Games like Foundation
If Foundation is your kind of game, the closest matches are Kingdoms and Castles, Banished and Kingdoms Reborn — picked from the ranked list below. Reviewers single out its prestige driven progression, contemplative and cozy. 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 →Foundation is a medieval city-building game developed by Polymorph Games that emphasizes creative freedom and organic growth over rigid grid-based construction. Players manage agent-based simulation systems, constructing modular buildings while directing pathing and housing zoning for their settlements. House tier upgrades and prestige management provide long-term progression goals, while resource trade chains encourage deeper strategic engagement. Players describe the experience as contemplative and cozy, with a relaxing atmosphere that contrasts with the typical stress of city-builders. The game supports extensive workshop integration for endless creativity and runs as playable on Steam Deck. Currently priced at $34.99 USD, it holds an 86% positive rating from over 10,000 Steam reviews.
About Foundation: Foundation is a grid-less, laidback medieval city-building game with a focus on organic development, monument construction and resource management.
Players who liked Foundation also play
Steam players who put hours into Foundation 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.
Kingdoms and Castles
WHY THIS
Shares a cozy mood with Foundation.
Top pick for Foundation fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Foundation.
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.
Banished
WHY THIS
Shares a cozy mood with Foundation.
Second-strongest match for Foundation fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Foundation.
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.
Kingdoms Reborn
WHY THIS
Shares a relaxing mood with Foundation.
Third-strongest match for Foundation fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Foundation.
A city builder with simulated citizens, set in a procedurally-generated world map. Grow your kingdom through the eras from a tiny medieval hamlet into a prosperous global empire! Cooperate or compete in real-time with your friends in multiplayer mode.
Founders' Fortune
WHY THIS
Shares a whimsical mood with Foundation.
Ranked #4 for Foundation fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Foundation.
A fantasy village builder focusing on creative building, colonist psychology and base defense. Handle resources, farming, production, tools, diplomacy, families, trading, defense, and research, as well as the wishes, expectations, thoughts, and equipment of every villager.
Ostriv
WHY THIS
Shares a relaxing mood with Foundation.
Ranked #5 for Foundation fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Foundation.
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.
Endzone - A World Apart
WHY THIS
Ranked #6 for Foundation fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Foundation.
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.
Settlement Survival
WHY THIS
Shares a contemplative mood with Foundation.
Ranked #7 for Foundation fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Foundation.
In this city-building game, you will lead a group of survivors in their search for a new home. Manipulate the landscape, manage limited supplies, plant crops, hunt wildlife, gather resources, and develop trade routes to build a bustling and unique town.
Farthest Frontier
WHY THIS
Shares a contemplative mood with Foundation.
Ranked #8 for Foundation fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Foundation.
Protect and guide your people as you forge a town from untamed wilderness at the edge of the known world. Harvest raw materials, hunt, fish and farm to survive. Produce crafted items to trade, consume, equip and fight with as you battle for your survival against the elements and outside threats.
Reviewers mention these as similar to Foundation
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.
Majesty 2
WHY THIS
Shares a whimsical mood with Foundation.
Reviewers of Foundation cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Foundation.
In the world of Majesty, you are the ruler of the kingdom Ardania. At your service are your loyal and somewhat obnoxious subordinates, who have their own minds about how things should be done. In fact, Majesty is the only game where your heroes decide on their own what should be done and when, leaving you to try to control them through...
Manor Lords
WHY THIS
Shares a contemplative mood with Foundation.
Reviewers of Foundation cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Foundation.
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.
Banished
WHY THIS
Shares a cozy mood with Foundation.
Reviewers of Foundation cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Indie with Foundation.
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.
Factorio
WHY THIS
Shares a contemplative mood with Foundation.
Reviewers of Foundation cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Indie with Foundation.
Factorio is a game about building and creating automated factories to produce items of increasing complexity, within an infinite 2D world. Use your imagination to design your factory, combine simple elements into ingenious structures, and finally protect it from the creatures who don't really like you.
RimWorld
WHY THIS
Reviewers of Foundation cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Indie with Foundation.
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.
Cities: Skylines
WHY THIS
Shares a relaxing mood with Foundation.
Reviewers of Foundation cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Foundation.
Cities: Skylines is a modern take on the classic city simulation. The game introduces new game play elements to realize the thrill and hardships of creating and maintaining a real city whilst expanding on some well-established tropes of the city building experience.
FANTASY LIFE i: The Girl Who Steals Time
WHY THIS
Shares a cozy mood with Foundation.
Reviewers of Foundation cross-mention this title as a similar play.
Step into this Slow-Life RPG where you can freely switch between 14 unique jobs, so called "Lives," and enjoy a carefree life in a fantasy world. Fish, cook, shape the island to your liking, or team up with friends to battle monsters across the vast world.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker
WHY THIS
Shares a relaxing mood with Foundation.
Reviewers of Foundation cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Simulation with Foundation.
Equipped with cutting-edge salvaging tech, carve & slice spaceships to recover valuable materials. Upgrade your gear to take on more lucrative contracts and pay your billion credits debt to LYNX Corp!
Cheaper alternatives
Games in the same vein priced at least 40% below Foundation at current Steam store prices.
Garry's Mod
WHY THIS
Priced ~86% under Foundation on Steam right now. Shares Indie and Simulation with Foundation.
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 ~57% under Foundation on Steam right now. Shares Indie and Simulation with Foundation.
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?
Phasmophobia
WHY THIS
Priced ~43% under Foundation on Steam right now. Shares Indie with Foundation.
Phasmophobia is a 4 player online co-op psychological horror. Paranormal activity is on the rise and it’s up to you and your team to use all the ghost-hunting equipment at your disposal in order to gather as much evidence as you can.
Lethal Company
WHY THIS
Priced ~71% under Foundation on Steam right now. Shares Indie with Foundation.
A co-op horror about scavenging at abandoned moons to sell scrap to the Company.
Bloons TD 6
WHY THIS
Priced ~60% under Foundation on Steam right now. Shares Strategy with Foundation.
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.
Schedule I
WHY THIS
Priced ~43% under Foundation on Steam right now. Shares Strategy and Indie with Foundation.
From small-time dope pusher to kingpin - manufacture and distribute a range of drugs throughout the grungy city of Hyland Point. Expand your empire with properties, businesses, employees and more.
Hollow Knight
WHY THIS
Priced ~57% under Foundation on Steam right now. Shares Indie with Foundation.
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.
Free alternatives
Free-to-play games that recommended players of this title also tend to enjoy.
Life is Strange - Episode 1
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it.
Episode 1 now FREE! Life is Strange is an award-winning and critically acclaimed episodic adventure game that allows the player to rewind time and affect the past, present and future.
Ultimate Custom Night
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with Foundation.
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 Foundation.
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?
Our Life: Beginnings & Always
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with Foundation.
A twenty-dollar bill, four summers, fifteen years, and a one of a kind life. Create an experience that’s all your own in this near-fully customizable visual novel where you grow from childhood to adulthood with the lonely boy next door.
missed messages.
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie and Simulation with Foundation.
‘goth gf’s iPhone’ airdrops you - accept or decline? A love/horror story about life, death, & memes.
Virtual Cottage
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie and Simulation with Foundation.
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 Foundation.
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!
Narrow it down
Head-to-head comparisons
Frequently asked about Foundation
- Does Foundation run on Steam Deck?
- Foundation 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 Foundation cost?
- Foundation is listed on Steam at 34.99 USD (current store price; Steam sales may reduce this temporarily).
- What games are most similar to Foundation?
- Based on Steam play patterns and shared genres/tags, the games most often recommended alongside Foundation are Kingdoms and Castles, Banished, Kingdoms Reborn.
- Who developed Foundation?
- Foundation was developed by Polymorph 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 Foundation.
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