City life isn't always a walk in the park; unless you're actually walking through a𝔍 pa🎶rk. It's noisy, crowded, and commutes can be frustrating. If only there was a way to design the perfect city to end all your urban woes.
Luckily, game designers feel your pain, and for years, they have provided us ♈with 𓆉an outlet to play a god and construct our very own utopias. Why brave the real streets when you can just build your own to go anywhere your heart desires? We've constructed our very own list of the best city-building games of all time so that you can find the ideal way to create a world of your very own.
Updated May 23, 2025 By Matthew Mckeown: Everyone likes to think of themselves as an amateur architect, though sadly a large majority of us will never have access to that kind of budget. But the next best thing though is getting your hands on a city builder game, and there are quite a lot of them.
There’s tons of ways in which you can design your own cityscape, from the modern, to the medieval, magical and even futuristic. There’s plenty of options to pave over your patch of paradise to put up a parking lot, or a skyscraper. So here’s an updated look at the best city building games of all time.
These games are presented in no particular order.
Darfall
Keep The Hordes Away From Your Home
Darfall
- Released
- 0000
- Developer(s)
- 🧸 💎 SquareNite
- Publisher(s)
- ♔ Paradox Arc 🅰
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Unknown
- Platform(s)
- Steam
A city-builder crossed with an RPG hero game, Darfall from Square Nite is an exciting blend that will keep you constantly on your toes. Whether that’s building up your hero’s skill set and homeland during the day, or fighting off 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:huge hordes in the evening that jusꦺt want to smash down your front gate, Da🎐rfall can really keep you busy.
Your city can start to get quite the sprawl on it, and the𒅌re’s a large continental map to work your way across in the campaign. Overall if you enjoy a lot of middle-management mouse-clicking in a high risk style of gameplay, then you definitely should dig into Darfall.
Kingdoms Deck
Defending The Kingdom With A Deck Of Cards
Kingdoms Deck from Ivan Aco is a great take on the city building genre that emphasises planning ahead and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:deck building as part of your construction schemes. Certain buildings can be placed with special cards d🥃uring the day as you develop your town and gather resources.
Then during the night as creatures and bandits attack your homest𝓀ead you can unleash special abilities and magic against them through offensive cards in your deck. It’s a surprisingly strategic blend that’s easy to get into and scales in difficulty pretty quickly once you’ve got a decent deck under your belt.
Neon Garten
Always Building Upward
A minimalist approach to the brutalist style of cyberpunk dystopian architecture, Neon Garten fr▨om Moonroof Studios is a cute techno themed building on its surface. But scratch below the surface and you’ll find a ton of deep mechanics that are a delight to dig into.
This turn-based game tasks you with building a little hab block of buildin🧸gs of varying types that will flourish and net you a decent income. But it’s harder than it sounds as periodically your block will be attacked and you’ll need to fend off threats. It’s a challenging mix of procedural generated city building that will keep your brain crunching those credit numbers well into the small hours.
Synergy
Go Green, Or Go Bust
Synergy
- Developer(s)
- ꦇ Leikir Studio
- Publisher(s)
- Goblinz Publishing, H2 ಌꦕinteractive
- Platform(s)
- PC
A vast majority of city building games have you destroying🔜 the environment in one shape or another, but with Synergy you have to learn to live with the land if you want to thrive. This eco-friendly and well received game from Lekir Studio is creating quite the buzz for its approach, and rightly so.
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These games are fun to play and help raise awareness of environmental issue.൲
You find yourself in charge of a settlement on an alien world, the environment needs to be tamed, nurtured, and renewed regularly if you want your citizens to keep on keeping on. But throw in bizarre natꦅural events, wild weather, and a landscape that needs to be expanded upon and explored and you’ve got yourself quite the chunky timesink. For those looking for something different and a little special, check out Synergy.
Night Is Coming
Don’t Stay Out After Dark
An intriguing mix of survival strategy and city-building, Night Is Coming from Wild Forest Studio is another of those build during the day, fight your backside-off du𝐆ring the night kind of games. What makes it stand out from the others though is its style as it leans more into the realistic with its model designs.
The game itself is Early Access, and heavily inspired by 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Eastern European myths. So expect a lot of s🔥lavic references sprinkled throughout. At night, creatures and c🍌ryptids from all across the spectrum crawl out of their dark holes and head toward your home with murder in mind. If your defenses aren’t up to scratch, then it’s goodbye to your hard built hamlet. Absolutely dripping in some great horror notes, Night Is Coming has a steep learning curve but it’s highly recommended.
Little Cities VR
A Hands-On Approach To City Planning
One of the most satisfying things about city builders is that they allow you to create sprawling settlements that you'd love to live in. Little Cities takes that compelling gameplay and takes you right into the ꦏcity you build thanks to the wonders of virtual reality, allowing you to see close-up the inner workings of your metropolis.
It has all the usual trappings of a city builder, but brings it to a whole new level of immersion. You actually get to interact with the people who live in your city, too. You can wave at them and watch them as they go about their daily lives, whether they're indulging in some ♓exciting skiing or hot air ballooning, or simply taking a breather to eat their lunch.
Sumerians
Building Up A Little Bit Of History
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168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Sumerians
- Released
- October 17, 2023
- Developer(s)
- Deꦍcumanus Games ▨
- Publisher(s)
- ♐ Decumanus Games
- Engine
- Unity
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Playable
- PC Release Date
- October 17, 2023
- Platform(s)
- PC
- How Long To Beat
- 56 Mins
Set in an🤡cient Mesopotamia, Sumerians all🔴ows you to build up a small settlement into a sprawling city. This game stands out from its contemporaries by utilizing zoning mechanics most often seen in modern city builders, which helps the settlements you make feel more realistic and alive.
After 🌞leaving Early Access in October 2023, Sumerians receives frequent updates from its solo developer. It's an underrated gem that proves to be as educational as it is enjoyable.
Timberborn
Everything Belongs To The Beavers
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- Platform(s)
- 𝕴 🐎 Microsoft Windows, macOS
- Developer
- 𓄧Mechanistry, Mechanistry S﷽p. z o.o.
- Publisher
- M♏echanistry, Mechanistry Sp. 😼z o.o.
- How Long To Beat
- 22 hours
Most cities a🌞re built by and inhabited by humans - most. In Timberborn, settlements are built by beavers, who are under your control. It's your job to direct these furry critters around as they build houses, gather resources, and do what beavers d✃o best - dam.
As you'd imagine, water plays a very important part of the game, and this is one of the ways that Timberborn sets itself apart from its compat🐟riots on the city builder scene. The game is curre💦ntly in Early Access but enjoys a dedicated fanbase and oodles of positive reviews.
Against The Storm
Huddling Together With Fantasy Themed Friends
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168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Against the Storm
- Top Critic Avg: 92/100 Critics Rec: 92%
- Released
- December 8, 2023
- ESRB
- t
- Developer(s)
- 🃏 Eremite Games
- Publisher(s)
- 𒐪 💧 Hooded Horse
- Engine
- Unity
- Platform(s)
- PC
- How Long To Beat
- 30 Hours
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Roguelikes are very popular, getting blended with every other genre you can thinkꦇ of. Against the Storm blends roguelike progression into the city builder genre, and adds a dash of fantasy in for good measure.
This game is incredibly compelling - turning 🗹a city builder into a 'just one more game' experience works incredibly well, and the randomized nature of the game means you won't get bored easily. It feels like a well-rounded, full experienꦕce, with each hour-ish long run delivering a complete city building campaign.
Kingdoms Reborn
Micro Managing Peasants Into Paradise
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168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Kingdoms Reborn
- Released
- November 30, 2020
- Developer(s)
- 🔯 ൲Earthshine
- Publisher(s)
- ౠ Earth♔shine
- Engine
- Unreal Engine
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Playable
- Early Access Release
- November 30, 2020
- Platform(s)
- PC
- How Long To Beat
- 20 Hours
Kingdoms Reborn is a city builder that mostly revolves around resource management and the betterment of your residents' lives. You're responsible for choosing their location, providing them wi🐻th food and luxuries, and expanding your territory to attract more people.
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Interestingly, Kingdoms Reborn can be played online with other players i💙n real-time on the same map. You can play cooperatively with gifts and plan to share resources or play competitively by cornering the global mar🔯kets or using the game's basic military mechanics to flex your might. It's a very interesting game that shines when you play with a pal.
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