The Colony Sim Zone

Games about managing settlers, needs, disasters, work, and emergent community stories.

Latest Standouts

Recent releases that landed well, newest first, filtered to games with enough reviews to trust the score.

Astrobuilder - An AI-driven space management RPG in a living galaxy. Explore 150+ planets and interact with 600+ NPCs whose lives and relationships evolve over time. Trade, run shops, build a Commerce Guild, join Military Factions, govern planets, and command fleets in war. Your every choice reshape the galaxy.
Cat Isle - Catch a train to Cat Isle! In this cozy pixel art management game, build restaurants, expand and decorate the town. Figure out your cats needs as they dine, shop, explore and turn the island into their purfect home.
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Jul 20, 2026
99% 👍
of 162
Sinner Maker - Sinner Maker allows you to create characters and simulate a society built around them. Construct homes, manage their needs, and watch as they fall in love, form friendships, and even become enemies. Manage resources and solve emerging problems if you want your soul to be saved.
Life Below - Life Below is a refreshing twist on the city-building genre, set beneath the waves. Shape thriving coral reefs, revive collapsing ecosystems, and grow a living seascape in a heartfelt narrative by Rhianna Pratchett. You are the ocean's final hope.
FEED THE QUEEN - Gather food to grow your colony. Evolve and upgrade specialized worker types. Discover and combine interesting synergies. Optimize your production, customize your strategy and feed the Queen ever-increasing amounts of food!
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May 25, 2026
70% 👍
of 572
Gold Gold Adventure Gold - In this world, it’s all about the gold! Use it to build up a fantasy town, recruit heroes, give quests, raise a Godbeast, cast powerful spells, and expand your influence—all one gold coin at a time.
Steel Artery: Train City Builder - Hardcore city-building sim in a fantasy steampunk world. Manage multi-racial colonies with hundreds of autonomous citizens, balance their needs, grow the economy, build logistics, and travel a vast world carrying out the Emperor’s orders.
Pandora's Toybox - Become a God, build a civilization. In this dynamic Roguelite God Simulator, guide human civilization on a procedurally generated pixel world. Watch your people grow, defend them against heretics, and build an immortal legacy.

On Sale Now

Discounted 25% or more right now, limited to well-reviewed games, steepest cuts first.

Space Colony: Steam Edition - Space Colony: Steam Edition is a remaster of the real-time base builder and strategy game from Firefly Studios, creators of the Stronghold series. In Space Colony you colonize to survive, designing intergalactic bases that keep your crew productive, happy and defended against hostile alien threats.
Sid Meier's Colonization (Classic) - The New World lies before you with all its peril, promise and infinite possibility. Your colonists anxiously follow you to shore. The treasures of an entire continent await you.
Tribe: Primitive Builder - Chill out as you explore the beautiful, realistic island of exiles. Gather resources, craft tools, construct buildings and settlements. Manage tribe and automate your gameplay. Discover 4 lands, a storyline and save the inhabitants of the island.
War for the Overworld - War for the Overworld is an unholy union of Dungeon Management and Strategy that rewards all those villainous thoughts you’ve been having. Craft your own perilous dungeon and defend it against pesky heroes who keep exploring it and taking your stuff.
Stronghold Crusader HD (2012) - The highly anticipated sequel to the best-selling Stronghold, Stronghold Crusader HD throws you into historic battles and castle sieges from the Crusades with fiendish AI opponents, new units, 4 historical campaigns and over 100 unique skirmish missions.
Stronghold HD (2012) - The original castle sim, Stronghold HD allows you to design, build and destroy historical castles. Engage in medieval warfare against the AI in one of two single player campaigns or online with up to 8 players.
Cattails: Wildwood Story - Become a cat! In this cozy life sim RPG, you'll lead your colony into the mysterious Wildwood. Hunt prey, harvest herbs, collect magical treasures, & defend your new home from intruders. Build a thriving town to recruit new cats. Get to know the residents, fall in love, & raise a litter of kittens!
Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic - Build a soviet republic from an impoverished country into a rich industrial superpower in a city builder with intricate production chains and a fully simulated global economy. Manage the lives of your citizens from education to work and party loyalty to criminal activity.
Glittermitten Grove - Just like the faeries in your garden, we love collecting berries for our prickleberry loaves and finding treasure with our special fribblesham fireworks. Come join us in our faerieland, full of strange adventure!
Stronghold Legends: Steam Edition - Catapult werewolves over castle walls, incinerate troops with dragon fire and command the Knights of the Round Table! This remaster of the mythical ‘castle sim’ features Steam multiplayer, Workshop support, new maps, achievements and DLC campaigns.
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Sep 15, 2016
88% 👍
of 2.7k
Stronghold 2: Steam Edition - Tax, torture or treat your peasants! Rehabilitate criminals or sentence them to death? Decide as you enjoy jousting over a lavish banquet, all while under siege from the warmongering Lord Barclay.
Stronghold: Definitive Edition - Greetings sire! Your stronghold awaits you. Build a castle economy, besiege unforgettable villains and return to the 'castle sim' that started it all. Experience this classic RTS with upgraded visuals, modernised gameplay, Steam multiplayer and a new campaign.

Hidden Gems

Well-liked but under-played: strong scores, small review counts.

The Final Earth 2 - The Final Earth 2 is a vertical sci-fi city builder. Earth is unlivable, so you decide to create a space colony. Gather resources, then build and research your way to a better future! Grow your city from an exploration ship to a huge metropolis, full of advanced technology. What will you build?
Dream Town Island - A town sim where you raise generations of residents. Unlock new stores and facilities, help your residents find love, or cash in on the stock market!
Cafe Master Story - Serve up food, drinks, and smiles in this retro cafe management sim!
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Oct 15, 2023
96% 👍
of 335
MicroTown - Build and manage your own settlement! A relaxing village construction and management simulator.
STARIO: Haven Tower - A vertical kingdom in the sky! Plan your ascent from the harsh Sand Zone, rising layer by layer as you and your Towertizens stand together against looming disasters. Build trade ports and vertical supply networks. Perform Rituals to shape miracles, and witness the prosperity of this rising nation.
Mega Mall Story - Design a towering mega mall in this mall management simulation game.
Outlive 25 - Build your base, prepare your troops, and face your most epic battle yet in this old-school real-time strategy game. Choose between two factions, test your skills in three epic campaigns and engage in online battles with up to 16 players simultaneously.
Mega Mall Story 2 - A brand new business sim! Build cafés, movie theaters, aquariums, and more!
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Mar 5, 2023
95% 👍
of 157
Planetary Life - Manipulate climate, add plants and evolve creatures in this planet and life sandbox simulation game. From cells to civilizations, spread life throughout the whole planet. Or just enjoy watching your creation burn!
Ninja Village - Lead a ninja clan in the war to unify feudal Japan!
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May 22, 2022
94% 👍
of 567
Banana Drama - Banana Drama is an indie RTS game. It offers a singleplayer and online multiplayer experience. Your monkey king is held captive by evil dinos - he needs help! Be part of the banana crew and join us on Discord!
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Mar 29, 2026
94% 👍
of 306

Top Rated

Defining examples of the genre, all rated 85%+ across 1,000+ reviews.

RimWorld - A sci-fi colony sim driven by an intelligent AI storyteller. Generates stories by simulating psychology, ecology, gunplay, melee combat, climate, biomes, diplomacy, interpersonal relationships, art, medicine, trade, and more.
Oxygen Not Included - Oxygen Not Included is a space-colony simulation game. Deep inside an alien space rock your industrious crew will need to master science, overcome strange new lifeforms, and harness incredible space tech to survive, and possibly, thrive.
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Jul 30, 2019
97% 👍
of 143k
From Glory To Goo - From Glory To Goo is a Sci-Fi survival RTS set on an alien world. Serve as humanity's bulwark by establishing a colony and supporting your colonists still in orbit. But beware, for The Goo, a relentless and shape-shifting force approaches from all sides, even above and below.
Cult of the Lamb - Start your own cult in a land of false prophets, venturing out into diverse and mysterious regions to build a loyal community of woodland Followers and spread your Word to become the one true cult.
Timberborn - Humans are long gone. In a world struck by droughts and toxic waste, will your lumberpunk beavers do any better? A sandbox city-building game featuring ingenious animals, vertical architecture, water physics, and terraforming. Contains high amounts of wood.
ISLANDERS: New Shores - Welcome to ISLANDERS: New Shores. Build your island retreat in a calm, minimalist world with exciting new features that keep the classic charm while inspiring fresh creativity.
WorldBox - God Simulator - WorldBox is the ULTIMATE god simulator and sandbox game. A petri dish for your fantasy civilizations. Create your own world or destroy it using many powers. Watch civilizations grow, form kingdoms, colonize new lands, sail to far continents, wars to ignite, empires to fall and towns to burn!
Dwarf Fortress - Build a fortress and try to help your dwarves survive against a deeply generated world. Keep your dwarves happy, grow their community and beware of digging too deeply. The deepest, most intricate simulation of a world that's ever been created.
ISLANDERS - ISLANDERS is a minimalist strategy game about building cities on colorful islands.
Ostriv - Ostriv is a city-building game that puts you in a role of a governor of an 18th century Ukrainian town to challenge your creative skills and management abilities.