City builder games
The genre of building a settlement from scratch and keeping it running through roads, infrastructure and zoning.
What is the city builder genre?
In a city builder you are both planner and manager. You draw roads on empty land, zone residential and industrial areas, lay water and power lines, and then make sure all of it runs without sinking the budget. As the population grows, so do the problems: Traffic, pollution, lack of services and the tax balance.
The most appealing part of the genre is that the result is the sum of your decisions. The same map produces ten different cities in the hands of ten different players. Most games have no win screen; the goal is to build something sustainable and keep it growing.
What defines it?
The road network and zoning decide every problem the city will face later.
Income and spending are watched constantly; overinvesting drives the city into bankruptcy.
As the population grows, expectations for education, health and transport rise.
Watching a working city is a reward in its own right.
Landmark games
Well-known examples often used to explain the genre. For the list on our site, see the games section below.
At a glance
City builder games (44)
Surviving Mars: Relaunched TR
Aztecs: The Last Sun TR
Frostpunk 2 TR
Wild West Pioneers TR
Stronghold: Warlords TR
The Wandering Village TR
Pioneers of Pagonia TR
8.5
Land of the Vikings TR
Worshippers of Cthulhu TR
City Tales TR
Ratopia TR
8.5
Dawn of Man TR
Frostpunk: 1886 TR
Kingdom's Deck TR
Pax Augusta TR
Ixion TR
Manor Lords TR
Memoriapolis TR
Cities: Skylines TR
Cities: Skylines 2 TR
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a city builder and a strategy game?
Strategy games usually have an opponent and a victory condition. In a city builder there is often no opponent; the struggle is with the system itself: Traffic, the budget and citizen happiness.
Can you lose in these games?
A direct game over screen is rare, but a city that goes bankrupt or loses its population has lost in practice. Some games set clear failure conditions in their scenario modes.