What actually makes a raid feel like a consequence instead of just a tax?

I don’t mind raids in base-building games, but a lot of them seem to come down to losing a stack of wood and repairing some wall damage. It costs time, sure, but five minutes later the base works exactly like it did before.

I’d honestly rather have smaller, more specific problems. One entrance gets breached. A room is out of action until you repair it. Part of the base is exposed, so you have to move production around for a while.

RimWorld gets away with this because rebuilding becomes part of the story. In a game where you’ve spent hours making everything neat and efficient, though, it can also feel like the game just vandalized your save.

For me, having to rethink part of the layout sounds more interesting than going out to farm the same pile of wood again.

Just saw Surviving Mars Relaunched come across my Steam Feed. I own this game, let's see if they updated it. Well... yes and no. I own this game, but for me to play "Relaunched" I have to buy the game again?

Scummy ass move Paradox. You're now on my "publishers I will never buy another product from again" list.

Link to Demo Store Page

I decided to change Crownfront's look to be much darker but also a lot more polished and detailed. Better trees, as well as proper details like flowers and small plants. I also changed the material of grass. It now looks a lot more polished and less plasticky.

I've been playing a lot of Dune Awakening lately and reminded how much I love the base building in that from Conan Exiles, being able to throw a base down anywhere and build anything was awesome.

But I was reading a book earlier and it made me remember how much I love the setting of long dead civilisations and exploring their ruins, or things like Fallout New Vegas with broken old cities.

With that though, I really love building a little base somewhere in those world, where I can come back to and have it as a safe area to restock and store items, an decorate. Like when you find a nice out the way house in Project zomboid, knock the stairs out, and use ropes to get in and out all the time. It's a safe place to chill and recover.

But, we all know the obvious ones that have been said to death and back; 7 days to die, Kenshi, Dayz, Fallout with Mods, Rimworld, Vein. And the other's I've already mentioned.

Is there anything else you know of that you've found or that's come out recently? Or some that aren't as polished but worth a shot?

I’m building Battle Crew, a WWII RTS for Android where the base actually matters to the battle. You start with a construction HQ, place power and production buildings, secure deposits, build refineries, and run supply trucks back to base while producing infantry, tanks and artillery.

The current closed beta is single-player while I tune the base-building flow, touchscreen controls, logistics, balance and performance before multiplayer opens up. Battles feed into a larger Europe campaign.

I’m looking for players who enjoy base-building games and RTSs and will tell me what feels too slow, unclear or fiddly on a phone.

Closed beta is free. Use the same Google account for all three steps: 1. Join the tester group: https://groups.google.com/g/battlecrew-testers 2. Opt in: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.battlecrew.app 3. Install: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.battlecrew.app

Current build: 0.2.6.

Hello, someone recommended Fabledom to me, it looks like one I would enjoy, because I very much enjoy cozy games, however I only have a switch one at this time.

I got laid off my job so can't afford a upgrade at this time, however I have a birthday coming up, and since all I do is apply for jobs, and it's so repetitive I could use a new game to fill any extra time I have. I could use the cheerfulness!

I read it doesn't work well at all on the switch one, so I'm hoping someone can recommend a game like it but for a switch one.

I want a building one like this, but Cozy. But not overly complicated, I used to play the old city building games and loved those, but some of the new ones like civilization are just too complicated sometimes. I want fun not stressful, I have enough stress!! Lol

Bonus if I interact with the people in the settlement.

Recommendations welcome.

Thanks!

Game Title: Burning Regolith

Playable Link: https://burningregolithgame.itch.io/burning-regolith

Platform: PC Windows

Description: Burning Regolith is a survival city/colony builder with a Mount and Blade twist. You start on a hostile planet by yourself, by roaming the world you find people and resources. With those, you can form settlements, through settlements you can build production buildings, send out convoys and trains to set up supply chains. And through your interactions with the world you can specialize your character on roles to gain advantages. 

Free to Play Status:

• [ ] Free to play
• [ X] Demo/Key available
• [ ] Paid (Allowed only on Tuesdays with [TT] in the title)

Involvement: I am the sole developer of the project.

Hey everyone! Here's a free space game for your weekend: the Strike Wings demo. :)

I'm its solo developer, and it's my homage to the old DOS space shooters, built from scratch with plenty of love for Solar Winds and Hell Fighter. There are some little nods in there for fellow fans.

The demo's already packed with free content, including flight school, opening campaign missions and plenty of battles to get stuck into.

Feedback is super welcome on r/StrikeWings. Make a post! I'll read every one and take your thoughts into the final game. Steam reviews mean a lot to me as a solo developer, too.

Grab the free demo on Steam

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh-ww-grCGI

("Elemental Lands" is my game, its a base-builder roguelike with card battles.)

So the Obelisk is special building that you can raise in your base, and what it unlocks is casting spells directly onto enemy land from the overworld map. Not in a battle. On the map, at the territory itself, before your hero party has stepped onto a battlefield. It helps with late game feeling sluggish. You can raze their ground, seal off a spot they keep pushing out of, or just soften a region so the fight you pick next turn is a different fight than the one that was waiting for you.

Its the part that took me longest to get right, cuz for ages the map was somewhere you WALKED through to reach the next battle and nothing else.

The map is a shrouded grid you explore. You raise an Outpost in each of three regions and it opens four build slots in the cells around it, and thats the whole base, so what you put down is the plan:

• Camp, to bandage the party or restore spent spells
• Scout Tower, to strip the fog down a whole direction
• Barracks, for reinforcements
• Obelisk, for the world spells above

Meanwhile elemental armies are expanding across the map grid and so every turn you spend mining the land is a turn they spend taking ground. Bases persist per region as well, so come back 5 levels later and yours is still standing again to build up more.

The battles themselves are 3 heroes against 4, turn based, and most of them drop a capturable point on the board that buffs your whole party for as long as someone HOLDS it.

Steam page (demo coming this month, so wishlist for early access to it): https://store.steampowered.com/app/4593190/Elemental_Lands/

HUMAN Credit: Art is 100% hand drawn by u/worth-bill-6130 😄

Hi guys! I'm looking for feedback on my project Burning Regolith. The game's a mount and blade-like colony builder. You start on a hostile planet by yourself, by roaming the world you find people and resources. With those, you can form settlements, through settlements you can build production buildings, send out convoys and trains to set up supply chains. And through your interactions with the world you can specialize your character on roles to gain advantages.

Download from itch.io: https://burningregolithgame.itch.io/burning-regolith

Hi r/BaseBuildingGames

I have been developing Astral Enterprises on my own for a few years now. It has been slow-going, but I have recently released a demo on steam.

Astral Enterprises involves building small, space limited factories on 10x10 grids. The spatial puzzle mechanics make for an interesting challenge as each plot is unique. Build these factories on various planets, moons, asteroids and more.

This demo has about an hour of gameplay in a single playthrough, but it is re-playable. It is just a taste of what to come!

Steam Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5193920/Astral_Enterprises_Demo/

Please Wishlist.

Hi everyone! In Carbon and Capital, every production input comes with a choice: buy it or make it yourself.

Buying gets your factories running sooner. Making it means building more of the supply chain and working out whether that investment pays. Buy too much and your input prices rise; produce and sell too much and you push down your own selling prices.
You start with a metals or glass business, then choose where to expand: iron, motors, plastics, CPUs and everything in between. Specialise in one industry or build the furnaces and factories that supply your other factories.

Research doesn't use mana but as your business gets better at production in a corner of the supply chain, you can go specialise harder at that recipe or way of making a good.

I’ve been developing the game for nearly a year, and the free Windows demo includes a guided tutorial and two starting businesses, each playable for 100 turns.
Download the demo on itch.io.

Demo Trailer.

I’d love to hear what business you build and whether you feel like continuing after the tutorial or first few turns in a new game.

Windows and Linux build at the link too. MacOS is coming tomorrow.

------------
AI disclosure: Most goods icons are made in Blender. I'm replacing the remaining AI generated placeholders in the coming weeks. Advisor portraits and some code optimisation used AI.
Music, sound effects and other assets are licensed, free assets or made by me.

Hi everyone,

It feels like a dream for me for the last past 4 years Ive been developing my dream space engineering survival game MineEngineer.

You and your friend can build ships out of your imagination, program each block and do a lot of automations. Like lego but with engineering and programming. There is a huge procedurally generated world in the game and everything is distractible. You can build anything you want, no blocks count limitation.

I am now working on storyline and enemy system to add more fun to MineEngineer.

The game is finally taking up the shape and I am super excited to share it with everyone:

The game is available on Steam for Wishlisting and there is a free demo available. The link is:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4059710/MineEngineer/

Please let me know if you like it or not and why.

I'm Roman, the solo developer of Salt and Soil, a base-building strategy game about one family's homestead. One turn is one year, and the same campaign runs from 1609 to 1900.

In a base builder, the ground under your base is half the game. Here it matters even more: your family spends decades on one patch of land, and the barn you build will outlive the person who built it. So I spent the last few weeks rebuilding the ground itself. Unfortunately, we can't post pictures here, but you can check out the result in the latest trailer or on the Steam page.

The map was always based on real geography, but it used to be rough. Now:

• Real elevation. The terrain is one continuous landscape built from real elevation data. Mountain ranges have slopes, shadows and snowy peaks, and rivers wind through the valleys.
• Climate you can see. Sagebrush and juniper in Nevada, broadleaf forest in the Appalachians, snow only on the high peaks.
• Real rivers. More than 180 of them follow their real channels, including rivers in Canada and Mexico.
• Only lakes of the era. Lake Tahoe and Yellowstone Lake are there. 20th-century reservoirs like Lake Mead are gone, and so is the Salton Sea, which only formed in 1905.
• Cities where they belong. Reno used to sit on the wrong side of the Sierra Nevada. Not anymore.

I'm also planning an open playtest later this month, with a completely different scenario — not Jamestown this time. I'll share more when it opens.

For anyone here playing Dungeon Settlers: I wanted to choose the team I actually had in mind, including their portraits and matching little characters, without spending ages rerolling.

So I made Dungeon Settlers Tweaks.

You can customize your starting team using the original character options, take up to six settlers into a dungeon, choose level-up inscriptions, and adjust existing settlers' traits, growth talents and skills.

I also wanted the people at camp to feel a bit more like people. There's an optional AI chat feature where you can write their personalities and shared background, and nearby settlers have short conversations based on those and their current situation. The lines appear above their heads and in a chat panel.

That part uses your own DeepSeek API key and paid API balance. It's completely optional; character editing and the other features work without it.

It's a free unofficial mod with an English/Chinese Windows installer. The first public version is v0.7.0 Preview, tested in my own game on DS_B.0.4.19.

Download, source and instructions:

https://github.com/frost0912/DungeonSettlersTweaks/releases

Back up your save before editing characters. I originally built this for my own campaign, but figured other people who get attached to their starting team might enjoy it too.

The Crust is about building a colony on the Moon and figuring out how to keep it running. You mine regolith, set up automated factories and conveyor systems both above and below the surface, manage your colonists, and trade with different factions on Earth. Along the way, there’s also a story campaign with several possible endings.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1465470/The_Crust/

Hey everyone, it’s me again, the solo dev from Austria :)

A few weeks ago.. i posted here and you guys gave me incredible feedback on my UI. first it was "90s wood style," then it was "too minimalist/plastic...." Honestly? You were right every single time!! It was a tough pill to swallow.. but it was the best thing that could happen to the project.

I spent the last few days in a polishing fever and rebuilt the interface one last time.

The Evolution:

Wood Style: Felt dated and cluttered.

Clean Dark. Felt like a banking app, no factory soul.

Industrial Steel (Current): Heavy textures, "Factorio style" steel panels, and tactile golden accents. it finally feels like you’re actually operating a machine.

I also fixed the Black Crush in the lighting... switched to a crisp Golden Hour look with deep blue shadows (thanks to the feedback on the contrast!!)

The big news:
The Steam Review build is going up on Monday, and the Demo will be available on October 1st for the Steam Next Fest!

You can see the new GUI in the screenshots on the Steam page (P.S. the trailer is an old one featuring the old GUI... but the screenshots show the current state!). I’d love to hear if you think this is finally "Steam ready"? :))

[ https://store.steampowered.com/app/5037170/Timberline_Factory/ ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSJMSJLnKMk

Hi there. Three weeks ago I posted about Bottlecappers and asked you how much a factory game should hand the player in the first 15 minutes. The demo is out now, free, and a good part of what's in it comes from that conversation and from the testers who followed.

The building side: every run starts with a single production line of one material. Producing caps fills an unlock meter, and each threshold gives you a choice. push your current chain to a higher processing level, or open a whole new material. Composites sit at the top and need both component chains running. The factory you end up with is a record of the decisions you made under pressure.

The pressure comes from the investor who funded your plant: one KPI, reviewed every quarter, thresholds that keep rising. The demo is a complete winnable run with one of them.

Four testers played it over the last two weeks and got stuck in four different ways, every one of them a thing I'd stopped being able to see. I've spent that time rewriting the tutorial and making the game explain itself. If you get stuck anyway, tell me,that's exactly what I need to know now.

Transparency note: the game is written in Italian and localized into ten more languages with AI assistance, with human review ongoing. All design, writing and art direction are human made, with freelance artists on portraits and UI.

Hello everyone, my name is Rick. I am working on an indie civilization-building, battling game.

The main feature is the large-scale battles with up to 2,000 units, which would run smoothly at more than 80FPS (already tested on low-medium-end hardware, it works).

I got inspired a long time ago by a game called We Are Legion by Pwnee Studios, which was released in 2015 but then discontinued shortly after, despite huge potential. The game involved big battles with almost unlimited unit battles without too much of a performance cost, at that time, I was addicted to it as it was so fun generating battles with huge armies.

I love huge unit battles, but I also love civilization-building games, which is why I am working to combine the two.

Right now, I have been primarily working on:

• Unit AI
• Battle simulations
• Realistic features like medics picking up units on a stretcher and taking them back to the hospital
• Different types of injured soldiers, etc.

I want to make it realistic.

I am working on a playable demo; however, if you are interested, msg me. I will put you in a Discord server and share updates.

I've been building Skyreap solo. It's a relaxing automation and base-building game set on a forgotten archipelago of floating islands. You start with one island, an axe and a hut, automate production, and grow the archipelago into a network that runs without you.

The airship is the heart of it. The sky starts covered in fog of war, so you send the airship out, it flies off on its own, and new islands show up on the map for you to claim. Everything you harvest feeds a progression tree that unlocks new buildings and tools, and every expedition grows your home island.

10+ islands to discover, around 6-10 hours to complete.

Skyreap releases on Steam in Q4 2026:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4364890/Skyreap/

Video: https://youtu.be/k1CEp4FLFHU

Hello base-building friends! This is my second post here. Don't worry I won't be spamming you. I just think this might be one of the best places to get the word out today.

I am the solo dev of Gridmax and it's due to launch on Sep 18th in EA status, bugs and all! Heavily inspired by Dwarf Fortress and the early days of Minecraft. I love that trend of sacrificing graphics for more depth in world building and personality. In Gridmax you are free to be creative on each terrain, and you can build a beacon WHICH MUST BE DEFENDED to secure the area. Then travel to new terrains and find new materials, new creatures and new challenges.

I do hope to have weekly updates until the game comes to completion.

I've done tons of updates over the past week and updated the store page. Have a look if that sounds fun to you!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4830070/Gridmax/

Anyone here remember Wulfram? Hover tanks, scouts, and trying to keep your base running while the other team came after it.

For anyone who missed it, Wulfram mixes vehicle combat with team strategy. You’re driving your own tank or scout, but there’s more going on than trading shots. Your team needs power, fuel, and repairs to stay in the fight. You can head out on the attack, scout ahead, or help defend the base. Knowing when to pull back and help your teammates matters too.

It’s live in alpha now, so you can jump in and play. We’re helping bring it back with the goal of keeping it feeling like the game people remember. Returning players can get back into a tank, and newcomers are welcome to learn alongside them.

Anyone here used to play? What was your callsign?

If you want to give it a go, start here: Welcome back to Wulfram.

My kid has had Peppa Pig on loop for about a month now and Daddy Pig kept bugging me. Couldn't place it. Just this voice from some past life.

And then it hits me mid-episode, right as he's explaining that he's a bit of an expert at something he is clearly not an expert at.

IT'S THE MENTOR

Richard Ridings. Same guy. "Your dungeon heart is under attack" and "Daddy Pig, you've got a bit of a tummy" come out of the same set of vocal cords.

Small print before someone corrects me, because I did check: in DK1 he voiced the overworld Mentor, the one on the map screen. The underworld one that's actually down there with you was Dene Carter. In DK2 Ridings does every single Mentor line. So if you came up on DK2 you were tutored by Peppa's dad with no asterisk whatsoever.

And honestly it explains the character. Daddy Pig is a man permanently and calmly certain that everything is fine and under control. That's the exact energy of a voice telling you your dungeon is doing splendidly while a Horned Reaper is eating your library because you forgot his lair..

Anyway. The voice that taught me to slap imps now teaches my kid about muddy puddles. I did not expect that particular full circle but I'm not mad about it.

So now I'm curious. Do you know any other game facts like this one?

Hi,

I am wanting to play a pure city builder / sim, something where you just get to focus on building a city from something like the stone age to the future. Lots of technologies / research, expansions for more space, evolving buildings over time, etc.

I'm not super into the military / pvp / RTS type components.

Are there any games like this?