Towns

Towns

Towns is an open-source city-building simulation game for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It has pixel art graphics and lets you design, build, and manage your own virtual towns and cities. Gameplay revolves around gathering resources, building infrastructure, managing budgets, and keep
city-building resource-management strategy sandbox pixel-art

Towns: Open-Source City-Building Simulation Game for Windows, Mac, and Linux

Towns is an open-source city-building simulation game for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It has pixel art graphics and lets you design, build, and manage your own virtual towns and cities. Gameplay revolves around gathering resources, building infrastructure, managing budgets, and keeping citizens happy.

What is Towns?

Towns is an indie city-builder game developed by SMP and released in 2012. It has an old-school pixel art style and allows players to design, construct, manage, and grow their own virtual towns and cities.

Gameplay in Towns focuses on resource gathering, economic strategy, and town management. As the town leader, players must guide citizens, allocate budgets, construct buildings, manage food and minerals supply, and expand the settlement. Keeping inhabitants happy and healthy is key.

Key features include:

  • Open-ended creative city-building with no predefined goals
  • Procedural world generation for endless gameplay possibilities
  • Complex economic simulation and resource management
  • Pixel art visuals with simulated day/night cycles
  • Citizen needs system that influences happiness, health, and population growth
  • Mod support for adding user-created buildings, game modes, and assets

Originally designed as a dwarf fortress-style game, Towns blends city-building with RPG and strategy elements for an engaging management experience. Players have praised its depth and challenge. The game is available on Steam and DRM-free for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.

Towns Features

Features

  1. City building simulation
  2. Pixel art graphics
  3. Design, build, and manage virtual towns and cities
  4. Gather resources
  5. Build infrastructure
  6. Manage budgets
  7. Keep citizens happy

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Open source

Available on Windows, Mac, and Linux

Engaging gameplay

Creative outlet

Relaxing

Educational about city planning and management

Cons

2D graphics may seem outdated

Can get repetitive after a while

Lacks multiplayer

Difficult learning curve


The Best Towns Alternatives

Top Games and Simulation and other similar apps like Towns


Banished icon

Banished

Banished is a city-building strategy and survival simulation game developed by indie studio Shining Rock Software. You control a group of people who have been exiled and are trying to build a new home to create a thriving town.Gameplay focuses heavily on resource management to ensure your citizens have enough...
Banished image
Dwarf Fortress icon

Dwarf Fortress

Dwarf Fortress is an indie fantasy city-building video game created by Bay 12 Games featuring text-based graphics. The full title is Slaves to Armok: God of Blood Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress.Gameplay revolves around building and expanding an underground dwarven fortress or city while facing threats such as goblins, titans, dangerous...
Dwarf Fortress image
RimWorld icon

RimWorld

RimWorld is a top-down construction and management simulation video game developed by Ludeon Studios. Players are tasked with guiding a group of colonists who have crashed onto a remote, uninhabited planet. You must help them build a colony from the ground up, starting with basic survival needs like food, shelter,...
RimWorld image
Frostpunk icon

Frostpunk

Frostpunk is a society survival video game set in an alternate 1886, where volcanic winter has rendered the Earth an icy post-apocalyptic wasteland. As the ruler of the last remaining city on Earth, players must manage both its citizens and its infrastructure to ensure the survival of the city's population.Gameplay...
Frostpunk image
Dungeon Keeper 2 icon

Dungeon Keeper 2

Dungeon Keeper 2 is a classic real-time strategy game developed by Bullfrog Productions and released by EA Games in 1999. In the game, the player takes on the role of an evil dungeon overlord tasked with building and managing an underground dungeon made up of various rooms and tunnels.The core...
Dungeon Keeper 2 image
Kingdoms and Castles (Series) icon

Kingdoms and Castles (Series)

Kingdoms and Castles is a city-building strategy video game series developed and published by Lion Shield. The first game in the series was released in 2017 for Windows and Mac. A sequel, Kingdoms and Castles 2, was released in 2022.In the Kingdoms and Castles games, players take on the role...
Kingdoms and Castles (Series) image
Prison Architect icon

Prison Architect

Prison Architect is a prison construction and management simulation game developed and published by Paradox Interactive in 2015. As the player, you take on the role of a private prison architect hired to design and run a correctional facility. The core gameplay focuses around constructing different zones and rooms in...
Prison Architect image
Castle Story icon

Castle Story

Castle Story is an independent strategy game developed and published by Canadian studio Sauropod Studio in 2013. The game thrusts players into a medieval world filled with blocks that can be used to construct elaborate castles and fortifications.The core gameplay revolves around gathering resources and building defensive structures to protect...
Castle Story image
Gnomoria icon

Gnomoria

Gnomoria is a sandbox village simulator and management game developed by Robotronic Games. In Gnomoria, the player oversees a group of gnomes as they go about their daily lives, building up their new settlement.Gameplay consists of designating areas for the gnomes to dig out rooms and tunnels, gather resources, craft...
Gnomoria image
Craft The World icon

Craft The World

Craft The World is a sandbox strategy video game developed by Russian studio Dekovir and originally released on PC in 2013. It was later ported to Mac and Linux as well. The game allows players to control a group of dwarves who explore, gather resources, craft tools and weapons, and...
Craft The World image
Evil Genius icon

Evil Genius

Evil Genius is a single-player simulation and management game developed and published by Elixir Studios in 2004. In the game, players take on the role of an evil mastermind with a goal of world domination.To achieve this, players must build an evil lair on a remote island, recruit and train...
Evil Genius image
ECity icon

ECity

eCity is an open-source, web-based city management and urban planning simulation game. Players take on the role of a city mayor and are tasked with developing a small town into a thriving metropolis.Gameplay involves balancing a city budget, leveraging taxes, and managing expenses to ensure financial stability. Players must build...
ECity image
Deep Sea Tycoon (Series) icon

Deep Sea Tycoon (Series)

Deep Sea Tycoon is a popular business simulation video game series where players take on the role of an entrepreneur looking to build a profitable enterprise on the ocean floor. As the owner of an undersea base, players must manage resources, hire capable staff, invest in infrastructure, and make strategic...
Deep Sea Tycoon (Series) image
A Game of Dwarves icon

A Game of Dwarves

A Game of Dwarves is a strategy simulation video game developed by Zeal Game Studio and published by Paradox Interactive in 2012. The player controls a dwarf settlement, managing resources, designing and expanding their underground fortress, and directing dwarves to carry out jobs like mining, building, crafting, and military defense.Gameplay...
A Game of Dwarves image
Dino Island icon

Dino Island

Dino Island is an educational video game designed for children ages 8-12. The game teaches key concepts in paleontology, archeology, evolution, and more through fun gameplay mechanics and immersive environments.In Dino Island, players take on the role of a young paleontologist who has inherited their grandfather's dinosaur island. Throughout the...
Dino Island image