Games like RimWorld
Discover new adventures that match what you love.
StrategyBase BuildingSurvivalSingle Player
The story-generator colony sim: crash-landed survivors farm, build and break down on a rimworld while an AI storyteller schedules raids, plagues and heartbreak. Every colonist's moods, organs and relationships are simulated - which is exactly where the stories come from.
Similar-game research
In RimWorld, you keep crash-landed colonists supplied, build shelter, repel attacks, and manage their moods and relationships. The alternatives below move those decisions into dwarf settlements, medieval strongholds, or prisons, with more attention on production chains, defensive layouts, or resident order.
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Dwarf Fortress
StrategyBase BuildingSandboxPublic similarity
- Why it's similar
- Direct digging, farming, and brewing while tracking each dwarf's distinct personality and mood, fending off raids from hostile civilizations and the wilderness, and reading their thoughts to keep them content.
- Choose it when
- Would rather grapple with a more intricate simulation and broader random events than focus solely on individual colonist psychology, and are willing to invest time in a vast procedural world.
- But
- The world generation is far deeper, simulating entire civilizations, hundreds of creatures, and even poetry and musical forms, while the combat model factors skills, body parts, and material properties, making every battle unpredictable.
Going Medieval
StrategyBase BuildingSurvivalPublic similarity
- Why it's similar
- Guide three survivors to build a shelter, manage their needs, and fend off waves of bandits, using terrain tools to construct multi-storey forts or underground caverns, assigning tasks based on each character's skills and personality.
- Choose it when
- Prefers a session focused on building one castle settlement and defending it, accepting a medieval setting with more direct control over battles, and are fine without sci-fi tech or alien creatures.
- But
- The map is a randomly generated multi-level terrain you can reshape, defense relies on traps and walls rather than turrets, and combat is more hands-on, with characters gaining skills through hunting and fighting.
Oxygen Not Included
StrategyBase BuildingSurvivalPublic similarity
- Why it's similar
- Manage duplicants' oxygen, food, and temperature while digging through an asteroid, constructing pipe networks and monitoring gas flow in real-time to prevent suffocation, overheating, or stress-induced breakdowns.
- Choose it when
- prioritizes the intricate management of gas, liquid, and power systems while accepting a simpler approach to colonist psychology and social dynamics.
- But
- The base is a subterranean asteroid, requiring simultaneous management of gases, liquids, and a power grid, and resources deplete quickly, so careful planning of utilities is critical; there's less emphasis on social dynamics or external factions.
Prison Architect
StrategyBase BuildingSandboxPublic similarity
- Why it's similar
- Design prison layouts, allocate resources, and manage inmates' needs and schedules while preventing riots, fires, and escapes; secure funding through grant applications and implement treatment and reform programs.
- Choose it when
- Plans around granting federal funds and custom treatment programs, accepting less emphasis on surviving environmental threats.
- But
- The focus is on security and rehabilitation rather than survival or combat; inmates have criminal histories requiring custom programs, and you can even try escaping your own prison in Escape Mode.
Frostpunk
StrategyBase BuildingSurvivalPublic similarity
- Why it's similar
- Rule the last city on Earth, managing citizens and infrastructure, enacting laws, and making tough choices while sending expeditions to gather resources and maintain hope and warmth.
- Choose it when
- Invests in lawmaking and infrastructure decisions, accepting less time on individual colonist needs and micro-management.
- But
- The focus is on society survival where heat is life, every decision has a cost, and you must balance empathy with efficiency, often facing moral choices that shape your society.
Broader alternatives you might enjoy
Shortlists for these games
Each of these has a researched page of its own.