14 Games Like RimWorld to Scratch That Colony-Sim Itch

• • RimWorld

There’s something strangely satisfying about watching your colony thrive—right up until it doesn’t.

RimWorld perfected the art of turning small decisions into sprawling dramas, where survival, base-building, and personality-driven storytelling all collide. One minute you’re tending crops and researching tech; the next, you’re putting out fires (literal or social) because a colonist had a breakdown over bad stew.

This list rounds up the best games like RimWorld—some focus on survival strategy, others emphasize colony management, base-building, or narrative surprises. Whether you prefer medieval villages, subterranean dwarves, or off-world outposts, these games deliver that same blend of planning, problem-solving, and unpredictable twists—just without the same name.

The Most RimWorld You Can Get (Without Playing RimWorld)

Dwarf Fortress

Dwarf Fortress screenshot displaying various biomes, including dirt, stone, water, and fungal areas, with a central constructed fort section.
Image: Bay 12 Games / Kitfox Games

  • Mode(s): Singleplayer
  • Platform(s): PC

If RimWorld is unpredictable, Dwarf Fortress is pure, beautiful madness carved into stone.

This is the granddaddy of colony sims—a wildly complex, ASCII-born simulation where everything is simulated, from dwarves’ individual personalities and injuries to the geological layers beneath your fortress. It’s brutally difficult, deeply rewarding, and home to some of the most absurdly detailed emergent storytelling you’ll ever experience.

The learning curve? Steep. The payoff? Legendary. Think of it as RimWorld’s older, nerdier sibling who went to school for procedural generation and came back fluent in dwarvish soap-making.

Oxygen Not Included

Screenshot of a base in Oxygen Not Included, showing various rooms, machinery, pipes, and duplicants navigating a complex underground facility.
Image: Klei Entertainment

  • Mode(s): Singleplayer
  • Platform(s): PC

If RimWorld made you anxious about colonist mental breakdowns, Oxygen Not Included will make you worry about something even more fundamental: breathing.

This colony sim swaps planetary survival for subterranean space-base management. Instead of crash-landing, your duplicants (clones with wildly quirky personalities) wake up deep inside an asteroid—and now it’s your job to keep them fed, clean, happy… and most importantly, oxygenated.

It’s packed with complex systems: fluid dynamics, gas diffusion, power grids, plumbing, temperature regulation—all intricately simulated. Like RimWorld, things can spiral when one small issue snowballs into a base-wide disaster. But it’s also packed with charm, humor, and clever solutions, making even your worst engineering blunders oddly satisfying.

If you enjoy micromanagement, survival tension, and watching emergent stories unfold from simulation-based gameplay, Oxygen Not Included scratches that same cerebral itch—just with more toilets.

Going Medieval

A screenshot from Going Medieval featuring a medieval castle wall and gatehouse engulfed in flames at night, with a lone figure standing on a stone path facing the inferno.
Image: Foxy Voxel / Mythwright

  • Mode(s): Singleplayer
  • Platform(s): PC

Plague has wiped out most of humanity, and the few survivors left are counting on you to rebuild—one timber wall and cabbage patch at a time. Set in an alternate 14th century where society collapsed and nature reclaimed the land, Going Medieval trades RimWorld’s sci-fi setting for something a bit more mossy and mud-caked.

You’ll lead a band of settlers carving out a life in a beautifully overgrown post-collapse world. You’ll design multi-story fortresses, manage food, moods, and illness, and fend off raiders who seem way too excited to pillage your modest clay hut. It’s all about balancing long-term survival with short-term disasters, wrapped in a medieval skin.

The systems are deep, the challenges grow steadily, and every decision — from meal prep to militia training — shapes your colony’s story. If you enjoy RimWorld’s slow-burn tension and emergent storytelling, this grounded, grit-covered sim is a natural next stop.

Mind Over Magic

Mind Over Magic gameplay screenshot displaying different rooms within a gothic-style building, featuring a large purple Eldritchian entity, a character casting a spell, and spooky decor.
Image: Sparkypants / Klei Publishing

  • Mode(s): Singleplayer
  • Platform(s): PC

Take RimWorld’s colony sim blueprint, swap the crash-landing for arcane academia, and you get Mind Over Magic—a game where you build and manage your very own magic school.

You’ll assign roles to your eccentric staff, train unruly students, expand room by room, and keep a wary eye on strange magical disasters brewing beneath the surface. The game trades guns and mechs for spells and cauldrons, but it keeps that delicious balance of simulation, sandbox creativity, and unexpected catastrophe.

Think of it as RimWorld by way of wizardry—less about surviving on a hostile planet, more about overcoming dangerous magical energies, repelling hostile spectral entities, and handling the volatile outcomes of magical experimentations.

Noble Fates

An isometric view of a Noble Fates settlement, showing a wooden house with an open interior, outdoor farming plots, and several characters.
Image: Xobermon, LLC

  • Mode(s): Singleplayer
  • Platform(s): PC

In Noble Fates, managing your colony means more than just food and shelter—it’s about keeping everyone’s egos in check, too. Your people have memories, opinions, and grudges, and they’re not shy about holding a grudge if you put the wrong person in charge.

This 3D colony sim blends classic RimWorld-style survival with a layer of medieval drama. You’re still assigning jobs, building structures, and fending off threats—but now you’re also dealing with personality-driven politics and shifting loyalties.

If you enjoy RimWorld but wish your colonists were a little more dramatic (and had a few more feelings), Noble Fates is a hilariously unpredictable step sideways.

Ratopia

Ratopia gameplay screenshot showing a bustling 2D side-scrolling base, with multiple floors of rat-citizens engaging in activities, surrounded by constructed rooms and natural cavern elements.
Image: Cassel Games

  • Mode(s): Singleplayer
  • Platform(s): PC

What happens when you mix colony management with adorable rats and an eye for urban planning? You get Ratopia—a side-scrolling sim where you’re building a rat empire from the ground up (and below it).

Like RimWorld, it’s all about survival, resource flow, and citizen satisfaction—just with a fuzzier, cuter aesthetic. You’ll assign jobs, manage stress levels, set tax policies (yes, taxes), and respond to threats both economic and environmental. But instead of a gritty space outpost, you’re dealing with the hustle and bustle of a tiny rodent civilization with big ambitions.

If you’ve ever wanted RimWorld with less existential dread and more tiny capes and cheese-based economies, Ratopia delivers in spades—and tunnels.

Space Haven

An isometric view of a ship's interior in Space Haven, showing various rooms, machinery, and a large blue star in the background.
Image: Bugbyte Ltd.

  • Mode(s): Singleplayer
  • Platform(s): PC

Take RimWorld, bolt it onto a spaceship, and you’ve got Space Haven—a colony sim that trades dusty planets for the cold vacuum of space.

Instead of building a base on solid ground, you’re assembling a modular starship tile by tile, managing oxygen levels, crew moods, and alien infestations along the way. Think floating life support nightmares, spacefaring refugees, and tense boarding encounters. Every decision matters—from how you lay out your ship to who you let onboard.

If you’ve ever wanted RimWorld with oxygen scrubbers, cryopod chambers, and the occasional space pirate, Space Haven is well worth the journey into the void.

Stardeus

A screenshot of a complex spaceship in Stardeus, with numerous rooms, futuristic machinery, and a large explosion central to the image.
Image: Kodo Linija / Paradox Arc

  • Mode(s): Singleplayer
  • Platform(s): PC

Imagine RimWorld, but your colonists are all in cryosleep, the ship’s AI has gone sentient (you), and everything’s on fire. Welcome to Stardeus.

You play as the ship’s malfunctioning artificial intelligence, trying to rebuild a destroyed star cruiser, maintain life support, and keep your fragile, unconscious humans alive—all while managing drones, crafting machines, and occasionally fending off cosmic threats. There’s no planet to tame here—just the endless void and a to-do list that never ends.

If RimWorld gave you a god complex, Stardeus hands you the motherboard and says, “Good luck running the place.

Stranded: Alien Dawn

A settlement built into a red rock canyon on an alien planet in Stranded: Alien Dawn, with several futuristic buildings and farmlands.
Image: Haemimont Games / Paradox Interactive

  • Mode(s): Singleplayer
  • Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S

Crash-landing on an alien planet with a handful of survivors? Classic RimWorld energy—but Stranded: Alien Dawn cranks up the 3D and survival intensity.

You’ll manage everything from shelter and crop growth to alien wildlife attacks and inter-group dynamics. Each survivor has a distinct backstory, personality, and set of skills, so keeping them alive (and preferably not at each other’s throats) becomes a satisfying balancing act. Expect emergency surgeries, food shortages, and the occasional meltdown—just in high-def.

If you ever wished RimWorld had a more cinematic look and a bit more extraterrestrial flair, Alien Dawn might just be your next crash site.

RimWorld Adjacent: Colony Builders With Familiar Depth

Frostpunk

Frostpunk gameplay screenshot showing a grim, snow-covered settlement built around a massive central generator, with intricate industrial buildings all within a large crater.
Image: 11 bit studios

  • Mode(s): Singleplayer
  • Platform(s) PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, iOS, Android

RimWorld tests your planning. Frostpunk tests your morality.

This brutally beautiful colony sim puts you in charge of the last city on Earth during a world-ending freeze. Sure, you’re still assigning workers, gathering resources, and building infrastructure—but now you’re also deciding whether to implement child labor or pass laws that push citizens to the brink of rebellion (or worse).

Unlike RimWorld’s emergent storytelling, Frostpunk delivers structured scenarios with escalating tension and increasingly harsh trade-offs. It’s colder, darker, and far more ethically stressful—but if you liked wrestling with tough decisions in RimWorld, Frostpunk will keep you frozen in place.

Amazing Cultivation Simulator

Amazing Cultivation Simulator gameplay screenshot showing a top-down perspective of a beautifully rendered cultivation sect, featuring ornate red and blue buildings, a symmetrical training area, and lush green landscapes.
Image: GSQ Games

  • Mode(s): Singleplayer
  • Platform(s): PC

Think RimWorld, but everyone’s trying to become immortal kung fu wizards instead of just… surviving.

In Amazing Cultivation Simulator, you’re not just building a base—you’re managing a sect of mystical cultivators, training disciples in ancient martial arts, balancing their spiritual energy, and meticulously arranging their spaces to prevent calamitous Qi instability.

It’s got the colony sim depth of RimWorld, but layered with traditional Chinese spiritual concepts, intricate crafting, and supernatural progression systems. If you’ve ever wished RimWorld had more meditation, divine breakthroughs, and qi-powered internal organs, this wuxia sandbox offers a truly transcendent journey.

Banished

Banished gameplay screenshot depicting a winter scene of a small settlement, with timber and stone buildings, snow-dusted pine trees, and a river winding through the landscape.
Image: Shining Rock Software LLC

  • Mode(s): Singleplayer
  • Platform(s): PC

Banished strips out the wild events and sci-fi antics of RimWorld—and leaves you alone in the cold with 10 villagers and no clue how to survive winter.

This is a pure, minimalist colony sim focused on resource management, population growth, and keeping your townsfolk alive (and preferably not starving). There are no raids, robots, or psychic breaks—just harsh seasons, supply chains, and the slow realization that maybe building five farms and no firewood was a bad idea.

It’s less unpredictable drama and more methodical survival, but the tension of keeping your tiny community thriving through thin margins feels right at home for RimWorld fans who enjoy the planning side of colony life.

Clanfolk

Clanfolk gameplay screenshot depicting a top-down view of a small village with a mix of residential and production buildings, surrounded by fields and a lake, rendered in a rustic art style.
Image: MinMax Games Ltd. / Hooded Horse

  • Mode(s): Singleplayer
  • Platform(s): PC

If RimWorld traded crash-landed colonists for a Scottish homestead, you’d get something like Clanfolk.

Set in the medieval Highlands, Clanfolk focuses on building up a family-run settlement from scratch. It’s not just about gathering resources—it’s about braving brutal winters, managing intergenerational relationships, and figuring out how to smoke enough fish before the snow hits. Your colonists aren’t strangers picked by chance; they’re blood relatives, with all the loyalty (and complexities) that comes with it.

It may look more serene than RimWorld, but don’t be fooled—behind the charming visuals is a survival sim that punishes poor planning and rewards careful, long-term thinking.

Dawn of Man

Dawn of Man gameplay screenshot showing an early human settlement surrounded by a wooden palisade, with thatched-roof dwellings and cultivated plots, set in a lush, mountainous landscape.
Image: Madruga Works

  • Mode(s): Singleplayer
  • Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

RimWorld lets you colonize a hostile planet. Dawn of Man dials the clock back a few thousand years and drops you into the Stone Age instead.

Instead of guns and drop pods, you’re managing mammoth hunts, flint tools, and the slow crawl towards building a civilization. You’ll guide a prehistoric tribe as they evolve from nomadic foragers into a full-fledged settlement—dealing with harsh weather, wild animals, and occasional raiders.

It’s slower-paced and more grounded than RimWorld, but the survival loop, tech progression, and challenge of keeping everyone alive through the winter will feel comfortingly familiar—just with fewer solar panels and more spears.

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