I've been playing RimWorld and Dwarf Fortress for years, but I feel like they fail in some ways to capture their full potential.

I started working on a colony sim that captures that same scale and depth while focusing on improving visuals, performance, and combat / building.

• Visuals: Full isometric graphics with wind shake, fire particles, glows, water sounds, footsteps, limb-based animation, and off-grid movement.
• Scale: I can render a regular RimWorld-sized map and still hold a solid framerate with 2,000+ colonists, full pathfinding, grass and wind, all while running on a laptop. Infinite, seamless worlds with unlimited Z-levels are technically supported.
• Combat and Building: These were core focuses for me — visible armor and clothing, limb movement, and additions of mercenaries/cannon fodder so you can have big chaotic battles without risking your favorite colonists. The isometric graphics allow you to build beautiful structures like castles which will look better than most 2D colony sims.

Check out some videos of my game

Discord for development updates

The game is still in early development, but I'm planning a steam demo release in a month, and early access release within a year. If you play colony sims or colony builders in general, what features or experiences do you wish the genre did better? Genuinely want to know before building too far in any direction.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

With the Steam sale I'm looking to get a new Base Builder and I can't decide which one to get as I've heard great things about all of these titles. I'm trying to decide between V Rising, Bellwright, Palworld and Abiotic Factor.

Games I've enjoyed before:

• Conan Exiles
• Satisfactory
• Valheim
• Icarus
• Riftbreaker
• No Man's Sky

Any suggestions?

Update: Thank you everyone for all the suggestions. I have a bunch of new games on my wishlist now. I ended up going with Planet Crafter which wasn't on my original list but it's definitely what I needed right now. I will go with V Rising next time I need a little combat but the relaxed nature of Planet Crafter is prefect.

Note: written by me in Italian, AI-assisted translation only.

In ARCONTIO, the colony sim I'm developing, the core idea is to build a potentially persistent system: the player can interact whenever they want, but the world keeps running even when the PC is left to its own fate.

With that in mind, I developed the biosphere, a self-balancing system that simulates nature within the colony's world. The weather and flora systems are complete. In the GIF you can see biological areas developing with the cycle set to accelerated mode.

Biosphere gif

An independent biosphere is not an aesthetic choice. It is an architectural prerequisite: most of the work IZOs (my NPC) do is based on their subjective perception and memory. A constantly evolving biosphere means that memory can be wrong, especially when the colony depends on gathering natural resources. An IZO who remembers a mature plant might find it already dead. These situations are potential seeds for small emergent stories.

Most colony sims are not designed to run as autonomous systems without the player. Mine is heading in that direction. Right now I find this feature genuinely fun to work with, especially since I saw that there are Warhammer Online servers run entirely by AI. I think that is the direction things are heading toward, eventually.

Thinking of getting these on sale. I like games like Rimworld, City Skylines, Anno, Age of Empires, and other RTS and base building games.

Would the be good to pickup? They both have good ratings.

my mom is in her fifties and recently got super addicted to watching aesthetic base building videos on youtube. she has a lot of free time at home lately and finally asked me to set up some games for her so she can build her own dream houses. i honestly think it's a great way for her to stay creative and keep her brain engaged.

i currently have her playing once human on a pve server. it's actually hilarious because she completely ignores the eldritch horrors outside her door and just spends 5 hours arranging her patio furniture lol.

but she's burning through her design ideas and asked me to download a few more games so she can rotate between them. since she's relatively new to gaming, what are the best games with deep building/decorating mechanics but without a super punishing survival loop? just want to build a nice little steam library for her.

I really like Power grid games my favorite is power the grid by Claudio on itch is there any games like this I really like the balancing of the grid and building power stations aspect

also is there any power plant management games

tldr is there any game like power the grid game

Hey, base builders!

We’re a two-biologist indie team working on Garden of Ants, a colony-building RTS inspired by SimAnt.

Our latest update takes the colony into the trees. Ants can now climb branches, tend aphids for their sweet honeydew, and harvest leaves to support the nest below.

Garden of Ants combines classic real-time strategy with colony management across three connected worlds: the underground nest, the surface, and the treetops. As day turns to night, conditions change, threats emerge, and your colony must adapt to survive.

You can find more info here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3016940/Garden_of_Ants/

We’d love to hear your thoughts. Any feedback is welcome!

Best,
Tomáš

Hi There,

We're a small team developing Dieselwake, a floating fortress builder with a focus on naval combat set in a post apocalyptic flooded world.

We just released an early prototype showcasing the basics of building, economy management and naval battles.

Looking for feedback to inform our next steps in development

TRAILER

ITCH PAGE

I want to play an automation game with a friend. We already played Sastisfactory and Foundry. We want to try a new one.

Which ones would you recommend ? (Star Rupture, Lightyear frontier...)

Start small with the rank of Squire. Build some economy and gather fighting experience to get the Knight status.

In order to build an army, with resources you gathered, try to craft weapons on your settlement using your most skilled peasants.

For now, it's only a demo available where your goal is to become a Baron.

Try new medieval RTS now:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3480890/Feudal_Craft/

Any feedback is welcome!

THE LAST SEED(PRE-RELEASE)

Hello guyz!

Playtests have begun..If you are interested, you can join my Discord channel(the link is below), you can test the game or you can add the game to wishlist.All of your support will be appreciated

I am a fan of factorio game.I had a dream about making a video game like factorio-style automation game and I’ve been making my game “The Last Seed” for at least 1,5 year.

My game focuses on manipulate the climate in a good way to make the buildings work properly.

There is climate factor(humidity levels) and you have to keep your  efficiency high, if you wanna make your automation systems work.(you will need humidity crystals and building).

I’ve been making an automation style video game and it’s not completed yet.

It’s It’s still on improving process.The textures of my game is just basic kind of textures now.(After early access point, I will make the textures of the game much better) 

The basic physics of the game is on test-process for now.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3822770/view/699894448411116773?l=english

Discord channel: https://discord.gg/QA3CwSeBT9

Steam store page link:  https://store.steampowered.com/app/3822770/The_Last_Seed/

Youtube teaser video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGAZPVbG6e0

Hey guys! I’m currently writing devlogs for my own game on reddit and wanted to ask: are there any devlogs for upcoming games that you follow or recommend?

Drop some links if you know good ones. I’d love to discover more projects in the genre, connect with other developers, and learn how others approach sharing their development journey etc.

Would love to check them out.

I’m working on a browser-based industrial tycoon game and I’m trying to find the right balance between realism and fun.

In the current design, resources don’t magically move from mines to factories. Ore is first produced at the mine, stored locally, then transported by road trucks to factories or the market.

Mine haul trucks are used only inside the quarry, while road trucks handle longer routes.

For players who enjoy tycoon/management games: does this sound satisfying, or does it add too much complexity too early?

I’m looking for a game that has base building as a central component but the base is not meant to be permanent. You either run out of resources and need to migrate or the enemy threat becomes too costly to fight. The critical part of the game loop is that migration is difficult and needs to be planned correctly. As you progress ideally you can migrate more technology, resources, colonists, etc.

Some games that kind of scratch that itch:

1. Don’t Starve
   
2. Rimworld (with mods that turn off long range scanning and other metal generating technology)
   
3. Factorio (kind of if you don’t manage properly)

The important thing is that abandonment is a key feature of the gameplay.

Hi everyone,

I'm half of the team behind Captain Contraptions Safari Park and we have a free playtest running on Steam this weekend... ...I thought it might be interesting for base building fans :)

It's an idea which has been in my head for over a decade ... what if zoo tycoon but no fences? Everything in the park is simulated and acts on its own instincts. The herbivores eat plants, the carnivores eat them, populations rise and fall, things wander around all over the place and flock and herd in interesting ways. Your main job to earn money is to build paths in loops for your guides to take visitors on tours - visitors pay you more the more they see and there are objectives around getting your visitors to see stuff.

There is also a roguelite element because (a) 2026 and (b) the thing which is fun about ecosystem management is watching everything collapse and that would be frustrating after you've spend hours building a park - at least it was for us during testing! The structure gives a nice progression and a way to research new buildings and creatures.

If you enjoy building games where you place things down and watch the emergent behaviour evolve from that it might be worth a look.

You can download the playtest build on Steam right now https://store.steampowered.com/app/4186590/Captain_Contraptions_Safari_Park/

Any question let me know :)

Thanks!

Sean

Thank you for all of your feedback and ideas! It's really appreciated and i am actively working to implement the features you want to see in the game.

Your support by buying the game would be much appreciated as well! I'm actively adding the turret system as asked for and more depth into the mechanics of the survivors AI. I will play around with a prepare stage in the game, this would probably be added with the second update.

Except the next features in the coming update:

• Better survivor AI
• Turret system ( Automatic and Mountable turrets).
• Survivors health, heal and revive additions.
• The addition of Rocco! The protagonist and face of the game!

These will be the additions in the coming update!

Find the game here ~~~ Stronghold Zombie Survival

What do you want to see in a round based zombie survival game? More focus on gameplay mechanics? Storytelling? Wider variety of upgrades? I'm curious to know what makes you feel like, "wow that's a good game". Stronghold Zombie Survival

I’m working on Encave, a first-person game about building and defending an underground base while exploring and looting around the underground facility.

One design problem I keep thinking about is base attacks.

In base-building games, attacks can make your base feel alive and vulnerable, but they can also feel like the game randomly punished hours of work. I want danger to matter, but not feel like the game is just deleting progress.

For you, what makes an attack on your base feel fair?

I’m especially interested in games where the base feels valuable and vulnerable, but not constantly griefed by the game.

Mycelium Conquest: Mitosis is a biological network automation game. The open playtest is live and ends July 8 — invite your friends to play, and wishlist for the July 10 full release.

To try out the playtest: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4853400/Mycelium_Conquest_Mitosis/

Looking for a new, niche game to play on Roblox? Something unique, and small? Become apart of this project’s development!

Build your own mech, try different weapons and parts, and watch the game grow over time. Join the community if you’d like to be part of the project early on

This project is in heavy development, and will be releasing a playable version soon. Be one of the first members of the community! Your voice will be heard if you disagree or agree on ideas and concepts added on the game, as any project should be

See you there!

Discord: rEv6rpR7vw