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Locked Up
Prison Architect
Back to School
Two Point Campus
El Presidente
Tropico 6
Planet Harvest
Satisfactory
Before kids and other responsibilities, when I regularly gamed into the wee hours, playing management sims was one of my favorite things to do. I spent countless days building in Sim Tower, SimCity, and Theme Park. I ran a studio in The Movies, managed a menagerie in Zoo Tycoon, and constructed the pyramids in Pharaoh. My villainous lairs in Dungeon Keeper 2 and Evil Genius were beyond compare. I built impregnable castles in Stronghold, and I sank days into Game Dev Story—a game about making games.
These games are the perfect foil to multiplayer madness, offering a table of absorbing escapism for one. As the kids have grown, I’ve found myself with a little more time to scratch that management and building itch, and these are the games that have sucked me back in.
A note for potential players: While there are often console versions, you tend to get better controls and greater depth if you play on PC.
Updated June 2024: We added several games, including Against the Storm, Manor Lords, and Galacticare, switched a couple of titles for newer releases, and updated details and pricing throughout.
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Courtesy of Paradox Interactive
Locked Up
Prison Architect
Designing and running a successful prison isn’t easy. Take the warden’s job and you must build cells and facilities to cater to all manner of depraved criminals intent on violence or escape. Run a punishing regime with tiny cells and regular shakedowns or rehabilitate prisoners through learning programs and creature comforts. Building different prisons to test your ideas is a lot of fun, but it can be tough to maintain order and turn a profit. Even if you cultivate a network of informants, the odd shower shanking is inevitable. The base game is great, just beware of disappointing DLC.
A sequel, Prison Architect 2, is set to land in September.
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Courtesy of Two Point Studios
Back to School
Two Point Campus
Developing and running a university is more fun than it sounds in this quirky management sim. The follow-up to Two Point Hospital (which it replaces here but is also worth playing) is even better. Themed levels serve as tutorials to build up your skills as you run schools for sports jocks, knights, wizards, and budding musicians. The cartoon art style is polished, with lots of customization options, and there’s a little more depth since characters stick around for a few years instead of popping in and out.
If you played and loved Two Point Hospital, you will enjoy this, but the gameplay is not drastically altered. Two Point Campus is perhaps more forgiving, boasts more options for decoration, and is more relaxing to play, though the humor is groan-inducing rather than laugh-out-loud funny. The DLC is a mixed bag (Space Academy is probably the best).
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Tropico 6 via Simon Hill
El Presidente
Tropico 6
Can you turn a tropical backwater into a major player on the world stage? Cast as a dictator, you must decide what’s best for your people and guide your fledgling nation to throw off its colonial overlords, survive the world wars and the Cold War, and reach the modern day.
The satirical political simulation sits atop a classic city builder that challenges you to extract resources, manufacture profitable goods, and keep your discontented citizens happy—or find a way to silence them. The series formula hasn’t evolved much, but it’s an interesting mix of ideas that will have you striving to build a tropical paradise and line your pockets in the process.
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Courtesy of Coffee Stain Studios
Planet Harvest
Satisfactory
Set in a vague, dystopian future, Satisfactory drops you on an alien planet. You’re tasked with building a gigantic machine to suck the resources out for a soulless corporation. Finding what you need, mining or extracting it, and combining resources to make new things depends upon exploration and the construction of smelters and manufacturing units linked by pipes, conveyor belts, and power lines. It’s a puzzle with constantly shifting goals that makes you repeatedly realize what you just built was stupid and inefficient because you’ve already thought of a better way to do it.
Billing it as a 3D Factorio is partially accurate, but that description sells it short. What I was unprepared for is just how beautiful the game is. Playing in first person makes factory design tougher in sometimes frustrating ways, but that’s eclipsed by the joy of exploring alien worlds teeming with exotic wildlife. There are also Minecraft vibes to the lonely struggle for survival and the incredible satisfaction of successfully designing and building something increasingly complex at your own pace. While Satisfactory is still officially in early access, it has been in development since 2016, and the single-player experience is surprisingly polished.
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Courtesy of Sports Interactive
Soccer Strategy
Football Manager 2024
Few games blur the line between fantasy and reality as effectively as Football Manager. The challenge of assembling a soccer team and guiding them to glory is mammoth and has grown increasingly complex as this series has matured. The stats and data on players are accurate enough that pro coaches have reportedly used it, and everyone with a fondness for the beautiful game is susceptible to its charms.
Developer Sports Interactive first found success with the Championship Manager series before splitting with publisher Eidos. The latest Football Manager is easily the most complete management simulation around, but it can become all-consuming. This game is available as part of Game Pass at the time of writing. If soccer isn’t your thing, try the Out of the Park Baseball series.
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Courtesy of 11 Bit Studios
Chill City
Frostpunk
Wonderfully bleak and utterly unforgiving, this game tasks you with battling for survival as you carve a city out of the frozen wastelands of a doomed late 19th-century Earth. Try to extract resources, provide shelter, and research new technologies as you struggle to keep your citizens warm in circular cities built around a central heat source. The steampunk styling and haunting score combine to give this game a unique identity. Challenging gameplay has you constantly teetering on the brink of oblivion, with the fate of humanity weighing heavy on your shoulders, and it’s so satisfying when you manage to pull through. A sequel is in development.
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Courtesy of Eremite Games
Deep Dark Woods
Against the Storm
With a fresh fantasy forest setting and randomly generated elements, Against the Storm is a city builder like no other. A demanding queen sends you to reclaim the world from the Blightstorm one tile at a time, and your population is a mix of humans, beavers, and lizards, with more anthropomorphized animals down the line, each with its own talents and preferences. Don’t let the cutesy art style fool you; horrors lurk in the heart of the forest.
Exploration of each procedurally generated map reveals glades with bonuses or resources and sometimes threats to overcome. There’s also real depth to the economy, with chains of resource gathering, processing, and refining required to produce the goods that will keep your forest folk happy. The queen’s patience serves as a time limit for each level, and she has a never-ending list of demands to focus your efforts on.
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Ludeon Studios via Simon Hill
Space Colony
Rimworld
I am a Rimworld addict. Sometimes it stops me from trying other games because anything vaguely reminiscent just makes me want to play Rimworld. It combines the challenge of resource management and colony building on random alien planets with colorful characters and emergent stories. Life is harsh and challenging in Rimworld, raiders are merciless, and it takes time and determination to build a spaceship and escape whatever rock you’ve landed on.
Fans of this game who want to branch out should consider one of its inspirations, the incredibly inaccessible madness that is Dwarf Fortress. Folks seeking a gentler introduction to colony sims should try Going Medieval, though it’s still an early-access game on Steam. Still, nothing nails the chaos of sci-fi colony building like Rimworld. There’s quite a bit of DLC now (I like Biotech best).
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Courtesy of Slavic Magic
Manure Lords
Manor Lords
As lord or lady of the manor, you must establish a village and grow your collection of muddy hovels into a thriving town. This requires judicious use of your peasant population and limited resources. As the game progresses and you extend your influence, there are bandits and enemy armies to contend with. Manor Lords is in early access, so it is rough in places but remarkably polished in others. Watching your thatched wooden buildings morph into stone and tiles, with extensions and workshops popping up in the backyard, as your population advances from farming to skilled trades is immensely satisfying. You can get lost in the hustle and bustle of your budding hamlet as the seasons pass, caught up in stockpiling for the winter, and you can practically smell the manure.
Combat is straightforward, but pulling together the necessary weaponry and armor to equip your first regiment or the resources to improve your defenses is tricky. I appreciate the option to play peacefully and just focus on designing a sleepy medieval town. Only available for PC right now, Manor Lords is currently on Game Pass, so subscribers can give it a whirl. The rest of you might want to make a note and hang fire for now. While there’s enough here to hint at the excellent game this might become, it is not quite there yet.
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Courtesy of SomaSim
Skyscraper Construction
Project Highrise
If you loved SimTower back in the day, Project Highrise will scratch that itch. Your job is to build a thriving skyscraper with a healthy mix of residential, commercial, and office space. The 2D side-on view lets you peek at your building’s inhabitants as they scurry about their day. Constructing a tower in sandbox mode is relaxing and fun, but there are scenarios if you prefer a challenge. Elevator management inevitably dominates, and the game feels same-y after a while, though PC gamers can expand the base game with affordable DLC packs based on famous cities like Las Vegas and Tokyo. They add a handful of new scenarios and buildings but don’t change the gameplay. The Architect’s Edition on consoles includes the DLC.
I was addicted to Nimblebit’s Tiny Tower mobile game (the Tiny Death Star spinoff was even better) for years, but both are gone from the app stores now, and the new versions are not good. Luckily, Project Highrise is one of the few games on this list that you can also play on your phone.
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Courtesy of Frontier Developments
Dinosaur Disaster
Jurassic World Evolution 2
Movie tie-ins are rarely successful, but the Jurassic Park series has long cried out for a good theme park sim. Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis was fun, but the rebooted franchise needed a park-building game of its own. The original Jurassic World Evolution featured more than 40 dinosaurs and challenged you to build and manage parks across five different islands. This sequel stirs flying and marine reptiles into the mix, taking the total number of dino species to 75, and offers a short campaign, a fun new chaos mode, and some other improvements.
Scouring the globe for fossils, you must nail DNA sequences to recreate extinct species. We know building a dinosaur park inevitably ends with someone getting eaten, but the disasters here take many forms, and the option to jump into third person and observe dinosaurs up close adds a lot to the experience. Sadly, the park-building side of the game is still quite shallow and repetitive, but it’s the dinosaurs we’re really here for, and they look fantastic. Species have different environmental needs and genetic problems to overcome. All are beautifully animated and will keep you on your toes as you strive to keep them and your guests alive.
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Courtesy of Paradox Interactive
Urban Sprawl
Cities: Skylines
It may be a few years old, but this is still the reigning champion of city builders after the SimCity series fell into disrepair. This open-ended city construction simulation is an absorbing challenge, and it’s easy to get lost tinkering with the transport system.
The basic format of creating residential, industrial, and commercial zones and building roads and providing services will be familiar to SimCity players, but some intriguing city management options pop up as your city grows. The potential scale in the base game is awesome, several DLCs have been added over the years to provide even greater depth, and there’s a lively modding scene.
The long-awaited sequel, Cities: Skylines II, is out now, but it is not in a great state, so we recommend sticking with the original for now.
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Courtesy of Brightrock Games
Space Hospital
Galacticare
While Galacticare looks very much like someone mashed Startopia and Theme Hospital together, it is far more fun than I expected. As the director of a space hospital, you must cure what ails a varied cast of weird and wonderful aliens with the help of HEAL, a sarcastic AI helper voiced by someone doing a passable Matt Berry impersonation. The gameplay and graphics are close enough to Two Point Hospital that I initially wondered if it came from the same developer, but the themed levels, solid voice acting, and amusing writing elevate it. Wacky humor can be hit and miss, but, as a sci-fi buff, Galacticare had me sniggering and I enjoyed it more.
There isn’t much innovation here, and it’s not very challenging. There are a couple of fresh mechanics there, like the giant visiting trader alien or consultants who travel with you to each level, though they feel a little underbaked. But if you’re craving a comfort game, Galacticare is like cozy pajamas and a glass of warm blue milk. It is available on Game Pass right now.
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Courtesy of Wube Software
Automation Optimization
Factorio
Distilling the satisfying challenge of gathering resources and automating processes to turn them into increasingly complex machines, Factorio is frighteningly addictive. You disturb the native life as your factories grow to consume more of the planet’s resources. The drive to constantly research and refine as you optimize your factory and balance defenses to cope with increasingly tough aliens is incredibly engrossing. The best games always inspire others, and Factorio fans must also try Dyson Sphere Program, an early-access game that takes factory building interstellar.
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Courtesy of Springloaded
Zany Zookeeper
Let’s Build a Zoo
It may have a super cute pixel art style, but this quirky tycoon game will put your capitalist tendencies to the test. Let’s Build a Zoo has a darker side than the adorable Zoo Tycoon because it presents moral dilemmas and allows you to make ethically questionable decisions in the name of profit. You must build enclosures, scour the globe for animals to fill them, and hire staff to run your zoo. Catering for visitors means more than just providing amenities. But are you prepared to con people to squeeze more cash from them or splice together animal genes to create irresistible attractions?
A lot is going on, and the menus are not the most user-friendly, so it can take a while to get the hang of Let’s Build a Zoo, but there’s far more depth here than you might expect at first glance. Dig in, and you’ll discover a well-thought-out zoo sim with a light smattering of weird, often dark and twisted, quandaries that tempt you to ignore your conscience and exploit your furry friends for extra cash.
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Courtesy of Mechanistry
Dam Droughts
Timberborn
Beavers have inherited the earth, and Timberborn tasks you with organizing them to construct a smoothly running colony. The core game is familiar management fare: Collect resources, build a functioning village, research and unlock new buildings, and ensure you have enough food and water for your growing population. Droughts of random length frequently occur to provide some challenge. Luckily, beavers love to build dams.
The game mechanics don’t take long to figure out, there isn’t much depth in the tech tree, and the endgame is lacking, but this is still an early-access title, after all. What you do get is a fun combination of cute beavers, vertical colony construction, and gentle engineering puzzles. Sometimes you want a relaxing management game that’s absorbing enough to occupy your frazzled mind without spilling over into stressful territory, and that’s exactly what Timberborn is.
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Courtesy of Ubisoft
Industrial Revolution
Anno 1800
This gorgeously detailed city-builder throws you into 19th-century Europe and challenges you to start a village and gradually grow it to become a metropolis. To do this, you must set sail for the New World and establish colonies capable of delivering the resources you need to foster a thriving economy and drive industrialization.
As the competition for resources heats up, there’s a real-time strategy element where you must fight off competing nations. Anno 1800 provides a deeply absorbing challenge. Catering to demanding citizens, finding and securing the right resources, and managing your urban sprawl takes some serious juggling skills.
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Honorable Mentions
More Management Games
