Games like Ancient Cities
If Ancient Cities is your kind of game, the closest matches are Ostriv, MEMORIAPOLIS and Pioneers of Pagonia — picked from the ranked list below. Reviewers single out its graphics are great, tactical positioning matters and writing quality is exceptional. 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 →Ancient Cities is a prehistoric city-builder strategy game developed by Uncasual Games. Released in 2023 at $29.99 USD, the game tasks players with managing settlers through ancient times using autonomous AI systems. The core gameplay loop centers on priority-task-assignment, resource-gathering, seasonal-resource-availability, settlement-planning, and village-management. Players describe the experience as immersive and relaxing, with the graphics receiving praise for their detail. The game is noted for its challenging difficulty, massive length, and grinds session shape, appealing to players who enjoy strategic depth over quick play sessions. Tactical positioning matters when establishing settlements, and the procedural environment creates unique challenges across playthroughs. Reviewers highlight the realistic survival mechanics that distinguish it from more casual builders. The game supports solo play only and is not currently supported on Steam Deck.
About Ancient Cities: Ancient Cities is a realistic, survival city builder in an immersive procedural environment. Lead the fate of your tribe through ancient times!
Players who liked Ancient Cities also play
Steam players who put hours into Ancient Cities 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.
Ostriv
WHY THIS
Shares a relaxing mood with Ancient Cities.
Top pick for Ancient Cities fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Ancient Cities.
Ostriv is a city-building game that puts you in a role of a governor of an 18th century Ukrainian town to challenge your creative skills and management abilities.
MEMORIAPOLIS
WHY THIS
Shares an immersive mood with Ancient Cities.
Second-strongest match for Ancient Cities fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Ancient Cities.
Memoriapolis is a historical city builder where your city grows organically across 5 ages, from Antiquity to the Industrial Revolution. Manage resources, interact with factions, and shape your dynasty toward building a final Wonder with easy, normal, or hard difficulty levels.
Pioneers of Pagonia
WHY THIS
Shares a relaxing mood with Ancient Cities.
Third-strongest match for Ancient Cities fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Ancient Cities.
Rebuild hope in a world that was lost in the fog. Lead your Pioneers across the isles of Pagonia, unite scattered tribes, raise thriving communities and discover the history of your people as you reclaim your world in the new story campaign.
Foundation
WHY THIS
Shares a relaxing mood with Ancient Cities.
Ranked #4 for Ancient Cities fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Ancient Cities.
Foundation is a grid-less, laidback medieval city-building game with a focus on organic development, monument construction and resource management.
Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic
WHY THIS
Ranked #5 for Ancient Cities fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Ancient Cities.
Build a soviet republic from an impoverished country into a rich industrial superpower in a city builder with intricate production chains and a fully simulated global economy. Manage the lives of your citizens from education to work and party loyalty to criminal activity.
Captain of Industry
WHY THIS
Shares a relaxing mood with Ancient Cities.
Ranked #6 for Ancient Cities fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Ancient Cities.
Build an industrial empire on a remote island. Mine resources, reshape terrain with excavators, grow food, construct factories, lay train tracks, and trade with the outside world. Research 100+ technologies to advance from basic metal smelting all the way to nuclear power and space flight.
RimWorld
WHY THIS
Shares an immersive mood with Ancient Cities.
Ranked #7 for Ancient Cities fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Ancient Cities.
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.
Depraved
WHY THIS
Ranked #8 for Ancient Cities fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Ancient Cities.
Depraved is a city builder game with survival aspects, settled in the Wild West. Build towns and establish important outposts to supply your residents with food and other raw materials. Resist the seasons, dangerous animals, and bandits and conquer the Wild West.
Reviewers mention these as similar to Ancient Cities
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.
The Settlers: New Allies
WHY THIS
Shares a relaxing mood with Ancient Cities.
Reviewers of Ancient Cities cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy with Ancient Cities.
The Settlers®: New Allies is a strategy game with an in-depth build-up experience and real-time strategic battles.
Stellaris
WHY THIS
Shares an immersive mood with Ancient Cities.
Reviewers of Ancient Cities cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Ancient Cities.
Explore a galaxy full of wonders in this sci-fi grand strategy game from Paradox Development Studios. Interact with diverse alien races, discover strange new worlds with unexpected events and expand the reach of your empire. Each new adventure holds almost limitless possibilities.
RimWorld
WHY THIS
Shares an immersive mood with Ancient Cities.
Reviewers of Ancient Cities cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Indie with Ancient Cities.
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.
Minecraft: Story Mode - A Telltale Games Series
WHY THIS
Reviewers of Ancient Cities cross-mention this title as a similar play.
Episode 1 is now FREE - for a limited time! In Minecraft: Story Mode, playing as either a male or female hero named 'Jesse,' you’ll embark on a perilous adventure across the Overworld, through the Nether, to the End, and beyond.
The Sims™ 4
WHY THIS
Reviewers of Ancient Cities cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Simulation with Ancient Cities.
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.
Manor Lords
WHY THIS
Shares an immersive mood with Ancient Cities.
Reviewers of Ancient Cities cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Ancient Cities.
Manor Lords is a medieval strategy game featuring in-depth city building, large-scale tactical battles, and complex economic and social simulations. Rule your lands as a medieval lord – the seasons pass, the weather changes, and cities rise and fall.
Cheaper alternatives
Games in the same vein priced at least 40% below Ancient Cities at current Steam store prices.
Garry's Mod
WHY THIS
Priced ~83% under Ancient Cities on Steam right now. Shares Indie and Simulation with Ancient Cities.
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.
Stardew Valley
WHY THIS
Priced ~50% under Ancient Cities on Steam right now. Shares Indie and Simulation with Ancient Cities.
You've inherited your grandfather's old farm plot in Stardew Valley. Armed with hand-me-down tools and a few coins, you set out to begin your new life. Can you learn to live off the land and turn these overgrown fields into a thriving home?
Lethal Company
WHY THIS
Priced ~67% under Ancient Cities on Steam right now. Shares Indie with Ancient Cities.
A co-op horror about scavenging at abandoned moons to sell scrap to the Company.
Bloons TD 6
WHY THIS
Priced ~53% under Ancient Cities on Steam right now. Shares Strategy with Ancient Cities.
The Bloons are back and better than ever! Get ready for a massive 3D tower defense game designed to give you hours and hours of the best strategy gaming available.
Hollow Knight
WHY THIS
Priced ~50% under Ancient Cities on Steam right now. Shares Indie with Ancient Cities.
Forge your own path in Hollow Knight! An epic action adventure through a vast ruined kingdom of insects and heroes. Explore twisting caverns, battle tainted creatures and befriend bizarre bugs, all in a classic, hand-drawn 2D style.
People Playground
WHY THIS
Priced ~67% under Ancient Cities on Steam right now. Shares Indie and Simulation with Ancient Cities.
Shoot, stab, burn, poison, tear, vaporise, or crush ragdolls in a large open space.
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 Ancient Cities.
Welcome to the ultimate FNAF mashup, featuring 50 selectable characters and custom difficulties!
Virtual Cottage
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie and Simulation with Ancient Cities.
Virtual Cottage gives you a comfy place to rest and be productive without any distractions. Open the game, set yourself a goal and enjoy the atmosphere.
Magic Archery
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie and Simulation with Ancient Cities.
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.
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!
93, Kuindzhi
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with Ancient Cities.
Kuindzhi, 93 is an atmospheric first-person narrative vignette about an 18-year-old boy from Donbas. The story takes us to March 2022, when the world changed forever — into a space where the past, fears, and doubts find their voice.
DORONKO WANKO
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Simulation with Ancient Cities.
『DORONKO WANKO』 is a DORONKO Action Game. In this game, You can become a cute, innocent Pomeranian, make your master's home messy and dirty. "Will the master be angry with me?" Don't worry. Because you are a sweet doggie.
Landfall Archives
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Strategy and Indie with Ancient Cities.
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!
SuchArt: Creative Space
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie and Simulation with Ancient Cities.
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!
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Head-to-head comparisons
Frequently asked about Ancient Cities
- Does Ancient Cities work on Steam Deck?
- Ancient Cities is currently rated Unsupported on Steam Deck. It may not launch or may have significant issues that block normal play.
- How much does Ancient Cities cost?
- Ancient Cities is listed on Steam at 29.99 USD (current store price; Steam sales may reduce this temporarily).
- What games are most similar to Ancient Cities?
- Based on Steam play patterns and shared genres/tags, the games most often recommended alongside Ancient Cities are Ostriv, MEMORIAPOLIS, Pioneers of Pagonia.
- Who developed Ancient Cities?
- Ancient Cities was developed by Uncasual 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 Ancient Cities.
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