When people hear "housing" and "home decor" in gaming, the first thought is usually a cozy game like Stardew Valley or The Sims franchise. However, the truth is, a lot of games from a variety of different genres that aren't just simulators or survival crafts have started including these as part of their core gameplay loop, or at least, as an optional activity.
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For any aspiring designers and architects, there are several titles that do housing and decoration better than the rest. Not to mention, they do it in an open-world setting, which further immerses players into the game's world. The following games have been selected on that basis, as well as their depth and the amount of freedom and options they have for housing and decoration.
The Sims 3
Create And Decorate To Your Heart's Content
The Sims 3 might be showing its age now, but it does have a few trump cards over The Sims 4. For one, it has an incredible open-world environment with massive neighborhoods to explore and build in. The worlds are also customizable. For two, it comes with solid design tools: a color wheel and a wide selection of patterns and textures. You can select any furniture in the game and design it to look exactly how you like.
The franchise is also known for having one of the best build modes in gaming. Sure, it might take a bit of practice, but once mastered, the sky's the limit for what players can create. Of course, the more expansions you have, the better, as each piece of content unlocks more stuff, more walls, floors, roofs, and such to design homes. There's also the option to download custom content if you're truly looking to push the envelope on creativity.
Fallout 4
Build Homes For Settlers And Yourself In The Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland
For players looking for something a bit grittier, with perhaps some resource management and survival gameplay on the side, Fallout 4's settlement gameplay is the perfect rabbit hole to jump into. You'll need to progress the Minutemen questline to get started, but after that, it's a matter of unlocking and setting up multiple settlements across the Commonwealth, ensuring they have good defenses, water, food, and that the settlers are happy.
Further down the line, these settlements can even start making some caps for players. Of course, in order to build more, you'll need to head out there and find junk and scrap stuff to be able to afford bigger and badder builds. And not to worry: there are decorations, too. Settlements can be made to look just as funky or futuristic as players would prefer. In true Bethesda RPG fashion, a robust modding community is also there to keep you stocked up with even more settlement-building and management options.
Minecraft
Creative Mode Is A Builder's And Decorator's Dream
Minecraft has been hailed as the ultimate sandbox game, and that promise holds true. Hop into creative mode if you'd like infinite building resources and access to all the blocks in the game immediately for those epic base builds. Or, if you prefer a challenge, you can start off in survival and gather all the resources yourself. Because everything in Minecraft is shaped like a block, a bit of creative thinking outside the box is needed to create houses that look truly realistic.
The decoration options have also been improved throughout the many releases, with candles, flowers, pots, and paintings available in the game. Carpets, too. Wood, wool, terracotta, and several other blocks come in a wide variety of shades, making Minecraft truly a builder's paradise. Thanks to the open-world setting, the choice of where to build is also a fun part of the process, with a dozen different biomes and three different dimensions to go through. As with the previous two, there are also some incredible mods for Minecraft, some of which come with functional furniture like chairs, fridges, stoves, and the like.
Valheim
Viking Themed Builder's Paradise
If Minecraft is your cup of tea, imagine that, but in a Norse, Viking-themed world. The result is Valheim. There are a variety of biomes from great mountains to beautiful meadows, a vast open-world setting to explore, and of course, building and decoration a la Viking theme. This is the perfect choice for those who enjoy that distinct medieval style look and enjoy creating rustic villages and homes.
There's a good variety of decorations and items that can be built, though keep in mind you'll have to discover the crafting recipe first. Just some cool examples include the maypole, which fits the overall theme, of course, but also more quirky objects like a hot tub and a lava lantern. A bit of creativity is needed if players want to build more complex items that don't exist in the game, such as flower pots or cabinets that are made from wooden walls and item stands. Even in vanilla alone, Valheim's possibilities for housing and deco are endless.
No Man's Sky
The Ultimate Sci-Fi Build And Decoration Heaven
Medieval settings may not be everyone's cup of tea, so that's where No Man's Sky steps in. It's one of the most vast open worlds out there with great exploration, and no shortage of awesome spots to plop down your next settlement or home base. And yes, players can have multiple of these in the game, each more complex than the previous, as more blueprints for tunnels, doors, chambers, and such are unlocked.
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There are different colors and pattern options for these as well, and while they're not the most exhaustive options, you can definitely get very creative and silly with how you place different modules or items (especially when freely placing stuff). Thanks to the detailed difficulty settings, you get to decide how hard or easy it is to make your home, too.
Dragon Quest Builders 2
Cutesy Block-Based House Building
Minecraft fans will definitely see visual similarities with Mojang's game and Dragon Quest Builders 2, but there's a whole RPG aspect and story to the latter that's quite charming. Your job is to help the locals in this tiny but adorable open world to rebuild, and you can make some truly elaborate creations as you earn more blueprints.
Keep in mind that rooms will have requirements or a recipe for certain objects, which will need to be met for the residents. The decorative options alone are impressive, ranging from flowers to curtains to carpets and sconces, on top of all the different block types that let you mix different textures and colors. Like with a lot of games here, you can do a lot depending on where and how you place items to create a ton more variety in the game.
InZOI
Visually Stunning And Highly Realistic Housing And Decoration
Although still in Early Access and far from being a finished product, inZOI is a game that has come to challenge The Sims franchise's grip on the life simulation genre, and it does so with great promise. This is a game that will require a beefier PC for players to run in its full glory, but it's absolutely worth it for the sheer variety of customization it grants you in build mode.
Similar to The Sims 3, every aspect of a furniture can be customized with a color wheel, but it doesn't just stop there. Players can also use the game's AI function to generate almost any pattern they can imagine, as well as upload a picture of any item they have into the game to turn it into a 3D object. These features are far from perfect, but there are already awesome examples of them in use on inZOI's Canvas site.
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