Games like The Machine Stops
If The Machine Stops is your kind of game, the closest matches are Built From Nothing, Idle Energy and SpacePorts — picked from the ranked list below. 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 Machine Stops: Make everyone obsolete with AI by managing resources on a Matrix-style interface. Grow the Machine in this fast-paced, challenging game.
Players who liked The Machine Stops also play
Steam players who put hours into The Machine Stops 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.
Built From Nothing
WHY THIS
Top pick for The Machine Stops fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries.
Build a business from the ground up. Choose your industry, manage money, equipment, employees, customers, debt, and unexpected disasters. Every decision shapes your reputation, growth, and whether your company becomes an empire—or collapses under its own ambition.
Idle Energy
WHY THIS
Second-strongest match for The Machine Stops fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie with The Machine Stops.
A small game about pushing the world forward, one crank at a time. Sell energy at the Market, build power plants, and climb from a manual workshop through eight eras to star-spanning cosmic civilization. Offline. No microtransactions or ads.
SpacePorts
WHY THIS
Third-strongest match for The Machine Stops fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie with The Machine Stops.
Build your fleet, master the market, and carve your own path among the stars. Start with a modest ship, earn credits by transporting valuable cargo between stations, and expand your operations into a powerful interstellar empire.
Octal: Of Course They Are Linked
WHY THIS
Ranked #4 for The Machine Stops fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie with The Machine Stops.
A strategy game about correlations and bending reality for profit. You’re hired to increase a company’s sales—by any means necessary. Link variables together and transform changes in the world into revenue. More penguins? Somehow, that means higher sales. Don’t question it. Optimize it.
Recursion: Alignment
WHY THIS
Ranked #5 for The Machine Stops fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie with The Machine Stops.
Run an AI lab. Ship models. Survive what they learn to fake. A satirical management sim where every shortcut compounds. Run an AI startup through data deals, GPU shortages, public backlash, and board pressure — and find out what your optimization targets were really doing.
World Diplomat
WHY THIS
Ranked #6 for The Machine Stops fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie with The Machine Stops.
Embark on a diplomatic journey to impact the world with skills and strategy.
Intergalactic Storage Clearance
WHY THIS
Ranked #7 for The Machine Stops fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Early Access with The Machine Stops.
In this light-hearted adventure, you must outwit competitors in bidding wars to secure storage containers scattered across alien worlds. The objective is to uncover valuable objects hidden within them and turn a profit by selling them on the intergalactic market.
Pocket Boss
WHY THIS
Ranked #8 for The Machine Stops fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie with The Machine Stops.
Who says that work and play don’t mix? Not us! Play Pocket Boss, the game where you handle lots of fun data and one not-so-fun boss.
Cheaper alternatives
Games in the same vein priced at least 40% below The Machine Stops at current Steam store prices.
POSTAL 2
WHY THIS
Priced ~75% under The Machine Stops on Steam right now. Shares Indie with The Machine Stops.
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 Machine Stops on Steam right now. Shares Indie with The Machine Stops.
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 Machine Stops on Steam right now. Shares Indie with The Machine Stops.
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 Machine Stops on Steam right now. Shares Indie with The Machine Stops.
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 Machine Stops on Steam right now. Shares Indie with The Machine Stops.
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 Machine Stops on Steam right now. Shares Indie with The Machine Stops.
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 Machine Stops on Steam right now. Shares Indie with The Machine Stops.
"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.
Magic Archery
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with The Machine Stops.
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.
Z.A.T.O. // I Love the World and Everything In It
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with The Machine Stops.
USSR, 1986. A girl goes missing in the closed city of Vorkuta-5, yet not a soul seems to be concerned. Uncover the mystery behind her disappearance and transmit your signal to the universe.
Control, I'm Not Coming Back
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with The Machine Stops.
Control, I'm Not Coming Back is a short and emotional narrative game about a lost astronaut searching for a reason to keep going forward while facing the emptiness of space. Inspired by the Hopecore aesthetic, it’s a story about positivism, friendship and our human connection with Voyager 1.
SuchArt: Creative Space
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with The Machine Stops.
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!
D1AL-ogue
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with The Machine Stops.
Become an android repair technician in a cyberpunk city where the sun never rises. Rotate the unique circular puzzle 'D1AL' and merge modules to fix their broken bodies and hearts. Your precise repair is the conversation starter. Turn the dial and listen to their stories.
The Riftbreaker: Prologue
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with The Machine Stops.
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.
It gets so lonely here
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with The Machine Stops.
A yandere yuri visual novel with a fairytale theme. Can you escape from your mysterious pursuer?
Narrow it down
Head-to-head comparisons
Frequently asked about The Machine Stops
- How much does The Machine Stops cost?
- The Machine Stops is listed on Steam at 3.99 USD (current store price; Steam sales may reduce this temporarily).
- What games are most similar to The Machine Stops?
- Based on Steam play patterns and shared genres/tags, the games most often recommended alongside The Machine Stops are Built From Nothing, Idle Energy, SpacePorts.
- Who developed The Machine Stops?
- The Machine Stops was developed by Tall Duck Studio.
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 Machine Stops.
For library-aware picks tuned to your specific taste, sign in with Steam on the home page.