Summary

  • Castle-building games like Stronghold offer players a creative outlet to construct impressive fortresses and structures.
  • Games like Castle Constructor and Valheim provide players with intuitive building tools and a focus on defending their creations from enemies.
  • While some castle-building games lean more towards creative freedom, others, such as Diplomacy Is Not An Option, focus on strategic construction and defense.

There are plenty of games that let players stretch their creative wings, giving them the tools to create buildings, contraptions, and even entire levels. Creative games like Minecraft, level creators such as Halo's Forge mode, and the construction simulation of games like RimWorld allow players to construct buildings, which has proven to be a strong core gameplay loop.

Complex Management Games Featured Image - various screenshots
Most Complex Management Games

Certain management games crank the complexity up to eleven. These examples are just the tip of the iceberg.

Although players can build castles in games like Minecraft, these more creative-focused games often lack gameplay loops that center on castle-building. While many of these games contain strong mechanics for building castles in a way that affects the gameplay, some are more focused on creative freedom.

Updated by Harry Ted Sprinks on December 24, 2024: Castle-building games are a relatively underserved market in the world of PC gaming, even though they're relatively popular. However, the successful release of both Stronghold: Definitive Edition and Cataclismo shows that there's still a need for good castle-building experiences, so much so that people will still happily purchase a game that's over twenty years old. Furthermore, the substantial success of the recently-released Tiny Glade has shown a clear want and need for expressive castle-building games.

1 Castle Story

A Voxel-Based Castle Builder

  • Platform(s): PC
  • Released: 2017
  • Developer(s): Sauropod Studio
  • Genre: Strategy

This voxel-based castle builder has players building and defending castles while managing their denizens. Castle Story combines its castle building with strategic gameplay, tasking players with micro-managing their small colony of workers.

Although Castle Story may not have lived up to its potential, its castle-building mechanics remain competent, revolving heavily around interactions with the user interface. While this system can be tedious at times, it allows for a great deal of freedom.

2 Castle Flipper

A First-Person Building Game With A Great Sense Of Scale

  • Platform(s): PC
  • Released: 2021
  • Developer(s): Pyramid Games
  • Genre: Building

As its title may suggest, Castle Flipper plays very similarly to games like House Flipper, but with a medieval theme. While castles aren't the only thing players will be building and repairing, Castle Flipper allows players to build large, impressive castles.

The first-person perspective and large 3D environments make Castle Flipper particularly immersive and give the buildings a great sense of scale. While Castle Flipper may be a little rough around the edges, it gives players a great deal of freedom to build impressive fortresses.

3 Castle Constructor

Build Castles Out Of Modular Pieces

  • Platform(s): PC
  • Released: 2024
  • Developer(s): Sisyphean Games
  • Genre: Tower Defense

This 3D indie tower defense game has players building castles out of modular pieces and defending them from a variety of enemies and medieval siege weapons. The modular system makes building castles easy, allowing players to focus on the best strategy without fighting against the user interface.

Castle Constructor features several campaign levels for players to progress through, learning new technology along the way. While this is the main way to play, Castle Constructor also features an endless mode and a creative sandbox, giving it a great deal of replay value.

4 Age Of Empires 2: Definitive Edition

An RTS With An Emphasis On Base-Building

Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition
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Real-Time Strategy
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Released
November 14, 2019
Genre(s)
Real-Time Strategy
OpenCritic Rating
Mighty

This classic real-time strategy game has aged tremendously well, thanks in part to its 2019 definitive edition, which helped bring the game to modern audiences. Like many real-time strategy games, Age Of Empires 2 features base-building. However, AoE 2 arguably features more depth in this department than the average RTS.

Age Of Empires 2 focuses on many things other than building castles. However, the game's variety of factions to control and buildings to construct give players a lot of freedom when it comes to base-building.

5 Valheim

A Survival-Crafting Game About Building Viking Strongholds

Valheim
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Sandbox
Survival
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Released
February 2, 2021
Developer(s)
Iron Gate AB
Genre(s)
Sandbox, Survival
OpenCritic Rating
Mighty

​This tough-as-nails multiplayer survival game takes on a Viking theme and focuses its gameplay on exploration, combat, and building. With a strong fan-base and dedicated developers, Valheim remains a relatively safe bet for fans of survival games.

Valheim's building tools are incredibly intuitive and merge with the survival gameplay perfectly, allowing players to get creative as they explore and gain access to more resources. The potential for complex and large-scale castles in the world of Valheim can be seen in the community. YouTube alone is heavily populated with complex and large-scale castles built by dedicated players. Although Valheim is one of the most well-received castle-building games, its focus on exploration and combat makes its gameplay less centered around castle-building than others.

6 Becastled

Building And Defending From Fantasy Sieges

Becastled
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Strategy
City Builder
Base Building
Tower Defense
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Released
October 23, 2025
Platform(s)
PC
Genre(s)
Strategy, City Builder, Base Building, Tower Defense
Becastled Press Image 1

This base defense game is all about building and defending a castle from waves of enemies in a fantasy setting. The game features increasingly difficult sieges to defend from, resource management, and light RTS elements that help to add a layer of depth to the game.

Becastled features a cartoon visual style and centers itself around building castles, resulting in a focused experience. It's also somewhat more simplistic than other castle-building titles, providing an experience that's perhaps more accessible to beginners.

7 V Rising

A Survival Game About Building Gothic Castles

V Rising
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Released
May 8, 2024
Developer(s)
Stunlock Studios
Platform(s)
PC, PlayStation 5
Genre(s)
MMORPG, Survival
OpenCritic Rating
Strong
V Rising Invaders of Oakveil Megara the Serpent Queen art

This open-world top-down survival game puts players in the role of a vampire attempting to take down a variety of increasingly challenging bosses in fluid, fast-paced combat. Outside of combat, players gather resources and slowly construct a Gothic castle to call home.

V Rising began as an Early Access title and has since lived up to its full potential with its 1.0 release. Though V Rising features plenty of combat, the game's customization options when it comes to building a base allow players to easily construct menacing, looming Gothic castles.

8 Diplomacy Is Not An Option

Defend Against Hordes Of Physics-Simulated Enemies

Diplomacy Is Not An Option
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Strategy
Simulation
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Released
February 9, 2022
Platform(s)
PC
Genre(s)
Strategy, Simulation

Diplomacy Is Not An Option tasks players with building and defending a sprawling castle from waves of enemies. Diplomacy Is Not An Option is arguably one of the best castle-building base defense games thanks to its well-crafted minimalist art style and truly massive hordes of physics-simulated enemies, as well as its intuitive building mechanics.

RTS Games With Tower Defence Mechanics (Featured Image) - Diplomacy Is Not An Option + Creeper World 4 + Thronefall
RTS Games With Tower Defense Mechanics

These fun strategy games combine RTS mechanics with elements of tower defense.

Diplomacy Is Not An Option allows players to build defenses and even armies to control via light RTS mechanics. Furthermore, the game also features an entire spell system that can provide powerful advantages to the player in their most dire moments. Diplomacy Is Not An Option constantly throws huge amounts of enemies at the player's castle, making it less focused on creativity and much more focused on strategic construction.

9 Foundation

A Gridless Medieval City-Builder

Foundation
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City Builder
Simulation
Strategy
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Released
January 31, 2025
Platform(s)
PC
Genre(s)
City Builder, Simulation, Strategy

Foundation is a relaxing city-builder that's relatively typical in its design. However, the overall experience is elevated by a focus on resource management and a grid-less construction system that allows players a great degree of creative freedom. This system is particularly freeing for those that enjoy placing objects exactly where they want them, resulting in an experience that's immediately less stressful than similar titles.

Because of Foundation's laid-back nature, players are given more freedom to focus on the city-building aspects of the game, rather than worrying about constant threats looming over their growing city. Furthermore, Foundation also features a variety of difficulty modes and even a creative mode for those that just want to build in peace.

10 Going Medieval

A Medieval Colony-Sim

Going Medieval
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City Builder
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Released
June 1, 2021
Platform(s)
PC
Genre(s)
City Builder

This colony-sim plays very similarly to RimWorld but takes place in a medieval setting. The game gives players easy-to-use tools to build a variety of strongholds amid an untamed wilderness, attempting to keep their villagers safe and happy while defending against vicious raids.

Best Historical RTS Games, Ranked (Featured Image) - Hegemony 3 + Stronghold Crusader + Total War: Shogun 2
Best Historical RTS Games, Ranked

Fans of historical RTS games can't pass up these legendary titles.

Going Medieval is very much a colony-sim, but includes heavy elements of base defense as well. In order to succeed, players will need to be strategic with the placement of traps and defenses, all while maintaining the infrastructure of their colony. While certainly engaging, this aspect establishes Going Medieval as a more strategic experience than a creative one.