Games Like Mind Over Magic

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 25.3%, Base Building 13.8%, Economy 13.4%, Management 11.2%, Survival 10.5%

Why You'll Like It: This title features similar vertical base-building mechanics and a medieval setting that requires careful planning to survive environmental threats.

Develop a prestigious university of mages. Build rooms, train your students, fight orcs, slay the bureaucrats, manage your budget... a director's life is not a quiet one.

Why similar: Colony Sim 27%, Base Building 14.7%, Economy 13.3%, Nonlinear 12.5%, Management 11.6%

Why You'll Like It: It shares the core theme of managing a magical academy where you must balance curriculum and infrastructure to train powerful mages.

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 36.2%, Base Building 18.8%, Survival 13.1%, Building 10.4%, Resource Management 9.8%

Why You'll Like It: It provides a deep, systems-heavy approach to base management where optimizing your layout is essential for the survival of your colony.

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 31.3%, Base Building 16.5%, Survival 11.3%, Tactical RPG 10.6%, Management 9.6%

Why You'll Like It: As the benchmark for the colony-sim genre, it offers the same level of emergent storytelling and complex character management found in Mind Over Magic.

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 29.1%, Base Building 15.9%, Building 14.6%, Management 13.1%, Survival 12.1%

Why You'll Like It: The ultimate simulation experience, offering unparalleled depth in underground base construction and complex character interactions.

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 25.3%, Base Building 13.9%, Economy 12.8%, Building 12.1%, Management 11.1%

Why You'll Like It: It focuses on the social dynamics and management of a medieval society, mirroring the interpersonal complexities of running a magical school.

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 24.4%, Base Building 13.9%, Economy 12.9%, Building 12.4%, Management 11.2%

Why You'll Like It: This roguelite city-builder captures the pressure of managing a settlement under constant environmental duress, much like the cursed school setting.

Brave a new world in Stranded: Alien Dawn, a planet survival sim placing the fate of a small marooned group in your hands. Forge your story through compelling and immersive strategic gameplay as you make vital decisions to protect your survivors.

Why similar: Colony Sim 22.8%, Base Building 20.9%, Survival 16.1%, Crafting 11.8%, Management 8.7%

Why You'll Like It: A survival-focused colony sim that emphasizes tactical defense and resource management in a challenging, non-linear environment.

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 24.6%, Base Building 13.7%, Economy 13%, Building 12.4%, Management 11%

Why You'll Like It: It focuses on the crafting and management loop, providing a satisfying progression system for those who enjoy the production aspects of colony sims.

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 30.5%, Base Building 15.3%, Survival 12.5%, Crafting 7.6%, Building 6.7%

Why You'll Like It: It combines base-building with tactical combat against supernatural threats, mirroring the combat and survival loop of the Underschool.

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 22.8%, Base Building 12.3%, Economy 11.5%, Building 10.6%, Management 9.8%

Why You'll Like It: This underground colony sim focuses on vertical mining and production chains, capturing the feel of building deep into the earth.

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 42.8%, Building 22.2%, Crafting 21.4%, Simulation 8.6%, Indie 2.6%

Why You'll Like It: This game emphasizes the survival and growth of a family unit, focusing on the same intimate management style found in smaller colony simulations.

Forge a new kingdom in a land recovering from the Fracture. Which of the surviving races will you lead to rebuild, explore, and conquer the unknown? The dwindling yet immortal Ancients? The bold and resourceful Humans? The life stealing Ardyn? Or the secretive Gwdir who shape living groves?

Why similar: Colony Sim 23.6%, Base Building 12.5%, Management 10.1%, Building 9.8%, Survival 8.7%

Why You'll Like It: A voxel-based colony sim that offers a high degree of freedom in building and managing your population in a fantasy world.

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: Colony Sim 30.4%, Base Building 14.5%, Building 13.8%, Management 12.3%, Survival 10.8%

Why You'll Like It: The focus on verticality and water management provides a satisfying puzzle-like approach to base-building similar to the Underschool mechanics.

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 32.1%, Base Building 15.6%, Economy 14.4%, Building 14.4%, Survival 11.2%

Why You'll Like It: It allows for massive scale colony management while maintaining deep simulation mechanics that reward strategic planning and infrastructure optimization.

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: Colony Sim 24.5%, Building 18.4%, Economy 13.8%, Base Building 13.3%, Management 10.6%

Why You'll Like It: A detailed survival city-builder that requires careful resource balancing and defense against external threats to keep your population thriving.

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 29.2%, Building 15.5%, Management 12.2%, Survival 11.9%, Base Building 9.3%

Why You'll Like It: A survival-oriented city builder that emphasizes resource management and adapting to harsh conditions to ensure colony longevity.

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 27.7%, Base Building 14.1%, Nonlinear 11.8%, Building 11.4%, Management 10.5%

Why You'll Like It: This sandbox colony sim allows for deep character customization and social management, making every member of your settlement feel unique.

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 51.4%, Base Building 18.2%, Survival 15.9%, Resource Management 6.3%, Simulation 5.6%

Why You'll Like It: This game blends traditional colony simulation with tower defense elements, creating a high-stakes environment similar to dungeon crawling.

Design, build, and manage a high school with terrific teachers and fantastic facilities or simply let your students poop in the bushes? Academia : School Simulator is a management/tycoon game where you get to decide!

Why similar: Colony Sim 31.4%, Base Building 16.7%, Economy 15.9%, Management 15.6%, Building 14.9%

Why You'll Like It: It provides a direct parallel to the school management aspect of the seed game, focusing on the logistics of running an educational institution.

Recruit adventurers and monsters to create your own RRG-style town!

Why similar: Colony Sim 57.6%, Building 13.4%, Simulation 12.9%, Fantasy 8.2%, Management 7.8%

Why You'll Like It: A lighter, fantasy-themed management game where you build a town to support adventurers, echoing the relationship between school and dungeon.

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 24.5%, Base Building 13.8%, Economy 13.2%, Building 12.5%, Management 11.3%

Why You'll Like It: It offers a unique tactical colony management experience that focuses on expansion and defense in a highly detailed environment.

Anvil Saga is a management sim with RPG elements where you take control of a blacksmith shop amidst the Hundred Years' War. Each decision you make impacts the story and gameplay.

Why similar: Colony Sim 20.1%, Base Building 12.9%, Management 12.5%, Economy 10.9%, Building 9.9%

Why You'll Like It: It focuses on management and RPG elements within a medieval setting, providing a similar sense of progression and character development.

In a world overrun by the undead, build a lab to fight back with science. Manage survivors, gather vital resources, and turn zombies into allies. Defend your base and research the cure to reclaim humanity.

Why similar: Colony Sim 25.8%, Base Building 13.9%, Building 12.4%, Economy 11.7%, Management 10.7%

Why You'll Like It: This colony sim forces you to balance resource production with the tactical management of a dangerous, ever-present threat.

An ecosystem City Builder in a unique world. Build your settlement, manage your workers and optimize your resources. Analyzing your environment, spreading new plants, and harvesting them are key to prosperity.

Why similar: Colony Sim 23.9%, Economy 14.7%, Base Building 12.4%, Building 12%, Management 10.2%

Why You'll Like It: A stylized survival city-builder that focuses on adapting to a hostile planet, requiring the same strategic foresight as the seed game.

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 25%, Base Building 13.2%, Building 11.7%, Crafting 10%, Resource Management 8.9%

Why You'll Like It: A medieval colony sim that emphasizes the transition from a small settlement to a thriving community through careful resource management.

Build your own military camp, manage the economy, recruit the best candidates and train them to become elite specialists. Send them on missions across the land to end the war once and for all!

Why similar: Base Building 14.2%, Economy 13.5%, Tactical RPG 13.2%, Strategy RPG 13.1%, Building 12.2%

Why You'll Like It: The focus on training and managing personnel to meet specific goals mirrors the student training mechanics in Mind Over Magic.

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 29.5%, Base Building 16%, Building 13.4%, Management 12.5%, Survival 11.9%

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 25.1%, Base Building 13.8%, Economy 13.3%, Building 12.3%, Management 11%

Build, manage and grow a thriving colony in Kubifaktorium. The game features different biomes to explore, plenty of resources to exploit, complex machinery to build and interesting production chains to master.

Why similar: Colony Sim 26.7%, Economy 13.2%, Building 13%, Base Building 12%, Crafting 11.5%

Why You'll Like It: It emphasizes automation and building, providing a satisfying logistical challenge for players who enjoy optimizing their base layout.

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 30.2%, Base Building 15.9%, Tactical RPG 9.1%, Building 8.4%, Management 7.3%

Why You'll Like It: This sandbox colony sim offers deep character-driven mechanics and a focus on the evolution of your settlement over time.

Discover a unique blend of Colony Sim and Tactical RPG. Recruit and train your heroes, build your outpost, explore dungeons and engage in turn-based strategic battles to protect and expand your domain. Shape your stories by managing moods, relationships, ambitions and more!

Why similar: Colony Sim 31.5%, Base Building 17.8%, Building 15.5%, Management 11.3%, Survival 8.7%

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 37.6%, Base Building 14.6%, Building 10.8%, Survival 7.7%, Management 6.6%

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 30.3%, Base Building 15.4%, Crafting 13.5%, Building 11.3%, Management 9.7%

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 29%, Base Building 15.6%, Economy 14.9%, Building 12.5%, Resource Management 9.1%

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 25.8%, Base Building 13.9%, Building 12%, Strategy RPG 11.5%, Crafting 10.9%

Colony building RPG with detailed characters, driven by procedurally generated Stories. Build a hut, a village, a town, a city, a kingdom. 5 different races. Ally with unique factions. Rule an Undead empire. Craft Legendary items. Tame creatures. Enslave enemies. It's all here.

Why similar: Colony Sim 25.7%, Tactical RPG 15.1%, Strategy RPG 13.3%, Building 10.9%, Base Building 10.8%

ATC is a base building game set in a post-apocalyptic world featuring urban environments. Build a base across several layers with dozens of survivors. Fight other factions for the control of the remaining production centers and explore the world to find long forgotten resources and technologies.

Why similar: Colony Sim 30.1%, Base Building 15.8%, Management 12%, Survival 11.8%, Procedural Generation 9.8%

IXION is an unrelenting, city-building odyssey across the stars. As Administrator of the Tiqqun, DOLOS’ prototype space station, you are tasked with balancing preservation and exploration as you manage infrastructure, resources and crew. Can you keep the flame of humanity alight in the cold dark?

Why similar: Colony Sim 26.9%, Survival 13.4%, Base Building 13.1%, Building 11.6%, Resource Management 11.3%

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 38%, Simulation 14.3%, Base Building 14.1%, Survival 14%, Management 9.2%

Maia is a colony building game set in the not-so-distant future. Your colonists make planetfall on a hostile world and you must ensure their survival and their safety, constructing their off-world habitat from almost nothing and sheltering them from a dangerous, often deadly environment.

Why similar: Colony Sim 41.3%, Survival 13.3%, Management 12.7%, Base Building 12%, Simulation 7%

A sci-fi colony management sim with a focus on exploration, expansion, and survival. Rebuild your underground facility, manage colonists and robots, and uncover the mysteries of an alien world light-years from Earth. Dig deep, expand across the surface, and shape your new home.

Why similar: Colony Sim 25.7%, Base Building 13.8%, Building 12.5%, Management 11.8%, Survival 10.9%

Explore a handcrafted survival game with an emphasis on crafting and base building. Export manufactured goods to earn funding, manage colonists, defend against hostile aliens, and work towards terraforming Ceres from a frozen ball of ice to a tropical paradise.

Why similar: Colony Sim 27.8%, Building 14.5%, Base Building 13.9%, Crafting 13.8%, Survival 12.9%

Earth, 1976. You have been tasked with managing a deep-sea science facility working to perfect cloning. Explore the darkness and keep your crew alive in this hardcore survival colony builder. And beware. The darkness hides untold horrors.

Why similar: Colony Sim 28.1%, Base Building 13.7%, Building 13.5%, Economy 13.2%, Management 11.6%

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 39.8%, Base Building 19.5%, Survival 12.6%, Building 7.6%, Management 6.6%

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 34.7%, Base Building 13.4%, Survival 13.3%, Building 10.4%, Crafting 9.8%

Become the hive mind of a robot ant colony in Microtopia! Use pheromone trails to create, automate and optimize supply chains for your ants to follow. Collect resources, produce goods, feed your queen, grow your colony and fly out to expand the species!

Why similar: Colony Sim 27.9%, Base Building 14%, Crafting 11.8%, Procedural Generation 11.5%, Management 11.1%

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 27.8%, Building 14.8%, Base Building 14.8%, Survival 11.1%, Management 10.9%

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 23.5%, Base Building 14.2%, Building 10.6%, Survival 10.4%, Economy 10%

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 31.8%, Economy 12.1%, Building 11.9%, Base Building 11.6%, Survival 11%

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 24%, Base Building 12.9%, Economy 12.8%, Building 11.7%, Management 10.6%

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: Colony Sim 36.2%, Survival 17.9%, Base Building 16.6%, Building 9.9%, Simulation 9.5%

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: Colony Sim 28.6%, Base Building 13.7%, Building 12.2%, Management 12.1%, Crafting 11.1%

A byte-sized Dungeon Keeping roguelike: dig out your lair, populate it with monsters and protect the Wratch from heroes come for easy prestige.

Why similar: Colony Sim 28.8%, Base Building 16.1%, Nonlinear 14.1%, Tactical RPG 12.9%, Strategy RPG 11%

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 30.1%, Base Building 16.7%, Building 14.6%, Survival 12.5%, Management 12.2%

Potion Tycoon is a management simulator with a witchy twist! Build and develop your very own magic shop. Manage resources, set up production lines, mix potions and sell them smartly to stay ahead of the competition. Welcome to the potion business!

Why similar: Management 22.7%, Building 21.3%, Economy 20.8%, Resource Management 13%, Simulation 8.5%

This Goblin Tribe Simulator brings a challenging blend of chaos and creativity to the city-building genre. Build dwellings, manage your resources, defend your goblins, and grow your tribe, and please the Gods! Do you have what it takes to control the chaos and rule the unruly?

Why similar: Colony Sim 21%, Base Building 12.3%, Building 11.5%, Management 9.7%, Crafting 9.7%

Headmaster, your academy awaits: Recruit young students and shape them into mighty wizards. Build, manage and customize your castle, manage your resources and send your squads in expedition to expand your school's prestige and influence.

Why similar: Colony Sim 31.1%, Building 15.6%, Management 14.8%, Economy 13.8%, Base Building 12.1%

LEAD the CULT OF CTHULHU. Decide the fate of your followers, perform eldritch rituals, and master the art of city-building in a world where the line between sanity and madness blurs. Can you endure the horrors you unleash?

Why similar: Colony Sim 35.8%, Base Building 15.5%, Economy 14.4%, Management 14.2%, Building 13.5%