The Steam Base Builder Fest is underway, and it's already proving to be an excellent occasion for us to indulge our mayoral dreams in some dirt-cheap city builders.
As the name suggests, the Base Builder Fest encompasses an array of genres, including excellent survival games like Subnautica and Valheim or great factory-builders like Satisfactory and Dyson Sphere Program. But SimCity's long absence means that I'm always hungry for urban planning and macroeconomics, so here are a few of the best city-building games, colony sims, and management games you can get as part of the sale.
- Cities: Skylines ($8.99 at 70% off) (opens in new tab) is the city builder of record in this post-SimCity world, and it's not the most strategically deep management game on the market, it still provides some incredible tools for building the city of your dreams.
- Frostpunk ($7.49 at 75% off) (opens in new tab) is for those of you who've always wondered what city-building games would be like if you could freeze to death in the middle of a bad winter - the answer is in this fantastic, intensely challenging strategy game.
- Dorfromantik ($9.79 at 30% off) (opens in new tab) exists on the complete opposite side of the spectrum from Frostpunk, letting you zen out by simply placing landscaping tiles how you want.
- Townscaper ($3.89 at 35% off) (opens in new tab) completely pulls the stress out of city building, giving you something more akin to a toy than a game - but it's a wonderfully chill, relaxing toy nonetheless.
- Surviving Mars ($7.49 at 75% off) (opens in new tab) takes the city-building concept to Mars, where you've got to serve the needs of colonists attempting to make their way on the red planet.
- Two Point Hospital ($8.74 at 75% off) (opens in new tab) is smaller in scope than the other selections here, but a robust simulation and charmingly goofball sensibilities make it one of the most memorable management games out there right now.
- Dwarf Fortress ($26.99 at 10% off) (opens in new tab) is not just a city-building game, it's a history-building game, and perhaps the most robust simulation ever to exist in the world of video games.
- RimWorld ($27.99 at 20% off) (opens in new tab) might be best described as the friendlier version of Dwarf Fortress, and it remains one of the best colony-building games out there.
Check out our guide to the best city building games for more you might be interested in.
