Games Like Dwarf Fortress

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 27.1%, Base Building 15.9%, City Builder 10.9%, Survival 9.6%, Sandbox 8.6%

Why You'll Like It: Its AI-driven colonists, emergent disasters, layered production, and highly moddable colony sandbox deliver the closest modern alternative to Dwarf Fortress storytelling.

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 23.4%, City Builder 19.6%, Base Building 12.6%, Building 10.5%, Sandbox 10.1%

Why You'll Like It: This vast fantasy city-builder emphasizes enormous populations, complex economies, social needs, warfare, and the gradual growth of a living settlement.

KeeperRL is a retro dungeon simulator with roguelike and RPG elements. Take the role of an evil keeper and build a formidable dungeon. Recruit sinister minions, equip and train them to explore the world and fight the forces of good.

Why similar: Dwarves 36.6% ★, Base Building 12.5%, Building 9.8%, Sandbox 9%, Management 8.6%

Why You'll Like It: It combines roguelike procedural generation with fortress construction, minion management, traps, digging, and defending an underground lair.

Settle an untamed wilderness with the might of Dwarven engineering and thoughtful planning! Design and build your colony towards fame and fortune in a deeply-simulated fantasy world. Chill out in peaceful mode with a bustling settlement, or fight for survival against monsters and invasions!

Why similar: Dwarves 31.4% ★, Colony Sim 16.3%, City Builder 10.2%, Base Building 8.7%, Building 6.9%

Why You'll Like It: Its dwarf-led mountain settlement gameplay focuses on layered excavation, production networks, worker needs, and defending a growing fortress.

Build a settlement in a realm recovering from the Fracture, a calamity that nearly destroyed the realm. Choose from several unique races, establish a new kingdom, and survive in a land filled with magic and strange creatures. Farm the land, fish the seas, or raid rival kingdoms for their treasures.

Why similar: Colony Sim 22.4%, City Builder 14.2%, Base Building 13.2%, Management 9.4%, Sandbox 9.3%

Why You'll Like It: This tile-based colony sim lets you build across multiple vertical layers while managing distinct races, resources, jobs, and hostile environments.

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 29.2%, City Builder 21.9%, Sandbox 13.2%, Building 9.7%, Survival 7.9%

Why You'll Like It: A direct Dwarf Fortress-inspired colony simulator centered on digging into terrain, assigning jobs, crafting goods, and keeping a gnome settlement alive.

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 22.6%, City Builder 17.5%, Base Building 13.6%, Sandbox 10%, Management 9.7%

Why You'll Like It: Build a vertical medieval stronghold, manage settlers' needs and skills, establish production, and survive raids in a sandbox colony setting.

Craft The World is a unique sandbox strategy game, the mix of Dungeon Keeper, Terraria and Dwarf Fortress. Explore a random generated world populated by dangerous creatures, build a dwarf fortress, gather resources, and craft all the items, weapons, and armor you need.

Why similar: Dwarves 41.4% ★, Colony Sim 20%, Building 9.8%, Sandbox 9.1%, City Builder 6.4%

Why You'll Like It: It mixes dwarf workforce management, underground excavation, crafting chains, and base defense in a more accessible side-view format.

Oxygen Not Included is a space-colony simulation game. Deep inside an alien space rock your industrious crew will need to master science, overcome strange new lifeforms, and harness incredible space tech to survive, and possibly, thrive.

Why similar: Colony Sim 34.7%, Base Building 20.1%, Survival 12.4%, Building 9.9%, Management 6.9%

Why You'll Like It: Its delightfully demanding simulation of gases, heat, liquids, plumbing, and colonist behavior offers Dwarf Fortress-like engineering problem solving.

Inhabit a deeply-simulated science fantasy world and chisel through layers of thousand-year-old civilizations. Build a character from over a hundred mutations and cybernetics. The award-winning sandbox roguelike & RPG full of robots, deep lore, and sentient plants.

Why similar: Survival 39.3%, Procedural Generation 16.7%, Moddable 14.3%, Open World 13.7%, Roguelike 9%

Why You'll Like It: While centered on one adventurer rather than a fortress, its exceptionally reactive procedural world and dense systemic simulation strongly echo Dwarf Fortress's adventure side.

Stonedeep is an 2.5D underground city builder. Dwarfs gather resources, build and fend off monsters. Colonies can specialize in culture, production, military and trading. At start, dwarfs need drinks and rest. With a higher civilization level, they will increase their needs.

Why similar: Colony Sim 23.1%, Base Building 15.2%, City Builder 11.5%, Building 10.7%, Survival 9.4%

Why You'll Like It: It is an explicitly Dwarf Fortress-style underground colony builder about mining, manufacturing, survival, and expanding a subterranean settlement.

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 31.8%, City Builder 24.6%, Building 12%, Sandbox 10.8%, Survival 8.7%

Why You'll Like It: Its blocky fantasy town-building combines settlers with individual jobs, crafting, combat, and construction across a deformable landscape.

Rise up in a search for immortality in this strategy sim and management game based on Chinese mythology. Rebuild your sect and train new disciples through the path of cultivation. Research magic and gather mystical artifacts, face ancient dangers and other sects in your path to spiritual ascension.

Why similar: Colony Sim 28.1%, Sandbox 18.7%, Base Building 12.1%, Simulation 11.4%, Survival 10.1%

Why You'll Like It: This intricate colony management game has autonomous disciples, elaborate room systems, cultivation mechanics, and cascading simulation-driven consequences.

A brutal godlike village sim that melds the god game, management, and tower defense genres! Fight off hoards of monsters at night, and expand your village in the day time. Inspired by games like Black and White, Rimworld, and Dwarf Fortress but not quite like any of them.

Why similar: Colony Sim 33.6%, City Builder 25.5%, Base Building 13.2%, Survival 10.2%, Sandbox 6.3%

Why You'll Like It: This pixel-art colony builder blends worker management, production, construction, and escalating monster-defense pressure across procedural maps.

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 22%, City Builder 15.2%, Base Building 13.3%, Building 9.9%, Sandbox 9.4%

Why You'll Like It: It translates Dwarf Fortress-style crew management, construction, resource logistics, and emergent survival stories into a customizable spaceship colony.

Build a colony of ruthless capitalist Dwarves in a strange fantasy land.

Why similar: Dwarves 78.5% ★, Colony Sim 12.1%, Strategy 3.3%, Base Building 3.2%, Simulation 3%

Why You'll Like It: Manage a dwarf mining company by digging through procedurally generated terrain, establishing industry, and protecting workers from dangers below.

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 43.1%, Building 21.1%, Sandbox 20.1%, Simulation 8.8%, Open World 3.5%

Why You'll Like It: A careful, character-focused settlement sim about sustaining a multigenerational Scottish clan through seasonal survival and detailed daily work.

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 20%, City Builder 16.3%, Base Building 12.3%, Building 9.7%, Sandbox 9%

Why You'll Like It: It brings complex individual relationships, social hierarchy, resource management, and emergent medieval settlement stories to colony strategy.

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 19.4%, City Builder 16.3%, Base Building 12.2%, Building 10.1%, Sandbox 9%

Why You'll Like It: Its roguelite settlement-building structure emphasizes difficult resource decisions, varied species needs, hostile wilderness, and adapting each colony to changing conditions.

Ratopia is a new game that has combined elements of both strategic survival and city building. With plenty of content available, and more planned, enjoy a vast world to adventure and populate with citizens! Build your own economical system to sustain your ideal city of Ratopia.

Why similar: Colony Sim 22.2%, City Builder 15.5%, Base Building 13%, Building 11.7%, Survival 8.6%

Why You'll Like It: Build a side-view society with citizens, taxes, laws, production chains, and survival concerns while expanding into dangerous underground areas.

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 22.1%, Colony Sim 22.1%, Base Building 11.7%, Building 9.9%, Sandbox 9.3%

Why You'll Like It: This systemic colony builder asks you to engineer water infrastructure, manage beaver workers, and survive harsh drought cycles.

Factorio is a game about building and creating automated factories to produce items of increasing complexity, within an infinite 2D world. Use your imagination to design your factory, combine simple elements into ingenious structures, and finally protect it from the creatures who don't really like you.

Why similar: Base Building 29%, Sandbox 15.5%, City Builder 10.3%, Survival 9.3%, Management 9%

Why You'll Like It: Although it lacks individual dwarves, its deep production chains, logistics puzzles, construction freedom, and defense-driven expansion appeal to fortress engineers.

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 21.9%, Colony Sim 21.8%, Building 16.3%, Base Building 13.2%, Management 9.3%

Why You'll Like It: A demanding medieval town builder with farming, labor allocation, trade, disease, defense, and long-term survival planning.

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: Colony Sim 22.2%, City Builder 21.2%, Base Building 10.5%, Building 8.7%, Management 8.6%

Why You'll Like It: A more relaxed but still engaging city-builder about growing a medieval kingdom, maintaining supplies, and defending citizens from threats.

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 31.2%, City Builder 17%, Base Building 13.5%, Building 9%, Sandbox 7%

Why You'll Like It: This character-driven colony sim combines modular building, skills, happiness, research, and survival on a small frontier settlement.

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 28.5%, City Builder 21.5%, Management 11.7%, Building 11.4%, Sandbox 9.8%

Why You'll Like It: It focuses on assigning households, regulating their needs and relationships, managing production, and growing a medieval village economy.

In this city-building strategy game, you control a group of exiled travelers who decide to restart their lives in a new land. They have only the clothes on their backs and a cart filled with supplies from their homeland. The townspeople of Banished are your primary resource.

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

Why You'll Like It: Its unforgiving focus on food, housing, labor assignment, seasonal planning, and population survival captures the harsher settlement-management side of Dwarf Fortress.

Colony Survival is a unique first-person strategy game developed by a two-man team. Build your own colony in a voxel world. Command guards, farmers, miners and other colonists. Defend your colony against the horde of monsters that attacks every night!

Why similar: Colony Sim 30.9%, Base Building 15.8%, Survival 11.3%, Building 11.3%, City Builder 10.7%

Why You'll Like It: Build a voxel settlement, assign colonists to specialized jobs, automate resource gathering, and defend the colony from nightly invasions.

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: Colony Sim 22.8%, City Builder 22.7%, Building 12.1%, Management 9.6%, Survival 9.2%

Why You'll Like It: Its broad village-management systems cover worker assignments, production chains, seasonal hardship, education, disasters, and population growth.

Gnomes is a turn-based tower defense with deep roguelike progression, set in ever-expanding, procedurally generated biomes. Build, farm and defend your village as you push deeper into goblin-infested territory. Unlock powerful upgrades and craft your environment to survive the endless goblin horde

Why similar: Dwarves 38.3% ★, Colony Sim 16.8%, City Builder 14.6%, Base Building 11.1%, Survival 8%

Build, quest, and conquer across an infinite procedurally generated world. Play alone or with friends as you establish a settlement and explore deep dungeons, fight monsters and bosses, mine rare ores, craft magical equipment, recruit specialists for your colony, and more!

Why similar: Sandbox 25.1%, Base Building 23.1%, Survival 21.3%, Building 20.8%, Open World 4.8%

Become a real medieval feudal lord: start with a small village and build it up into an enormous impenetrable castle. You will have to repel enemy raids: hide behind thick walls, lure your enemies into strategically placed traps, and even lead your loyal peasants into battle.

Why similar: Colony Sim 23.6%, City Builder 15.7%, Base Building 13.9%, Building 11%, Management 8%

Why You'll Like It: Lead a medieval settlement through construction, agriculture, resource extraction, crafting, raids, and detailed worker task management.

WorldBox is the ULTIMATE god simulator and sandbox game. A petri dish for your fantasy civilizations. Create your own world or destroy it using many powers. Watch civilizations grow, form kingdoms, colonize new lands, sail to far continents, wars to ignite, empires to fall and towns to burn!

Why similar: Colony Sim 36%, Sandbox 26.5%, Building 15.4%, Management 10%, Simulation 8.8%

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 34.4%, Colony Sim 12.4%, Sandbox 9%, Building 8.8%, Management 8.5%

Design and build fortresses brick by brick to stand against endless hordes of Horrors in this real-time strategy game with resource management, siege defense, and exploration. Lead from the ramparts, push back the darkness, and hold fast against the creatures of the Mist.

Why similar: Colony Sim 19.4%, City Builder 16.3%, Base Building 12.3%, Building 10%, Sandbox 9%

Gather resources, craft weapons, and build a castle. Then defend your castle against monsters who will try to siege, sap, and smash their way in. All in a procedurally generated 3D block world that allows for extensive crafting and total construction and destruction of the terrain.

Why similar: Dwarves 73.9% ★, Colony Sim 5.5%, Base Building 3.6%, Building 3%, Sandbox 2.8%

Extensions for Dwarf Fortress, including bugfixes, interface improvements, automation agents, design blueprints, modding building blocks, and other tools.

Why similar: Dwarves 53.6% ★, Colony Sim 18.6%, Building 7.5%, Simulation 5.4%, Management 4.8%

Inspired by the deep simulation of Dwarf Fortress, the open world survival of Minecraft, and the social interactions of The Sims. Embark is a colony management game with a focus on complex simulation in a huge living 3D world.

Why similar: Colony Sim 37.8%, Base Building 16.6%, Building 9.2%, Sandbox 8.9%, Survival 7.9%

A colony sim based dungeon crawler where you manage your expedition to build a settlement in barren land, provide food and shelter for your people, lead them deep into the merciless dungeon, overcome challenging combat by your strategy.

Why similar: Colony Sim 34.7%, Base Building 20.6%, Management 15.5%, Survival 13.5%, Strategy 7.4%

Dig! Dig! Dig! Manage the small underground Dwarf base and make it as rich as possible before they meet their inevitable doom. Purchase before May 11th and save!

Why similar: Dwarves 44.3% ★, Colony Sim 19.4%, Base Building 9.7%, Management 7.7%, Sandbox 6.5%

Manage a Dwarven mining colony in the unexplored mountains of Mara. As conflict rages in the Overworld, you will need to craft, explore and fight as you provide the allies of your choice with the finest weapons and gear to assist them in the battle for glory.

Why similar: Colony Sim 31%, Base Building 18.6%, Building 14.3%, Management 13.2%, Simulation 5.9%

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 19.4%, Colony Sim 16.7%, Base Building 12.9%, Building 10.4%, Management 9.2%

An open-world colony sim based on stories of the first men. Infinite possibilities await your very own Adam and Eve as they embark on a generation-spanning adventure. How will you shape their future?

Why similar: Colony Sim 30.8%, Base Building 18.1%, Building 8.6%, Sandbox 8.1%, City Builder 7.4%

Establish a home for your industrious mice under the oppressive paw of your cat overlords in this city builder featuring complex simulations, intricate production chains, and the age-old rivalry between cat and mouse.

Why similar: Colony Sim 20.2%, City Builder 16.4%, Base Building 12.3%, Building 9.8%, Sandbox 8.9%

Dungeon Overseer is a colony simulator with a focus on base building and resource management. Become the Overseer by building a unique dungeon layout, constructing your lair, upgrading and expanding, questing, crafting, researching, recruiting, defending your base, and raiding.

Why similar: Colony Sim 25.9%, City Builder 19.6%, Base Building 15.5%, Building 11.1%, Management 7.7%

A free-roaming squad based RPG. Focusing on open-ended sandbox gameplay features rather than a linear story. Be a trader, a thief, a rebel, a warlord, an adventurer, a farmer, a slave, or just food for the cannibals. Train your men up from puny victims to master warriors.

Why similar: Base Building 21.5%, Building 17.8%, Sandbox 16.9%, Management 15.8%, Survival 14.9%

Stardeus is a deep colony sim set on a broken starship manned by drones and hibernating human survivors. As the AI, have your drones repair your ship, save your crew and travel the stars in this beautiful simulation.

Why similar: Colony Sim 28.3%, Base Building 16.8%, Sandbox 11.5%, Survival 11.3%, Management 9.3%

Orebound is a dwarven themed factory automation game. Play alone or with friends as you build, mine, craft and explore a voxel generated world! Build your fortress, expand your factory, fight off creatures who dwell beneath the mountains and embark on a journey of greatness.

Why similar: Dwarves 58.8% ★, Colony Sim 12.9%, Building 8.7%, Base Building 8.4%, Simulation 3.3%

Build, scavenge, craft, and perform occult rituals to survive in a demon-infested, post-apocalyptic colony simulation. Will you survive Judgment day?

Why similar: Colony Sim 29.1%, Base Building 16.2%, Survival 11.8%, City Builder 9.4%, Sandbox 8.2%

Command swarms of warriors at an unprecedented scale of warfare in this blend of RTS and base-building. Lead ant colonies against the many fearsome threats of the insect world, while building intricate nests, developing pheromone-based tactics, and evolving to meet growing dangers.

Why similar: Colony Sim 19.6%, City Builder 16.2%, Base Building 12.4%, Building 9.9%, Sandbox 9.2%

Manage your own medieval smithy in Blacksmith Master and supervise the entire process from mining ores and gems to designing and selling finished products. Forge everything from weapons and armor to tools and cooking utensils to fund your craft and become the Blacksmith Master.

Why similar: Colony Sim 19.7%, City Builder 16.3%, Base Building 12.2%, Building 9.9%, Sandbox 9%

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 24%, City Builder 21%, Base Building 9.9%, Building 9.3%, Management 7.8%

Build massive ocean cities and lead your people to prosperity in this post-apocalyptic survival colony sim. Featuring a physics-based 3D construction system, complex resource management, exploration, difficult political decisions, supply chains, and a robust sandbox mode.

Why similar: Colony Sim 25.1%, City Builder 18%, Base Building 15.2%, Sandbox 10%, Building 7.9%

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 22.4%, City Builder 16.2%, Base Building 13.9%, Building 12.3%, Sandbox 10.9%

Dwarves hunger for gold, and no mountain shall stand in their way! Mine riches, unearth artifacts, and upgrade your dwarves to devour ever-bigger peaks in this whimsical incremental game.

Why similar: Dwarves 53.4% ★, Building 11.9%, Base Building 11.2%, Management 8.3%, Strategy 5.8%

A dwarfish colony sim set in a fantasy world. Inspired by Rimworld and Banished. Dig deep to uncover riches and challenges, recruit dwarves to produce goods, and trade with other settlements (or raid them) to help your colony succeed.

Why similar: Dwarves 90.9% ★, Simulation 9.1%

Harness your Demigod powers to lead a group from rags to riches in this 3D Fantasy Kingdom Management Sim with RPG elements. Command from the sky or take control in 3rd Person to BUILD, BATTLE, and RULE. Navigate a world of interesting Nobles, earn their respect, and decide their Fates.

Why similar: Colony Sim 23.2%, City Builder 18%, Base Building 12.8%, Sandbox 10.2%, Building 9.1%

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 35.5%, City Builder 30.9%, Building 8.2%, Survival 7.6%, Strategy 5%

A Dwarven Prince on a quest to reclaim his people’s stolen land will take you on a great journey. Explore a continent filled with buried treasures and unearth mysteries that have laid hidden since the Great War.

Why similar: Dwarves 70% ★, City Builder 13.6%, Building 6.5%, Strategy 6.3%, Simulation 2.3%