Games like Rise to Ruins
If Rise to Ruins is your kind of game, the closest matches are Judgment: Apocalypse Survival Simulation, Dwarf Fortress and Kingdoms and Castles — picked from the ranked list below. Reviewers single out its tactical positioning matters, writing quality is exceptional and challenging. 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 →Rise to Ruins is a 2019 strategy and simulation game developed by Raymond Doerr that combines colony management with god-game and tower-defense mechanics. Players oversee a procedurally generated village, expanding settlements during daylight hours and defending against monster hordes at night in a cycle of roguelike city-building. The game offers solo-only gameplay with a massive scope and challenging difficulty described by players as both punishing and relaxing, with a grundy session shape. Reviewers highlight that tactical positioning matters significantly and that the core gameplay loop proves very rewarding and addicting. Currently priced at $14.99 USD, the title runs at a Playable level on Steam Deck and holds an 88% positive rating from over 5,000 Steam reviews.
About Rise to Ruins: A brutal godlike village sim that melds the god game, management, and tower defense genres! Fight off hoards of monsters at night, and expand your village in the day time. Inspired by games like Black and White, Rimworld, and Dwarf Fortress but not quite like any of them.
Players who liked Rise to Ruins also play
Steam players who put hours into Rise to Ruins 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.
Judgment: Apocalypse Survival Simulation
WHY THIS
Shares a challenging mood with Rise to Ruins.
Top pick for Rise to Ruins fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Rise to Ruins.
Build, scavenge, craft, and perform occult rituals to survive in a demon-infested, post-apocalyptic colony simulation. Will you survive Judgment day?
Dwarf Fortress
WHY THIS
Shares procedural generation and a challenging mood with Rise to Ruins.
Second-strongest match for Rise to Ruins fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Rise to Ruins.
Build a fortress and try to help your dwarves survive against a deeply generated world. Keep your dwarves happy, grow their community and beware of digging too deeply. The deepest, most intricate simulation of a world that's ever been created.
Kingdoms and Castles
WHY THIS
Shares a relaxing mood with Rise to Ruins.
Third-strongest match for Rise to Ruins fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Rise to Ruins.
Kingdoms and Castles is a city-building simulation game about growing a kingdom from a tiny hamlet to a sprawling city and imposing castle. Make trade agreements, alliance, and war with neighboring AI controlled kingdoms. Each villager and resource is individually simulated.
Against the Storm
WHY THIS
Shares procedural generation and a challenging mood with Rise to Ruins.
Ranked #4 for Rise to Ruins fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Rise to Ruins.
A dark fantasy city builder where you must rebuild civilization in the face of apocalyptic rains. As the Queen’s Viceroy, lead humans, beavers, lizards, foxes, and harpies to reclaim the wilderness and secure a future for civilization's last survivors.
The Universim
WHY THIS
Shares a challenging mood with Rise to Ruins.
Ranked #5 for Rise to Ruins fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Rise to Ruins.
Jump straight into managing your own planets as you guide a civilization through the ages. Build the ultimate empire in The Universim, a new breed of God Game in development by Crytivo.
Surviving Mars
WHY THIS
Shares a relaxing mood with Rise to Ruins.
Ranked #6 for Rise to Ruins fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Rise to Ruins.
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.
Endzone - A World Apart
WHY THIS
Shares a challenging mood with Rise to Ruins.
Ranked #7 for Rise to Ruins fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Rise to Ruins.
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.
They Are Billions
WHY THIS
Shares procedural generation and a challenging mood with Rise to Ruins.
Ranked #8 for Rise to Ruins fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy with Rise to Ruins.
They Are Billions is a Steampunk strategy game set on a post-apocalyptic planet. Build and defend colonies to survive against the billions of the infected that seek to annihilate the few remaining living humans. Can humanity survive after the zombie apocalypse?
Reviewers mention these as similar to Rise to Ruins
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.
RimWorld
WHY THIS
Shares procedural generation and a challenging mood with Rise to Ruins.
Reviewers of Rise to Ruins cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Indie with Rise to Ruins.
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.
They Are Billions
WHY THIS
Shares procedural generation and a challenging mood with Rise to Ruins.
Reviewers of Rise to Ruins cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy with Rise to Ruins.
They Are Billions is a Steampunk strategy game set on a post-apocalyptic planet. Build and defend colonies to survive against the billions of the infected that seek to annihilate the few remaining living humans. Can humanity survive after the zombie apocalypse?
Odd Realm
WHY THIS
Reviewers of Rise to Ruins cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Indie with Rise to Ruins.
Forge a new kingdom in a land recovering from the Fracture. Which of the surviving races will you lead to rebuild, explore, and conquer the unknown? The dwindling yet immortal Ancients? The bold and resourceful Humans? The life stealing Ardyn? Or the secretive Gwdir who shape living groves?
Loading Simulator
WHY THIS
Reviewers of Rise to Ruins cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Indie and Simulation with Rise to Ruins.
A game for the most patient! Loading has never been so exciting! If you love loading screen and puzzles, this is what you're looking for!
Cheaper alternatives
Games in the same vein priced at least 40% below Rise to Ruins at current Steam store prices.
Garry's Mod
WHY THIS
Priced ~67% under Rise to Ruins on Steam right now. Shares Indie and Simulation with Rise to Ruins.
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.
Vampire Survivors
WHY THIS
Priced ~67% under Rise to Ruins on Steam right now. Shares Indie with Rise to Ruins.
Mow down thousands of night creatures and survive until dawn! Vampire Survivors is a gothic horror casual game with rogue-lite elements, where your choices can allow you to quickly snowball against the hundreds of monsters that get thrown at you. Be the bullet hell!
PEAK
WHY THIS
Priced ~47% under Rise to Ruins on Steam right now. Shares Indie with Rise to Ruins.
PEAK is a co-op climbing game where the slightest mistake can spell your doom. Either solo or as a group of lost nature scouts, your only hope of rescue from a mysterious island is to scale the mountain at its center. Do you have what it takes to reach the PEAK?
Sid Meier's Civilization® V
WHY THIS
Priced ~50% under Rise to Ruins on Steam right now. Shares Strategy with Rise to Ruins.
Create, discover, and download new player-created maps, scenarios, interfaces, and more!
Slay the Spire
WHY THIS
Priced ~58% under Rise to Ruins on Steam right now. Shares Strategy and Indie with Rise to Ruins.
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!
Inscryption
WHY THIS
Priced ~47% under Rise to Ruins on Steam right now. Shares Strategy and Indie with Rise to Ruins.
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...
Cookie Clicker
WHY THIS
Priced ~67% under Rise to Ruins on Steam right now. Shares Strategy and Indie with Rise to Ruins.
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.
WEBFISHING
WHY THIS
Priced ~67% under Rise to Ruins on Steam right now. Shares Indie with Rise to Ruins.
WEBFISHING a multiplayer chatroom-focused fishing game! Relax and fish (on the web!)
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 Rise to Ruins.
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 Simulation with Rise to Ruins.
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?
The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie and Simulation with Rise to Ruins.
Sonic the Hedgehog...was murdered!? Get to the bottom of the mystery in this brand-new adventure!
missed messages.
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie and Simulation with Rise to Ruins.
‘goth gf’s iPhone’ airdrops you - accept or decline? A love/horror story about life, death, & memes.
Grimm's Hollow
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with Rise to Ruins.
A spooky, freeware RPG where you search the afterlife for your brother. Reap ghosts with your scythe, explore haunted caves, and eat ghostly treats on your journey through death.
The Expendabros
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with Rise to Ruins.
The Expendabros have assembled and set their sights on the forces of ruthless arms dealer Conrad Stonebanks in the forests of Eastern Europe.
Steam Engine Simulator
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Simulation with Rise to Ruins.
The Steam Engine Simulator shown on AngeTheGreat's YouTube channel.
Narrow it down
Head-to-head comparisons
Frequently asked about Rise to Ruins
- Does Rise to Ruins run on Steam Deck?
- Rise to Ruins 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 Rise to Ruins cost?
- Rise to Ruins is listed on Steam at 14.99 USD (current store price; Steam sales may reduce this temporarily).
- What games are most similar to Rise to Ruins?
- Based on Steam play patterns and shared genres/tags, the games most often recommended alongside Rise to Ruins are Judgment: Apocalypse Survival Simulation, Dwarf Fortress, Kingdoms and Castles.
- Who developed Rise to Ruins?
- Rise to Ruins was developed by Raymond Doerr and published by SixtyGig Games.
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 Rise to Ruins.
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