Best City Builders For Relaxation

City builders are one of the foremost genres of games found on the market today. Within this broad category of titles, players can find a multitude of sub-genres and dedicated fanbases focused on the intricacies of keeping a bustling metropolis running smoothly.

But if there's anything that new city builders like Frostpunk 2 can teach people, it's that running a city can be stressful, and can occasionally lead to mass fatalities. Sometimes, gamers might not want to carry the burden of thousands of lives on their shoulders, one misplaced warehouse away from a city revolt. Some might want a game with an easier pace. For those who care more about serene skylines than well-managed supply chains, here are some city builders with an emphasis on relaxation.

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Updated January 24, 2025, by Michael Di Guglielmo: City builders designed around relaxation and catharsis instead of micromanagement or strategy are in no short supply, and there are a few more titles worth mentioning that scratch the itch for those looking to unwind and destress with these kinds of games.

8 Townscaper

A Relaxing Town Builder Sandbox

Townscaper has that dangerous combination of soothing and addictive that can keep players hooked for hours. Simply clicking and dragging is all that's required to build serene little communes of quaint, pastel-colored townhouses Players can sync up colors, build bustling town squares, or simply let the game run wild. They can mix and match a variety of buildings all together to make a picturesque little island town.

It doesn't take much to get a good start in Townscaper, making it easy for new players to get hooked. The title is the perfect way to unwind and take a quick breather from a hard day's work, or even from a more stressful game.

7 Gourdlets

Give Adorable Vegetable People The Perfect Town

• Released: August 15, 2024
• Developer: AuntyGames
• Platforms: PC

This cutesy, retro-styled title is perfect for people who simply want to create an idyllic world. There are no goals to meet, no quotas to fulfill, and no pressing, blaring threats of doom on the horizon for these adorable vegetable people - just cozy vibes and an incredibly well-realized pastel style. Players don't even need to micromanage their Gourdlets - these little creatures will just make themselves comfortable.

A perfect city builder for people who want their imagination to thrive over beating dire challenges, this game has a great aesthetic and atmosphere that's light and immersive - a great way to unwind after a day of work or socializing.

6 Islanders

A Low Stakes Strategy Title

Islanders advertises itself as a city builder title that doesn't make the player invest in ridiculous amounts of resource management. Instead, this game is about exploring islands, building little villages on them, and seeing how this network of quaint, minimalist settlements can interact and grow together.

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It's a slow-paced, low-stakes game that immediately instills a sense of calm and serenity in the player. Unlike a lot of more difficult city builder titles, there are no real loss conditions here. The player's only goal is to continue to grow a steady little chain of island villages. Everything from the simplistic (but detailed) graphics to the incredible sound design and music make this game a quiet little marvel. Even better, it sits at a very reasonable price on most platforms to boot.

5 Wandering Village

A Slow Paced City Builder With An Incredibly Unique Style

This game is nothing short of beautiful - taking its time to introduce players into a world that manages to be soothing and relaxing while also keeping high stakes and conflict. This game is perfect for those who want some of those classic city builder goals and quotas to strive towards - but in a slower-paced and more picturesque environment. Even as the odds continue to stack against the player, there are always new technologies to research and new lands to venture to in order to keep up with the encroaching toxic flora that endangers the settlement.

Expanding your village, discovering resources from gorgeous new biomes, and keeping up against the environmental hazards are all made compelling and immersive in this title, and while the stakes are higher than most titles on this list (it is possible to lose, for one), once the village is thriving, it's incredibly cathartic to simply lean back and watch this idyllic existence unfold.

4 Cloud Gardens

A Wistful, Greenery-Focused Sandbox

Cloud Gardens was one of those titles that, upon its release, had people clamoring for more games of its ilk. The concept of the game is very simple, taking small, voxel dioramas of abandoned city locations and overgrowing them with bright, lush vegetation. It's almost hypnotic watching nature reclaim these doomed pieces of some forgotten city. Something about the post-apocalyptic vibes present in Cloud Gardens feels comforting, rather than off-putting.

This sandbox does come with a campaign of sorts, where specific levels require the player to hit a quota of sorts in terms of vegetation. But these levels, and the quotas they set, are so open-ended that it's just a more structured sandbox experience. The player is still free to let their creativity guide them and make a beautiful garden out of the barren, manufactured world.

3 Dorfromantik

A Cozy Puzzle-Based City Builder

Dorfromantik is a lot of things, but it's never so many things that the player feels overwhelmed. It's a tile-based puzzle game, a city-building strategy title, and an open-ended sandbox, all wrapped up in a single picturesque image. Players will place down tiles as they come up in a random order, and the titles all connect to make a lovely little hex-shaped landscape. Then, players can adorn this landscape with little villages, town squares, train lines, and other rural set pieces.

There's a wide variety of environments to happen upon, and each different set of terrain feels unique and inviting. This is one of those games that can make people happy. Yes, it's a puzzle game, but the player can never quite get it wrong. The game simply ends when the tiles have no more possible matches. It doesn't stoke a competitive fire in the player; rather, it asks them to take their time, get a feel for the rules, and slowly build up their verdant countryside.

2 Fabledom

A Storybook City Builder

Not only is this title a slower-paced and more easygoing interpretation of city builders - but it's also a fantastic introduction to the genre for those who are new to this style of game. The unique art style and interesting mechanics make this game perfect for fans across the genre, whether they're city builder veterans or cozy game connoisseurs. Fabledom has classic storybook tropes like dragons and trolls inhabiting a cartoony world in tandem, with the player acting as a ruler that must keep their citizens safe and prosperous - understanding that more prosperity will lead to more attacks.

This is one of those 'village to kingdom' games where the players' ambitions are constantly met by new things to do and new mechanics to explore - and on top of simply building and defending a settlement, players can engage in diplomacy, trade agreements, and even romance with the neighboring fairytale kingdoms, each with their own unique identities and perks that can assist in building the best possible fantasy realm.

1 Dystopika

A Dreamlike Cyberpunk Sandbox

• Platform: PC
• Release date: February 5, 2024
• Developer: Voids Within

There really isn't another game like Dystopika available today. This sandbox game focuses on letting the player build large, dreamlike cyberpunk landscapes, very much akin to the cities in Cyberpunk 2077 or the Bladerunner movies (or the wonderful Neuromancer trilogy of books). As players place buildings, they can adjust the height to turn them into monolithic skyscrapers, and smaller buildings will automatically crowd around them.

Billboards and corporate signage can be placed in specific spots or sprinkled among the lower cities like stars with a special tool. An amazing tech-noir soundtrack scores the player's work as they forge a city of their own design with no limits, no goals, only cozy neon vibes. Make a brutalist industrial city or a far-flung urban colony in humanity's distant future. As players build, they'll unlock more decorations to utilize, and the latest update has put even more features in the game to make each city feel more alive.

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