Games like The Castle Doctrine
If The Castle Doctrine is your kind of game, the closest matches are Realm of the Mad God Exalt, Pixel Starships and NEO Scavenger — picked from the ranked list below. Reviewers single out its dark, stressful and tense. 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 →About The Castle Doctrine: The Castle Doctrine is a massively-multiplayer game of burglary and home defense. It's 1991, and things are bad. You're a guy with a house and family. Other players are coming to take what's yours. Build security to stop them. Study their houses, buy tools, and break in to take what's theirs.
Players who liked The Castle Doctrine also play
Steam players who put hours into The Castle Doctrine 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.
Realm of the Mad God Exalt
WHY THIS
Shares permadeath and a stressful mood with The Castle Doctrine.
Top pick for The Castle Doctrine fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Massively Multiplayer with The Castle Doctrine.
Embark on an exhilarating journey into the pixelated Realm of the Mad God! Join, an action-packed, free-to-play MMO bullet hell game. Discover a world with danger, challenges, and hidden treasures as you battle through waves of enemies. Team up with players and conquer dungeons to become a legend!
Pixel Starships
WHY THIS
Shares a stressful mood with The Castle Doctrine.
Second-strongest match for The Castle Doctrine fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with The Castle Doctrine.
Pixel Starships is an FTL-style online sci-fi strategy builder and management game with a competitive PVP tournament. Set in the retro galaxy, your role is to explore space, meet aliens, and develop your ship, crew and AI. The game contains deep strategic and 4x elements. PSS is community-driven.
NEO Scavenger
WHY THIS
Shares a stressful mood with The Castle Doctrine.
Third-strongest match for The Castle Doctrine fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with The Castle Doctrine.
NEO Scavenger is a game where you must survive in the wasteland long enough to figure out who you are. Each turn, you must decide where to go, how to scavenge for supplies, and how to deal with anything and anyone you encounter.
StarBreak
WHY THIS
Shares permadeath with The Castle Doctrine.
Ranked #4 for The Castle Doctrine fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Massively Multiplayer with The Castle Doctrine.
StarBreak is a unique skill-based action platformer MMO where you explore strange sci-fi worlds alongside dozens of other players, kill legions of dangerous aliens and fight epic boss battles.
Darkest Dungeon®
WHY THIS
Shares a stressful mood with The Castle Doctrine.
Ranked #5 for The Castle Doctrine fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with The Castle Doctrine.
Darkest Dungeon is a challenging gothic roguelike turn-based RPG about the psychological stresses of adventuring. Recruit, train, and lead a team of flawed heroes against unimaginable horrors, stress, disease, and the ever-encroaching dark. Can you keep your heroes together when all hope is lost?
Screeps: World
WHY THIS
Ranked #6 for The Castle Doctrine fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with The Castle Doctrine.
Screeps: World is an open source MMO strategy sandbox game for programming enthusiasts. You control your colony by writing JavaScript code that operates 24/7 in the huge persistent online open world.
FTL: Faster Than Light
WHY THIS
Shares a stressful mood with The Castle Doctrine.
Ranked #7 for The Castle Doctrine fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with The Castle Doctrine.
This "spaceship simulation roguelike-like" allows you to take your ship and crew on an adventure through a randomly generated galaxy filled with glory and bitter defeat.
bit Dungeon III
WHY THIS
Ranked #8 for The Castle Doctrine fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Massively Multiplayer with The Castle Doctrine.
bitDungeonIII is a 2d action adventure game with rogue-lite elements. Randomly generated overworld and dungeons. Make allies with other players or kill them for their precious inventory items. Discover random items that greatly enhance and affect your character.
Reviewers mention these as similar to The Castle Doctrine
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.
Rust
WHY THIS
Shares a stressful mood with The Castle Doctrine.
Reviewers of The Castle Doctrine cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Indie and Massively Multiplayer with The Castle Doctrine.
The only aim in Rust is to survive. Everything wants you to die - the island’s wildlife, other inhabitants, the environment, and other survivors. Do whatever it takes to last another night.
The Sims™ 4
WHY THIS
Shares a stressful mood with The Castle Doctrine.
Reviewers of The Castle Doctrine cross-mention this title as a similar play.
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.
Gregg: Tower Defence
WHY THIS
Reviewers of The Castle Doctrine cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy with The Castle Doctrine.
Play as Gregg. Gather, build and destroy your slimy enemies in this thrilling pixel art tower defence!
The Sims™ Legacy Collection
WHY THIS
Reviewers of The Castle Doctrine cross-mention this title as a similar play.
The original game you know and love. For Windows 10/11. Create a neighborhood of Sims and guide their lives through careers and romance. Or create chaos with open-ended gameplay that lets you shape their destinies.
Cheaper alternatives
Games in the same vein priced at least 40% below The Castle Doctrine at current Steam store prices.
POSTAL 2
WHY THIS
Priced ~75% under The Castle Doctrine on Steam right now. Shares Indie with The Castle Doctrine.
Live a week in the life of "The POSTAL Dude"; a hapless everyman just trying to check off some chores. Buying milk, returning an overdue library book, getting Gary Coleman's autograph, what could possibly go wrong?
The Test
WHY THIS
Priced ~50% under The Castle Doctrine on Steam right now. Shares Indie with The Castle Doctrine.
You will answer a series of questions that will reveal truths from deep within. These questions may make you uncomfortable, but with great knowledge comes great sacrifice. Can you make it all the way through The Test, and if you do, are you sure you want the answers you seek?
Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk
WHY THIS
Priced ~63% under The Castle Doctrine on Steam right now. Shares Indie with The Castle Doctrine.
A short story about what sort of challenges everyday little things can be. Help the girl buy milk, be the first not to disappoint her.
shapez
WHY THIS
Priced ~75% under The Castle Doctrine on Steam right now. Shares Strategy and Indie with The Castle Doctrine.
shapez is an easy-going, minimalistic factory building game about the automation of shapes through extraction and satisfying production lines. Adapt to increasingly complex shapes and grow your factory across an infinitely expanding map. Your only limitation is your creativity!
The Test: Hypothesis Rising
WHY THIS
Priced ~50% under The Castle Doctrine on Steam right now. Shares Indie with The Castle Doctrine.
The second chapter in The Test trilogy. Answer a series of in-depth questions to reveal hidden truths about yourself and unlock secrets to discover how your life can change drastically with just a few, slight modifications. ...But are you sure you want the answers you seek?
The NOexistenceN of you AND me
WHY THIS
Priced ~50% under The Castle Doctrine on Steam right now. Shares Indie with The Castle Doctrine.
Use "game" as a medium to showcase the world of "you/girl". Explore the truth of "you/girl/world" through the form of a "visual novel".
Shower With Your Dad Simulator 2015: Do You Still Shower With Your Dad
WHY THIS
Priced ~75% under The Castle Doctrine on Steam right now. Shares Indie with The Castle Doctrine.
"Shower With Your Dad Simulator 2015: Do You Still Shower With Your Dad?" is a fast paced shower-simulation where you shower with your 8-bit dad.It's good, clean fun!
Free alternatives
Free-to-play games that recommended players of this title also tend to enjoy.
Ultimate Custom Night
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with The Castle Doctrine.
Welcome to the ultimate FNAF mashup, featuring 50 selectable characters and custom difficulties!
Bongo Cat
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie and Massively Multiplayer with The Castle Doctrine.
Bongo cat needs your help. Bongo cat needz more hatz!!! Every time you press a key, Bongo cat will punch your taskbar. Type, click, play, work to collect more points. Which hats will you find?
Steam Engine Simulator
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it.
The Steam Engine Simulator shown on AngeTheGreat's YouTube channel.
Magic Archery
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with The Castle Doctrine.
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.
Coloring Pixels
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with The Castle Doctrine.
A relaxing coloring by numbers game. Enjoy completing a variety of images with differing themes, complexity, and sizes.
Eternal Senia
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with The Castle Doctrine.
Thoughts and expectations ARPG
There Is No Game: Jam Edition 2015
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with The Castle Doctrine.
A little game that’s not a game, winner of an old game jam that nobody’s ever heard of. So DON'T INSTALL IT!
Narrow it down
Head-to-head comparisons
More from Jason Rohrer
Other recommendable Steam games by Jason Rohrer, ranked by review count so the studio's hits land first.
One Hour One Life
WHY THIS
Another title from Jason Rohrer, the studio behind The Castle Doctrine. Shares Indie and Massively Multiplayer with The Castle Doctrine.
A multiplayer survival game of parenting and civilization building. Get born to another player as your mother. Live an entire life in one hour. Have babies of your own in the form of other players. Leave a legacy for the next generation as you help to rebuild civilization from scratch.
Inside a Star-filled Sky
WHY THIS
Shares an unsettling mood with The Castle Doctrine.
Another title from Jason Rohrer, the studio behind The Castle Doctrine. Shares Strategy and Indie with The Castle Doctrine.
What if you could enter an object in a level and find a level inside of it? What if you could enter an object in that level and find another level inside of that?
Chessamphetamine - ДОФАМИН-МАШИНА ИЗ СССР
WHY THIS
Another title from Jason Rohrer, the studio behind The Castle Doctrine. Shares Strategy and Indie with The Castle Doctrine.
A lightning-fast roguelike deckbuilding auto-battler by Jason Rohrer. Puts the Chess back in "auto chess".
Plays great on Steam Deck
Valve-Verified or Playable picks from the similar pool — ready to go on Deck out of the box.
Pixel Starships
WHY THIS
Shares a stressful mood with The Castle Doctrine.
Deck Verified — runs on Steam Deck out of the box. Shares Strategy and Indie with The Castle Doctrine.
Pixel Starships is an FTL-style online sci-fi strategy builder and management game with a competitive PVP tournament. Set in the retro galaxy, your role is to explore space, meet aliens, and develop your ship, crew and AI. The game contains deep strategic and 4x elements. PSS is community-driven.
Darkest Dungeon®
WHY THIS
Shares a stressful mood with The Castle Doctrine.
Deck Verified — runs on Steam Deck out of the box. Shares Strategy and Indie with The Castle Doctrine.
Darkest Dungeon is a challenging gothic roguelike turn-based RPG about the psychological stresses of adventuring. Recruit, train, and lead a team of flawed heroes against unimaginable horrors, stress, disease, and the ever-encroaching dark. Can you keep your heroes together when all hope is lost?
bit Dungeon III
WHY THIS
Deck Verified — runs on Steam Deck out of the box. Shares Indie and Massively Multiplayer with The Castle Doctrine.
bitDungeonIII is a 2d action adventure game with rogue-lite elements. Randomly generated overworld and dungeons. Make allies with other players or kill them for their precious inventory items. Discover random items that greatly enhance and affect your character.
Frequently asked about The Castle Doctrine
- Does The Castle Doctrine run on Steam Deck?
- The Castle Doctrine is rated Playable on Steam Deck — it runs, but expect some manual adjustments (control remapping, text size, or graphics settings) for the best experience.
- How much does The Castle Doctrine cost?
- The Castle Doctrine is listed on Steam at 3.99 USD (current store price; Steam sales may reduce this temporarily).
- Does The Castle Doctrine have multiplayer or co-op?
- Yes — The Castle Doctrine supports multi-player play according to its Steam store listing (Multi-player, Cross-Platform Multiplayer).
- What games are most similar to The Castle Doctrine?
- Based on Steam play patterns and shared genres/tags, the games most often recommended alongside The Castle Doctrine are Realm of the Mad God Exalt, Pixel Starships, NEO Scavenger.
- Who developed The Castle Doctrine?
- The Castle Doctrine was developed by Jason Rohrer.
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 The Castle Doctrine.
For library-aware picks tuned to your specific taste, sign in with Steam on the home page.