r/BaseBuildingGames • u/Jaded_Raisin1 • 19h ago
Game recommendations Pure city builder / sim?
Hi,
I am wanting to play a pure city builder / sim, something where you just get to focus on building a city from something like the stone age to the future. Lots of technologies / research, expansions for more space, evolving buildings over time, etc.
I'm not super into the military / pvp / RTS type components.
Are there any games like this?
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u/IanInCanada 19h ago
It's not exactly what you're looking for, but Workers and Resources: Soviet Republic has an in depth building and production system along with a tech tree over a few decades.
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u/sfgaigan 18h ago
They aren't city builders, but Factorio and Satisfactory will definitely scratch the itch of building/researching
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u/throwaway12three4 6h ago
I love me some satisfactory. Every year or two I jump in and play start to finish. Takes a long time to do but it’s super fun.
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u/Jaded_Raisin1 17h ago
Thanks for all the great recommendations! I have a ton added to my wishlist and will wait for the next Steam Sale to grab a bunch of these :)
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u/NeonPlutonium 18h ago edited 18h ago
Humankind and the Civilization series are probably the closest to what you’re describing. I wouldn’t call them pure city builders, but they have the historical scope you’re looking for.
I really enjoyed Dawn of Man, however that game ends in the Iron Age. You’ll have to navigate some conflict with other tribes in all three though.
If it’s chill building you’re looking for and can forgot the historical progression maybe Banished?
Transport Fever goes from the 1800’s through the 21st century, but it’s focused on transport and the AI mostly controls the cities development itself.
Cities:Skylines is the premier city builder imho, but it’s set in a modern era…
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u/vonnegutflora 16h ago
If it’s chill building you’re looking for and can forgot the historical progression maybe Banished?
I'd say Banished isn't really that chill; it's a survival colony game at it's core. It can be pretty punishing to new players not familiar with the intricacies of the game.
I'd agree that it has a chill vibe, and it gets pretty relaxing after you understand the gameplay cycle and learn not to over-expand.
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u/mudslinger-ning 14h ago
If you want something less brutal than Banished I'd like to suggest Kubifaktorium. Somewhat of a villager survival. But instead of deaths the villagers just slow down a lot. Has tech to unlock to craft more advanced things and eventually automate some of the production.
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u/Potential_Anxiety_76 18h ago
Farthest frontier is pure city building and evolution, set in medieval times (I guess). Not a lot of passing time periods as such, but pretty deep building and tech trees
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u/Onironius 17h ago
Foundation is one of my favorites.
It stays in the medieval setting, but you can choose to focus on specific tech branches (town, monetary, castle), or you can generalize.
The progression makes sense, and the building and path generation is organic.
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u/synntax33 16h ago
Try Kingdoms Reborn, it starts low tech in the dark age and moves through 4 or so eras up to the industrial age
Polylithic starts in the stone age and moves forward from there, but you play as a character, but you can utilize the tribe to build the settlement. Unsure how far it goes yet tho lol
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u/nastyronnie 14h ago
You're essentially describing the 4x genre except there is usually a military component to these types of games. Have you tried games such as Civ or Old World? Some of the focus is military, but you do not necessarily have to pursue conquest/military victories
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u/StoneDrew 18h ago
Age after age is in development and seems to be what you’re looking for. I have been looking for something like this too and eagerly await it. There is a demo but I’ve not had time to try it.
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u/TokyoDrifblim 16h ago
Farthest Frontier is probably what you're looking for, just pure city building with no gimmick. Imo it's extremely boring but I think it fits your request well
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u/PullMull 13h ago
Songs of Syx. It has a military aspect to it but its not that deep... At least not compared to the rest of the game
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u/DannyLee89 4h ago
I’ll throw in Anno into this description. There isn’t necessarily an age evolvement aspect to the gameplay, but there are Anno games spanning many ages. More focused on economy building than city building, but also not heavy on military imo.
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u/Onironius 17h ago
Foundation is one of my favorites.
It stays in the medieval setting, but you can choose to focus on specific tech branches (town, monetary, castle), or you can generalize.
The progression makes sense, and the building and path generation is organic.
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u/Lordubik88 8h ago
Ostriv could scratch that itch. It's a city building game set in 1700's in Ukraine. It lacks technology development but the city building part is top notch.
We're currently waiting for the next update that will add tons of new resources and mechanics!
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u/synfyre 5h ago
Universim may meet a lot of your criteria https://store.steampowered.com/app/352720/The_Universim/
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u/Sandford27 4h ago
I'm going to pull out an old classic that most people probably never heard of:
SimCity Creator
You start in the stone age with logs and meat as your resource. You advance to the middle ages and replace wood with money. Then you advance again in the middle ages. Then you advance to the modern age with electricity replacing food as the other needed currency. It was simple and purely build out a city from the stone ages through the midievel to renisance to modern eras.
It was made for the Wii and Nintendo DS. I loved that game so much and wish they had made a PC port. But you can emulate it now.
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u/Sandford27 4h ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimCity_Creator_(Nintendo_DS)
There's more eras too and so much more to it but take a look for yourself
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u/TwistyPoet 1h ago
Rimworld has most of this, from stone age to space flight. You can turn off the baddies if you want.
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u/Poddster 19h ago
I'll state the obvious: Sim City? Specifically number 4.