Games Like Rusty's Retirement: Desktop and Taskbar Games
What games are like Rusty’s Retirement?
The closest twin is Tiny Pasture, another farm that sits at the bottom of your screen while you work. Past that, nine more Steam games are ones people keep running beside their work, from side windows to the taskbar. If you already own Tiny Pasture, try Ropuka’s Idle Island next on Windows or Cast n Chill on a Mac.
Updated October 2026.
Rusty’s Retirement, from Mister Morris Games, is an idle farming sim built to sit at the bottom of your screen while you do other things. You plant the crops, Rusty the robot waters and harvests them, the harvest becomes biofuel, and the money expands the farm and buys helper bots. Its store page also lists a vertical mode for the side of the screen and a Focus Mode that slows crop production so it pulls less of your attention. It came out in April 2024, costs $6.99 at regular price, and has 14,877 Steam reviews, 96.7% of them positive (as of October 2026). It runs on Windows and Mac.
Tiny Pasture follows that shape most closely: a pasture that sits at the bottom of your screen by default (you can drag it anywhere), baby animals that grow up and drop coins, and the coins expand the pasture. It also runs on Windows and Mac, at $5.99 regular price with 8,640 reviews (as of October 2026). It is the one to try first, and our games like Egg, Inc. list covers it too; the table below is for what comes after it.
Which games sit at the edge of your screen like Rusty’s Retirement?
I picked games people run beside their work, read what each store page and update log says about where it sits, and sorted them by that. The first five run in a window you park somewhere; the last four use the bottom of the screen, the taskbar or the desktop itself. Desktop Survivors 98 is not an idle game at all, and Bongo Cat only grows while you type, so I flag both below. Steam players tag Rusty’s Retirement, Tiny Pasture, Ropuka’s Idle Island, Spirit City and Bongo Cat as Desktop Companion (as of October 2026), and that tag is the quickest place to look for more. Every figure in the table is Steam’s, as of October 2026.
| Game | Where it sits | What it does while you work | Mac | Steam price | Steam reviews | Positive |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ropuka’s Idle Island | Anywhere, resizable | A frog cuts grass you spend on tools and decorations | No | $3.99 | 4,321 | 95.2% |
| Cast n Chill | A second monitor or a corner | Passive Mode fishes for you | Yes | $14.99 | 8,767 | 94.9% |
| Spirit City: Lofi Sessions | A window, always on top on Windows | Focus timer, to-do list, Spirits to collect | Yes | $11.99 | 16,860 | 97.6% |
| Chill Corner | A window, or your wallpaper with a $1.99 DLC | A lo-fi room, quests and a task list | No | Free · 8 paid DLC | 9,666 | 90.4% |
| Placid Plastic Duck Simulator | A window; ducks on the desktop need a separate $0.99 app | Ducks drop into the pool over time | No | $1.99 | 20,293 | 97.6% |
| Deskrawl: Idle ARPG | Bottom of the screen | Heroes farm loot, captured minions haul it | No | $6.99 | 1,221 | 69.9% (Mixed, released 28 Sep 2026) |
| TBH: Task Bar Hero | In the taskbar | Heroes fight and loot, even while you are away | No | Free · 5 paid DLC | 46,939 | 53.7% (Mixed) |
| Desktop Survivors 98 | Over the whole desktop | Nothing: it is an action game for breaks | No | $4.99 | 1,423 | 95.2% |
| Bongo Cat | On the taskbar | Counts your key presses toward hats | Yes | Free · 5 paid DLC | 111,663 | 96.6% |
Prices are the regular US Steam price. Most of the paid games in this post, Rusty’s and Tiny Pasture included, were discounted on the check date, so you may pay less. The three free games all sell paid DLC. Review counts are Steam’s all-language totals.
Which windowed games are most like Rusty’s Retirement?
Ropuka’s Idle Island
Ropuka’s Idle Island is the closest match after Tiny Pasture, Windows only. It calls itself “a playable sticker for your desktop” on its store page: a frog cuts grass on a small island you can drop anywhere on the screen and resize, and the grass is the currency for better tools, better grass and decorations. That is the Rusty’s loop with a frog in place of a robot. It has a lo-fi track and nature sounds built in, and an Always on Top setting. Our post on idle games without microtransactions found no in-game store in it; the only extra on sale is its soundtrack.
Cast n Chill
Cast n Chill is the pick for a Mac. It is a fishing game with 16 spots and 50+ fish, and you sell the catch for better rods, reels and gear (store page). The part that matters here is Passive Mode: set it up on a second monitor or tuck it in a corner, the page says, and come back later to see the haul. At $14.99 (as of October 2026) it is also the most expensive game here.
Spirit City: Lofi Sessions
Spirit City suits you if you want the thing on your screen to keep your to-do list too. Its store page lists a to-do list, a session timer, a habit tracker and a journal, set to lo-fi music, and you earn XP and collect Spirits as you work. An “Always on top” mode locks the window above everything else, but the developer’s Mac announcement says that mode works on Windows only. A 2026 hotfix also paused updates for Intel Macs, which stay on an older version, so on a Mac this is an Apple Silicon pick.
Chill Corner
Chill Corner is the free pick for decorating a lo-fi room while you work. It describes itself as “just an idle game for chilling, relaxing or focusing”: a room you decorate, a character and pets to customize, in-game quests, a task list and playlists (store page). Its Live Wallpaper & Custom Music DLC, $1.99 (as of October 2026), sets the room as a moving desktop wallpaper, which is the closest it gets to sharing the screen. That is one of eight paid DLC on sale beside the free base game. Windows only.
Placid Plastic Duck Simulator
Placid Plastic Duck Simulator asks the least of anything here. You watch rubber ducks float in a pool; its store page lists 50 ducks that arrive over time and a day and night cycle, and a 2023 update added a camera that drifts from duck to duck when you leave the game alone. The full game runs in a window. If you want ducks on your desktop itself, that is a separate app, Placid Plastic Desktop, $0.99 with 348 reviews (as of October 2026). Both are Windows only.
Which games sit in the taskbar or on the desktop itself?
Deskrawl: Idle ARPG
Deskrawl is the pick if you want loot and builds in the strip instead of crops. It came out on 28 September 2026, the newest game here, and its store page describes an idle action RPG that “plays at the bottom of your desktop”: heroes farm loot, captured enemies become minions that haul the loot cart, and you grow a town that unlocks new services. Its reviews are Mixed, 69.9% positive of 1,221 (as of October 2026), counted in its first days, so expect that number to move. Windows only.
TBH: Task Bar Hero
TBH is the free taskbar RPG, with more caveats than any other game here. It describes itself as an idle RPG that fits in your taskbar, with 3 acts, 4 difficulty tiers and 500+ items, and says “your adventure keeps going automatically, even when you’re away” (store page). Since its May 2026 launch its update notes log server outages, a temporary Steam Market closure, an item reset, and a June 2026 policy change that limits Market trading of equipment to Legendary grade and up. Only 53.7% of its 46,939 reviews are positive (as of October 2026), which Steam labels Mixed, so read the recent ones before you install. The base game is free, with five paid DLC for classes, stash space, Trade Ship slots and a supporter pack. Windows only.
Desktop Survivors 98
Desktop Survivors 98 is the one for a five-minute break, and it is not an idle game. Its store page says “the action unfolds right on your desktop”: your cursor is the hero, waves of enemies come at it, and you pick up weapons as you explore new rooms. You can toggle it off at any moment and come back to it later. $4.99 (as of October 2026), Windows only.
Bongo Cat
Bongo Cat is tagged Idler on Steam, but it only grows while you type. It is also the most reviewed game here, with 111,663 reviews and 96.6% positive (as of October 2026). A cat punches your taskbar every time you press a key, the presses become points, and points drop hats, with the odds printed on its store page, down to 1 in 500000 for a Legendary. It is free, sells five paid DLC packs, and runs on Windows and Mac. If you want more games that ask this little of you while you work, our list of games to play while working sorts them by how much attention they take.
Quick answers
Is there a game like Rusty’s Retirement on Mac? Yes, two that play like it: Tiny Pasture and Cast n Chill list macOS on Steam (as of October 2026), and so does Rusty’s Retirement itself. Spirit City (current updates on Apple Silicon only) and Bongo Cat also run on macOS. Our idle games for Mac list has more if you want the genre without the desktop strip. Phones are outside this list: Steam lists Rusty’s Retirement for Windows and Mac, and every game here is a Steam game for one or both.
Are there free games like Rusty’s Retirement? Yes, three on this list are free to download on Steam (as of October 2026): Bongo Cat, Chill Corner and TBH: Task Bar Hero, and all three sell paid DLC. Bongo Cat is the only one of the three with a Mac version, and TBH carries a Mixed rating.
Which games run in the Windows taskbar? Two here sit right on it: TBH: Task Bar Hero lives inside the taskbar, and Bongo Cat punches it with every key press. Deskrawl and Tiny Pasture sit along the bottom of the screen, as Rusty’s does.
Which game like Rusty’s Retirement is the closest match? Tiny Pasture, if you want the same farm in the same strip. If you would rather try something new, Ropuka’s Idle Island keeps the loop with a frog on Windows, and Cast n Chill keeps it with a fishing rod on a Mac.
Where our game fits
Our own game, Sam, We Talked About This, sits beside this list rather than on it. It is an idle incremental game. An incremental game is a game built around numbers that grow faster than you can spend them: you buy something that makes more of the resource, which buys more of that thing, until the scale changes and new systems appear. Sam is built toward an ending: you scrape data, train your models, grow your subscribers, buy new hardware, and AGI is waiting at the end. It is unreleased, listed on Steam for Q1 2027, so there is nothing to score or price yet. Its Steam page lists Windows and macOS, if you want to follow it.
