Colony sims like Gridworld

Looking for that same replayable and minimalist spark as Gridworld? These colony sims are a good place to start.

Substrate: Emergence
Breed fluorescent colonies that mutate, swarm, and devour each other in a petri dish. Discover new strains, guide mutations, and outcompete rival labs for territory. Every cell has its own genome in this artificial life simulation.
Replayable, Relaxing
86% of 36 Steam reviews are positive$9.09
Lifecraft
Survive and evolve as an organism with this simulation game in which you will literally start as a single cell and manage and organize all its functions to a fully fledged system! Assemble, breathe, eat, fight threats, produce energy, grow, anything is possible!
Replayable, Retro
81% of 141 Steam reviews are positive$22.99
Plentiful
Plentiful is a nature sandbox. You shape the land and everything responds—water, plants, animals, and your people. Learn how this world works. Your tribe’s survival depends on it.
Replayable, Relaxing, Chaotic
90% of 88 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 2$7.99
The Universim
Guide a civilization of small round Nuggets from Stone Age cave painters to a space-faring society. You place buildings, manage resources, research over 200 advances, balance the ecosystem, and step in with godly powers when disasters, alien creatures, or your own followers cause trouble.
Replayable, Relaxing
79% of 8,512 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 508$14.99
Of Life and Land
A settlement builder where nature is a full character. Every animal, plant and villager has needs, seasons change the rules, and your choices ripple through the whole ecosystem. Build a village that fits into the wild instead of flattening it, at whatever pace you like.
Replayable, Relaxing
82% of 293 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 7$12.49
One Hour One Life
Born as someone's baby, dead within the hour. In between you farm, cook, smith and build so the next generation inherits a little more than wilderness. A strange, tender colony sim where your settlers are other players.
Replayable
76% of 4,155 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 18$14.99
Microtopia
Become the hive mind of a robot ant colony. You lay pheromone trails that tell ants where to haul, build and craft, then watch the lines come alive across electronic waste and bright biomes. Feed the queen, raise new castes and send young queens off to start again. A gentle, clever take on colony sims built around routing rather than orders.
Replayable, Relaxing
87% of 897 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 23$19.99
RimWorld
Three crash survivors, a patch of wilderness, and an AI that loves ruining your plans. RimWorld is a sci-fi colony sim where moods, wounds, love affairs and raids pile up into stories you will retell for years. Build, farm, trade, patch people up with peg legs and bionics, and watch it all go sideways in the best way.
Replayable, Chaotic
97% of 211,540 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 27,626$34.99
The Wandering Village
Build a small survivor village on the back of Onbu, a giant wandering creature, and keep both village and host alive in a world poisoned by strange plants. You plan tight production chains, adapt to new biomes, and choose trust or exploitation.
Replayable, Relaxing
91% of 7,836 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 121$29.99
Sapiens
Start with nothing and grow a prehistoric tribe into towns with farms, workshops and new technology. You place every wall and log, assign jobs, and watch your sapiens learn skills and raise families. A calm, hands-on colony sim for builders who like starting from sticks and stones.
Replayable, Relaxing
79% of 2,080 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 18$24.99
BioEden
As a Keeper sent to heal a barren planet, you recycle debris into power and water networks, then raise dozens of animal species inside a dome by tuning temperature, humidity and plants. A calm, guided management game about cleaning soil and rivers until green returns.
Relaxing
73% of 114 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 6$21.99
My Tribe
Create a prosperous island paradise for your industrious, intelligent tribe with this real-time Brain Teaser! Your tribe will have a mind of its own, learning skills and starting families even when you`re not around, but check back often to keep your island idyllic.
Replayable, Minimalist, Retro
84% of 134 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 2$9.99

Cheaper than Gridworld

Ant Farm Simulator

Ant farm (formicarium) with a colony of ants. Ants have artificial intelligence that mimics the full life cycle, behavior, nature and physics of…

$0.99

Bronze Age - HD Edition

What was it like to be a chief of a tribe in 6000 year B.C.?

$0.80

Sol 0: Mars Colonization

Sol 0 is a real time strategy game where you establish the first Martian colony.

$0.99

Sapiens Craft

Begin as a small stone age tribe. End as a global super power in a future age. Craft and research your way through history!

$0.99

Park Life - Circuit of Happiness -

Be the Jissouseki in the Park!! Survive in the Park and make your own Family.

$0.99

Inclement

In this farm-building strategy game set in the harsh environment of Northern Europe, you manage your land from clearing forests and selling grain at…

$0.99

Village & Monsters

Village & Monsters is a card game that challenges you to develop a human settlement as well as viruses.

$0.99

PiM World

In the game you will lead your settlement. You will have to build various buildings starting with a castle and ending with an institute.

$0.99

Strategy Core

Lead your clan from a small settlement all the way to the launch of a colony ship.

$0.69

Lunara: Planet IX

Build and explore in Planet IX, a vibrant 2D pixel art simulation game where you create a colony on a mysterious planet, face monsters, and uncover…

$0.99

Village Flow

Manage the production of your village's resources in this minimalist incremental game.

$0.99

Valley of Kings

An empire once sprawling with life, destroyed by the dragon's flames Venture into a ravaged world overtaken by wild beasts and bloodthirsty bandits.

$0.99

Hidden gems like Gridworld

Mudborne: Frog Management Sim

You wake up as a frog in an empty pond, and the fix is breeding: mix genetics, hatch new species, and use them as living keys to reopen the dreaming…

$7.99

Whiskerwood

Whiskerwood puts you in charge of a mouse colony on a cramped island, answering to demanding cat overlords.

$29.99

Microtopia

Become the hive mind of a robot ant colony. You lay pheromone trails that tell ants where to haul, build and craft, then watch the lines come alive…

$19.99

Of Life and Land

Lead villagers through wild lands where every animal and plant is fighting for its own place.

$12.49

The Wandering Village

Build a small survivor village on the back of Onbu, a giant wandering creature, and keep both village and host alive in a world poisoned by strange…

$29.99

Ecopunk

Ecopunk is a survival and colony management simulation game set in a post-apocalyptic world.

$22.99

Synergy

An ecosystem City Builder in a unique world. Build your settlement, manage your workers and optimize your resources.

$24.99

Card Survival: Fantasy Forest

Card Survival: Fantasy Forest is a card-based survival sim where every tool, plant, animal and ache is a card to combine.

$21.99

Timberborn

Humans are gone and beavers run the river now. You lead a Folktail or Iron Teeth colony through droughts and toxic tides, stacking dams, lodges and…

$34.99

BioEden

As a Keeper sent to heal a barren planet, you recycle debris into power and water networks, then raise dozens of animal species inside a dome by…

$21.99

Oxygen: First Breath

You build a settlement around the Oxygen Center, assign survivors to jobs, stock food and water, research new buildings, and keep everyone breathing…

Free

Lifecraft

Survive and evolve as an organism with this simulation game in which you will literally start as a single cell and manage and organize all its…

$22.99

Newest colony sims like Gridworld