portia has quite a bit more combat than Stardew, with dungeons to go spelunking through for loot and crafting components. It does have plenty of interaction with all of Portia's residents as well. Over the course of seasons and years you'll make friends with and be able to eventually marry one of your many eligible townsfolk by going on dates and delivering them gifts.

Graveyard Keeper

Released: August 15, 2018 | Developer: Lazy Bear Games | Steam

In Graveyard Keeper you'll be planting corpses instead of crops. Your protagonist has become the new caretaker of the medieval graveyard by way of potential death and amnesia and will need to clean the place up to discover his origins. You'll spend time collecting resources and building new devices for your graveyard to refine materials and exploit the bodies dropped off in your yard. Graveyard Keeper is much more of a grindy crafting simulation than other Stardew-like games, but it shares that "one more day" lure. You'll just be coming back to chop a few more trees and refine more materials rather than harvest your pumpkins. Graceyard Keeper also recently added a new DLC called "Stranger Sins" that lets you build and manage your own tavern in case you needed some extra simulation with your crafting.

Fantasy Farming: Orange Season

Released: Early Access| Developer: Tropical Puppy | Steam, itch.io

Orange Season has been in Early Access for over two years but is already cut from the same cloth as Stardew Valley. You can raise crops and animals on your farm as well as tame wild animals and bring them home to raise. All the other usual suspects are here as well: Changing seasons, tool upgrades, building relationships with townsfolk, and farm customization. There are a few neat little changes to the recipe like being able to have an NPC friend follow you around as a companion.

Orange Season has been in Early Access for plenty long but does seem to be continually in flux, with a big rework to the map occurring at one point in development and improvements to other systems coming frequently as well.

Garden Paws

Released: December 18, 2018 | Developer: Bitten Toast Games| Steam

Garden Paws is the animal version of Stardew Valley where you'll take over your grandparents' farm while running a shop, gardening, and raising animals. For the multiplayer-inclined, you can invite up to three friends to your farm to play with you or, for Twitch streamers, integrate your chat so that viewers can have customers in your store named after them. There are currently 10 little creatures to play as while helping to rebuild the town with new shops that can unlock additional quests and areas to explore. It appears to be a combination of Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley with plenty of farming, building, and crafting.

Slime Rancher

Released: August 1, 2017 | Developer: Monomi Park| Steam

As is tradition, Slime Rancher begins with the protagonist Beatrix LeBeau being gifted a property to take over. This time, it's a slime ranch lightyears away from planet earth. As a newly indoctrinated slime rancher, Beatrix must build enclosures for her slimes and grow plenty of crops and chickadoos to keep them well-fed. Along the way you'll explore the Far Far Range, upgrade your spacey vacpack tool, and combine your slimes into new varieties. Slime Rancher doesn't have the same focus on relationships with NPCs that other Stardew-type games do, but it has plenty of exploration and customization.

World's Dawn

Released: January 25, 2016 | Developer: Wayward Prophet| Steam

Only a few PC games follow the Harvest Moon formula as closely as Stardew Valley, and most of them are of questionable quality. World’s Dawn is the exception. It is a bit rougher around the edges than Stardew, but all the same charm is there. You can befriend and marry villagers, grow and sell crops, fish, attend festivals, and bring prosperity back to a stagnating village.

World’s Dawn is more about coloring inside the lines than forging your own path. Your farming plots are predetermined and you won’t be constructing additional buildings on your property. That being said, there are plenty of clothing options, home décor, and cooking recipes. Despite the outdated 4:3 aspect ratio and initially confusing menus, World’s Dawn is full of cute characters that make putting up with a few petty complaints more than worth it. If you want to play the same game in a slightly different flavor, this is the best choice.

Verdant Skies

Released: February 12, 2018 | Developer: Howling Moon Software| Steam

Instead of a small town in the country, Verdant Skies has you become the newest member of a small colony on the planet Viridis Primus. The colony is small to begin with but after helping build more homes you'll be joined by more residents each with their own expertise to help grow the colony and your operation.

As the new space farmer in town, you'll need to turn native space plants into an agricultural operation. You can even catch and tame wild animal species as well. Both can be turned into the strongest and most efficient specimens with Verdant Skies' genetic combiner machine.

Kynseed

Released: Early Access | Developer: PixelCount Studios| Steam, GOG

Kynseed leans more heavily into town simulation and exploration than farming. It has a highly detailed and colorful pixel art style that makes it look like the more magical cousin to some other Stardew-type games. Kynseed focuses less on farming in favor of spreading itself evenly across all elements of a town simulation. You can run a shop, go exploring outside town, build relationships with NPCs, and eventually come home to plant crops on your land. Kynseed is the first game by a studio of former Fable developers and comes with the same quirky and eccentric humor of those old adventure RPGs.

Littlewood

Released: Early Access | Developer: Sean Young| Steam

Littlewood is plenty cute, with the same kind of jaunty music that makes you feel happy while playing Stardew. It has a long list of chores that you'll recognize: farming, mining, bug catching, cooking, crafting, and so on. You've got a a lot more control over the topology of your town as well, which means customizing the layout to your exacting standards. With villagers to recruit, a museum to fill, and buildings to plan it's almost as much a PC Animal Crossing as it is Stardew.

Garden Story

Released: In development | Developer: Picogram | Steam

Garden Story hasn't been released yet, but it's one to keep an eye on for those who like cute and wholesome farming games. Concord the grape tackles all the usual tasks of the Stardew-style game. You'll bring life back to the island, do favors for your fruity friends, and cultivate your garden while investigating The Rot that's destroying the village. Garden Story is planned to release sometime in the spring of 2020.

Ooblets

Released: In development | Developer: Glumberland| Epic

Ooblets has been in development for several years and unfortunately a release date still doesn't appear to be on the horizon. Despite being far off yet, Ooblets is still widely anticipated after making an impression on potential players back in 2017 with its adorably awkward dance moves and Pokemon-like plant creatures. Ooblets will let you customize your character with pastel-colored fashion choices and decorate your house with furniture. You'll spend time exploring town and growing ooblets in your garden before taking them out to dance battle against other characters' ooblets creatures. Ooblets' dedication to wholesome awkwardness is even in the names of its creatures which are burdened with titles like "chickadingding," "dumbirb," and "shrumbo" among plenty others.

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