Games Like Garbage

Bum Simulator is a sandbox game bursting with inappropriate humor and memorable characters. You live on the streets of Bumsville. Do you have what it takes to adapt, survive and become an urban legend?

Why similar: Survival 24%, Simulation 23%, Base Building 22.8%, Comedy 11.7%, Realistic 6.8%

Why You'll Like It: It shares the same gritty, urban survival theme while leaning heavily into dark humor and unconventional mechanics.

Hobo: Tough Life is an urban survival role-playing game where you play as a homeless person. Play alone or team up in online co-op. Explore the streets of Praslav, scavenge for food and supplies, beg, steal, and do whatever else it takes to survive the forthcoming winter.

Why similar: Base Building 36.6%, Survival 32.2%, Simulation 11.2%, Realistic 10.1%, Atmospheric 5.4%

Why You'll Like It: This is the most thematic match, focusing directly on the survival challenges and social dynamics of living on the streets.

Hell Architect is a game about building and managing your own hell. You take on a role of a hell manager and are tasked with developing the underworld in a way that would make Lucifer himself fall off his chair.

Why similar: Colony Sim 19.3% ★, Dark Comedy 19%, Base Building 16.9%, Dark Humor 15.5%, Management 13.1%

Why You'll Like It: It combines base-building and management with a dark, comedic tone that feels very similar to the spirit of Garbage.

In This War Of Mine you do not play as an elite soldier, rather a group of civilians trying to survive in a besieged city; struggling with lack of food, medicine and constant danger from snipers and hostile scavengers. The game provides an experience of war seen from an entirely new angle.

Why similar: Survival 38.6%, Base Building 19.9%, Management 13%, Strategy 8.6%, Simulation 7.6%

Why You'll Like It: It captures the desperate, gritty survival and resource management aspects of Garbage in a more somber, realistic setting.

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 31.7% ★, Base Building 25.9%, Survival 18.8%, Management 10%, Strategy 6.5%

Why You'll Like It: It offers a blend of survival and base-building that requires careful management of resources in a hostile world.

Build and manage a medieval graveyard while facing ethical dilemmas and making questionable decisions. Welcome to Graveyard Keeper, the most inaccurate medieval cemetery sim of the year.

Why similar: Management 39%, Dark Humor 28.8%, Simulation 18.3%, Violent 5.5%, Fantasy 5.1%

Why You'll Like It: This game perfectly mirrors the dark, cynical humor of Garbage while providing deep management and crafting systems.

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 29.2% ★, Base Building 25%, Survival 15.2%, Management 14.2%, Simulation 6.3%

Why You'll Like It: It is the gold standard for colony management and survival, offering the same level of emergent storytelling and base-building complexity.

A brutal survival management simulator set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Keep your faction of survivors alive, maintain your shelter and scavenge the ravaged world for resources. Befriend and trade with the factions you meet or conquer them by force.

Why similar: Colony Sim 28.1% ★, Base Building 23.2%, Survival 19.3%, Management 13.4%, Strategy 9.6%

Why You'll Like It: This title focuses on the intense resource management and survival decisions required to keep a group alive in a post-apocalyptic setting.

Mr. Prepper is about being prepared. You know something is wrong. The risk of a nuclear war is in the air and you need to get ready for what's coming.

Why similar: Base Building 28.2%, Survival 22.4%, Management 18.7%, Simulation 10.8%, Life Sim 10%

Why You'll Like It: It captures the paranoia and base-building elements of survival games while maintaining a unique, slightly absurd premise.

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 26.9% ★, Base Building 24.4%, Management 19.2%, Simulation 10%, Strategy 8.5%

Why You'll Like It: The management and simulation mechanics provide a similar feeling of controlling a complex environment with difficult inhabitants.

War for the Overworld is an unholy union of Dungeon Management and Strategy that rewards all those villainous thoughts you’ve been having. Craft your own perilous dungeon and defend it against pesky heroes who keep exploring it and taking your stuff.

Why similar: Dark Comedy 27.5%, Base Building 20.8%, Management 16.8%, Colony Sim 12% ★, Simulation 7.4%

Why You'll Like It: This game provides a classic dungeon-management experience with a dark, humorous tone that complements the style of Garbage.

A dark and satirical management sim, where you take control of a recycling factory with a twist: it recycles humans. Your job is to decide who gets to escape our dying planet in a cozy spaceship and who sacrifices their blood, sweat and tears for humanity. Literally.

Why similar: Base Building 28%, Management 27.1%, Survival 20.1%, Strategy 11.8%, Simulation 10.7%

Why You'll Like It: This management sim uses dark humor to explore dystopian themes, much like the cynical world-building in Garbage.

Basement is a strategy game, where you start doing illegal business to fund the development of your dream video game. It won't be easy, so get ready to deal with other gangs, cops, crazy junkies, mysterious investor and even ghosts from the past.

Why similar: Dark Comedy 27.2%, Base Building 23.8%, Management 20.8%, Dark Humor 9.1%, Strategy 9%

Why You'll Like It: This management game focuses on the gritty, criminal side of survival and resource production.

A strategic autobattler sim where you build a team of gladiators, compete in arenas, plan fight tactics, and form alliances. Combine fighters, beasts, and mages, develop and equip them to optimize your well-oiled fighting machine, dominate the championships, and leave your mark on the world.

Why similar: Auto Battler 40.1%, Base Building 25.2%, Management 22.8%, Strategy 10.1%, Indie 1.8%

Why You'll Like It: It features the same auto-battler and management loop, focusing on training and organizing units for combat.

Oxygen is a survival city builder. Build your city around the Oxygen Center and ensure your people's survival in a post-apocalyptic future, threatened by crack explosions, deadly winds, droughts and frosts. Lead your people and more importantly keep the Oxygen Center running!

Why similar: Colony Sim 23% ★, Base Building 22.5%, Survival 14.8%, Management 11.4%, Strategy 8.2%

Why You'll Like It: It provides a solid survival and base-building loop that requires constant management of life-sustaining resources.

Talk to Strangers is a game of everyday survival. Survive door to door conversations ranging from bizarre to mundane (in this order) while trying to sell products to strangers. But beware: nothing is what it seems in this neighborhood.

Why similar: Dark Comedy 27.1%, Dark Humor 21.4%, Survival 17.5%, Life Sim 16.1%, Strategy 7.7%

Why You'll Like It: It captures the social and survival elements of life-sims with a focus on the struggles of everyday interactions.

Start your own cult in a land of false prophets, venturing out into diverse and mysterious regions to build a loyal community of woodland Followers and spread your Word to become the one true cult.

Why similar: Base Building 34.9%, Colony Sim 27.5% ★, Dark Humor 24.7%, Strategy 5.6%, Fantasy 4.5%

Why You'll Like It: It blends management and base-building with a dark, satirical tone that fits the aesthetic of the seed game.

The world after a nuclear war. Manage the settlement, learn technology, make decisions, produce weapons, ammunition, organize defense, raid for supplies on other areas, do not let residents die, survive the nuclear winter.

Why similar: Base Building 35.9%, Strategy 17.4%, Survival 16.6%, Colony Sim 9.4% ★, Simulation 9.1%

Why You'll Like It: This strategy-survival game emphasizes the management of a settlement in a post-apocalyptic world.

You've been elected as the new Bunker Warden! Now you must take control over a group of fellow bunker residents and try to make them last until the surface becomes habitable.

Why similar: Base Building 28.7%, Survival 23.6%, Management 14.9%, Simulation 13.5%, Strategy 13.4%

Why You'll Like It: It focuses on the management of a subterranean shelter, mirroring the base-building and survival aspects of the seed game.

Until We Die is a side-scrolling strategy game about defending your base where you have to run around as Ivan, assign tasks to people, and fight mutants in the post-apocalyptic subway!

Why similar: Base Building 24.8%, Colony Sim 21.6% ★, Survival 19.8%, Management 15.7%, Strategy 9.9%

Why You'll Like It: It is a strategy-heavy survival game that requires careful base-building and resource allocation to survive waves of enemies.

Buoyancy is a city-building strategy game where you build, manage, and move a floating city on an oceanic world. Explore and scavenge resources scattered around the endless waters. Keep your villagers nourished and happy while combating fires, sickness, and pirate attacks.

Why similar: Colony Sim 41.2% ★, Base Building 20%, Survival 12%, Strategy 10.5%, Dark Humor 9.8%

Why You'll Like It: This colony-sim adds a unique twist to base-building by requiring you to manage a floating city in a survival scenario.

Blood Bar Tycoon is a vampire bar management game. Build bars and blood factories, lure humans to harvest their blood, process it, and serve your customers: other vampires. Research quirky machines and deal with hunters! Expand through Crimson City to become a mighty Elder!

Why similar: Dark Comedy 21.5%, Dark Humor 16.5%, Base Building 14.8%, Management 12.5%, Life Sim 10%

Why You'll Like It: This management game features a dark, humorous premise that fits well with the tone of Garbage.

Don’t Starve is an uncompromising wilderness survival game full of science and magic. Enter a strange and unexplored world full of strange creatures, dangers, and surprises. Gather resources to craft items and structures that match your survival style.

Why similar: Survival 83.3%, Simulation 6.6%, Top-Down 5.3%, Indie 4.8%

Why You'll Like It: It emphasizes harsh survival mechanics and resource management wrapped in a dark, stylized, and humorous aesthetic.

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 25.5% ★, Base Building 22.5%, Management 17.9%, Survival 15.2%, Strategy 7.9%

Why You'll Like It: It provides a robust colony-sim experience with detailed base-building and survival mechanics.

Post apocalyptic survival farming, green the world to survive !

Why similar: Survival 35%, Simulation 30.8%, Dark Comedy 26.9%, Indie 7.3%

Why You'll Like It: It offers a more relaxed but still challenging survival and resource management experience in a desolate world.

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: Colony Sim 30.7% ★, Survival 25.3%, Base Building 14.8%, Strategy 11.7%, Management 10.4%

Why You'll Like It: It offers a high-stakes survival management experience where every decision carries significant weight in a bleak world.

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: Survival 34.7%, Base Building 30.3%, Management 14.9%, Strategy 11.4%, Simulation 7.1%

Why You'll Like It: This game provides an incredibly deep, gritty, and unforgiving survival experience that rewards creative management.

Design stunning hospitals, cure peculiar illnesses and manage troublesome staff as you spread your budding healthcare organisation across Two Point County.

Why similar: Management 48.5%, Simulation 25.9%, Comedy 11%, Strategy 8.5%, Funny 4.4%

Why You'll Like It: While more lighthearted, it provides a deep management simulation experience that rewards efficient base-building.

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 49.6% ★, Life Sim 29.3%, Simulation 17.4%, Indie 3.7%

Why You'll Like It: This colony-sim focuses on the survival and management of a family unit, emphasizing the struggle against the elements.

Social welfare survival horror based on real events. Endure emotional pain and societal pressure. Stay entertained. Survive the routine and become the hero of your studio apartment—battle inner demons, hide skeletons in the closet, and most importantly… keep the bathroom clean.

Why similar: Dark Comedy 34.1%, Dark Humor 28%, Life Sim 14%, Simulation 9.6%, Comedy 8.7%

A colony sim set in a post-apocalyptic dystopia. Build and defend your base. Manage your survivors. Engage raiders, aliens, Remnant soldiers and other factions in real-time-with-pause combat. Or use stealth to outwit them. Explore the massive world. Survive at all costs

Why similar: Colony Sim 22.5% ★, Base Building 19.7%, Dark Humor 15.4%, Management 15%, Survival 13.4%

Experience the struggle which a homeless man goes through in a humorous manner. Primitive elements of contemporary life that we take for granted, such as staying warm, well-nourished, and hygienic, will become an issue.

Why similar: Auto Battler 18.1%, Dark Comedy 13.9%, Colony Sim 12.9% ★, Base Building 12.8%, Dark Humor 10.2%

Conquer and destroy the dirty Humans by sending swarms of bugs to crush their home worlds. Evolve your Buggos into stronger, faster, more murderous creatures that can rip the Human defenses to shreds! No one can stop your evolutionary powers. You are the evil Buggo Hivemind!!!

Why similar: Base Building 21.5%, Auto Battler 19.7%, Colony Sim 18.4% ★, Strategy 12.5%, Simulation 10.5%

Hell Architect is a hell colony sim. Build and manage your hell. Take care of the sinners with funny cartoon-style tortures, fill their needs, develop buildings, gather resources, grow your population. Prologue is a free standalone version of the game 'Hell Architect'.

Why similar: Colony Sim 23.1% ★, Base Building 19.5%, Dark Comedy 18%, Management 14.3%, Dark Humor 12.9%

Dark Moon is a survival strategy game where in order to survive you must avoid the Sun’s scorching rays and embrace the darkness. Gather resources, upgrade your mobile base, make tough moral decisions, but most importantly - don’t go into the light!

Why similar: Colony Sim 26.8% ★, Base Building 24.7%, Management 20.9%, Survival 12.9%, Strategy 6.9%

Get a taste of prison life! Become a prison guard and deal with dangerous convicts. Prison management, lots of daily activities. Will you become the best guard in history? Or maybe you'll turn into the worst scumbag this Prison has ever seen?

Why similar: Dark Comedy 53.4%, Simulation 16.5%, Realistic 14.4%, Atmospheric 9.2%, Funny 6.5%

Homeless Simulator is a homeless person simulator. Homeless persons are those who find themselves living on the streets because of family conflicts, somebody’s fraud, loss of the job or health problems. They are those who need help.

Why similar: Survival 40.9%, Simulation 40.7%, Atmospheric 10.5%, Indie 7.9%

Ecopunk is a survival and colony management simulation game set in a post-apocalyptic world. Balance survival, resource management, and hope as you guide your colony through the ruins of civilization.

Why similar: Colony Sim 31.3% ★, Management 19.2%, Base Building 13.9%, Survival 13.8%, Simulation 9.3%

We live in a troubled world. Viruses, military conflicts - you never know what danger the world will face tomorrow. It's time to get ready now! Lead a bunker network and start developing society after a global disaster.

Why similar: Colony Sim 33.5% ★, Management 22.1%, Survival 18.1%, Simulation 11.1%, Strategy 8.2%

Free stand‑alone Prologue. Shape a grand colony where every life bends to your will. Feel the weight of absolute power as you decree laws, then march into chaos, leading squads in roguelite FPS battles from brutal skirmishes to large-scale battlefields. Play Sector One now & wishlist the full game.

Why similar: Colony Sim 33.3% ★, Base Building 25%, Management 14.8%, Dark Humor 12.2%, Violent 7%

Gladiator Guild Manager: Prologue is a battle sim about managing your own Gladiator Guild in an epic fantasy world. Build and run your own guild, hire and train gladiators, develop unique tactics, manage resources, compete for the rank in the arena, and much more.

Why similar: Auto Battler 32.1%, Management 18%, Base Building 14.9%, Survival 11.2%, Simulation 8.6%

Become a sewage disposal worker and help Petrovich cope with all the difficulties of this difficult profession!

Why similar: Dark Humor 26.8%, Life Sim 26.7%, Realistic 13.7%, Comedy 13%, Atmospheric 8.4%

Homeless Simulator 2 is a homeless person simulator. Homeless persons are those who find themselves living on the streets because of family conflicts, somebody’s fraud, loss of the job or health problems. They are those who need help.

Why similar: Survival 33%, Simulation 27.9%, Comedy 19.7%, Atmospheric 7.9%, Indie 5.9%

It's time to start working towards that ultimate goal of enlightenment, faith and money…lots and lots of money! Become the ultimate tycoon - create, customise, and manage your own cult whilst listening to funky music. Welcome to Honey, I Joined a Cult!

Why similar: Base Building 20.3%, Management 15.8%, Colony Sim 15% ★, Dark Comedy 13.2%, Dark Humor 11%

Welcome to Unholy Heights, a mashup of Tower Defense and Apartment Management Simulation!

Why similar: Colony Sim 24.1% ★, Auto Battler 21.8%, Management 16.6%, Dark Humor 14.3%, Life Sim 8.6%

In this game, you're playing as game developer and encounter typical problems like eating and sleeping. You need to correctly allocate your time for human needs, hobbies and work, to live another day as indie developer.

Why similar: Simulation 47.8%, Strategy 42.5%, Indie 9.7%

Fight, Scavenge, Survive, and File Your Taxes. A grim yet hilarious space strategy roguelite where you must balance hull integrity against your company's relentless profit margins. Warning: Contains lethal doses of dark humor and corporate exploitation.

Why similar: Auto Battler 32.6%, Dark Humor 26.7%, Management 20.6%, Strategy 9.7%, Simulation 8.5%

Gold makes God. Embrace city-building chaos around a monster-filled dungeon where danger & profit go hand in hand. Assign heroes quests, evolve powerful pets and expand your influence one gold coin at a time. Recruit, defend, explore — all in pursuit of Glory and Gold!

Why similar: Colony Sim 19.4% ★, Management 19.2%, Base Building 17.4%, Dark Humor 16%, Survival 11%

A sandbox village simulation fundamentally about people, their thoughts and their needs. Luckily they are not alone in their burden, for you possess divine powers. And you would surely never add to the plight of the common man... Right?

Why similar: Colony Sim 24.9% ★, Base Building 20.6%, Management 17.3%, Life Sim 11.6%, Strategy 8%

Always dreamed of creating your own music band? We will realize your dream! Record songs, release albums and manage group activities! With the advancement of the group, managers will help you, and you will also have to face more than one difficult choice. Compete for a place in the top 100! Conquer the whole world!

Why similar: Management 24.9%, Survival 16.8%, Comedy 14.8%, Simulation 13.1%, Life Sim 12.5%

A dark fantasy colony sim - will your colony end the Dread Storm and redeem mankind, or will they harness the dark powers for themselves? Guide your villagers as they struggle to stay alive in a world overrun by the undead.

Why similar: Colony Sim 32.6% ★, Base Building 27%, Management 16.7%, Strategy 9.2%, Simulation 8.5%

First-person homeless crime sandbox. Steal, drink, hallucinate and crush rival bums in chaotic online co-op.

Why similar: Dark Humor 31.3%, Survival 22.1%, Life Sim 17.8%, Simulation 14.8%, Realistic 7.1%

Build your own Slavic settlement. Overcome the hardships of medieval life and don't anger the Gods!

Why similar: Survival 22.8%, Management 19.9%, Strategy 12.5%, Base Building 12.3%, Simulation 11.8%

Collect, raise and breed an army of beetles to rise up and lay claim to the abandoned lot! The game features a complex genetics simulation and real-time tactics missions with a full campaign.

Why similar: Colony Sim 25.2% ★, Management 17.1%, Base Building 17%, Dark Humor 14.3%, Life Sim 10.9%

Immerse yourself in the bleak world of a doomer, lost within the gray walls of a post-Soviet Khrushchyovka. Work, bad habits, and endless self-reflection define his reality

Why similar: Dark Humor 39%, Comedy 18.6%, Life Sim 15.4%, Simulation 11.2%, Atmospheric 6.7%

Hard Times is an extreme urban survival game where you have to put yourself into the shoes of a homeless man, taking on all the challenges that daily survival places in the great metropolis of indifference.

Why similar: Simulation 39.3%, Survival 19.8%, Management 19.1%, Indie 8.7%, Strategy 7.7%

Did you ever wish to work in a junkyard? Now you can, with Junkyard Simulator. They are many roads leading to success - whichever you take depends on your decisions.

Why similar: Management 37.9%, Simulation 29.2%, Realistic 19.4%, 3D 7.1%, Funny 6.4%

Ruinarch is an evil god simulator and sandbox game where you mess with people’s lives for hilarious results! Make them vampires, werewolves or bard haters and cackle as the drama unfolds. Once you’re done, unleash a malicious buffet of spells and custom plagues to wipe them out and start anew!

Why similar: Colony Sim 23.1% ★, Base Building 20.9%, Dark Humor 17.3%, Management 14.8%, Survival 10.9%

Pohinki Simulator is a survival game set in a polish neighbourhood, where you need to explore the open world in search for trash in order to survive and gain power. Build structures, experiment with found items, and become the most powerful bum alive!

Why similar: Base Building 30.3%, Survival 21.5%, Life Sim 16.6%, Simulation 7.4%, Comedy 6.9%