Games Like The Crust

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 18.6%, City Builder 16.4%, Space 14.6%, Base Building 11.1%, Resource Management 9.6%

Why You'll Like It: Combines a heavy sci-fi narrative with intense space station management, survival mechanics, and infrastructure building.

Build the most efficient intergalactic factory in space simulation strategy game Dyson Sphere Program! Harness the power of stars, collect resources, plan and design production lines and develop your interstellar factory from a small space workshop to a galaxy-wide industrial empire.

Why similar: Automation 22.3%, Base Building 16.7%, Space 13.8%, Resource Management 8.8%, Building 7.9%

Why You'll Like It: Offers similarly breathtaking interstellar scale paired with deeply satisfying factory-building and logistics automation.

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 18.5%, Base Building 12.2%, City Builder 10.3%, Space 9.5%, Resource Management 7.1%

Why You'll Like It: Provides micro-managed colony building and crew logistics inside custom-designed spaceships exploring the galaxy.

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 25.8%, City Builder 16.3%, Base Building 15.4%, Space 12%, Survival 5.3%

Why You'll Like It: Focuses on managing isolated planetary colonies where resource scarcity and life support dictate every layout decision.

Build an industrial empire on a remote island. Mine resources, reshape terrain with excavators, grow food, construct factories, lay train tracks, and trade with the outside world. Research 100+ technologies to advance from basic metal smelting all the way to nuclear power and space flight.

Why similar: Automation 26.3%, Base Building 18.4%, Resource Management 14.1%, Colony Sim 11.7%, City Builder 9%

Why You'll Like It: Features complex industrial supply chains, resource extraction, and sprawling factory automation requiring meticulous planning.

Explore endless Universe and create the most efficient constellation of colonies. Build conveyor systems to automate production. Take care of Astronauts and their needs! Establish new colonies as part of intergalactic simulation.

Why similar: Colony Sim 20.5%, Automation 18.6%, Base Building 17.2%, Space 12.3%, Resource Management 9.6%

Why You'll Like It: Blends automated voxel base building with space exploration and resource management on moving celestial bodies.

Desynced is a sci-fi strategy game with fully customizable units and behaviors. Gather, build, research, and explore the unknown. Alone or with friends, unveil the mystery of an AI on the edge of self-awareness and uncover the hidden truth in this blend of strategy, automation, and exploration.

Why similar: Automation 17.2%, Base Building 13.6%, City Builder 12.7%, Sandbox 8.1%, RTS 8%

Why You'll Like It: A sci-fi strategy game featuring fully customizable units and automated logistics networks operating on an alien planet.

Make Mars your own! Take control of the world’s most sophisticated AI (AMI) and terraform the surface of the Red Planet for a city-building experience on a planetary scale. Transform this barren world into a lush paradise and explore the surface for any ancient secrets that may be waiting.

Why similar: Colony Sim 16.5%, Automation 14%, Base Building 11.3%, City Builder 11%, Space 8%

Why You'll Like It: Challenges you to terraform Mars through massive resource allocation, colony expansion, and complex engineering projects.

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 31.5%, Base Building 19.9%, Resource Management 10.5%, Survival 7.4%, Building 7.2%

Why You'll Like It: Demands intense management of life support systems, gasses, and resource loops in a sprawling subterranean colony.

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 34.6%, City Builder 21.7%, Base Building 12.2%, Space 6.8%, Sci-fi 5.8%

Why You'll Like It: Presents a classic sci-fi city builder focused on survival, morale management, and infrastructure expansion on an alien world.

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: Automation 30.1%, Base Building 22%, Resource Management 13.3%, Sandbox 9.5%, City Builder 5.8%

Why You'll Like It: The ultimate standard for industrial automation and efficient supply-line logistics that mirrors The Crust's engineering depth.

Create an extrasolar efficiency utopia from scratch! In this sci-fi city builder you need to start mining operations, plan production, and lay down transportation routes to ensure a smooth supply chain.

Why similar: Automation 18.5%, City Builder 15.3%, Space 11.9%, Base Building 11.1%, Resource Management 9.8%

Why You'll Like It: Combines futuristic city-building with complex traffic and resource supply network management on distant worlds.

Build, automate, and optimize a giant factory on 3D terrain using conveyor belts, trains, chutes, pipes, and airships. Sell your goods to nearby villages to expand their borders, increase happiness, and unlock even better technology!

Why similar: Automation 18.9%, Colony Sim 17.5%, Base Building 14.6%, City Builder 12.2%, Resource Management 9.9%

Why You'll Like It: Focuses on optimizing transport networks, automated supply chains, and village growth reminiscent of colony logistics.

Satisfactory is a first-person open-world factory building game with a dash of exploration and combat. Play alone or with friends, explore an alien planet, create multi-story factories, and enter conveyor belt heaven!

Why similar: Automation 29.6%, Base Building 25.9%, Resource Management 11.6%, Building 10.3%, Sandbox 9.4%

Why You'll Like It: Brings complex resource automation and factory design into a gorgeous first-person alien world.

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 20.8%, Automation 17.1%, City Builder 14.1%, Base Building 10.9%, Building 8.2%

Why You'll Like It: Features cute robot automation and resource-transport networks that satisfy the urge for efficient supply-chain planning.

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: Colony Sim 20.2%, City Builder 16.3%, Base Building 10.7%, Resource Management 9.3%, Building 7.4%

Why You'll Like It: Challenges you to build interconnected futuristic cities on elevated platforms while managing severe resource restrictions.

Take the helm as a new Station Commander and exploit an alien star system in this stunning space-station factory automation game. Amass resources and construct starships using increasingly advanced manufacturing and expand your station in a hostile universe.

Why similar: Automation 21%, Base Building 16.2%, Space 13.5%, Sandbox 8.3%, City Builder 7.5%

Why You'll Like It: Focuses on building and automating functional outposts in space while keeping your workforce alive and productive.

Build, automate, & optimize production lines across sky islands with real spatial constraints. Every production line is an open-ended puzzle: which operators to use, how to route your belts and how to fit your factory into the landscape. Your solutions, like your factories, are uniquely your own.

Why similar: Automation 20.6%, Base Building 14.5%, City Builder 12.3%, Building 9.7%, Sandbox 9%

Why You'll Like It: Emphasizes modular factory design and strategic resource management within an expanding industrial network.

Help humanity to spread throughout the cosmos by exploring new worlds, building space factories and setting up trade routes. Research advanced technologies to increase efficiency and unlock new paths of development. Fight off other artificial intelligences in your goal to reach the Final Upgrade!

Why similar: Automation 20.5%, Base Building 15.3%, Space 13%, Resource Management 10%, Building 9.1%

Why You'll Like It: A space-based automation game where you build automated fleets and manage complex manufacturing loops.

「Reshaping Mars」is a colony simulation game on Mars, you will start by gathering resources, storing food, accepting immigrants, and building a better colony together. Develop powerful technologies for Mars Reshaping, make Mars great agai..sorry, just great. Don't forget to make the residents happy.

Why similar: Colony Sim 19.8%, Base Building 15.8%, Space 10.2%, RTS 9.9%, Building 9%

Why You'll Like It: A colony simulation focused on surviving the harsh Martian environment through strategic resource extraction and building.

Take Command of a Space Corporation in the Sci-Fi Simulator Solargene! Manage personnel, design and develop colonies and orbital stations across the solar system! Mine resources, establish logistics, research cutting-edge technologies, trade, and complete missions

Why similar: Colony Sim 23%, Base Building 14.9%, City Builder 13.8%, Resource Management 9.4%, Space 9%

Why You'll Like It: Offers realistic space station and colony construction across the solar system with heavy resource-management elements.

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 22.2%, Automation 19.5%, City Builder 14.7%, Base Building 12.1%, Building 8.7%

Why You'll Like It: Blends colony management with automation mechanics, letting you build complex production chains in a voxel world.

Build and manage a massive industrial network of factories, mines, and farms. Employ a fleet of trains, trucks, and robotic drones. In the age of automation, efficiency is survival!

Why similar: Automation 25.1%, Base Building 18.2%, Resource Management 9.8%, Sandbox 9.5%, Building 8.8%

Why You'll Like It: Centers heavily on building sprawling multi-tiered industrial automation empires to harvest and process resources.

Build and manage mankind’s first mission across the universe! Create a sprawling facility underground, recruit a diverse group of specialists from around the globe and explore mysterious new worlds through the Exogate.

Why similar: Colony Sim 16.2%, Base Building 12.5%, City Builder 11.7%, Resource Management 8.4%, Space 8%

Why You'll Like It: Combines base management with gate-building and research progression in a sci-fi administrative setting.

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 23.5%, City Builder 21%, Base Building 12.9%, Post-apocalyptic 11.7%, Survival 7.5%

Why You'll Like It: A colony builder centered around managing survivors, gathering resources, and rebuilding civilization after a global collapse.

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 19.6%, Automation 16.1%, Base Building 11.9%, City Builder 11.7%, Resource Management 8.8%

Design your dream space station in Space Architect! Master the power of automation or 'hire' an army of crewmates to handle your ever-growing production. Mine asteroids, fabricate goods, and engage in interstellar trade to pay off the menacing Big Evil Corp. Will you thrive in the vastness of space?

Why similar: Colony Sim 20.1%, Automation 15.2%, Base Building 13.1%, Resource Management 7.3%, Space 7.1%

Why You'll Like It: Provides top-down spatial design and colony management tasks centered around keeping stations operational.

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 20.4%, Base Building 14.9%, City Builder 14.7%, Resource Management 9.6%, Sandbox 8.2%

Why You'll Like It: A survival city-builder where you must sustain humanity's remnants around an oxygen generator following a post-apocalyptic disaster.

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 20.8%, Base Building 13.7%, Automation 12.4%, City Builder 12%, Post-apocalyptic 7.4%

The Last Starship is a 2D space construction game where you design and upgrade your starship. Choose your path: pirate hunter, miner, engineer, spacebus driver, and more, whilst exploring vibrant star systems. Enjoy a growing sandbox world, with regular free updates. Your cosmic adventure awaits!

Why similar: Colony Sim 19%, Base Building 14.9%, Automation 13.2%, Space 12.4%, Sandbox 9.4%

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 33.1%, Base Building 11.7%, Space 9.5%, Management 7.9%, Survival 6.9%

Why You'll Like It: A retro-styled sci-fi colony builder focusing on life support systems, architecture, and hazard management.

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 23.4%, City Builder 12%, Post-apocalyptic 11%, Strategy 8.2%, Colony Sim 8.2%

Why You'll Like It: Challenges players to build a secure shelter and manage supply lines in a harsh post-apocalyptic setting.

In Space Drilling Station, manage a drilling station on a distant planet. Build a multi-level vertical structure to produce and manage your resources and staff, in order to dominate the competition!

Why similar: Colony Sim 22%, Base Building 14.3%, City Builder 10.5%, Space 10.4%, Resource Management 9.3%

Stellar Settlers is a chill space base/city builder and colony sim game. With unique vertical and horizontal base-building gameplay, settle on 10 hostile alien planets and build your own thriving colony. Get enough materials to build a physics-based Spaceship and try to escape from disasters.

Why similar: Colony Sim 20.2%, Base Building 13.4%, City Builder 13.3%, Automation 10.4%, Resource Management 9%

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 20.3%, City Builder 14.9%, Base Building 12.9%, Building 8.5%, Resource Management 8.5%

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 23.9%, Base Building 15.5%, Space 12.6%, Resource Management 10.2%, Sandbox 8.6%

Final Factory blends factory building, spaceship design, and a rich universe to explore. Build a mega factory and command a massive fleet against the hostile local aliens. Discover new technologies and unlock the secrets of an ancient civilization as you explore an infinite cosmos.

Why similar: Automation 22.4%, Base Building 16.7%, Resource Management 11.2%, Space 10.8%, Sandbox 9%

The Final Earth 2 is a vertical sci-fi city builder. Earth is unlivable, so you decide to create a space colony. Gather resources, then build and research your way to a better future! Grow your city from an exploration ship to a huge metropolis, full of advanced technology. What will you build?

Why similar: Colony Sim 23.5%, Base Building 12.7%, Space 11.8%, City Builder 9.2%, Building 8.3%

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 23.5%, City Builder 15%, Base Building 11.9%, Sandbox 8.7%, Post-apocalyptic 8.3%

Create a sprawling industrial city. Compete with other rival corporations on Titan for resources, territory, and power. Seek victory via technology, influence, warfare, or the wealth extracted from your citizens. Stake your claim to the Industries of Titan in this innovative sim/strategy game!

Why similar: Colony Sim 21%, City Builder 15.2%, Base Building 12.9%, Resource Management 10.8%, Space 9.8%

Corporate greed meets strategic planet-mining in Drill Core! Drill to the heart of planets while managing workers, researching cutting-edge tech, and fortifying against alien attacks. Will you prioritize efficiency and risk your workers' safety, or focus on defense for survival?

Why similar: Colony Sim 27.1%, City Builder 15%, Base Building 14.9%, Space 7.3%, Sandbox 6.9%

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 18.9%, City Builder 15.3%, Automation 14%, Base Building 10.9%, Sandbox 7%

Techtonica is a first-person factory automation game with a gripping mystery about mining your way out from the depths of an alien planet. Explore bioluminescent caves, mold destructible terrain, construct a massive subterranean factory. Dig your way toward answers & discover the secrets of Calyx.

Why similar: Automation 22.3%, Base Building 15.9%, City Builder 12.5%, Building 9.8%, Resource Management 9.5%

Eden Crafters is a solo or co-op open-world survival, crafting, and factory-building game where you transform a hostile planet into a habitable haven for humanity. Build, automate, and terraform. Control the climate, create a breathable atmosphere, and turn toxic lakes into water: shape a new world!

Why similar: Automation 21.5%, Base Building 16.3%, Colony Sim 13.4%, Space 9.4%, Sandbox 9.1%

Facteroids is a 3D factory building game about asteroid mining in space. Prospect, mine and manage your production lines in a variety of scenarios and procedurally generated worlds across the entire Solar system.

Why similar: Automation 18%, Colony Sim 15.8%, Base Building 14%, City Builder 11.5%, Resource Management 9.6%

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 28%, Base Building 17.1%, Post-apocalyptic 8.6%, Survival 7.5%, City Builder 7.3%

Terraform a lifeless rock into a lush and habitable world. Build trucks, trains, and sprawling factories on an enormous hexagonal planet. Grow its population to millions. Enjoy a dynamic simulation of atmosphere, temperature, water, and forests.

Why similar: Colony Sim 22%, Automation 20.8%, Base Building 13.3%, Resource Management 11.1%, Sandbox 8.9%

A deep automation and programming game on a frozen alien planet. Write real code to drive rovers, run power grids, fabricate parts, and fly drone fleets across the world. Your scripts run while you plan your next move. The more you terraform, the more the planet responds.

Why similar: Colony Sim 20.8%, Automation 18.5%, Base Building 12.5%, Space 10.5%, Sandbox 8.8%

Aquatico is a classic city builder set within the depths of the sea. Strategically build an underwater colony atop the ocean floor and face the challenges that accompany oceanic life.

Why similar: Colony Sim 24.7%, City Builder 18.1%, Base Building 12.6%, Building 8.4%, Management 6.7%

Dawn Apart is a space colony and factory sim with fully destructible environments. Mine, automate, and defend your settlers, or lead a rebellion against the very corporation pulling your strings…

Why similar: Colony Sim 29.9%, Automation 23.8%, Base Building 19.2%, Space 10.5%, Resource Management 4.4%

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 22.7%, City Builder 15.1%, Base Building 13.5%, Building 8.8%, RTS 7.9%

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 24.8%, Base Building 15.9%, City Builder 13.1%, Sandbox 8.4%, Management 7.7%

Welcome to Trappist-1, 40.7 light-years from Earth. Fly your Ark, a colossal spaceship and mobile base. Explore the solar system and establish thriving colonies. Uncover the mysteries of Trappist in this story-driven colony builder.

Why similar: Colony Sim 18.5%, Automation 13.4%, City Builder 12.4%, Base Building 11.2%, Space 9.1%

Terraform, strategize, and construct a Martian colony in this retro-inspired turn-based city builder. Create a comfortable living for your citizens, research alien artifacts, and uncover the secrets of the Red Planet.

Why similar: Colony Sim 21.2%, City Builder 13.7%, Base Building 13.2%, Resource Management 9.8%, Space 9.4%

Build, optimize, and explore at your own pace in Scorchlands, a cozy yet strategic colony builder. Manage resources, shape the environment, and expand your network across a volcanic moon. No rush, no pressure, just satisfying logistics and endless possibilities.

Why similar: Colony Sim 19.1%, Automation 15.5%, Base Building 12.5%, City Builder 12.5%, Resource Management 11.2%

Sail, scavenge, and rescue survivors in a vibrant floating city-builder. Captain your drifters across the endless garbage sea to uncover soaked ruins, rusting factories, and stories from the old world.

Why similar: Colony Sim 19.3%, Automation 15.2%, Base Building 13.3%, City Builder 12.5%, Resource Management 8.9%

Jump straight into managing your own planets as you guide a civilization through the ages. Build the ultimate empire in The Universim, a new breed of God Game in development by Crytivo.

Why similar: Colony Sim 26.1%, City Builder 17.3%, Sandbox 9.7%, Space 9.4%, Building 9.3%

Build and expand your very own settlements in high mountains! Carefully plan production chains and satisfy various needs of your three-caste society while dealing with mountain hazards such as weather breakdowns and avalanches. Are you skilled enough to make your town thrive?

Why similar: Colony Sim 19.6%, City Builder 14.4%, Automation 13.7%, Base Building 12.3%, Resource Management 9.4%

Explore and mine fully destructible worlds. Automate increasingly complex production chains. Delve deep to uncover an ancient civilization’s powerful secrets and learn to love the sand in this factory game where every pixel is a valuable resource.

Why similar: Automation 24.5%, Base Building 17.9%, Sandbox 12.4%, Building 11.5%, Resource Management 11.5%