The Best Building Games Out Now
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- 12011Minecraft is a sandbox independent video game originally created by Swedish programmer Markus "Notch" Persson and later developed and published by the Swedish company Mojang. The creative and building aspects of Minecraft allow players to build constructions out of textured cubes in a 3D procedurally generated world. Other activities in the game include exploration, gathering resources, crafting, and combat. Multiple gameplay modes are available, including survival modes where the player must acquire resources to build the world and maintain health, a creative mode where players have unlimited resources to build with and the ability to fly, and an adventure mode where players play custom maps created by other players. The alpha version was publicly released for PC on May 17, 2009, and after gradual updates, the full version was released on November 18, 2011. A version for Android was released a month earlier on October 7, and an iOS version was released on November 17, 2011.
- Ark: Survival Evolved (stylized as ΛRK) is a 2017 action-adventure survival video game developed by Studio Wildcard in collaboration with Instinct Games, Efecto Studios, and Virtual Basement. In the game, players must survive being stranded on an island filled with roaming dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, natural hazards, and potentially hostile human players.
- 32016Stardew Valley is an indie farming simulation role-playing video game developed by Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone and published by Chucklefish. The game was released for Microsoft Windows in February 2016, with ports for OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One released later that year. A Nintendo Switch port was released in October 2017, and a PlayStation Vita port is expected in 2018. In Stardew Valley, the player takes the role of a character who, to get away from the hustle of an office job, takes over their grandfather's dilapidated farm in a place known as Stardew Valley. The player manages their character's time and energy levels as they clear land, plant and tend crops, raise livestock, craft goods, mine for ores, and engage in social activities, including romances leading towards marriage, with the various residents of the small town, all while earning in-game money to expand their farm. The game is open-ended, allowing the player to take on activities as they see fit.
- 42015Cities: Skylines is a city-building game developed by Colossal Order and published by Paradox Interactive. The game is a single-player open-ended city-building simulation. Players engage in urban planning by controlling zoning, road placement, taxation, public services, and public transportation of an area. Players work to maintain various elements of the city, including its budget, health, employment, and pollution levels. Players are also able to maintain a city in a sandbox mode, which provides unrestricted creative freedom for the player. The game has also had official expansion packs released for it. The game was first released for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux in March 2015, with ports by Tantalus Media for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 being released in 2017.
- 52011Terraria is an action-adventure sandbox indie video game series, developed by game studio Re-Logic and released on Microsoft Windows, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, Windows Phone, Android, and iOS. The game features exploration, crafting, construction, and combat with a variety of creatures in a randomly generated 2D world. Originally released for Microsoft Windows on May 16, 2011. The game is estimated to have sold about 50,000 copies during its first day of release, with over 17,000 players online at the same time during the first day's peak. 200,000 copies of the game were sold, making it the top-selling game on Steam for the week, ahead of The Witcher 2 and Portal 2. It remained number one on Steam for the first six days of its release, and as of January 2013 has sold over 2,500,000 copies. Terraria became DRM-free on October 2, 2014 when it was released on GOG.com. The game was released on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade at the end of March 2013 with exclusive content. The PS3 European and Australian release date was May 15, 2013. It was announced on March 28, 2013 that Terraria is coming to the PlayStation Vita. It was released on December 11, 2013.
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The Sims 4
2014The Sims 4 is a 2014 life simulation video game developed by Maxis and The Sims Studio and published by Electronic Arts. The Sims 4 was originally announced on May 6, 2013, and was released in North America on September 2, 2014 for Microsoft Windows. A Mac compatible version of the software was made available for digital download on February 17, 2015. There are currently no plans for a console release. The Sims 4 is the first PC game to top all-format charts in two years and sold 408,150 copies worldwide in the first four days. As of November the game has sold over 1.10 million copies worldwide. The game has received mixed reviews since its release. The game has the same concept as its predecessor, The Sims 3. Players control their Sims in various activities and form relationships. The game, like the rest of the series, does not have a defined final goal; gameplay is nonlinear. The Create-a-Sim and Build Mode tools have been redesigned to allow more versatility when creating game content. Emotional state plays a larger role in gameplay than in previous games in the series, with effects on social interaction, user interface, and personality. - 72006Roblox, stylized as RŌBLOX, is a massively multiplayer online game created and marketed toward children and teenagers aged 8–18. In the game, players are able to create their own virtual world, in which they or other members may enter and socialize within the blocks of varying shapes, sizes, and colors. Games on Roblox can be scripted using a sandboxed edition of Lua 5.1, to affect events that occur in-game and create different scenarios. The company's main source of revenue comes from the "Builders Club" virtual benefits, in which users who have created an account may purchase either Builders Club, Turbo Builders Club, or Outrageous Builders Club, otherwise known by users as BC, TBC, and OBC, respectively.
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Planet coaster
- SimCity is a city-building and urban planning simulation Massively multiplayer online game developed by Maxis, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts. Released for Microsoft Windows in early March 2013, it is the first major installment in the SimCity series since the release of SimCity 4 a decade prior. An OS X version was released on August 29, 2013. The game is considered to be a reboot of the SimCity series. Players can create a settlement that can grow into a city by zoning land for residential, commercial, or industrial development, as well as building and maintaining public services, transport and utilities. SimCity uses a new engine called GlassBox, allowing for more detailed simulation than previous games. Throughout its development, SimCity received critical acclaim for its new engine and reimagined gameplay; however, publications cautioned the game's use of a persistent Internet connection, with which it stores saved games and allows players to share resources.
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House Flipper
- 112019Tropico 6 is a construction, management and political simulation game in the Tropico series, developed by Limbic Entertainment, published by Kalypso Media. As in the other games in the series, the player assumes the role of "El Presidente", the leader of the Caribbean island nation of Tropico. Similarly to Tropico 5, there are four eras: The Colonial era, the World Wars era, the Cold War era, and the modern era. Unlike previous games in the series, where Tropico consisted of only one island, Tropico 6 allows players to build on an archipelago of smaller islands, allowing players to build bridges (in the World Wars era and later) from their starting island to the other islands in the chain.
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SimCity Buildit
- Jurassic World Evolution 2 is a single player business simulation game developed and published by Frontier Developments. The game was released for PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in 2021. Similar to the first game, the player is tasked to construct a Jurassic World prehistoric theme park, featureing more than 75 prehistoric species, including various dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and marine reptiles.
- 142018Surviving Mars is a simulation video game developed by Bulgarian Haemimont Games and published by Paradox Interactive. It was released on Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on March 15, 2018. The player serves as an overseer who must build a colony on Mars and ensure the survival of the colonists. Surviving Mars is a city builder style game, which takes place on Mars and is modeled after real martian data.
- 152014Tropico 5 is a construction and management simulation video game developed by Haemimont Games and released on 23 May 2014. For the first time in the series the game features cooperative and competitive multiplayer for up to four players. The players are able to build cities on the same island, allowing the choice of working with one another, or against.
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Besiege
- 172018Frostpunk is a city-building survival game developed and published by 11 bit studios for Microsoft Windows. The player character starts out with a small group of survivors (that consist of workers and engineers) and several small caches of supplies with which to build a city. From there players harvest coal, wood, steel and food in order to keep their society warm and healthy in the midst of constantly fluctuating temperatures. Weather conditions and political turmoil can cause citizens to not want to work as hard. The player has the option to use laws to regulate the productivity of their society at the cost of possibly raising discontent. Building a workshop structure allows the player to research technology that will make the city more efficient and to scout the surrounding frozen wasteland for additional survivors and resources.
- 18Banished is an upcoming city-building strategy game focused on careful resource management and survival as an isolated and growing society. The player guides citizens of a remote community of outcasts to grow and maintain a settlement. The game focuses largely on the citizens of the player's town as individuals. As the designer states in a video, "the townspeople of Banished are your primary resource. They are born, grow older, work, have children of their own and eventually die. Keeping them healthy, happy and well-fed are essential to making your town grow."
- 192013Don't Starve is a 2013 action-adventure video game with survival and roguelike elements, developed and published by the indie company Klei Entertainment. The game was initially released via Valve's Steam software for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux on April 23, 2013. A PlayStation 4 port became available the following year and further versions for iOS and mobile phones are under consideration. Downloadable content titled Reign of Giants was released on April 30, 2014, and a multiplayer expansion called Don't Starve Together was announced in May, and is currently in open beta testing. The game follows a scientist named Wilson who finds himself in a dark, dreary world and must survive as long as possible. Toward this end, the player must keep Wilson healthy, fed, and mentally stable as he avoids a variety of surreal and supernatural enemies that will try to kill and devour him. The game's "Adventure" mode adds depth to the sparse plot and pits Wilson against the game's antagonist, Maxwell. Don't Starve was Klei's first foray into the survival genre.
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ANNO 2205
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Poly Bridge
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Megapolis
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Aven Colony
- 242017Fortnite is a co-op sandbox survival game developed by Epic Games and People Can Fly, the former also publishing the game. The game was released as a paid early access title for Microsoft Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on July 25, 2017. A standalone mode, Fortnite Battle Royale, based on the battle royale game genre, was released for the same platforms in September 2017.
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Portal Knights
2016 - 26
Rise of Industry
- 272017Aven Colony is a city-building strategy video game developed by Mothership Entertainment and published by Team17. The Beta was released on September 8, 2016 on Microsoft Windows. The main storyline revolves around the human colonisation of an alien planet, in which a new colony must be built in order to survive. Aven Colony involves building a new human city on Aven Prime, an alien planet light-years away from Earth. The player oversees construction, resources, and people within the colony. The colony must be built from scratch and over time additional colonists will arrive. There are many different buildings, ranging from tent-like buildings to skyscrapers and a space elevator.
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Trove
2015 - 29
Cube World
Cube World is an open world RPG video game in development by Picroma for Microsoft Windows. Wolfram von Funck began developing the game in June 2011, and was later joined by his wife Sarah von Funck. The game's logo currently uses the stylized title Cube Worldα to reflect that it is in an open alpha stage of development for Windows only. Releases for consoles and Mac OS are planned for future development. - 30
Stonehearth
