I don’t know much about how the rest of the world is handling the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, but my impression is that we’re all basically on global lockdown. The President of the US may have ideas about getting New York back up and running within the next two weeks, but here in the UK we’re all settling in for an entire year of never seeing anyone outside of our household, unless it’s through a video call.
With that said, there are still a number of muppets who keep leaving their homes to go on a jolly with their mates. Whether it’s hanging out in the park, drinking on a bench, or just going for a walk with your closest group of besties, it’s all stupid. We should all be staying inside, preferably playing games. Luckily, there’s a bunch of mostly free games that will keep you occupied for at least as long as Trump thinks it will take to clean the coronavirus up out of New York.
Games To Help You Stay Inside
The itch.io community of developers have got together and are offering a bunch of games in this wonderful collection. They’re all designed to engross you, and stop you thinking about wide open spaces and fresh air. A lot of them are free, which is great, but even those that cost money are at least discounted. I’ve not played any of these, I’m not a big user of itch.io, but I do like the look of quite a few of these games.
For example, I really like the look of Mewnbase, a cat space survival base builder. It’s a game in which you, a cat, explore a barren world in search of resources to build a base. The end goal here is to feed you (obviously) but also maintain your suit and oxygen feeds. It’s available at a really low price, and would keep me entertained for a good few days.
If you want something a bit different, and something that might teach you something, there’s Codemancer. This is a fantasy adventure that teaches players some elements of coding, and it looks like a lot of fun. It’s usually a tenner, but right now it costs nothing at all, so what have you got to lose?
The final game I’ll point you towards is Quiet as a Stone. This is less a game, and more of a chilled out experience that you can just sit, lean into, and enjoy.
The entire collection is here. Do me, and the rest of your community, a favour and play all of these whenever you think that going outdoors during this pandemic might be a good idea.