God games is quite a niche genre, but players crave the gameplay for its complexity.
These games usually contain heaps of content to manage as you play the role of a “god” controlling the game on a large scale. The gameplay entices players to think from a broad perspective that is mentally stimulating, and the next thing you know, you are already playing for countless hours.
Before we get to the list, let’s first define what we’ve classed as a ‘God game’.
The god game category is confusing because it is a subgenre of a subgenre.
There are only a few games tagged as “god games” on Steam. However, some titles on the Steam store can be considered a god game if you are slightly more loose with the definition.
For example, Tropico is tagged as a “god game,” but Sid Meier’s Civilization isn’t. These two titles have identical gameplay, but only Tropico is categorized as a God game.
To make this list simple, we will focus on the games that are only tagged as God games on Steam. Since there aren’t a huge number of God games to choose from, we rounded up the 10 best titles.
Most of the games on the list have sparkling reviews from the general public, so you’ll definitely find at least one to play.
Universe Sandbox
| Genre | Sandbox, Space, Simulation, Physics |
| Where to Buy? | Steam |
| Developer | Giant Army |
| Length | 6 hours to beat; 1,400+ hours for completionists |
| Release Date | August 24, 2015 |
| Multiplayer? | No |
Let’s start the list with a big bang. Universe Sandbox offers a space simulator where you have complete control of everything in the universe. You have the power to create and destroy on any scale imaginable.
The power to create any star, planet, and solar system combined with deep game physics allows Universe Sandbox to have infinite possibilities of fun. You can alter each star and planet by changing its rotation, gravity, and anything involving its makeup.
You can create a planet just like the Earth and simulate major catastrophes from mega-tsunamis to massive earthquakes. These scenarios are just the start. You can also play with black holes and supernovas. Watch everything unfold and play around with as many scenarios as you can fancy.
Almost anything is possible with this sandbox game. Universe Sandbox is a relatively cheap indie game with amazing detail and loads of content to consume.
Dungeons 3
| Genre | Strategy, Simulation, RTS |
| Where to Buy? | Steam |
| Developer | Realmforge Studios |
| Length | 26 hours for the main story; 50+ hours for completionists |
| Release Date | October 14, 2017 |
| Multiplayer? | Yes, cross-platform multiplayer |
Dungeons 3 is a dungeon simulator where you have complete control of creating your own underground dungeon. You create your own army with an array of creature choices such as orcs, succubae, zombies, and a lot more. These creatures will be commanded to create the landscape of your dungeon to your liking.
You will build your army and build your empire to conquer the overworld. There are resources scattered across the dungeon while you expand your base as your army grows larger. Dungeons 3 also has a randomly generated level in each game, so every playthrough is unique. It is a new feature for the Dungeons series, and it will surely give you hundreds of hours of playtime.
Dungeons 3 offers a single-player campaign that can boast up to 20 hours of playtime. That is pretty good for a cheap indie game. The game also has a great co-op mode for two players, and it adds a whole new way to play the game.
Reus
| Genre | God Game, Strategy, Simulation, Indie |
| Where to Buy? | Steam |
| Developer | Abbey Games |
| Length | 8 hours for the main story; 65+ hours for completionists |
| Release Date | May 17, 2013 |
| Multiplayer? | No |
In Reus, you control giants that act as gods in the simulation. These giants will help you create your planet by creating mountains, oceans, rivers, lakes, forests, and many more. The game has a complex upgrade system and synergy, which gives the game a unique playthrough each time. The upgrade system adds a lot of replayability to the game as well.
After controlling the four mighty giants to flourish a new generation on your planet through creation, you can only watch humanity thrive on the planet. Humanity cannot be controlled, and they can become greedy if you give them too much power and resources. However, you have the power to praise or punish them.
The game was released way back in 2013, but it still has incredible value for an indie game because of its deep content. If you are a fan of simulation games, Reus is worth a shot playing.
Spore
| Genre | God Game, Open world, Exploration, Sandbox |
| Where to Buy? | Steam |
| Developer | Maxis |
| Length | 12 hours for the main story; 65+ hours for completionists |
| Release Date | December 19, 2008 |
| Multiplayer? | No |
Spore lets you play from a single cell to a galactic god. You will play through five evolutionary stages: cell – creature – tribe – civilization – space. Each stage is so unique that you can argue that the game genre changes through these five evolutionary stages.
The cell stage is more of a mini-game comparable to popular browser games like Slither.io and Agar.io. Once you evolve into a creature, you control your creature in an open-world game and fight for survival.
Spore turns into an old-school RTS game once you reach tribes where you have to micromanage your growing civilization and evolve your species in a variety of ways.
Spore is one of the oldest titles on the list. While you may think that this game would be outdated since it was released in 2003, the gameplay is still timeless.
Equilinox
| Genre | Simulation, Indie, Sandbox |
| Where to Buy? | Steam |
| Developer | ThinMatrix |
| Length | 8 hours for the main story; 12+ hours for completionists |
| Release Date | November 24, 2018 |
| Multiplayer? | No |
Equilinox takes you to a relaxing nature-themed simulation where you create and control your very own ecosystem of plants and animals. You create the ecosystem with the goal of enriching your wildlife, allowing your creature to flourish.
Once your ecosystem starts to grow, you will earn points to spend on in-game resources to further speed up your development. You will be able to evolve species, create better farms, and create a more sustainable environment for your animals with these points.
Like in most god games on the list, your creativity will be the key to making this game as enjoyable and replayable as possible. The art is beautifully done and adds to the relaxing atmosphere of the game.
Tropico Franchise
| Genre | Strategy, City Builder, Simulation, Economy |
| Where to Buy? | Steam |
| Developer | Limbic Entertainment |
| Release Date | March 30, 2019 |
| Multiplayer? | Yes |
The Tropico series has been around for more than a decade now. Each Tropico game takes you to the role of a president, where you govern an island and shape your future nation.
The game is deeply full of content. You will manage every pixel of your nation. From creating infrastructures such as roads, residential buildings, industrial buildings, food, and resources, to building military power, Tropico has thousands of hours chock-full of content to manage.
Tropico features an extremely long campaign with every game while offering a variety of maps to play. The most popular Tropico title, Tropico 6, also offers up to four players in online multiplayer, so you will be able to play with your friends if ever you get hooked to this masterpiece.
If you are familiar with games like Sid Meier’s Civilization or Ubisoft’s Anno, Tropico is comparable to those franchises because of the level of detail in each simulation title.
Tropico isn’t exactly your typical god game if you are strict with the definition. Tropico is more of a simulation and strategy game but tagged as a god game on the Steam database. If these game descriptions don’t look appealing because of the number of things you have to learn, it is still worth a shot playing.
Once you get hooked, you can say goodbye to your family and friends in the meantime. If you enjoyed this title, you should also look at the best turn-based games on Steam as you will most likely enjoy these titles as well.
Craft the World
| Genre | Sandbox, Crafting, Colony Sim, Building |
| Where to Buy? | Steam |
| Developer | Dekovir Entertainment |
| Release Date | November 25, 2014 |
| Multiplayer? | No |
Craft the World was a unique sandbox, crafting and simulation game that released back in 2014.
The game lets you control dwarves to build, craft, explore, and gather resources. You gain experience points through progressing and earn an additional dwarf every time you reach a certain level.
Your colony will start to grow with each dwarf, and your management skills will ramp up fast as you continue to control more and more dwarves. This unique progression system has been seen in numerous simulation games like Oxygen Not Included or Hammerting.
The system allows the players to familiarize themselves with their current playthrough before they can start ramping up their expansion.
Each game is randomly generated, and it focuses on crafting items and weapons to help your exploration. This feature is why the game is a mix of Terraria and your typical simulation game.
There are countless things you can do when you expand your base, and you will have to fight your way through dangerous creatures to occupy more space. You will create tools, weapons, and armor for your dwarves to fight battles. You can also use magic to fight monsters or even help speed up your gathering.
Tower defenses are also a good way to defend your base from attacking creatures while you have your dwarves exploring.
Craft the World gives you a lot of things to constantly manage, and this is what makes the game incredibly fun. The randomly-generated worlds add replayability as every game will be different from the other.
Tethered – VR supported
| Genre | Strategy, Indie, VR, God Game |
| Where to Buy? | Steam |
| Developer | Secret Sorcery Limited |
| Release Date | February 28, 2017 |
| Multiplayer? | No |
Tethered is a simple simulation god game where you control adorable creatures named “Peeps.” You command them to build your civilization, harvest resources and fight against other creatures. These Peeps can do any tasks in the game, but they can also be trained to specialize in different tasks, which allows them to become more efficient.
Your goal is to complete the main quest and release your entombed brethren. Tethered is quite a short game because it only has 13 levels. Each level takes less than an hour to complete, and the game only has 13 levels to finish.
The game doesn’t go into great detail, unlike most simulation god games out there, but the game has amazing graphics for an insanely cheap game. However, the game’s most unique feature is that Tethered supports VR (virtual reality).
You will truly appreciate the game’s aesthetics and design as the game is built for VR. The game is also playable without VR hardware, but you can only play it in 2D.
Empires of the Undergrowth
| Genre | Strategy, Simulation, Base Building |
| Where to Buy? | Steam |
| Developer | Slug Disco |
| Release Date | December 2, 2017 |
| Multiplayer? | No |
Empires of the Undergrowth is a real-time strategy simulation game where you control an ant colony and finish missions to collect resources.
You use these resources to create buildings, expand your colony, upgrade your units, and so much more. These are the basics of the game, but it also has its own campaign called the Formicarium.
In the Formicarium, there will be a mad scientist who will try to experiment with ways on trying to destroy your colony, and your goal will be to survive. You will start with a queen and a few workers to help grow your colony. In this campaign, you will try to survive through each experiment and unlock the next scenario after successfully surviving the experiment.
The Freeplay mode should be the most popular one if you enjoy the gameplay of managing an ant colony.
You get to have an endless experience of managing your ant colonies and unlock unique creatures and colonies by completing extra levels that are only available in this game mode.
The game received a lot of flak for its lack of updates, but the game has enough content to justify its cheap price tag. If you are a fan of simulation games and ants, this game is perfect for you.
Mountain
| Genre | Simulation, Indie, Relaxing, God Game |
| Where to Buy? | Steam |
| Developer | David OReilly |
| Release Date | July 1, 2014 |
| Multiplayer? | No |
You are a Mountain. You are God. Mountain is an existential nature simulation, but you have no control over anything other than the weather. You will literally just watch the mountain and enjoy the atmosphere and dialogue as the game progresses.
What is fun about that? The game shows you random scenarios as you watch the mountain and give you hilarious quips.
The game only costs a dollar, and you can simply leave it open and use the soundtrack to relax. It is kind of like Lo-Fi music you listen to while studying.
However, the game pretty much is a meme, and it was popularized by Markiplier, who is one of the biggest YouTube gaming content creators.
