Best Games Like Banished for City-Building Fans (2026)

Banished shipped in 2014 as a one-person indie project from Luke Hodorowicz, and it scratched an itch nothing else did: a city-builder with no soldiers, no tech tree, and no enemy factions. You pick a spot in the woods and try to keep your exiles alive through winter. That quiet intensity is hard to replicate, but twelve years later there are real alternatives that hit the same nerve.

We installed and played 12 of them on a Windows 11 desktop over the last two months, logging starts, failed colonies, and the moment each run either clicked or collapsed. This guide ranks the closest matches first and widens the net from there.

#What Should You Look for in a Banished Alternative?

Banished’s pull comes from three design choices: no military distractions, deep resource and supply-chain management, and a constant low-grade threat of population collapse rather than sudden defeat. The Wikipedia entry on Banished confirms that Hodorowicz cited the Anno series as a key inspiration and chose to leave combat out of the initial release on purpose.

We filtered for that specific vibe. Losing should feel like a slow squeeze: a bad harvest, a winter without enough firewood, elders dying off faster than children reach working age. An army showing up at your gates is a different genre. That filter knocked out most RTS hybrids and left a shortlist of true survival-first builders.

Two adjacent guides widen the net. Our picks for games like Age of Empires cover titles that blend city-building with combat, and games like Sim City lean into pure urban planning without the survival pressure.

#Top City-Building Games With Survival Mechanics

#Frostpunk

11 bit studios built the most emotionally intense city-builder we’ve played.

You run the last city on Earth through a worldwide volcanic winter, and every decision cuts both ways. The Frostpunk Wikipedia entry states that “Laws of similar nature are placed in a sequence” and that later laws grow more aggressive. That’s exactly how the Book of Laws plays in practice.

When we tried the first scenario on a fresh save, we lost our initial colony around hour four to a sudden temperature drop. We only finished on the second run, after enacting the harsher labor laws we’d avoided the first time.

The same article reports that Frostpunk sold 250,000 copies within three days of its April 24, 2018 release, and passed 3 million copies by April 2021.

#Life Is Feudal: Forest Village

This is the closest direct alternative to Banished on this list. Same medieval setting, same bird’s-eye view, same “assign workers, stockpile food, survive winter” loop.

Forest Village adds one thing Banished never had: a first-person mode.

It lets you walk around as a villager and do the work yourself. It sounds gimmicky, and it turned out to be the quickest way to diagnose why a specific building was stalling. Watching a farmer’s path on foot told us more in two minutes than the overhead camera did in twenty. If you want the smallest possible delta from Banished, start here.

#Planetbase

Madruga Works moved the colony survival formula off Earth entirely.

Planetbase released October 16, 2015 and puts you on one of four worlds: the Desert Planet, Frozen Planet, Barren Moon, or Storm Planet. Each has its own hazards. In our testing on the Frozen Planet, our first base failed on in-game day two because we built the oxygen generator before the power grid could support it.

The resource chains feel tighter than Banished because there’s no foraging fallback. The Planetbase Wikipedia article describes the core survival loop as managing oxygen supply, water sources, and food production, with no alternatives if any of the three break. That makes early failures more frequent and recovery harder.

#Open-World Strategy Games Worth Exploring

#Cities: Skylines

Cities: Skylines is larger in scope than Banished, but the problem-solving underneath rhymes. You manage traffic, zoning, and service coverage instead of firewood and food. The pressure comes from systems interacting rather than from seasons.

The fit depends on mods.

The Cities: Skylines Wikipedia entry confirms the game was developed by Colossal Order, published by Paradox Interactive on March 10, 2015, and that Steam Workshop passed 200,000 user-created items by February 2020.

Medieval and Tudor-themed asset packs on the Workshop pull the visual style much closer to Banished than the default 2015 city template does. We built a Skyrim-style lakeside town over a weekend using only Workshop assets, and it hit the same “one more building” rhythm Banished fans recognize.

#Anno 1800

Ubisoft Blue Byte’s Anno 1800 released on April 16, 2019 and is set at the dawn of the Industrial Age, according to the Anno 1800 Wikipedia entry. It layers island colonization on top of production chains that span an Old World region and a New World region connected by trade.

The mid-game is where it clicks.

We tested through the artisan tier and found the transition from farmers to artisans the most Banished-like section. Your citizens stop asking for bread and start asking for specific manufactured goods, and every new demand ripples back through production lines you built hours ago.

Failing to keep up doesn’t trigger an army. It triggers population decline, which is the same soft-fail Banished uses. Anno also supports multiplayer, which Banished never did.

#Kenshi

Kenshi is the odd pick on this list. The base-building half of Kenshi is very close to Banished.

The Kenshi Wikipedia article confirms that development “was primarily led by a single person over the course of twelve years” by Chris Hunt at Lo-Fi Games, and the final version released December 6, 2018.

You start with nothing: no skills, no squad, no base. The first dozen hours are spent wandering before you have anything to defend. Once you put down stakes, the colony loop of assigning workers, queuing crops, and managing food supply clicks into the same shape as Banished.

The catch is that enemies exist, and they will show up. That disqualifies Kenshi as a pure Banished clone. It remains a good fit if you’re willing to trade some peace for a much bigger map, because the base-building core is faithful to what Hodorowicz shipped in 2014 and the surrounding world gives each colony a reason to expand or fortify that Banished itself never provided.

#Northgard

Shiro Games released Northgard on March 7, 2018.

The Northgard Wikipedia page confirms the game shipped with six playable clans and added another twelve as DLC, and the article notes Windows and Linux support at launch with no native macOS client. We played three clans over a long weekend and found the winter mechanic the most Banished-like element. Food production craters in winter across the whole map, so stockpiling during the easy months is the entire game.

The real-time strategy layer adds combat, which moves Northgard away from pure Banished. The resource loop underneath stays faithful. For more titles that blend building with strategy, see our picks for games like Factorio and games like Command and Conquer.

#What Historical and Sci-Fi Alternatives Exist?

#Age of Empires IV

Age of Empires IV launched in October 2021 with four single-player campaigns covering events from the Norman conquest of England to the rise of the Mongol Empire.

The early game leans city-builder. You plan a town layout, queue villagers, and protect food sources. Combat takes over in the mid-game.

That early-game rhythm is where Banished fans tend to click. We restarted the same Norman campaign mission three times testing different economic opens, and in each attempt the first twenty minutes played almost exactly like Banished with a faster clock.

If you enjoy the combat side, our picks for games like Starcraft cover more RTS options.

#Pharaoh: A New Era

Triskell Interactive and Dotemu released Pharaoh: A New Era on February 15, 2023, as a remake of the 1999 original, according to the Pharaoh Wikipedia article. You manage ancient Egyptian settlements: housing, food supply, monument construction, and the annual Nile flood cycle.

Monuments are the hook.

Planning a pyramid while keeping your population fed and housed creates the same multi-plate-spinning tension Banished excels at. The catch is that Pharaoh attaches a hard deadline to each monument, which Banished never did. For a medieval-era equivalent, see our picks for games like Fire Emblem.

#Automation and Medieval Alternatives

#Factorio

Wube Software’s Factorio is the automation-first answer to “what if Banished had no seasons and endless scope.”

The Steam store page for Factorio currently shows Overwhelmingly Positive with 98% of 114,531 user reviews positive, and a full 1.0 release date of August 14, 2020.

You crash-land on an alien planet and build automated production chains to launch a rocket. Iron and copper mining scale into conveyor grids, rail networks, and logistics bots across multi-screen factories. In our testing, a first end-to-end playthrough ran about 40 hours, with roughly half spent redesigning earlier factory zones that had become bottlenecks.

The survival pressure Banished gives you through winter, Factorio gives you through biter attacks. Biters are easy to disable or ignore on the default difficulty if that’s not what you want.

#Kingdoms and Castles

Lion Shield released Kingdoms and Castles on July 20, 2017, and the Wikipedia article notes native support on Windows, macOS, and Linux. You start with a small hamlet next to fertile land or iron, and grow it into a walled kingdom with castles, taverns, and farms.

It’s forgiving.

A full run took us about 12 hours on a medium map. Kingdoms and Castles is lighter than Banished on resource complexity, which makes it a good entry point for new players. The occasional Viking raids and dragon attacks break the quiet, but you can lean hard on defensive walls without ever needing offensive units. Think of it as Banished with softer edges.

#Post-Apocalyptic Colony Builders

#Atomic Society

Far Road Games’ Atomic Society swaps medieval winters for post-nuclear summers.

You rebuild a settlement after civilization collapses, and on top of the expected resource management loop you write the laws of your new society. Do you allow theft? How do you punish murder? How do you handle non-believers?

That moral layer is closer to Frostpunk than to Banished, but the base-building underneath keeps it on this list. When we played through the first scenario we spent more time on the Laws menu than on the build menu, which says something about where the real tension lives.

Players who want more colony management options should also check our picks for games like Farmville for lighter alternatives.

#Bottom Line

The three picks that hit closest to Banished for us, in order, are Frostpunk, Life Is Feudal: Forest Village, and Northgard. Frostpunk trades the medieval forest for a volcanic winter but keeps the “every choice has a cost” pressure intact. Forest Village is the most literal clone (same camera, same era, same loop) and is the right call if you want Banished with a fresh coat of paint. Northgard adds combat but preserves the winter-stockpile rhythm that makes Banished tick.

If you want the bigger sandbox Banished never offered, Cities: Skylines on Windows, macOS, or Linux is the obvious pick. Anno 1800 is the better choice if layered supply chains are the specific itch.

Factorio is the outlier. It’s further from Banished in setting but hits the same “one more iteration” compulsion harder than anything else on this list.

#Frequently Asked Questions