Colony sims like Dead Engine

If Dead Engine scratched a replayable and tense itch for you, keep reading. These colony sims line up well for what comes next.

Into the Dead: Our Darkest Days
Texas, 1980: Walton City has fallen to zombies, and you lead ordinary survivors toward escape. For colony sim fans, this is shelter life under pressure — upgrade barricades, cook food, craft weapons, treat hunger, exhaustion, injuries and despair, and keep moving when the horde closes in.
Replayable, Tense, Dark
89% of 9,474 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 1,001$24.99
The Dead Await
Build your deck and try to survive in The Dead Await, a deck-building RPG set during a zombie apocalypse. As one of many survivors, set out across the desolate world, discover the truth about the outbreak, and rebuild human civilization - or die trying.
Replayable, Tense, Dark
66% of 109 Steam reviews are positive$12.99
Survival Log
You get 10 hours before the zombies come, then 100 days after. Survival Log is a hoarding survival sim about stripping supermarkets bare, turning your home into a fortified farm-kitchen-power station, and trading by drone with the neighbors you rescue. Death sends you back with your memories intact.
Replayable, Tense, Dark
82% of 3,813 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 747$10.99
Apocalypse: The Last RV
Reborn seven days before the end of the world, you stockpile supplies and turn an RV into a warm mobile home for a crew of survivors. Assign jobs, farm, cook, craft, and fight with cards while the wasteland freezes outside. A cozy-cold colony sim for planning types who like being overprepared.
Replayable, Tense, Dark
67% of 246 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 14$4.99
Decision: Red Daze
An isometric action RPG where survival and tower defense share one wasteland. Explore a Dust Bowl gone wrong, claim abandoned buildings, turn them into fortified settlements, and level up any survivor you rescue. It is a grind toward safety in a world that keeps pushing back.
Replayable, Tense, Dark
74% of 861 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 20$3.99
VEIN
VEIN is a post-apocalyptic sandbox where you and friends scavenge abandoned buildings, fortify a safehouse, and try to keep it running as seasons turn. For colony sim fans, the draw is the shared camp: chop wood, grow food, maintain cars, and hold the walls against zombies and raiders.
Replayable, Tense, Dark
87% of 12,343 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 838$19.99
The Ember Guardian
Defend the embers of hope in this roguelike strategy game set in a post-apocalyptic world. Recruit and command workers to gather resources, build your camp and set up your defenses during the day. When night falls, fend off waves of deadly creatures with powerful, upgradable weapons.
Replayable, Tense, Dark
81% of 297 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 5$19.99
Welcome to ParadiZe
ParadiZe is overrun, but the zombies can be hacked and put to work. Capture a few, hand them tools and weapons, and set them to farm, fetch water, or guard your camp while you explore snow and desert. A scrappy action RPG with camp building and horde defense for colony sim fans who want obedient, slightly unstable staff.
Tense, Dark, Scary
67% of 1,128 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 45$2.99
Survivalist
One year after the collapse, you crawl out of your bunker hungry and start building a community from strangers. You scavenge supplies, plant crops, trade, hand out jobs and orders, and talk your way into trust or war. A dry, scrappy colony sim where every survivor remembers what you did.
Replayable, Tense, Dark
80% of 2,160 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 4$4.99
Rebirth evolution
2D pixel style simulation business strategy game Build and operate your own survivor base, recruit and cultivate various professional combatants. Clear zombie strongholds, reduce regional infections, survive in the apocalypse, and establish your own power.
Dark, Retro
62% of 125 Steam reviews are positive$8.99
Dread Dawn
Missed the evacuation bus and stuck in a quarantined city, you hole up in a school with classmates and other survivors. Dread Dawn is worth a look for colony sim fans because your camp lives or dies on scavenged walls, planted crops, chickens, and traded surplus — all while zombies probe your defenses when you least want them to.
Tense, Dark, Scary
72% of 2,128 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 12$19.99
Ash & Adam's Existential Treads
A mini action city-builder in a post-post-apocalyptic world. Grow your settlement. Fend off waves of enemies. Restore nature.
Replayable
92% of 352 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 2$6.99

Cheaper than Dead Engine

Apocalypse: The Last RV

Reborn seven days before the end of the world, you stockpile supplies and turn an RV into a warm mobile home for a crew of survivors.

$4.99

Decision: Red Daze

Lead a squad of survivors through a zombie-ridden wasteland, claim its ruins and turn them into settlements that can hold out against the Red Daze.

$3.99

Survivalist

One year after the collapse, you crawl out of your bunker hungry and start building a community from strangers.

$4.99

Ash & Adam's Existential Treads

A mini action city-builder in a post-post-apocalyptic world. Grow your settlement. Fend off waves of enemies. Restore nature.

$6.99

Welcome to ParadiZe

ParadiZe is overrun, but the zombies can be hacked and put to work.

$2.99

Sheltered

Sheltered puts four family members in your hands in a concrete bunker after nuclear war.

$4.49

Zafehouse Diaries 2

Zafehouse Diaries 2 is a game of survival, exploration and relationships.

$6.99

Nayati River

A single-player game of adventure and survival, set in a vast region infested with the dead.

$4.99

Grim Nights

Your village has 13 days against the undead. Put villagers to work by their random talents, gather wood, stone, gold and food, dig underground for…

$2.99

Zombie Graveyard Simulator

Run a peaceful graveyard business, then grab a gun when the freshly buried claw their way back out after dark.

$7.19

Project Of Cooling The Earth

Players must survive in the ruins of the human world and face various survival challenges and dangers.

$4.99

pyramida

A village builder / survival game. Expand your village by day and fight monsters at night.

$2.99

Hidden gems like Dead Engine

Ash & Adam's Existential Treads

A mini action city-builder in a post-post-apocalyptic world. Grow your settlement. Fend off waves of enemies. Restore nature.

$6.99

After Inc: Revival

Decades after the Necroa Virus, you lead a handful of survivors out of the bunker and try to make a society again.

$10.79

The Ember Guardian

Defend the embers of hope in this roguelike strategy game set in a post-apocalyptic world.

$19.99

Survival Log

You get 10 hours before the zombies come, then 100 days after.

$10.99

Survivalist: Invisible Strain

Ten years after the infection started, you build a new life in the ruins by gathering other survivors around you.

$11.99

Into the Dead: Our Darkest Days

Texas, 1980: Walton City has fallen to zombies, and you lead ordinary survivors toward escape.

$24.99

VEIN

VEIN is a post-apocalyptic sandbox where you and friends scavenge abandoned buildings, fortify a safehouse, and try to keep it running as seasons…

$19.99

Romestead

Rome fell, the dead walk at night, and your camp needs dinner.

$13.99

Final Outpost: Definitive Edition

Final Outpost is a survival strategy base-builder. You lead the last survivors of the apocalypse.

$9.99

After Long Night

After Long Night is a sandbox survival RTS. Build and fortify your base, scavenge every corner for vital resources, craft deadly weapons, and raise…

$9.99

MISERY

MISERY is a 1-10 player co-op survival game about a shared bunker in a nuclear Exclusion Zone.

$19.99

Apocalypse: The Last RV

Reborn seven days before the end of the world, you stockpile supplies and turn an RV into a warm mobile home for a crew of survivors.

$4.99

Newest colony sims like Dead Engine