Games Like The Next World

You didn’t ask to lead this expedition, but here you are. Stuck in the ice, Captain missing, miles from civilisation. Someone has to take charge. Manage your meagre resources, balance safety and morale, make the hard calls, and head in the only direction you can - through The Pale Beyond.

Why similar: Strategy 56%, Adventure 44%

Why You'll Like It: A tense survival management game that forces you to make difficult moral choices while leading a stranded expedition.

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: Strategy 59.7%, Sci-fi 40.3%

Why You'll Like It: Offers deep base-building and survival mechanics set against the backdrop of a hostile, uncharted alien world.

Manage interstellar pioneers and their descendants in this detailed sci-fi colony sim. Centuries after planetfall, colonists are still struggling to gain foothold on their lush and alien planet. You settle on the frontier by carefully managing resources, production and different personalities.

Why similar: Strategy 49.2%, Sci-fi 29%, Indie 21.8%

Why You'll Like It: A colony simulation game that emphasizes the struggle of establishing a sustainable life on an alien planet.

Roleplaying in the ruins of interplanetary capitalism. Live the life of an escaped worker, washed-up on a lawless station at the edge of an interstellar society. Inspired by the flexibility and freedom of TTRPGs, explore the station, choose your friends, escape your past and change your future.

Why similar: Sci-fi 61.4%, Adventure 21.7%, Indie 16.9%

Why You'll Like It: A masterful blend of tabletop-inspired resource management and deep, choice-driven sci-fi storytelling set on a decaying space station.

Explore an emotional sci-fi game with a unique blend of survival, adventure, and base-building elements. Help Jan Dolski, the sole survivor of an ill-fated space expedition, create alternative versions of himself to escape a hostile planet and tackle personal turmoils with this unconventional crew.

Why similar: Sci-fi 54.7%, Strategy 27.7%, Adventure 17.5%

Why You'll Like It: A unique management game where you must survive on a dangerous planet by creating alternate versions of yourself to handle colony tasks.

In this interactive sci-fi adventure novel, you are the AI pilot of Earth's last interstellar ship, tasked with finding a home for your crew—the last remnants of humanity. Your choices will determine their fate, and your own.

Why similar: Sci-fi 54.4%, Adventure 29.6%, Indie 16%

Why You'll Like It: Focuses heavily on the narrative consequences of leadership decisions during a desperate sci-fi survival mission.

Spend your teenage years on an alien planet in this narrative RPG with card-based battles. Explore, grow up, and fall in love. The choices you make and skills you master over ten years will determine the course of your life and the survival of your colony.

Why similar: Visual Novel 50.6%, Sci-fi 43.7%, Indie 5.7%

Why You'll Like It: Combines colony life simulation with narrative-heavy decision-making where your choices determine the survival of your new home.

A research spaceship reaches an abandoned planet. Nothing is what it seems here and the situation quickly slips out of control. Can the crew manage to survive and get back home?

Why similar: Sci-fi 42.8%, Strategy 23.7%, Adventure 20%, Indie 13.5%

Why You'll Like It: A management and survival game that challenges you to keep your crew alive after a crash landing on a desolate planet.

Do you like adventure and strategy games? A visual novel at the end of the world with a focus on time management. Experience battles in original parallel turn-based strategy minigames or classic novel mode. Half of the survivors are not human, and only one pair will survive.

Why similar: Visual Novel 32.2%, Strategy 25.9%, Casual 16.5%, Adventure 13.3%, Indie 12.1%

Why You'll Like It: A strategy-focused visual novel that mirrors the tactical decision-making found in The Next World.

The Long Journey Home combines an open world full of galaxies, planets and anomalies with quests and mechanics of a rogue-like RPG. One destination. Endless adventures. Where will this journey take you?

Why similar: Strategy 40.5%, Sci-fi 31%, Indie 19.8%, Adventure 8.7%

Why You'll Like It: Combines space exploration with survival mechanics and narrative choices as you attempt to return to Earth.

Explore the known and unknown galaxy with a ragtag crew of eclectic new friends in this narrative management space opera. You are a sentient spaceship, an outlawed commodity, and there's an entire galaxy between you and freedom…not to mention your abusive ex on your tail.

Why similar: Sci-fi 59.1%, Adventure 25%, Indie 15.9%

Why You'll Like It: A narrative-driven management game that emphasizes character relationships and survival while traveling through space.

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: Strategy 100%

Why You'll Like It: A definitive survival management game where the narrative weight of your choices is just as important as the resource logistics.

Welcome to the Skyways, caravaneer. Complete missions, manage your ship’s resources and make tough decisions to keep your crew alive and happy. Or not. Choices have lasting consequences in this Text-Based RPG. You are the captain - and the clouds are waiting!

Why similar: Sci-fi 31.3%, Visual Novel 30.7%, Adventure 30.5%, Indie 7.4%

Why You'll Like It: A management-heavy adventure game where your choices determine the success of your journey across a dangerous world.

Deep in uncharted space, your expedition took a challenging turn when your ship crash-landed. Master complex simulations to keep your outspoken explorers alive, face unpredictable challenges, and figure out a way back home.

Why similar: Sci-fi 72.6%, Indie 27.4%

Why You'll Like It: A colony simulation game that focuses on the challenges of building and maintaining a sustainable habitat in a hostile environment.

Take the role of Captain in this Space Survival Simulation as you explore a massive star system in search of a new home for humanity. Outfit your ship, hand pick your crew and set off on a journey through an open-world where you must scavenge resources, shelter civilians and outrun a hostile alien force.

Why similar: Strategy 50.9%, Adventure 25.9%, Indie 23.3%

Why You'll Like It: A space survival game that tasks you with managing a fleet and its resources while fleeing an alien threat.

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: Strategy 75.3%, Indie 24.7%

Why You'll Like It: Focuses on the human element of survival, forcing players to make agonizing choices while managing limited resources in a desperate situation.

Live through an epic role-playing Viking saga where your strategic choices directly affect your personal journey. Make allies as you travel with your caravan across this stunning yet harsh landscape. Carefully choose those who will help fight a new threat that jeopardizes an entire civilization.

Why similar: Strategy 65.1%, Indie 25.5%, Adventure 9.4%

Why You'll Like It: Features a similar strategic structure where narrative choices and resource management are critical to the survival of your caravan.

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: Sci-fi 52.5%, Strategy 33.8%, Indie 13.7%

Why You'll Like It: A detailed colony sim that focuses on the survival of a crew aboard a ship, requiring careful management of resources and environment.

Join the journey of a funky space archaeologist who crashed on an unknown planet. A text turn-based adventure RPG in which your choices actually matter. Talk, explore, fight, make decisions to find a way out! Colourful graphics and the old comic book spirit.

Why similar: Visual Novel 47.9%, Adventure 28.8%, Casual 23.3%

Why You'll Like It: An adventure game that uses a choose-your-own-adventure style to drive its sci-fi narrative and survival elements.

Take care of a group of travelers on a post-apocalyptic road-trip across the United States in this turn-based survival game.

Why similar: Strategy 64.5%, Sci-fi 23.5%, Indie 12.1%

Why You'll Like It: A turn-based survival strategy game that forces you to make tough decisions about who to save and what to leave behind.

This tale began five years earlier, in the spring of 2231. Mankind has evolved a new kind of communication ability called “telepathy”.

Why similar: Visual Novel 38.2%, Casual 23.5%, Sci-fi 20.3%, Indie 18.1%

Why You'll Like It: A sci-fi visual novel that emphasizes story-rich decision-making in a futuristic setting.

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: Sci-fi 54.6%, Strategy 32.7%, Indie 12.7%

Why You'll Like It: The gold standard for colony management, offering deep simulation and emergent storytelling in a sci-fi setting.

One day, as he is walking through this bustling city of monotony, moving through the crowds of people all dressed exactly the same... Something actually stands out—a girl dressed in a traditional school uniform from ages past…

Why similar: Visual Novel 40.8%, Sci-fi 28%, Casual 24.8%, Indie 6.4%

Why You'll Like It: A visual novel that explores sci-fi themes through a text-based, choice-heavy narrative structure.

A science-fiction visual novel centered on the implications of time travel, artificial intelligence, and humanity's ascent to the stars.

Why similar: Visual Novel 42.4%, Sci-fi 30.3%, Adventure 14.8%, Casual 12.6%

Why You'll Like It: A narrative-focused experience that captures the sci-fi adventure and casual strategy elements of the seed game.

This is a visual novel game without player selections. To atone for the sins of humanity, the girl continues to die.

Why similar: Visual Novel 46.2%, Adventure 32%, Indie 21.9%

Why You'll Like It: An indie visual novel that focuses on character-driven storytelling in an adventure-filled setting.

Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown is a story-driven survival strategy game in which the fate of the iconic starship is in your hands. Take the helm, manage the ship and resources, and make difficult decisions. Will you be able to bring home the ship and its crew?

Why similar: Strategy 53%, Sci-fi 41.2%, Indie 5.8%

Dead in Antares is a turn-based survival management game with RPG elements, set on an alien planet. Lead a crew of survivors sent on a mission to save humanity. Manage their needs, strengthen their teamwork, and explore this mysterious world to find a way back home.

Why similar: Sci-fi 36.2%, Strategy 34.8%, Adventure 29%

It's the year 2041; the atmosphere is toxic from global warming and nuclear war. Can you survive in an unforgiving world?

Why similar: Strategy 45%, Casual 32.3%, Indie 22.7%

Why You'll Like It: A casual management game that tasks you with balancing resources to ensure the survival of your group.

Waking up alone in a derelict terraforming facility on an unknown (and distinctly not terraformed) planet, it's up to you to find a way to survive, learn what happened to the people who lived here and why you were abandoned in this narrative-driven incremental game.

Why similar: Sci-fi 40%, Strategy 32.9%, Adventure 23.6%, Indie 3.5%

Seize forbidden treasures. Summon alien gods. Feed on your disciples. Cultist Simulator is a game of apocalypse and yearning. Play as a seeker after unholy mysteries, in a 1920s-themed setting of hidden gods and secret histories.

Why similar: Strategy 100%

Why You'll Like It: While thematicly different, it shares the core loop of using resource management and narrative choices to survive and progress.

Woefully ill-prepared, play as Captain Fahrenheit as they uncover long-lost secrets new and old, while fighting in an impossible war between Earth and Mars.

Why similar: Visual Novel 39.5%, Sci-fi 28.7%, Strategy 19.8%, Casual 12%

Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space is a hybrid roguelike game of space exploration, adventure and starship combat.

Why similar: Strategy 26.9%, Sci-fi 20.2%, Casual 18.6%, Adventure 18%, Indie 16.3%

Why You'll Like It: A strategic adventure game that focuses on exploration and decision-making within a limited timeframe.

While searching for a new home, an unexpected failure in your ship has left you stranded on a planet surprisingly similar to Earth. Discover a vast open world, hunt for food, develop technologies, and build yourself a new home to survive!

Why similar: Sci-fi 42.9%, Adventure 36.5%, Indie 20.6%

Survive, adapt, and research in the New World, with its rules, dwellers, and their laws. Head the colonization of these locations and ensure the independence and security of your population.

Why similar: Strategy 43.6%, Adventure 33%, Indie 23.4%

You have crash-landed into a mini-verse of tiny planets. Welcome to Minicology! Embark on an interstellar survival sandbox journey. Use your crafting, combat, and automation skills to survive the many challenges this mini-verse throws at you.

Why similar: Adventure 100%

ICY: Frostbite Edition is a narrative-driven post-apocalyptic survival RPG set in a new Ice Age. Create your character, lead your family, make difficult choices, and try to survive in a frozen world.

Why similar: Visual Novel 81.3%, Indie 18.7%

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: Strategy 100%

Into the Void is a strategy RPG and exploration sci-fi game with an epic story and intense battles. Travel through space and discover the origin of a cosmic threat which destroyed Earth centuries ago. Fight or cooperate with the different factions; be a leader !

Why similar: Strategy 50.3%, Adventure 34.8%, Indie 14.9%

In this retro-inspired adventure game you will have to race back home across the galaxy. Collect new friends on your journey. Make new enemies. You won't be able to save everyone. Who will you leave behind? Which civilizations will you save - or destroy - along the way?

Why similar: Sci-fi 67.7%, Adventure 32.3%

Card Survival is a card-based survival experience. Stranded on a desert island you must use your wits and skills to stay alive. Use cards and combine them together to explore, gather resources and craft useful tools.

Why similar: Adventure 50.9%, Strategy 38.7%, Indie 10.4%

Nova Lands is a factory building, exploration, and island management game. Explore, engage in combat, and automate your industry. The planet you’re on is full of mysteries, creatures, people, and things to do. Welcome to your new home amongst the stars!

Why similar: Strategy 33%, Adventure 32.4%, Casual 20.3%, Indie 14.2%

In an uninhabitable Siberian wilderness, in a wake of October Revolution, a group of passengers survives the mysterious catastrophe of Trans-Siberian railway train. They must endure in a harsh ice-clad climate until rescue arrives. Facing many dangers, their own weaknesses and, their own prejudice.

Why similar: Strategy 56.1%, Adventure 43.9%

a side-scrolling, story-driven text adventure game in pixel art. The story is set in 2079, when a Replicant awakens in a lab facility amidst a life-or-death situation. The replicant aid agency tries to rescue him but fails. In the process they stumble on the real secret of the Replicant project...

Why similar: Sci-fi 36.3%, Visual Novel 36.1%, Adventure 17.7%, Casual 9.9%

After crash-landing on a mysterious island with no memories of the past, set out to explore the island and scavenge for resources to build automated production lines and repair the damaged ship.

Why similar: Strategy 43%, Adventure 29.3%, Casual 27.8%

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: Sci-fi 55.2%, Strategy 24.3%, Casual 20.5%

"The Next Journey of Life"is a simulation management game. You, who work in the real estate industry, are unemployed due to the company's "optimization".A lost horse is not a blessing, as long as we have hope for life, we can walk "The next journey of life" well

Why similar: Strategy 55.1%, Casual 44.9%

GearStorm - Armored Survival is a story-driven, open-world sci-fi survival adventure. Discover what led to the Phage, a deadly virus apocalypse and our escape to a alien world. Explore a vast alien planet, build your base, create your colony, acquire vehicles, weapons, and supplies to defend it.

Why similar: Strategy 27.9%, Casual 21.5%, Adventure 21%, Indie 15.1%, Sci-fi 14.5%

In the last days of their life, a dying person takes one final gamble... No More Future is a linear Sci-Fi Visual Novel, where you explore a futuristic world as an android trying to rebuild their old life. In this strange journey, they'll question the very foundations of their life and their world.

Why similar: Visual Novel 48.8%, Sci-fi 25%, Adventure 20.6%, Indie 5.6%

Investigating a time-loop during the Cold War, light years away from Earth. Neoproxima is a text-based adventure game that combines exploration and simple RPG and survival mechanics. Plan your next loop carefully, and go as far as possible before time catches up with you.

Why similar: Sci-fi 57.9%, Visual Novel 24.1%, Adventure 18%

How long could you survive in a parallel universe where the Mist dictates its rules? Would you be able to find the way to your homeworld, or will you adapt to live under the Mist domain? Fight for resources, get together with other survivors and discover the secrets of this world.

Nobody – The Turnaround is a life simulator set in a parallel world that echoes modern society. Manage your time and resources carefully, strive to find a way through difficult times, and overcome the predicament you find yourself in.

Why similar: Strategy 74%, Adventure 26%

You’ve made the biggest mistake in history. Now, you're the last hope. Explore the UK, Russia, Germany, Norway, Egypt, USA, Mars, and the Moon. Search for food, face creatures, travel through time, and fight to restore humanity. Survive or perish—your choices shape the future.

Why similar: Casual 100%

Lightracer Spark is a Sci-Fi Narrative game. You are an amender from a high civilization, descending to various extraterrestrial worlds. Guide living beings to prosperity, or nip a spark in the bud. Accumulate strength through choices and strategies to grasp the rise and fall of all civilizations.

Why similar: Sci-fi 38.7%, Visual Novel 38.1%, Strategy 15.6%, Indie 7.6%

The Last Journey is an ultimate post-nuclear exploration game in which you travel the universe to find a new planet suitable for mankind to live on after the Earth was destroyed in a nuclear war.

Why similar: Adventure 59.4%, Indie 40.6%

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: Sci-fi 62.7%, Strategy 37.3%

This is a world at the brink of destruction, but he comes from a destroyed world. Bearing the burden of changing the fate of this world and facing everything before him, especially the eminent destruction, what can he do, and what price will he pay?

Why similar: Adventure 28.4%, Strategy 27.6%, Casual 25.7%, Indie 18.3%

In Mars Colony: Frontier you can learn the hard way what life would be like if you were stranded on the red planet. In this open-world simulator, you assume the role of an astronaut who has been sent on a mission to Mars only to have turmoil on Earth extend your stay indefinitely.

Why similar: Adventure 59.4%, Indie 40.6%

you will play as Gaia, the shattered will of a planet, and command your spaceship to explore new worlds, collect and refine various resources, build a home on the damaged spacecraft, summon a wide range of monsters, and ultimately, devour other shattered wills to repair yourself.

Why similar: Strategy 51.1%, Casual 35%, Sci-fi 11.2%, Indie 2.6%