I feel like I should recommend Dwarf Fortress but I also feel like I should NOT recommend Dwarf Fortress.
Look, I'll just leave Dwarf Fortress here in the corner, peering into the room and the rest of us can try to ignore it. But it's there.
Dwarf Fortress isn't a colony sim game, though
It's a tavern corpse clean up sim.
Pffft! Look at this dude who assigned a tavern keeper to the inn while still allowing non dwarves entrance to it. Everybody knows that those knife-ears and humies can't handle nutritious dwarven wine. They get drunk and break shit. Best just to not have them in the fortress at all.
The Steam edition feels a lot more recommendable, though.
Dwarf Fortress is great once you get past the steep learning curve.
Dwarf fortress
All the other slim shadys are just imitating.
Against the Storm, just recently started playing this and it's fun. Currently $19.49 on the steam sale.
Endzone - A World Apart, has a very post apocalyptic feel. Currently $7.49 on the steam sale.
Also want to second Against the Storm, with the caveat that if you enjoy seeing your colony go self-sufficient, this isn't really the game. The instant your colony goes self-sufficient here, the game is basically over, and the gameplay loop consists entirely of the struggle in getting there based on a randomised set of variables.
... which makes it my favourite colony sim by a mile. I think I have over two hundred hours in it, and it's still getting improved by the active devs.
I'm gonna go old school and say Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Had a blast playing that one on my college days.
I’ll second Timberborn, it seems like a simple game but it gets complicated towards the end.
If factory games are your jam then I can’t recommend Captian Of Industry and Dyson Sphere Program enough, both are S tier factory games for me. The Riftbreaker is another interesting combo of colony building and tower defense as well.
Satisfactory is another worth including in the factory games list.
Oh absolutely, I’m ashamed I didn’t mention it, I guess my brain was stuck on top down style hah. Satisfactory is incredible, they keep adding awesome stuff to it.
Captain Of Industry is a little daunting because it uses as close to real world processes as possible but Nilaus on YT has excellent videos on it (and many of the others mentioned). This is his playlist for the recent huge Update 1 for the game.
I also forgot to mention how good Cities: Skylines has become and how incredible Cities: Skylines 2 looks. I have learned so much about real cities from playing that and watching City Planner Plays play it and relate it to his real world job as a city planner.
How can you even mention factory games without pointing out Factorio.
Rimworld with mods can basically turn in whatever game you want. There is no limit
Dwarf Fortress, obviously? You should check out "Odd Realm" and "Songs of Syx" as well.
Odd Realm is probably the closest to a Dwarf Fortress with proper graphical UI & graphics + animations, but of course not with its age long development & depth behind it. Songs of Syx is a bit of a hybrid going empire builder, that also aims to have big ass battles with potentially thousands of people.
Dwarf fortress, cliff empire
I actually really like They Are Billions. Bit different but it’s survival against zombies. Very difficult in my opinion but I keep going back
I feel like I'll either love that game or hate it - haven't justified the time or money yet
Timberborn for sure! I've also enjoyed Settlement Survival, although the last time I played was during early access so it may have changed now that it's been officially released.
SimAnt!!! Although a different kind of colony :p
Does Factorio count?
Probably! I've played that a lot to but never reached launching the rocket.
Planetbase and Dawn of Man weren't bad - get a bit frustrating though
Really wish we could get an updated Planetbase and some more maps. I love that game
I feel like it could use some good mods - rather than just different starting conditions, scenarios and gamepay settings.
Temperature management, new classes, different buildings and objects... like a fucking travelator.
Also wonder how well it would go if you could multistory buildings or go underground.
I didn't get into dawn of man all that much but planet base is an awesome game. It definitely has some quirks but once you figure out of some of those quirks work it's great. I would love for that developer to make a second one.
It's all about that Rimworld! I always wanted to get in to Dwarf Fortress but I can never make it stick.
Did you know that it has a Steam version now which is so much more accessible?
Unknown Horizons. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unknown_Horizons Its free, and has a fun gameplay cycle and UI. The game engine the old version used is outdated and it's undergoing a slow Godot rewrite to modernize it. I've spent at least a hundred hours playing it, it's a lot of fun and keeps things simple but strategic.
Pretty obvious, but Sid Meier's Colonisation
Surviving Mars and Per Aspera
Rimworld, especially once you get the mods going. I have literal hundreds of mods
I've been playing the early release Furthest Frontier which has been good. Not buggy for me, though it is lacking a decent endgame IMO.
Age of Empires is a pretty standard one, though more war focused than exploration/growth.
I've played They are Billions and it's pretty good, though general online consensus is that the campaign is entirely unforgiving if you use your upgrade points in an unoptimized way, but is otherwise good. The one offs are fun and overall a well designed game.
On a smaller scale, This War of Mine is a really good game, though not quite a full colony sim it hits the same itch for me and has a lot of stark and rough choices.
Farthest Frontier has a nice juicy update coming soon too!
It probably doesn't strictly count, but..... Kenshi.
Kenshin is so weird, I found it pretty late (like last year). If the sequel ever comes out I want to try it again
Rimworld is the best by far. Quality game.
Not sure if you would consider it a colony sim but factorio is really good
My favorites are Oxygen Not Included and Dwarf Fortress. Surviving Mars for somewhat lighter experience.
Can I semi-hijack this post to ask you all: What is the best colony sim you’ve played (including the ones OP already has listed)? Looking to try one for the first time. Bonus points if it plays well on Steam deck.
Rimworld with mods is literally an endless experience. I've played 800 hours and come back to play another 50 every few months.
Farthest Frontier
It's still early access and is a little rough around the edges, but very playable and fun. Plus the devs are very responsive to feedback via their discord and have been making really good updates over the last year.
I don't play sims typically, but my wife loves them. I might be way off base here, but she really likes a game called Sheltered.
Currently Farthest Frontier, the best Banished-alike I’ve played so far.
Also semi-hijacking this thread: which colony sim has decent multiplayer? Ideally co-op.
My partner and I tried a multiplayer mod in Rimworld a year or two ago and I don't think her PC can keep up with it on higher speeds, and it doesn't seem to sync. So my game advances, and hers lags behind and needs to take some time to catch up.
Obligatory Dwarf Fortress (I'm a DF simp). But also:
Against The Storm
Clanfolk
Foundation
Going Medieval
KeeperRL (This is a weird one)
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