Buildig games

Cities XL deserves a spot on this list alone for how ambitious it was back in the time it was released. On the surface, it appeared to be a simple city-building game but it had an online multiplayer component which was interesting, to say the least. Cities XL also allowed players to interact with one another in a persistent planet. Each city belongs to a player and each player can even trade with others, basically running a simulated world.

Sadly this online service was closed several months later and Cities XL became just a single-player game instead of an MMO based around city-building. Even so, it was a big deal back in its time and was one of the best city-building games back then before SimCity and Cities: Skylines improved on the 3D city-builder formula.

While Townscaper isn't a city builder in the traditional sense, there is no doubt that the whole purpose of this game is to build a settlement. You have many options for colors and styles, and it's a very calming experience overall. Townscaper has come into its own as a tool for those who wish to use their manufactured towns as set pieces in their tabletop games.

It lets you make a town exactly as you need it in exactly the configurations you need. The SimCity franchise has been around a long time. The first entry in the series dates back almost 30 years. It is essentially the grandfather of all city-building games and paved the way no pun intended for many games to come. These titles are still relevant in the gaming sphere, extending from PC and consoles to find a new home on mobile devices. It may not be the most innovative title on this list, but the formula they created is still solid today and definitely worth your time.

You can even check out the final entry in the series, SimCity: Buildit , for free on your favorite mobile device. Medieval Dynasty is an odd one where rather than being some omniscient figure dictating where buildings are built and what your residents do, you are instead just some guy who dictates where buildings are built and what your residents do. The settlement building features of this game are incredibly fun to interact with and they turn the game from a simple survival game with a generations system into something far grander.

While this title is currently in Early Access, Foundation is a very promising medieval-era city builder from Polymorph Games who proudly advertise their game's lack of a grid and focus on the procedural nature of settlement building.

The game is very good at emulating what it must have felt like to manage a medieval settlement, with many events being out of your hands and the enforcement of a reactive rather than proactive gameplay style.

In addition to that, the game has a thriving modding community sure to extend the title's lifespan many years. If your greatest goal in life is to gain favor with a Nordic God and earn your place in Valhalla, have we got a game for you! Valhalla Hills is a throwback to the popular Settlers games in which players will build settlements in an attempt to earn favor with Odin.

If you're looking for a more laid-back city-building experience, this is one we highly recommend. The colorful, cartoonish art style is appealing and there is less of a focus on combat than some of our other titles. You will need to fight for resources with the local Dwarven population and there are some monsters to contend with, but for the most part, you can focus on expanding your Nordic empire. Urban Empire is a city-building sim that takes a slightly different approach.

Rather than focusing on the building aspect, Urban Empire tasks you with furthering your civilization through diplomacy. You spend the bulk of your time competing for votes and favor among your citizen. You will build relationships as frequently as you destroy them, all the while researching ways to improve life in your empire.

This entry is for players keen to witness the unraveling of a " historical family drama" rather than participate in a true strategy game.

If space colonies are more your thing, Surviving Mars is a great option to feed the explorer in you. You will begin your journey on Mars, which is currently a barren wasteland. Luckily, the game provides all the tools required to make it habitable. This title is not for the faint of heart, however. You will be battling the deadly atmosphere, lack of oxygen, and infertile land, making your job all the more difficult. After you've established a livable settlement, you will start attracting humans to your colony.

It is now your job to ensure their survival and trust us, it's not easy. Get ready to micro-manage! In Aven Colony, players will face a barrage of alien abnormalities as they try to establish their otherworldly civilizations. Alien plagues, extreme weather, and hostile species await you as you attempt to carve out your own little corner of space. Your job as overseer is to ensure the survival of your citizens. This involves mining minerals for resources, building hospitals, and maintaining order.

Once your city is stable, the game then introduces bigger goals to entice you further. This may include large-scale military operations or exploration missions. The Settlers have always been one of the longest-running hybrid video games in modern history and it oddly combines city-building with real-time strategy RTS and many other elements from other genres.

This depends on which Settler game we're talking about but The Settlers: Paths to a Kingdom is one of the rare gems in the franchise. It takes place in a medieval world, making it a unique title in this list as well for its ingenuity alone.

It borrows mechanics from Civilization games where you get to pick a leader or faction and build your mere plot of land into your own empire through military actions, development, and many more aspects not present in other city builders. Banished is one of the most unique takes on the city-building formula for this list since it delves into a setting that's practically unexplored in its genre: medieval era. In that regard, you control a group of exiled travelers in Banished whereupon you're forced to build your village and eventually city from scratch after being banished by a feudal lord.

This also makes Banished a survival title on top of a city-builder-- something you don't usually experience in city-builder games. The game even makes it so that your primary resource is townspeople who get old, get sick, and even die, making managing them an important element of this game. It's worth playing alone for its unique take.

Food can be useful if you have people who need it. It goes without saying that you should provide for the people who follow you. If you build sheds or warehouses, you store those goods.

This can be particularly helpful, if you don't need those goods yourself but want to sell them to others. Instead of giving them away freely, you can trade or better yet make a profit off your work. And so on and so forth. Some levels can feel like a puzzle as you try to pick the right elements to win the builder challenge. But the great thing about online minecraft and city building games is that they are not just about building your own city like you do in SimCity.

While it's fun to play with amazing characters and marvel at beautiful intricate graphics, there is more to it than that. Some games are about the many great ways in which you can build up an economic engine and turn it into an empire. Examples of these games are the Tycoon series that cover topics as diverse as railroads, airlines, hospitals and TV.

These games are a great way to introduce you to the fun and excitement of running a business. One that is expected to provide a reliable service for money, like a place to stay for tourists.

In some cases you get to turn raw material into a commercial good, that people are eager to buy from you. This can be a shop for people to buy baked goods from. Your job is to stay on top of it all through tactical management of demands and finding the right strategy to maximize profits. If this is still not varied and unusual enough for you, building games have even more to offer. You could, for example, start to craft and create the tools you want to use. Just like you would in gaming classics like Minecraft.

Like many free online games, there is enough variety and room to experiment. It will keep you glued to your screen for days to come. You're free to try all kinds of combinations. You just need a robust solution to whichever challenge you're facing. You may have to work on infrastructure between one city and the next. You can set up a bridge, if you want. Make sure it is stable, so that even large, heavy-weight transports can pass safely without it collapsing.

Enjoy meaty puzzle games, free simulators or strategy games for advanced players. These building games are sure to offer you a little something from every pot. Play around with buildings in a city or the entire world. Enter a world of opportunities and make the best of them. Use buildings and efficient time management as building blocks for your towering success. Half the fun in mastering these games lies in adapting to changing circumstances. Just because your early constructions led you to success, doesn't mean it will stay this way.

You will have to constantly improve and evolve.