Best Games Like RimWorld

Created by Ludeon Studios, RimWorld is one of the best colony sim management games available on PC, blending base-building, survival, and strategy game mechanics.

And although its is the type of game you can play over and over again until the end of time, there are many other video games that explore similar ideas. 

In this list, we’ll highlight the best games like RimWorld to play in 2024, including games similar to RimWorld on Steam.

We’ll be updating this list in the future with new titles, so make sure to check back and let us know if we missed any of your favorite games like RimWorld!

Related:Best Sandbox PC Games 2023Best Upcoming Survival Games 2023Best Games Like Dwarf Fortress

First Feudal depicts you as a medieval feudal lord in control of a functioning village with restricted resources and a minor population of peasants.

The goal is to eventually turn your humble settlement into an imposing medieval castle that instantly strikes fear into your enemies.

Like RimWorld, a large portion of the game revolves around building structures, mining resources, and growing crops.

However, things continue to open up until you eventually find yourself manufacturing equipment, trading with local merchants, conducting scientific research, and more.

Without a doubt the most complex colony management sim on this list, Dwarf Fortress is a lot less daunting for anyone who’s played RimWorld.

The biggest obstacle will be getting past the game’s severely outdated UI and graphics in general.

Once you overcome that hurdle, things will start to fall into place, and you’ll soon find yourself obsessed with micromanaging every waking moment of your dwarves’ lives.

Each one possesses a unique personality and can even battle enemies using a robust combat system that includes limb targeting, aimed attacks, poison effects, and more.

If RimWorld’s sadistic AI storyteller isn’t dark enough for you, Judgment: Apocalypse Survival offers just the right amount of satanic rituals and colony management.

In it, you’re put in charge of a group of campers who unintentionally escape a fiery apocalypse simply by being in the woods.

The game features a visibility mechanic where monsters become increasingly drawn to your colony as it grows.

To counteract this, you’ll have to research new stealth tactics and perform certain rituals to ward off foes.

Every RimWorld player has had their colony spiral into catastrophe after some random, seemingly insignificant event takes place.

While this can be frustrating at times, it’s also a part of the game’s appeal and what makes each playthrough so unique.

At present, in the initial phase on Steam, Songs of Syx is a city-developer that holds a comparable possibility for calamity as you’re given the responsibility of expanding a colony from the beginning.

The game offers a myriad of complex mechanics that are modeled after the real-world, including multiple races, cultures, deities, animals, a day/night system, climate and weather change, among many more.

If you relish the more demanding aspects of managing a colony in RimWorld, then Oxygen Not Included may be more your style.

It’s a brutally difficult survival game that sees you guiding a space crew as they try to live beneath the surface of an alien planet.

As its title suggests, oxygen is extremely rare, meaning you’ll frequently have to take measures to maintain a steady supply of the stuff.

Where things get tricky is the potential for disaster, as your colony is always at the mercy of its environment.

Space Haven is a intricately detailed colony management sim set in the outer reaches of deep space.

In it, you play as the leader of a ragtag crew of spacefarers in search of a new home for humanity’s dwindling population.

The game gives you the freedom to build your spaceship tile-by-tile and decide the placement of every single door, wall, and hull should you crave control over such fine details.

As you travel through space, you’ll encounter random scenarios such as alien invasions, derelict ships, and internal conflicts amongst crew members.

Factorio is a resource management game that sees you converting untapped sandboxes into production paradises.

You’ll have to manually chop trees, mine ores, and craft parts for your machines until you’ve conducted enough research to achieve automation. 

One of Factorio’s greatest strengths is its progression system, which offers a seemingly infinite number of upgrades to unlock.

While many are geared towards maximizing production, they also explore solar power, oil refining, and artificial intelligence for your machines.

Part city-builder part survival game, Surviving Mars sees you raising a Mars colony from infancy to adulthood.

Your people require proper housing, factories to produce goods, and commercial buildings where scientists will research new technologies.

At the same time, the planet’s atmosphere is very unwelcoming of humans and will consistently throw new obstacles your way.

Oxygen levels must be maintained, and water transported from deep below the surface to structures using an intricate pipe system.

Build and managing your very own prison complex sounds like the type of setup RimWorld’s AI storyteller would come up with.

Prison Architect uses its correctional facility setting as a springboard for a whole host of intertwining gameplay systems.

As the architect of your prison, it’s up to you to design the layout, hire the staff, and manage the day-to-day lives of your inmates.

It’s not always easy, considering every guard and prisoner has distinct needs and character traits that affect their productivity and overall behavior.

Satisfactory is another base-building game like RimWorld but places a much bigger emphasis on combat and exploration.

In it, you’re tasked with surviving an alien planet by building a self-sustaining network of machines to gather and refine materials for you.

There are many ways to put your resources to proper use, from weapons and tools to buildings and vehicles.

Doing so will also allow you to access new areas in the open world, revealing more creatures, resource types, and opportunities to explore.

If you’re looking for a game like RimWorld with a sci-fi setting, then Starship Theory might appeal to you.

In it, you’re tasked with managing a colony as it travels through the never-ending stretches of outer space.

It gives you the freedom to design and build your ship however you want, and various upgrades can increase your chances of survival.

There’s also a trading system, resource gathering, and tons of opportunities to micromanage your space personnel.

Released into Steam Early Access, Kingdoms Reborn is a medieval city builder inspired by games like Banished, Anno, and Civilization.

It offers challenging resource management gameplay that’s complemented by robust skill and upgrade trees.

You’ll be managing your people’s daily lives, sending them to work, making sure they eat and get enough rest to be productive members of society.

The game uses procedural generation to create its open world and offers seven distinct biomes with unique flora and fauna.

King Under The Mountain is an upcoming settlement-building game that takes place in a living, breathing fantasy world.

Like RimWorld, it tasks you with developing a small colony into a powerful kingdom by overcoming a variety of procedurally generated obstacles and unscripted events.

Moreover, colonizers possess distinctive social and bodily requirements that must be fulfilled to maintain their contentment and avoid mental collapses.

Since every map is randomly generated from an initial large-numbered seed, every game is guaranteed to differ from the previous one.