IMHO.

Games like Stranded: Alien Dawn

If Stranded: Alien Dawn is your kind of game, the closest matches are Grandiose, Hammerting and Survival Vacancy — picked from the ranked list below. Reviewers single out its atmospheric, challenging and contemplative. Each pick is ranked by what players of this game also play, shared genres and tags, and review-mined similarity — not a generic popularity list.

Get personalized picks →

Stranded: Alien Dawn is a strategy and simulation game released in 2023 by Haemimont Games and published by Paradox Interactive, available for $17.49. Players manage a small group of marooned survivors on an alien planet, balancing colony-happiness, resource-scarcity, and team-selection against scenario-progression demands. The game features priority-management systems and mod-support, with verticality simplifying defense construction. Players describe the experience as atmospheric, challenging, contemplative, and immersive, with reviewers highlighting that slow-crafting creates meaningful stakes and that small mistakes have dire consequences, while team composition dictates survival success. The game is verified on Steam Deck and holds an 83% positive rating from 5,404 Steam reviews.

About Stranded: Alien Dawn: Brave a new world in Stranded: Alien Dawn, a planet survival sim placing the fate of a small marooned group in your hands. Forge your story through compelling and immersive strategic gameplay as you make vital decisions to protect your survivors.

2023StrategySimulation17.49 USDDeck VerifiedMetacritic 81Windowsby Haemimont Games
Stranded: Alien Dawn — Steam game cover
Players highlight
Mod community fills content gapsSlow crafting creates meaningful stakesSmall mistakes have dire consequencesAtmosphericChallengingContemplative

Players who liked Stranded: Alien Dawn also play

Steam players who put hours into Stranded: Alien Dawn also tend to own these titles — a signal called collaborative filtering. imho.run cross-references millions of library ownership patterns to surface games whose real audiences overlap, regardless of whether their genre tags match.

  1. Grandiose

    WHY THIS

    Top pick for Stranded: Alien Dawn fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries.

    Grandiose is a calming and creative base builder game full of botany, building and strategy. Land on the island that will become your domain in a universe soon to be borrowed from the ingenious and creative abilities of your mind.

    2021Indie1.99 USDSteam ↗
  2. Hammerting

    WHY THIS

    Shares an atmospheric mood with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Second-strongest match for Stranded: Alien Dawn fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Manage a Dwarven mining colony in the unexplored mountains of Mara. As conflict rages in the Overworld, you will need to craft, explore and fight as you provide the allies of your choice with the finest weapons and gear to assist them in the battle for glory.

    2021StrategyIndieAdventure24.99 USDSteam ↗
  3. Survival Vacancy

    WHY THIS

    Shares an atmospheric mood with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Third-strongest match for Stranded: Alien Dawn fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    In a nuclear apocalypse, you have to use your engineering skills to save as many survivors as possible. Defending, mining, crafting, creating production lines, and building an underground city for the survivors is your goal in this 2d side-scrolling automation game.

    2021StrategyIndieSimulation19.99 USDSteam ↗
  4. Arctic Motel Simulator

    WHY THIS

    Shares an atmospheric mood with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Ranked #4 for Stranded: Alien Dawn fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Have you ever been to the Arctic? Do you want to open a motel in the Arctic? With the company of aurora, blizzards, polar days and nights, primeval forests, and wild animals, can you turn a run-down motel into a landmark in the Arctic?

    2025Simulation17.99 USDDeck PlayableSteam ↗
  5. The Rule of Land: Pioneers

    WHY THIS

    Shares resource scarcity and an atmospheric mood with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Ranked #5 for Stranded: Alien Dawn fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    This is a survival game. After the coronation, human beings had to move into the underground. Fifty years later, some people thought the disaster was over and organized a survival competition on the surface. Some brave people took part in the competition . You are one of them.

    2023StrategyIndieSimulation10.99 USDSteam ↗
  6. Surviving Mars

    WHY THIS

    Shares a contemplative mood with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Ranked #6 for Stranded: Alien Dawn fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    There will be challenges to overcome. Execute your strategy and improve your colony’s chances of survival while unlocking the mysteries of this alien world. Are you ready? Mars is waiting for you.

    2018StrategySimulationSteam ↗
  7. Frostpunk

    WHY THIS

    Shares an atmospheric mood with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Ranked #7 for Stranded: Alien Dawn fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Frostpunk is the first society survival game. As the ruler of the last city on Earth, it is your duty to manage both its citizens and infrastructure. What decisions will you make to ensure your society's survival? What will you do when pushed to breaking point? Who will you become in the process?

    2018StrategySimulation29.99 USDDeck PlayableSteam ↗
  8. Endzone - A World Apart

    WHY THIS

    Shares an atmospheric mood with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Ranked #8 for Stranded: Alien Dawn fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Endzone is a post-apocalyptic survival city builder, where you start a new civilization with a group of people after an ecological disaster. Build them a new home and ensure their survival in a shattered world, threatened by constant radiation, toxic rain, sandstorms and droughts.

    2021StrategyIndieSimulation24.99 USDDeck PlayableSteam ↗

Reviewers mention these as similar to Stranded: Alien Dawn

Surfaced from review text: when other players write 'if you liked X, try Y', we catch the name and resolve it back to a Steam game.

  1. RimWorld

    WHY THIS

    Shares mod support and an immersive mood with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Reviewers of Stranded: Alien Dawn cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    A sci-fi colony sim driven by an intelligent AI storyteller. Generates stories by simulating psychology, ecology, gunplay, melee combat, climate, biomes, diplomacy, interpersonal relationships, art, medicine, trade, and more.

    2018StrategyIndieSimulation34.99 USDDeck VerifiedSteam ↗
  2. The Sims™ 4

    WHY THIS

    Shares mod support and a challenging mood with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Reviewers of Stranded: Alien Dawn cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Play with life and discover the possibilities. Unleash your imagination and create a world of Sims that’s wholly unique. Explore and customize every detail from Sims to homes–and much more.

    2020AdventureSimulationFree To PlayFreeDeck PlayableSteam ↗
  3. Banished

    WHY THIS

    Shares mod support and a contemplative mood with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Reviewers of Stranded: Alien Dawn cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    In this city-building strategy game, you control a group of exiled travelers who decide to restart their lives in a new land. They have only the clothes on their backs and a cart filled with supplies from their homeland. The townspeople of Banished are your primary resource.

    2014StrategyIndieSimulation19.99 USDDeck PlayableSteam ↗
  4. Oxygen Not Included

    WHY THIS

    Shares mod support and a contemplative mood with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Reviewers of Stranded: Alien Dawn cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Oxygen Not Included is a space-colony simulation game. Deep inside an alien space rock your industrious crew will need to master science, overcome strange new lifeforms, and harness incredible space tech to survive, and possibly, thrive.

    2019IndieSimulation24.99 USDDeck VerifiedSteam ↗
  5. Tropico 6

    WHY THIS

    Shares an atmospheric mood with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Reviewers of Stranded: Alien Dawn cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    El Presidente is back! Prove yourself once again as a feared dictator or peace-loving statesman on the island state of Tropico and shape the fate of your very own banana republic through four distinctive eras.

    2019StrategySimulation39.99 USDDeck PlayableSteam ↗
  6. Satisfactory

    WHY THIS

    Shares an immersive mood with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Reviewers of Stranded: Alien Dawn cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Satisfactory is a first-person open-world factory building game with a dash of exploration and combat. Play alone or with friends, explore an alien planet, create multi-story factories, and enter conveyor belt heaven!

    2024StrategyIndieAdventure39.99 USDDeck VerifiedSteam ↗
  7. Tropico 4

    WHY THIS

    Reviewers of Stranded: Alien Dawn cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    The world is changing and Tropico is moving with the times - geographical powers rise and fall and the world market is dominated by new players with new demands and offers - and you, as El Presidente, face a whole new set of challenges.

    2011StrategySimulation14.99 USDSteam ↗
  8. Subnautica

    WHY THIS

    Shares an atmospheric mood with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Reviewers of Stranded: Alien Dawn cross-mention this title as a similar play.

    Descend into the depths of an alien underwater world filled with wonder and peril. Craft equipment, pilot submarines and out-smart wildlife to explore lush coral reefs, volcanoes, cave systems, and more - all while trying to survive.

    2018IndieAdventure29.99 USDDeck VerifiedSteam ↗

Cheaper alternatives

Games in the same vein priced at least 40% below Stranded: Alien Dawn at current Steam store prices.

  1. Garry's Mod

    WHY THIS

    Priced ~71% under Stranded: Alien Dawn on Steam right now. Shares Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Garry's Mod is a physics sandbox. There aren't any predefined aims or goals. We give you the tools and leave you to play.

    2006IndieSimulationCasual4.99 USDDeck PlayableSteam ↗
  2. People Playground

    WHY THIS

    Priced ~43% under Stranded: Alien Dawn on Steam right now. Shares Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Shoot, stab, burn, poison, tear, vaporise, or crush ragdolls in a large open space.

    2019ActionIndieSimulation9.99 USDDeck PlayableSteam ↗
  3. Sid Meier's Civilization® V

    WHY THIS

    Priced ~57% under Stranded: Alien Dawn on Steam right now. Shares Strategy with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Create, discover, and download new player-created maps, scenarios, interfaces, and more!

    2010Strategy7.49 USDDeck PlayableSteam ↗
  4. Kerbal Space Program

    WHY THIS

    Shares mod support and an immersive mood with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Priced ~43% under Stranded: Alien Dawn on Steam right now. Shares Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    In Kerbal Space Program, take charge of the space program for the alien race known as the Kerbals. You have access to an array of parts to assemble fully-functional spacecraft that flies (or doesn’t) based on realistic aerodynamic and orbital physics.

    2015IndieSimulation9.99 USDDeck PlayableSteam ↗
  5. Slay the Spire

    WHY THIS

    Priced ~64% under Stranded: Alien Dawn on Steam right now. Shares Strategy with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    We fused card games and roguelikes together to make the best single player deckbuilder we could. Craft a unique deck, encounter bizarre creatures, discover relics of immense power, and Slay the Spire!

    2019StrategyIndie6.24 USDDeck VerifiedSteam ↗
  6. Inscryption

    WHY THIS

    Priced ~54% under Stranded: Alien Dawn on Steam right now. Shares Strategy with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Inscryption is an inky black card-based odyssey that blends the deckbuilding roguelike, escape-room style puzzles, and psychological horror into a blood-laced smoothie. Darker still are the secrets inscrybed upon the cards...

    2021StrategyIndieAdventure7.99 USDDeck PlayableSteam ↗
  7. Cookie Clicker

    WHY THIS

    Priced ~71% under Stranded: Alien Dawn on Steam right now. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    An idle game about making cookies! Originally released in 2013 on the web, and actively developed since then. This is the official version for Steam.

    2021StrategyIndieSimulation4.99 USDDeck PlayableSteam ↗
  8. Noita

    WHY THIS

    Priced ~54% under Stranded: Alien Dawn on Steam right now. Shares Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Noita is a magical action roguelite set in a world where every pixel is physically simulated. Fight, explore, melt, burn, freeze and evaporate your way through the procedurally generated world using spells you've created yourself.

    2020ActionIndieAdventure7.99 USDDeck VerifiedSteam ↗

Free alternatives

Free-to-play games that recommended players of this title also tend to enjoy.

  1. Ultimate Custom Night

    WHY THIS

    Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it.

    Welcome to the ultimate FNAF mashup, featuring 50 selectable characters and custom difficulties!

    2018ActionIndieFree To PlayFreeSteam ↗
  2. Magic Archery

    WHY THIS

    Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Train a commoner to become the greatest archer in this short incremental game! Increase your stats, gather wealth from quests, buy upgrades, and infuse your arrows with magic.

    2024IndieSimulationRPGFreeDeck PlayableSteam ↗
  3. The Lab

    WHY THIS

    Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it.

    Welcome to The Lab, a compilation of Valve’s room-scale VR experiments set in a pocket universe within Aperture Science. Fix a robot, defend a castle, adopt a mechanical dog, and more. Still not sold? It’s free!

    2016Free To PlayFreeSteam ↗
  4. Landfall Archives

    WHY THIS

    Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Strategy with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Break into the Landfall Archives to steal and play previously unreleased games, demos, interactive slide shows, and even an unreleased version of Totally Accurate Battle Simulator from 2017!

    2023ActionStrategyIndieFreeSteam ↗
  5. SuchArt: Creative Space

    WHY THIS

    Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Paint on any surfaces with numerous tools in Creative Space — a free sandbox version of SuchArt: Genius Artist Simulator. Create masterpieces, complete commissions, and decorate your studio in the most advanced artist sim!

    2021ActionIndieAdventureFreeDeck PlayableSteam ↗
  6. Outpath: First Journey

    WHY THIS

    Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it.

    Outpath: First Journey is a prologue chapter of the main game, Outpath. An experimental clicker base building game. Craft, gather & manage resources, build your base and buy more islands to exploit and expand!

    2022IndieAdventureCasualFreeDeck PlayableSteam ↗
  7. The Riftbreaker: Prologue

    WHY THIS

    Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Strategy with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    The Riftbreaker: Prologue allows you to experience the events taking place before the story campaign of the main game. Explore an entirely new world. Gather resources. Build up a base. Defend yourself from thousands of alien creatures.

    2020ActionStrategyIndieFreeDeck PlayableSteam ↗
  8. Jigsaw Puzzle Dreams

    WHY THIS

    Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it.

    Beautiful Multiplayer Jigsaw Puzzle game where you can design the room you play in!

    2021IndieFree To PlayCasualFreeDeck PlayableSteam ↗

More from Haemimont Games

Other recommendable Steam games by Haemimont Games, ranked by review count so the studio's hits land first.

  1. Surviving Mars

    WHY THIS

    Shares a contemplative mood with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Another title from Haemimont Games, the studio behind Stranded: Alien Dawn. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    There will be challenges to overcome. Execute your strategy and improve your colony’s chances of survival while unlocking the mysteries of this alien world. Are you ready? Mars is waiting for you.

    2018StrategySimulationSteam ↗
  2. Jagged Alliance 3

    WHY THIS

    Shares an immersive mood with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Another title from Haemimont Games, the studio behind Stranded: Alien Dawn. Shares Strategy with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    The country of Grand Chien is thrown into chaos when the elected president goes missing and the paramilitary force known as “the Legion” seizes control. Hire mercs, meet interesting characters, and fight in tactically deep turn-based combat in this true successor to a beloved franchise.

    2023ActionStrategy13.49 USDDeck PlayableSteam ↗
  3. Tropico 5

    WHY THIS

    Shares a contemplative mood with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Another title from Haemimont Games, the studio behind Stranded: Alien Dawn. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Return to the remote island nation of Tropico and expand your Dynasty’s reign from the early colonial period to beyond the 21st Century, facing new challenges including advanced trading mechanics, technology and scientific research, as well as cooperative and competitive MULTIPLAYER.

    2014StrategySimulationRPG19.99 USDDeck PlayableSteam ↗
  4. Tropico 4

    WHY THIS

    Another title from Haemimont Games, the studio behind Stranded: Alien Dawn. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    The world is changing and Tropico is moving with the times - geographical powers rise and fall and the world market is dominated by new players with new demands and offers - and you, as El Presidente, face a whole new set of challenges.

    2011StrategySimulation14.99 USDSteam ↗
  5. Victor Vran ARPG

    WHY THIS

    Shares a challenging mood with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Another title from Haemimont Games, the studio behind Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Victor Vran is the isometric action-RPG where your skill is just as essential as your character build and gear. Experience intense combat action: dodge, jump and unleash powerful skills to finish off your enemies!

    2015ActionIndieAdventure19.99 USDDeck VerifiedSteam ↗
  6. Surviving Mars: Relaunched

    WHY THIS

    Shares resource scarcity and an atmospheric mood with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Another title from Haemimont Games, the studio behind Stranded: Alien Dawn. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    The award-winning sci-fi city builder is back - remastered, expanded and even more stunning. Colonize Mars and survive the process, from exploration and infrastructure to welcoming colonists and achieving long-term stability. Are you ready? Mars is waiting.

    2025StrategySimulation39.99 USDDeck PlayableSteam ↗
  7. Omerta - City of Gangsters

    WHY THIS

    Shares an atmospheric mood with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Another title from Haemimont Games, the studio behind Stranded: Alien Dawn. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Omerta - City of Gangsters is a simulation game with tactical turn-based combat. Taking the role of a fresh-from-the-boat immigrant, with dreams of the big life, the player will work his way up the criminal hierarchy of 1920’s Atlantic City.

    2013StrategySimulation14.99 USDSteam ↗
  8. Tropico 3

    WHY THIS

    Shares an atmospheric mood with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Another title from Haemimont Games, the studio behind Stranded: Alien Dawn. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Stranded: Alien Dawn.

    Become the dictator of a remote island during the Cold War. Charm, persuade, intimidate, oppress, or cheat your people to stay in power! Are you a kind and generous leader? A corrupt and ruthless tyrant ruling with an iron fist?

    2009StrategySimulation9.99 USDDeck PlayableSteam ↗

Frequently asked about Stranded: Alien Dawn

Is Stranded: Alien Dawn verified for Steam Deck?
Yes — Stranded: Alien Dawn is Steam Deck Verified, meaning Valve has confirmed it runs well on the Deck with full controller, text legibility, and default configuration support.
How much does Stranded: Alien Dawn cost?
Stranded: Alien Dawn is listed on Steam at 17.49 USD (current store price; Steam sales may reduce this temporarily).
What games are most similar to Stranded: Alien Dawn?
Based on Steam play patterns and shared genres/tags, the games most often recommended alongside Stranded: Alien Dawn are Grandiose, Hammerting, Survival Vacancy.
Who developed Stranded: Alien Dawn?
Stranded: Alien Dawn was developed by Haemimont Games and published by Paradox Interactive.

imho.run ranks Steam game alternatives using a mix of collaborative filtering (ALS / iALS / EASE / LightGCN), content scoring over genres, categories, Steam tags, developers, and publishers, plus AI-extracted vibes mined from review text. The page above is generated in seed mode anchored on Stranded: Alien Dawn.

For library-aware picks tuned to your specific taste, sign in with Steam on the home page.