Games Like Banished

In this city-building game, you will lead a group of survivors in their search for a new home. Manipulate the landscape, manage limited supplies, plant crops, hunt wildlife, gather resources, and develop trade routes to build a bustling and unique town.

Why similar: City Builder 34.8%, Colony Sim 32%, Survival 8.6%, Sandbox 4.4%, Simulation 3.7%

Why You'll Like It: This is one of the closest Banished-style colony builders, centered on assigning villagers, balancing seasonal resources, and keeping a growing settlement alive through shortages and disasters.

Protect and guide your people as you forge a town from untamed wilderness at the edge of the known world. Harvest raw materials, hunt, fish and farm to survive. Produce crafted items to trade, consume, equip and fight with as you battle for your survival against the elements and outside threats.

Why similar: City Builder 32.6%, Colony Sim 29.7%, Survival 7.6%, Medieval 6.1%, Strategy 5.3%

Why You'll Like It: Its detailed medieval production chains, villager needs, farming systems, disease, and harsh survival pressures make it an excellent modern alternative to Banished.

Command a settlement of ancient humans, guide them through the ages in their struggle for survival. Hunt, gather, craft tools, fight, research new techs and face the challenges the environment will throw at you.

Why similar: City Builder 40.2%, Colony Sim 36.6%, Survival 8.1%, Strategy 4.6%, Simulation 2.9%

Why You'll Like It: It has the same satisfying loop of directing a small vulnerable population through food, housing, tools, and seasonal survival, spanning prehistory into the Iron Age.

Ostriv is a city-building game that puts you in a role of a governor of an 18th century Ukrainian town to challenge your creative skills and management abilities.

Why similar: City Builder 31.6%, Colony Sim 27.9%, Survival 6.9%, Strategy 5.8%, Sandbox 4.6%

Why You'll Like It: Ostriv offers a grounded historical settlement simulation with organic town layouts, individual households, agriculture, trade, and a strong focus on everyday village logistics.

Patron is a survival city builder with a unique social dynamics system. Gather and produce resources, build your fledgling village into a prosperous city and navigate the intricate social tensions before they reach boiling point.

Why similar: Colony Sim 33.9%, City Builder 31.2%, Survival 9%, Strategy 5.5%, Medieval 4.2%

Why You'll Like It: Patron closely follows Banished's survival-city-builder formula while adding social-class needs, citizen happiness, and difficult policy choices to settlement management.

Kingdoms and Castles is a city-building simulation game about growing a kingdom from a tiny hamlet to a sprawling city and imposing castle. Make trade agreements, alliance, and war with neighboring AI controlled kingdoms. Each villager and resource is individually simulated.

Why similar: City Builder 31%, Colony Sim 29.7%, Survival 6.1%, Sandbox 4.5%, Medieval 4.3%

Why You'll Like It: It turns Banished-like medieval town development into a more approachable city builder with farming, housing, trade, and threats such as dragons and invasions.

Foundation is a grid-less, laidback medieval city-building game with a focus on organic development, monument construction and resource management.

Why similar: City Builder 45.9%, Colony Sim 15.1%, Medieval 6.5%, Strategy 5.2%, Simulation 4.9%

Why You'll Like It: Foundation provides a relaxed but deep medieval settlement-building experience built around organic growth, worker logistics, resources, and monument construction.

Of Life and Land is a charming settlement-building strategy game paired with a rich simulation experience. Every animal and plant strives to find its place in nature while you lead your villagers to their future. Expand to different regions and trade with local factions to gain needed resources.

Why similar: Colony Sim 29%, City Builder 27.4%, Survival 6.8%, Medieval 5.3%, Strategy 5.1%

Why You'll Like It: This village builder emphasizes a living natural world, seasonal farming, resource chains, and careful expansion into dangerous wilderness.

Manor Lords is a medieval strategy game featuring in-depth city building, large-scale tactical battles, and complex economic and social simulations. Rule your lands as a medieval lord – the seasons pass, the weather changes, and cities rise and fall.

Why similar: Colony Sim 29.6%, City Builder 26.9%, Survival 8.1%, Sandbox 5.8%, Strategy 5.1%

Why You'll Like It: Its medieval village construction, realistic farming, market supply, and regional resource management strongly suit players who enjoy building a functioning community in Banished.

LiF:Forest Village is a city builder with survival aspects in a realistic harsh medieval world. Shape, build and expand your settlement, grow various food to prevent your villagers from avitaminosis and starvation. Possess them for additional micromanagement or simply to wander around.

Why similar: Colony Sim 38.5%, City Builder 36.6%, Survival 5.5%, Strategy 4.3%, Medieval 4%

Why You'll Like It: This is a survival-oriented medieval village simulator where settlers must gather, farm, craft, and prepare for punishing weather and starvation.

Build and manage your own castle settlement in a land reclaimed by wilderness. With detailed management, survival strategy, and a moddable sandbox world, Going Medieval challenges you to build the mightiest colony this side of the apocalypse.

Why similar: Colony Sim 33.4%, City Builder 28.3%, Survival 8.9%, Sandbox 6.1%, Strategy 5.4%

Why You'll Like It: It shares Banished's emphasis on keeping colonists supplied and sheltered, while adding detailed room construction, vertical building, raids, and individual settlers.

A city builder with simulated citizens, set in a procedurally-generated world map. Grow your kingdom through the eras from a tiny medieval hamlet into a prosperous global empire! Cooperate or compete in real-time with your friends in multiplayer mode.

Why similar: City Builder 42.1%, Colony Sim 30.2%, Strategy 4.2%, Medieval 4%, Survival 3.8%

Why You'll Like It: This medieval city builder features resource production, population growth, trade, and expanding settlement districts, with a broader sandbox scale than Banished.

New Cycle is a city building game with focus on survival. After an apocalyptic series of solar flares, human society has been thrown into disarray. Establish a settlement and develop it all the way from humble beginnings to industrial metropolis.

Why similar: Colony Sim 33.4%, City Builder 33.1%, Survival 10%, Strategy 6.1%, Simulation 4.7%

Why You'll Like It: New Cycle combines survival settlement building, population needs, production chains, and environmental hardship in a society rebuilding after global catastrophe.

Endzone is a post-apocalyptic survival city builder, where you start a new civilization with a group of people after an ecological disaster. Build them a new home and ensure their survival in a shattered world, threatened by constant radiation, toxic rain, sandstorms and droughts.

Why similar: City Builder 46%, Colony Sim 19.2%, Survival 11.9%, Strategy 6.9%, Simulation 4.4%

Why You'll Like It: It translates Banished's fragile-community survival structure to a post-apocalyptic setting with scavenging, contamination, droughts, and demanding citizen needs.

Frostpunk is the first society survival game. As the ruler of the last city on Earth, it is your duty to manage both its citizens and infrastructure. What decisions will you make to ensure your society's survival? What will you do when pushed to breaking point? Who will you become in the process?

Why similar: City Builder 38.9%, Colony Sim 30.3%, Survival 11.3%, Strategy 6.1%, Resource Management 5%

Why You'll Like It: Frostpunk is a far harsher city-survival game in which heat, food, labor, and morally difficult laws determine whether your last settlement survives.

Build a prosperous settlement in a unique simulation of a feudal economy - each family runs their shop, owns their goods, and trades with other villagers in a free market. You will manage the land, build houses, organise events, set taxes, and balance supply and demand while engaging in diplomacy!

Why similar: Colony Sim 35.3%, City Builder 29.1%, Medieval 5.9%, Strategy 5.5%, Sandbox 5%

Why You'll Like It: Its feudal settlement simulation focuses on managing households, land, production, taxes, and relationships rather than simply placing buildings.

Clanfolk is a colony sim set in the Scottish Highlands. Harness your environment to survive - fish, gather, hunt, and farm as you prepare for the winter. Build an inn, trade with other clans, have children and marry them off - live life and prosper across the generations.

Why similar: Colony Sim 53.8%, Medieval 11.2%, Sandbox 10.4%, Simulation 7.9%, Building 5.3%

Why You'll Like It: Clanfolk focuses on the intimate survival side of Banished, asking you to guide a small family through Scottish seasons, food preservation, shelter, and intergenerational growth.

A dark fantasy city builder where you must rebuild civilization in the face of apocalyptic rains. As the Queen’s Viceroy, lead humans, beavers, lizards, foxes, and harpies to reclaim the wilderness and secure a future for civilization's last survivors.

Why similar: Colony Sim 29.6%, City Builder 27.2%, Survival 8%, Sandbox 5.7%, Strategy 5.2%

Why You'll Like It: Its shorter roguelite settlements still deliver excellent resource-chain planning, housing, worker management, and survival under hostile weather conditions.

Pioneer a living world full of warmth, heroism, and mystery. Help a small group of settlers build a home for themselves in a forgotten land. Establish a food supply, build shelter, defend your people, monitor their moods, and find a way to grow and expand, facing challenges at every step.

Why similar: Colony Sim 40.4%, City Builder 34.2%, Survival 7.3%, Sandbox 5.7%, Strategy 4.4%

Why You'll Like It: Stonehearth combines a charming medieval-fantasy settlement with villager jobs, crafting chains, farming, construction, and defense against outside dangers.

Humans are long gone. In a world struck by droughts and toxic waste, will your lumberpunk beavers do any better? A sandbox city-building game featuring ingenious animals, vertical architecture, water physics, and terraforming. Contains high amounts of wood.

Why similar: City Builder 36.6%, Colony Sim 33.4%, Survival 7.7%, Sandbox 5.8%, Strategy 4.4%

Why You'll Like It: Timberborn's beaver colonies require thoughtful water management, food production, vertical construction, and drought preparation, making it a distinctive survival-builder alternative.

Guide a group of space settlers trying to establish a base on a remote planet. Grow food, collect energy, mine resources, survive disasters and build a self-sufficient colony in a harsh and unforgiving environment.

Why similar: Colony Sim 40.3%, City Builder 34.5%, Survival 8.4%, Strategy 5.2%, Simulation 2.7%

Why You'll Like It: Planetbase applies Banished's tightly balanced survival economy to an off-world colony where air, water, food, power, and worker specialization are essential.

A sci-fi colony sim driven by an intelligent AI storyteller. Generates stories by simulating psychology, ecology, gunplay, melee combat, climate, biomes, diplomacy, interpersonal relationships, art, medicine, trade, and more.

Why similar: Colony Sim 44.9%, City Builder 19.8%, Survival 10.6%, Sandbox 5.9%, Strategy 5.1%

Why You'll Like It: RimWorld is more character-driven and combat-heavy, but its emergent colony survival, individual pawns, production planning, and disaster recovery will feel familiar.

Land of the Vikings is a survival colony sim game. Build and lead your village, and expand it into a thriving city. A wise Jarl must manage resources, survive harsh conditions, and guide their fellow Vikings to work together through social conflict. Skál!

Why similar: Colony Sim 35.2%, City Builder 30.8%, Survival 8%, Strategy 5.3%, Sandbox 5.1%

Why You'll Like It: Land of the Vikings offers a similarly intimate settlement-survival loop, with villagers needing food, homes, tools, and protection from severe Nordic winters.

Build a soviet republic from an impoverished country into a rich industrial superpower in a city builder with intricate production chains and a fully simulated global economy. Manage the lives of your citizens from education to work and party loyalty to criminal activity.

Why similar: City Builder 32.8%, Colony Sim 25.9%, Survival 6.8%, Strategy 6.2%, Simulation 5.4%

Why You'll Like It: This is a much more complex logistics-focused city builder, but its deep construction, labor, supply-chain, and self-sufficiency systems reward the same careful planning.

Build a new home for your team of robots as they begin a new life for themselves on a distant planet where they can fulfil their ultimate dream: to be human.

Why similar: Colony Sim 34.3%, City Builder 31.3%, Survival 7.8%, Sandbox 5.1%, Strategy 4.1%

Why You'll Like It: Though set in a robotic world, it captures Banished's deliberate settlement planning through worker roles, production chains, farming, transport, and expansion.

Songs of Syx is a fantasy city-builder with vast battles simulating thousands of citizens and soldiers. Start off as a small village and build, scheme, and fight your way towards a mighty empire. The mechanics are deep and true to life, where tiny events can spiral into the collapse of kingdoms.

Why similar: Colony Sim 33%, City Builder 30.2%, Survival 7.5%, Sandbox 5.9%, Medieval 5.2%

Why You'll Like It: Songs of Syx expands the population-management side of Banished into a much larger-scale kingdom simulator while retaining detailed labor, food, housing, and supply concerns.

Citadelum is a city builder set in legendary Ancient Rome. Build your own settlement, gather resources and evolve it into a magnificent city. Explore the world, trade and lead your mighty legions in epic tactical battles. Earn the favor of the Gods or challenge them, if you dare.

Why similar: City Builder 49.3%, Sandbox 9.9%, Simulation 7.2%, Resource Management 7.1%, Strategy 6.7%

Why You'll Like It: Citadelum offers a Roman-era city-building campaign with production management, citizen needs, farming, trade, and periodic threats to a developing settlement.

Hearthlands is a medieval/fantasy city-building real time strategy game in which you take a role of a king in a procedurally generated world. You can not control your subjects directly; instead you focus on city-building, resource management, diplomacy, magic, etc.

Why similar: City Builder 34.8%, Colony Sim 32.5%, Strategy 6.1%, Medieval 5.5%, Simulation 5%

Why You'll Like It: Hearthlands is a medieval fantasy city builder with resource gathering, worker allocation, construction, and trade that retains Banished's small-settlement appeal.

Create and customize cities in Nebuchadnezzar, a classic isometric city-builder where careful planning and define your rise as a ruler in ancient Mesopotamia.

Why similar: City Builder 42%, Colony Sim 21.9%, Sandbox 7.7%, Strategy 4.8%, Economy 4.7%

Why You'll Like It: Its historical Mesopotamian cities emphasize interconnected production, food supply, housing tiers, trade, and deliberate urban planning without requiring military conquest.

Embark on a space voyage with your ragtag crew of civilians in search of a new home. Build spaceships tile by tile, create optimal gas conditions, manage the needs and moods of their crew, encounter other space-faring groups, and explore the universe in this spaceship colony simulation.

Why similar: Colony Sim 34.8%, City Builder 26.4%, Survival 9.2%, Sandbox 6.1%, Strategy 5.5%

Survive and thrive in a post-apocalyptic future — resources are scarce, but opportunity calls! Build the ultimate disaster proof colony, protect your colonists, and restore civilization to a devastated world.

Why similar: City Builder 38.3%, Colony Sim 31.7%, Survival 10.1%, Strategy 8.1%, Simulation 6.4%

Settlements Rising is a medieval city building and colony management game. It offers a lively colony experience with simulated villagers, dozens of professions and resources, natural disasters, and raids, while providing full control over the colony through trade, production chains and datas.

Why similar: Colony Sim 31.9%, City Builder 30.6%, Survival 5.6%, Strategy 5.1%, Medieval 5%

Only the world’s most ruthless Warden can contain the world’s most ruthless inmates. Design and develop your personalized penitentiary in Prison Architect.

Why similar: Colony Sim 36.9%, City Builder 29.2%, Sandbox 7.4%, Strategy 6.1%, Simulation 6.1%

Lethis - Path of Progress is a city-builder in a victorian steampunk setting.

Why similar: City Builder 61.8%, Strategy 9.4%, Simulation 8%, Sandbox 6.3%, Resource Management 5.9%

Why You'll Like It: Lethis is a traditional city builder focused on placing services, maintaining production chains, and satisfying the evolving demands of a growing steampunk population.

Gnomoria is a sandbox village management game where you help lead a small group of gnomes, who have set out on their own, to thrive into a bustling kingdom! Anything you see can be broken down and rebuilt elsewhere.

Why similar: Colony Sim 38.2%, City Builder 31.4%, Sandbox 7.2%, Survival 6.8%, Strategy 5.6%

ISLANDERS is a minimalist strategy game about building cities on colorful islands.

Why similar: City Builder 47.3%, Colony Sim 27.1%, Strategy 7.7%, Relaxing 5.1%, Beautiful 5.1% ★

A fantasy village builder focusing on creative building, colonist psychology and base defense. Handle resources, farming, production, tools, diplomacy, families, trading, defense, and research, as well as the wishes, expectations, thoughts, and equipment of every villager.

Why similar: Colony Sim 44.4%, City Builder 26.5%, Survival 6.1%, Sandbox 4.2%, Strategy 4.1%

Cities: Skylines is a modern take on the classic city simulation. The game introduces new game play elements to realize the thrill and hardships of creating and maintaining a real city whilst expanding on some well-established tropes of the city building experience.

Why similar: City Builder 65.5%, Simulation 7.8%, Sandbox 6.2%, Strategy 5.7%, Building 4.6%

Settler's Domain is a strategy game about building a new settlement in unknown lands. Grow your population, explore the map, and contend with other settlements while keeping your settlers alive.

Why similar: Colony Sim 38.8%, City Builder 35.6%, Strategy 6.1%, Resource Management 5.1%, Medieval 4.8%

Humanica is a city-builder game about an ancient settlement, featuring vast technological development. Experience the journey from sticks and stones to iron tools and windmills!

Why similar: City Builder 30.4%, Colony Sim 27.2%, Survival 8.9%, Strategy 4.9%, Simulation 4.7%

Build your society of the future, colonize islands, and create sprawling megacities with multitudes of buildings, vehicles, and resources to manage.

Why similar: City Builder 65%, Strategy 13%, Simulation 6.1%, Resource Management 3.9%, Economy 3.6%

Return to the remote island nation of Tropico and expand your Dynasty’s reign from the early colonial period to beyond the 21st Century, facing new challenges including advanced trading mechanics, technology and scientific research, as well as cooperative and competitive MULTIPLAYER.

Why similar: City Builder 60%, Strategy 12.9%, Simulation 8.9%, Sandbox 7.6%, Economy 3.6%

After a nuclear war life on the surface became impossible. A 300m thick radioactive fog covered the Earth. We are looking for bold active people to manage the process of restoring life on Earth. Join!

Why similar: City Builder 34.7%, Colony Sim 31.7%, Strategy 6.2%, Sandbox 5.4%, Simulation 5.3%

Relive the captivating gameplay of a true city-building classic with Anno® 1404 History Edition.

Why similar: City Builder 46.2%, Colony Sim 24.7%, Strategy 9.6%, Simulation 6.5%, Building 4.2%

For centuries Europe has been dominated by the church and nobility. On the shoulders of ordinary people the servants of god and the noble families justified their power and wealth. This was the incontrovertible, divine world order. A truly dark era… In the 14th Century the world order is beginning to transform itself.

Why similar: Colony Sim 43.5%, City Builder 18.9%, Medieval 8.2%, Strategy 7.6%, Simulation 6.8%

Rebuild hope in a world that was lost in the fog. Lead your Pioneers across the isles of Pagonia, unite scattered tribes, raise thriving communities and discover the history of your people as you reclaim your world in the new story campaign.

Why similar: Colony Sim 34.4%, City Builder 29.8%, Medieval 6.5%, Strategy 5.7%, Resource Management 4.6%

Civitatem is a medieval city builder where you help your villagers raise a new settlement in dangerous lands by making use of their skills and available world resources.

Why similar: City Builder 47.8%, Strategy 10.9%, Survival 8.6%, Simulation 8.6%, Medieval 6.8%

Urbek is a city building game where you can build your own neighbourhoods: from nightlife district to industrial district. Don't exhaust your natural resources before you have an educated population to build more efficient structures.

Why similar: City Builder 50%, Sandbox 9.2%, Strategy 7.9%, Simulation 7.3%, Resource Management 5.9%

Lead your noble family in this medieval colony sim, facing off against class conflict, religious struggle, and political treachery. Tend to your people’s needs, uncover the lost knowledge of a fallen empire, and engage in nefarious plots against your enemies.

Why similar: Colony Sim 30.4%, City Builder 27.2%, Survival 7.7%, Sandbox 5.6%, Strategy 5.2%

Build, survive, explore. Design your city, manage resource chains and workers, Send ships on expedition, trade with cities, discover mysterious dungeons and uncover secrets of ancients.

Why similar: Colony Sim 43.4%, City Builder 24.6%, Survival 10.9%, Strategy 5.5%, Simulation 4.7%

Build a fortress and try to help your dwarves survive against a deeply generated world. Keep your dwarves happy, grow their community and beware of digging too deeply. The deepest, most intricate simulation of a world that's ever been created.

Why similar: Colony Sim 34.3%, City Builder 30.1%, Survival 9.3%, Sandbox 6.6%, Strategy 5.7%

Build a new home for humanity in Aven Colony. Discover Aven Prime - an alien planet of deserts, tundras, and wetlands light years from earth. Build your colonies into massive, sprawling cities whilst dealing with the challenges faced when settling on a new world.

Why similar: Colony Sim 44.5%, City Builder 37.8%, Strategy 6.2%, Simulation 4.5%, Survival 3.1%

Townsmen – A Kingdom Rebuilt hands the crown to you: Guide your people from their first steps in a small village to a massive medieval metropolis with thousands of inhabitants.

Why similar: Colony Sim 41.6%, City Builder 28.2%, Strategy 9%, Simulation 7.6%, Medieval 4.3%

Colonize Prologue is a combination of survival game and building strategy that takes place during the colonization period - the 17th century. It tells the story of a settlement in the new world and all the difficulties encountered by the early settlers.

Why similar: Colony Sim 34.2%, City Builder 31.3%, Survival 8.2%, Sandbox 6.4%, Strategy 4.5%

Villagers is a beautifully illustrated and richly detailed town-building game where you build a thriving community using the people and resources around you. Success or failure depends on your ability to create a town that can grow and prosper, and overcome the harsh realities of medieval life!

Why similar: City Builder 64.8%, Strategy 13.7%, Simulation 11.6%, Medieval 7.5%, Indie 2.4%

Anno 1800™ – Lead the Industrial Revolution! Welcome to the dawn of the Industrial Age. The path you choose will define your world. Are you an innovator or an exploiter? A conqueror or a liberator? How the world remembers your name is up to you.

Why similar: City Builder 64.2%, Strategy 9.9%, Simulation 7%, Economy 5.5%, Sandbox 4.2%

Endzone 2 is a post-apocalyptic survival colony builder, where you embark to secure humanity's survival after a cataclysmic disaster. Discover and repopulate the last habitable grounds, while the survival of your people hinges on your wits, foresight, and resilience in a harsh and unforgiving world.

Why similar: Colony Sim 34.2%, City Builder 29.6%, Survival 9%, Sandbox 5.9%, Simulation 4.2%

Build, expand, and rule a growing space colony. Explore tech, trade, and multiplayer.

Why similar: City Builder 44.1%, Colony Sim 43.6%, Strategy 5.6%, Simulation 5.4%, Indie 1.3%

Rebuild settlements entirely within a colossal generation ship in this turn-based city builder. Expand your city, manage limited resources and optimize production chains as you navigate difficult choices about humanity’s future among the stars.

Why similar: Colony Sim 38.3%, City Builder 36.3%, Survival 8.5%, Simulation 4.9%, Building 3.7%