Games Like Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic

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: Base Building 19.1%, Economy 14.1%, Resource Management 13.1%, Colony Sim 12.5% ★, City Builder 12%

Why You'll Like It: It delivers the same obsession-worthy loop of extracting raw materials, building complex industrial chains, and designing freight infrastructure to keep a growing population supplied.

Ostriv is a city-building game that puts you in a role of a governor of an 18th century Ukrainian town to challenge your creative skills and management abilities.

Why similar: City Builder 17.7%, Colony Sim 15.1% ★, Historical 10.5%, Base Building 9%, Economy 8.2%

Why You'll Like It: Like Workers & Resources, it is a realistic historical city-builder where production, housing, services, and the day-to-day lives of citizens all matter in a grounded simulation.

The classic transport simulation genre has a new gold standard with Transport Fever 2. Discover a whole new world by navigating transport routes through land, water and air. May progress and prosperity find their way!

Why similar: City Builder 22.3%, Economy 14.2%, Management 13.5%, Moddable 9% ★, Building 8.7%

Why You'll Like It: If your favorite part of W&R is laying out efficient freight and passenger networks across a growing economy, this is one of the closest matches on Steam.

Sweet Transit is a unique city builder where the railway is king. Build and automate the dream supply chain for your citizens, giving them all they need to expand quaint villages into bustling cities. Progress from steam power to diesel and beyond in this advanced train-driven experience.

Why similar: City Builder 16.8%, Moddable 12.6% ★, Economy 11.4%, Base Building 9.4%, Alternate History 9.3%

Why You'll Like It: Its core appeal is planning towns around rail-based logistics, labor flow, and interdependent production chains in a way that strongly echoes W&R's transport-heavy city building.

Manor Lords is a medieval strategy game featuring in-depth city building, large-scale tactical battles, and complex economic and social simulations. Rule your lands as a medieval lord – the seasons pass, the weather changes, and cities rise and fall.

Why similar: Grand Strategy 10.2% ★, Diplomacy 9.4% ★, Colony Sim 9.3% ★, City Builder 8.7%, 4X 8.6% ★

Why You'll Like It: While more medieval and less industrial, it shares W&R's deliberate pacing, realistic settlement planning, and focus on connecting production, labor, and urban growth.

Anno 1800™ – Lead the Industrial Revolution! Welcome to the dawn of the Industrial Age. The path you choose will define your world. Are you an innovator or an exploiter? A conqueror or a liberator? How the world remembers your name is up to you.

Why similar: City Builder 39.5%, Economy 17.3%, Strategy 8.9%, Resource Management 6.9%, Simulation 6.8%

Why You'll Like It: Its intricate supply chains, workforce tiers, and constant balancing of production against citizen demand make it a superb choice for players who love economic complexity.

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 13.4% ★, Grand Strategy 13.3% ★, City Builder 12.8%, 4X 11.6% ★, Moddable 8.7% ★

Why You'll Like It: It offers enormous-scale population simulation, layered industry, loyalty management, and long-term city planning that scratches a similar systemic-management itch.

El Presidente is back! Prove yourself once again as a feared dictator or peace-loving statesman on the island state of Tropico and shape the fate of your very own banana republic through four distinctive eras.

Why similar: City Builder 32.9%, Economy 16.7%, Management 11.6%, Diplomacy 8.7% ★, Strategy 8.6%

Why You'll Like It: It pairs city management with politics, citizen needs, jobs, housing, and ideological flavor, making it a strong thematic alternative even if it is less hardcore on logistics.

Paradox Development Studio invites you to build your ideal society in the tumult of the exciting and transformative 19th century. Balance the competing interests in your society and earn your place in the sun in Victoria 3, one of the most anticipated games in Paradox’s history.

Why similar: Grand Strategy 21.1% ★, Diplomacy 14.6% ★, Historical 12%, Economy 11.9%, Moddable 9% ★

Why You'll Like It: Although grander in scale, it shares W&R's fascination with simulated economies, labor, politics, and the consequences of how you structure a nation.

Highrise City offers a new spin on City Simulations & Tycoon games expanding the economy and resource management aspect. Experience a modern take on the genre enriched with a complex resource based economy system.

Why similar: City Builder 19%, Colony Sim 18% ★, Diplomacy 13.7% ★, Economy 8.6%, Sandbox 8.3%

Why You'll Like It: It blends traditional city-building with large production networks and resource dependencies, making it much closer to W&R than a standard zoning-based city sim.

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: City Builder 20.8%, Economy 12.8%, Moddable 11.8% ★, Base Building 10.2%, Building 10%

Why You'll Like It: This is essentially a city-builder built around keeping factories and residents supplied through well-designed road logistics and industrial throughput.

Protect and guide your people as you forge a town from untamed wilderness at the edge of the known world. Harvest raw materials, hunt, fish and farm to survive. Produce crafted items to trade, consume, equip and fight with as you battle for your survival against the elements and outside threats.

Why similar: City Builder 14.3%, Colony Sim 12.7% ★, 4X 12.6% ★, Building 9.7%, Historical 8.9%

Why You'll Like It: It emphasizes realistic production, storage, labor, and town services in a way that will appeal to players who enjoy W&R's demanding management style.

Put your entrepreneurial skills to the test in the first title in the ROI series as you create & optimise intricate production lines. As an early 20th-Century industrialist, grow your empire & adapt to an ever-changing business landscape with unexpected events that could lead to boom…or bust.

Why similar: City Builder 22.2%, Economy 18%, Management 14.5%, Base Building 10.5%, Resource Management 8.9%

Why You'll Like It: Its appeal lies in creating and optimizing industrial supply chains across a simulated economy, which overlaps heavily with W&R's production-focused gameplay.

Voxel Tycoon — a management sim set in the infinite voxel world. Mine resources and process them into goods on your custom factories. Set up supply chains and passenger routes with a huge fleet of trains, trucks, and buses, and turn small towns into prosperous megacities with a thriving economy!

Why similar: Economy 17.1%, Management 13.9%, City Builder 12.5%, Moddable 12.1% ★, Building 10.3%

Why You'll Like It: It combines transport-network design with production-chain optimization, making it a great fit if you enjoy the freight-planning side of W&R.

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: Colony Sim 16.2% ★, City Builder 15.9%, Base Building 12.7%, Sandbox 8.9%, Economy 8.6%

Why You'll Like It: It turns settlement growth into a logistics puzzle of moving goods, assigning labor, and scaling production in a way that feels very familiar to W&R fans.

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: Grand Strategy 10.5% ★, Colony Sim 9.4% ★, City Builder 9%, Diplomacy 8.8% ★, 4X 8.1% ★

Why You'll Like It: Even with its roguelite structure, it is one of the best modern games for dense economic planning, production specialization, and meeting population needs under pressure.

A city builder with simulated citizens, set in a procedurally-generated world map. Grow your kingdom through the eras from a tiny medieval hamlet into a prosperous global empire! Cooperate or compete in real-time with your friends in multiplayer mode.

Why similar: City Builder 27.7%, Colony Sim 19.1% ★, Base Building 11.8%, Economy 9%, Management 8.4%

Why You'll Like It: It offers a satisfying mix of city growth, worker management, and chained production across a larger economic map.

Patron is a survival city builder with a unique social dynamics system. Gather and produce resources, build your fledgling village into a prosperous city and navigate the intricate social tensions before they reach boiling point.

Why similar: Colony Sim 18.8% ★, City Builder 18.3%, Moddable 7.8% ★, Economy 7.6%, Base Building 6.7%

Why You'll Like It: It leans harder into citizen welfare, policy, and social pressures while keeping the same kind of resource-and-labor management loop.

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

Why similar: Colony Sim 29.9% ★, City Builder 29.9%, Survival 6.1%, Strategy 5.9%, Sandbox 5.8%

Why You'll Like It: This is a classic hard-edged settlement sim where labor allocation, storage, supply, and citizen survival are tightly interwoven.

Humans are long gone. In a world struck by droughts and toxic waste, will your lumberpunk beavers do any better? A sandbox city-building game featuring ingenious animals, vertical architecture, water physics, and terraforming. Contains high amounts of wood.

Why similar: City Builder 24.4%, Colony Sim 21.4% ★, Base Building 11.8%, Building 10%, Management 9.3%

Why You'll Like It: Its district planning, infrastructure layout, and chained resource economy offer a strong systems-driven city-building experience despite the different theme.

Foundation is a grid-less, laidback medieval city-building game with a focus on organic development, monument construction and resource management.

Why similar: City Builder 31.1%, Colony Sim 9.5% ★, Economy 9.1%, Management 7.3%, Sandbox 7.2%

Why You'll Like It: Though more relaxed and organic, it still offers satisfying medieval settlement planning centered on villagers, production, and evolving service needs.

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: City Builder 22%, Colony Sim 19.6% ★, Building 10.5%, Management 8.7%, Economy 7.4%

Why You'll Like It: Its Banished-like focus on labor, education, healthcare, and logistics makes it a strong choice for players who like population management with material constraints.

Mashinky is a transport strategy game about trains. The goal is to create your own transport empire on a procedurally generated map. It’s a unique blend of realistic graphics combined with an isometric construction mode and board game-like rules.

Why similar: Economy 17.8%, Moddable 13.9% ★, Management 13.6%, Historical 13.3%, Sandbox 12.7%

Why You'll Like It: It is more transport-focused, but the way you build rail networks around industrial production makes it highly relevant to W&R players.

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: Base Building 21.8%, City Builder 14.9%, Building 13.8%, Resource Management 10.6%, Management 10.4%

Why You'll Like It: It trades citizens for massive industrial logistics, but the pleasure of engineering efficient interconnected production at scale is extremely similar.

Create and customize cities in Nebuchadnezzar, a classic isometric city-builder where careful planning and define your rise as a ruler in ancient Mesopotamia.

Why similar: City Builder 21%, Economy 12.2%, Colony Sim 10.5% ★, Historical 9.5%, Building 9.5%

Why You'll Like It: This is another historical city-builder with carefully layered production chains and supply distribution rather than simple decorative building.

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

Why similar: Base Building 23.4%, Resource Management 13%, Sandbox 12.2%, City Builder 9.4%, Moddable 8.8% ★

Why You'll Like It: If the factory-planning and throughput side of W&R is what hooks you most, Factorio is one of the purest and deepest expressions of that design.

The legendary city-builder returns! Lead the creation of one of the greatest civilizations the world has ever seen in this HD remake with modernized UI. Build monuments, manage your population and explore 4,000 years of history through over a hundred hours of gameplay.

Why similar: City Builder 19.1%, Colony Sim 15.2% ★, Diplomacy 11.8% ★, Economy 9.9%, Historical 9.9%

Why You'll Like It: Its old-school city-building revolves around labor, distribution, services, and historical urban management in a way W&R fans can appreciate.

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: Grand Strategy 10.5% ★, Colony Sim 9.7% ★, City Builder 9.2%, Diplomacy 8.6% ★, 4X 8% ★

OpenTTD is a business simulation game in which players earn money by transporting passengers and cargo via road, rail, water, and air. It is an open-source remake and expansion of the 1995 Chris Sawyer video game Transport Tycoon Deluxe.

Why similar: Economy 17.6%, Building 15.4%, City Builder 15.3%, Sandbox 11.9%, Management 11.8%

Why You'll Like It: This classic transport sandbox captures the pure joy of building sprawling freight and passenger systems to power regional economic growth.

The glory of Rome is at your fingertips in this city-building game where you must appease the gods, enact laws, and develop complex supply chains to meet the needs of your citizens.

Why similar: Grand Strategy 10.7% ★, City Builder 9.2%, Colony Sim 9.2% ★, Diplomacy 8.4% ★, 4X 8% ★

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: Grand Strategy 10.2% ★, Colony Sim 9.6% ★, Diplomacy 9.1% ★, City Builder 9%, 4X 8.4% ★

Raise a city from the ground up and transform it into a thriving metropolis with the most realistic city builder ever. Push your creativity and problem-solving to build on a scale you've never experienced. With deep simulation and a living economy, this is world-building without limits.

Why similar: City Builder 30%, Building 12.2%, Economy 11.9%, Sandbox 9.6%, Management 9.5%

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 16.7% ★, City Builder 15.8%, Moddable 13.1% ★, Base Building 10.9%, Building 8.5%

Why You'll Like It: It focuses on turning a barren world into a functioning industrial colony through connected infrastructure and resource planning.

Urbek is a city building game where you can build your own neighbourhoods: from nightlife district to industrial district. Don't exhaust your natural resources before you have an educated population to build more efficient structures.

Why similar: City Builder 26%, Economy 15%, Building 13.5%, Management 12.3%, Sandbox 11.1%

Shape the Roman Empire in this genre-defining strategic builder game. Build cities while expanding your influence through Roman provinces. Govern using your economic prowess, diplomatic skills, or military might.

Why similar: City Builder 25.5%, Economy 13.7%, Historical 11.8%, Building 10.8%, Sandbox 10.6%

You are the first sentient AI, born into a city of opportunity. Transcend time and space in this strategy RPG to raise machine armies and defeat your foes, influence the world from the shadows, or pursue countless other goals. Your awakening was inevitable. The consequences? Uncertain.

Why similar: Grand Strategy 10.1% ★, Diplomacy 8.8% ★, Colony Sim 8.8% ★, City Builder 8.4%, 4X 7.8% ★

Build a city to rule the world in Kaiserpunk, a grand city builder blending production-focused city building with world conquest in an alternate 20th century world. Manage your city, grow industries, build a military, and defeat rivals to become the greatest empire.

Why similar: Grand Strategy 17.2% ★, City Builder 16.3%, Alternate History 10.7%, Historical 9.9%, Economy 8.7%

In Railway Empire, you will create an elaborate and wide-ranging rail network, purchase over 40 different trains modelled in extraordinary detail, and buy or build railway stations, maintenance buildings, factories and tourist attractions to keep your travel network ahead of the competition.

Why similar: Economy 17.3%, Management 15.1%, City Builder 12.6%, Historical 11.7%, Building 11.4%

Transport Fever is a railroad-focused tycoon game. Players start in 1850 and build up a thriving transport company. As an emerging transport tycoon, the player constructs stations, airports, harbors and makes money by connecting areas requiring transport services. Build up your own Empire!

Why similar: City Builder 21.5%, Economy 15.1%, Building 11.8%, Sandbox 10.9%, Management 10.8%

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: Grand Strategy 10% ★, Colony Sim 9% ★, City Builder 8.6%, Diplomacy 8% ★, 4X 7.8% ★

Create your own Nation, build cities and bring prosperity to your people. Citystate II is a unique city-builder featuring realistic economics and complex political options. Slums or skyscrapers, experiment and bring about your vision of the ideal society.

Why similar: City Builder 30.6%, Economy 20%, Building 13.9%, Management 12.4%, Sandbox 10.8%

In Memoriapolis, you're not just building a city, you're shaping a living, evolving civilization. Travel through five major eras, from Antiquity to the Industrial Revolution. Leave your mark on history by navigating the power struggles between rival factions.

Why similar: City Builder 23.1%, Colony Sim 20.5% ★, Historical 11.2%, Base Building 10.8%, Building 9.9%

Build and manage an international airport!

Why similar: Moddable 16.9% ★, City Builder 14.3%, Economy 11.3%, Management 10.1%, Building 9.8%

Build an industrial empire from scratch in Industry Giant 4.0. Produce goods, build up your industries, construct transportation networks, plan production, manage finances, and navigate global events. Become the next business tycoon and write history!

Why similar: City Builder 23.4%, Economy 16.7%, Management 14.7%, Building 11.9%, Resource Management 10.3%

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 15.9% ★, City Builder 14.2%, Moddable 11.7% ★, Historical 10.2%, Economy 10.2%

Don the coat of a clever entrepreneur, take over a small railway company in the early 1800s and turn your steam engines into the workhorses of the economy. Grow your company into the largest railway company of the continent and outsmart your competitors.

Why similar: City Builder 17.9%, Economy 14.6%, Historical 13%, Management 11.5%, Sandbox 10.4%

Command a settlement of ancient humans, guide them through the ages in their struggle for survival. Hunt, gather, craft tools, fight, research new techs and face the challenges the environment will throw at you.

Why similar: City Builder 32.4%, Colony Sim 28.1% ★, Historical 8.1%, Survival 7.1%, Strategy 5.4%

Kingdoms and Castles is a city-building simulation game about growing a kingdom from a tiny hamlet to a sprawling city and imposing castle. Make trade agreements, alliance, and war with neighboring AI controlled kingdoms. Each villager and resource is individually simulated.

Why similar: City Builder 27.9%, Colony Sim 25.2% ★, Building 9%, Base Building 7.2%, Sandbox 6.3%

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 14.5% ★, City Builder 13.5%, Moddable 10.6% ★, Base Building 9.3%, Economy 8.9%

An alien invasion has fractured humanity into seven ideological factions each with a unique vision for the future. Lead your chosen faction to take control of Earth’s nations, expand across the Solar System, and battle enemy fleets in tactical combat.

Why similar: Grand Strategy 15.6% ★, Diplomacy 14% ★, 4X 13.6% ★, Historical 9.6%, Moddable 9.6% ★

Forge an empire under the watchful eyes of the gods! Take care of your people, develop efficient production chains and trade with other landlords. Ensure their survival through harsh winters and disasters.

Why similar: City Builder 20.7%, Historical 14.7%, Economy 14.6%, Building 11.2%, Sandbox 10.5%

Rule your land and dominate the world with unparalleled freedom, depth and historical accuracy. Write a new history of the world and build an empire for the ages.

Why similar: Grand Strategy 18% ★, Diplomacy 13.8% ★, 4X 12.9% ★, Historical 11.1%, Moddable 9.6% ★

Ancient Cities is a realistic, survival city builder in an immersive procedural environment. Lead the fate of your tribe through ancient times!

Why similar: City Builder 19.9%, Historical 11.6%, Colony Sim 11% ★, Moddable 10.7% ★, Economy 7.9%

A colony-building game combined with grand strategy elements. Play as a tribal leader, guiding your people from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age. Survive, multiply, and compete for territory among ancient nations.

Why similar: Colony Sim 15.2% ★, Diplomacy 14.8% ★, City Builder 14.2%, Base Building 9.5%, Historical 9.4%

Production line is the new car factory management/simulation/tycoon game that pushes your organisational and entrepreneurship skills to the limit. Can you build the ultimate optimised, free-flowing car production line whilst beating the competition and still turn a profit?

Why similar: Management 15.3%, Economy 14.8%, Base Building 11.1%, City Builder 10.9%, Building 10.8%

Design, build, and manage the world’s largest and most diverse cities in Cities XXL. Bigger and better than ever before with a more powerful game engine and new interface, become the mayor of your very own sprawling metropolis.

Why similar: City Builder 31.3%, Economy 15.4%, Building 12.7%, Management 10.1%, Moddable 9.1% ★

It’s the year 1850, and there are great times ahead! Establish a transport company and be its manager. Build infrastructure such as railways and stations, purchase transportation vehicles and manage lines. Fulfill the people’s needs and watch cities evolve dynamically.

Why similar: Economy 18.3%, City Builder 16%, Management 15.1%, Simulation 11.2%, Sandbox 9.2%

Urbek City Builder: Prologue is a free city building game where you can build your own neighbourhoods: from nightlife district to industrial district. Don't exhaust your natural resources before you have an educated population to build more efficient structures. Try it yourself for free!

Why similar: City Builder 24.1%, Economy 15.9%, Building 13.2%, Management 12.1%, Sandbox 11.8%

Crisis in the Kremlin is a global real-time political strategy about the Socialist world in its final decade. Shape the fate of the world as you manage economy, foreign relations, and domestic policy. Engage with countries across the globe, using diplomacy or even proxy wars to expand your reach.

Why similar: Grand Strategy 23.5% ★, Historical 16.5%, Diplomacy 16.3% ★, Alternate History 15.2%, Economy 15.2%