Games like What Lurks Below
What Lurks Below balanced. These games share the most with it, and each one says why.

The Greenening
Also short, exploration · Same active/idle balance (balanced)
Water an ash-covered planet to reveal what lies beneath, upgrade your abilities, and tend a garden aboard your spaceship in about three hours.
96% steam50% idle
Ink Remnant
Also short, exploration
A short incremental where a mage starts with nothing in a magical city and researches upward, with new systems revealed as the story unfolds.
4.6★ galaxy
Mine Your Way Out 2
Also exploration, short
Dig through a fully destructible pixel world and upgrade your gear to escape the underground, in about an hour.
4.4★ galaxyhas ending
Cavern Crawler
Also short, exploration
A short prototype where you repeatedly crawl through caverns and grow stronger between attempts; all content fits in under an hour.
4.3★ galaxy
The Depths of Xia'phas
Also exploration, short
Explore a strange cave, gathering and crafting odd items in search of an artifact that can save your flooded village.
4.1★ galaxy
Outpath: First Journey
Also exploration · Same active/idle balance (balanced)
A free prologue to a first-person clicker where you gather, craft and automate a base, buying new islands, in either an active or idle style.
96% steam50% idle
Outpath
Also exploration · Same active/idle balance (balanced)
A first-person clicker base builder: gather by hand, then automate production and buy more islands to expand.
94% steam50% idle
Found it, Mountain?Updated
Also short, exploration
A 10 to 15 minute game about searching a foggy world for mountains across three stages, buying upgrades between trips.
4.1★ galaxy
Project IridiumDormant
Also exploration, short
Explore a mythical world while bending time, repairing structures and tearing down walls over about an hour.
3.9★ galaxy
Deep Space Cache
Also short · Same active/idle balance (balanced)
Shoot asteroids for resources, feed them into generators and ship augments, and reach the finish in a couple of hours.
93% steamhas ending50% idle
Keep on Mining!Dormant
Also short · Same active/idle balance (balanced)
Sweep your cursor over rocks to break them, smelt ores into bars and spend them in a large skill tree, with talent cards and an automatic mine for idle gains.
91% steam50% idle
Vanguard Galaxy
Also exploration · Same active/idle balance (balanced)
Fight, mine, salvage and trade across a procedural galaxy, played full screen or docked on your desktop with an autopilot that can run things.
90% steam50% idle
Game of Grass
Also short · Same active/idle balance (balanced)
Mow your lawn with increasingly silly tools to prove it beats your neighbor's, grow crops for passive income and prestige for new abilities.
84% steam50% idle
refarm
Also short · Same active/idle balance (balanced)
Raise sunken tiles from the sea one at a time, farming each to fund more land and unlocking basic helpers. A short, click-heavy run of about two hours.
87% steamhas ending50% idle
Tower WizardComplete
Also short · Same active/idle balance (balanced)
Climb your tower toward the sky with magic and spirits. A short, calm, finishable idler.
97% steam3–5h ending40% idle
Farmtale
Also exploration · Same active/idle balance (balanced)
Start an island farm with one chicken, then add crops, animals and hired workers, decorate buildings, and explore as upgrades pile up. Part idle, part clicker.
68% steam50% idle
Magic ArcheryUpdated
Also short
Train an elf commoner into a master archer by shooting targets, taking quests for gold and buying magic upgrades in a brief, hands-on climb with a set ending.
98% steamhas ending25% idle
Mr.Mine
Also exploration
Dig a mine deeper and deeper, hire miners, discover what lives at the bottom.
92% steam75% idle
SpaceplanComplete
Also short
A stranded ship, a potato, and a soundtrack that makes the finale land. A short, focused story idler.
91% steam1–3h ending30% idle
THE LONGING
Also exploration
Wait 400 real days in an underground palace for a king to wake. The clock runs while the game is closed, so you can explore or simply leave.
92% steamhas ending70% idle
ExecuteUpdated
Also short
A dark comedy on a retro Windows desktop: capture people and escalate from a guillotine to nukes until the world population hits zero.
91% steamhas ending25% idle
Idle Gumball MachineUpdated
Also short
Fire gumballs into spinning gears in a plinko-style board, buy upgrades for explosive number growth, and ascend to trade everything for stronger bonuses.
91% steam25% idle
Master Healer Kale with useless party
Also short
Play the healer of a hopeless party, keeping them alive with spells and a 200-node skill tree until they can face the Demon King in about four hours.
95% steam4.0★ galaxyhas ending
A Tale of Poop and Vengeance
Also short
A short story-driven clicker: shovel manure, buy upgrades and work your way toward toppling the government.
4.4★ galaxy25% idle