The 5 colony sims coming in 2024 I'm most looking forward to

A medieval town
(Image credit: Long Jaunt)

For evil and benevolent overlords of RimWorld, Dwarf Fortress, Stranded: Alien Dawn, and other great colony simulation games, there's some great news as we kick off 2024. I know it's hard to pull yourself away from the intricacies and drama of managing your settlements, but there's a wave of cool-looking colony sims headed our way you should know about.

The colony sims coming in 2024 have a lot of variation between them, whether you want to manage a settlement in the post-apocalypse, keep your kingdom prosperous in medieval times, or guide a primitive tribe through the stone age. Here are the 5 colony sims that look really promising coming this year.

Norland

Developer: Long Jaunt
Release date: TBA

Technically Norland hasn't announced a 2024 release, though a January early access launch was mentioned in a recent post on Steam. I sure hope it's out soon: it looks like an amazing blend of Crusader Kings' medieval drama and RimWorld's survival sandbox, which makes Norland my most-wanted colony sim of the year. Fraser certainly had a whale of a time with it when he played a build a few months ago, so hopefully the rest of us won't have to wait much longer.

Ascent of Ashes

Developer: Vivid Storm Interactive
Release date: Q1 2024

I've had my eye on Ascent of Ashes for a while because it's being developed by the modding team who created the Combat Extended mod for RimWorld. Survive raiders, alien creatures, and other dangers by establishing, managing, and growing your colony in the post-apocalypse. As expected, the combat looks excellent, but so does everything else.

Endzone 2

Developer: Gentlymad Studios
Release date: Q1 2024

There's even more post-apocalyptic survival headed our way in Endzone 2. Stake a claim in the badlands, grow and protect your settlement, set up trade routes, and make expeditions to explore and exploit the hostile, sandstorm-blasted landscape. It looks both bigger and better than the original Endzone.

Ages of Cataria

Developer: Third Pie Studios
Release date: Q1 2024

Ages of Cataria looks like a sweeter, kinder, and gentler colony sim than most others as you manage a growing settlement in a colorful fantasy world. Get to know your colonists, learn their stories, and increase their skills with tasks and minigames. Just because it's cozy doesn't mean there's not a bit of heartbreak, though: your villagers will grow and age and eventually die, to be replaced by new generations.

Primitive Society Simulator

Developer: YSH BigDove
Release date: Q1 204

You're really starting from scratch in Primitive Society Simulator. Lead a small tribe as they hunt, fish, explore, and build a rudimentary society. Tame wild animals and put them to work on farms, advance from stone tools into the bronze age, and ensure the tribe's children have enough nourishment to grow stronger and smarter than their ancestors.

More colony sims in 2024 & beyond:

That's not all—here's another handful of interesting-looking colony building games on the horizon:

The Settlings | Ariano | Release TBA

The Settlings | Ariano | Release TBA
A little bit Lemmings, a little bit settlement builder, with a great retro pixel art look.

Infection Free Zone | Jutsu Games | Release TBA

Infection Free Zone | Jutsu Games | Release TBA
Build a survival colony on a real-world map, and protect it against raiders and zombie hordes.

Fata Deum | 42 Bits Entertainment | 2024

Fata Deum | 42 Bits Entertainment | 2024
A throwback to god games of yore. Guide your colony while competing with other gods for influence.

Time to Morp | Team Halfbeard | Q1 2024

Time to Morp | Team Halfbeard | Q1 2024
This time your colony isn't made of people but adorable, gatherable critters.

Night is Coming | Wild Forest Studio | Release TBA

Night is Coming | Wild Forest Studio | Release TBA
Build during the day and hang on tight at night: monsters from Slavic folklore appear every time the sun goes down. 

Christopher Livingston
Senior Editor

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.

Read more
A city near a waterfall
I played a whopping 23 city builders in 2024, and here are my 5 favorites
A survivor in the woods with a weapon and mask
Please join me in getting super excited for all the cool looking survival games coming in 2025 (and beyond)
doctors treat plague-stricken peasants in the medieval-ish city-builder Nested Lands
Nested Lands is a 'brutal' survival city-builder about guiding villagers through a plague-infested world, and you can play its open alpha right now
Inzoi character studio - A Zoi designed to look like Billie Eilish
18 games the PC Gamer team can't wait to play in 2025
The Sims 3 - A sim wears a headband and a green top smiling in front of a brick wall
The best games like The Sims for building beautiful characters, homes, and a life full of drama
A battle with undead in Avowed.
These are the 14 biggest upcoming RPGs of 2025—get ready for another amazing year for the genre
Latest in Sim
An ancient, angry stone mech from No Man's Sky's new Relics update
No Man’s Sky lets you unearth ancient, angry mechs in the astro-archaeology filled Relics update
Dwarf Fortress adventure mode art
After 23 years of making Dwarf Fortress, even its creator is still 'terrified' of drowning all his dwarves with aquifers: 'Part of the problem is we are just not good at videogames'
Tarn Adams, who cofounded Bay 12 Games with his brother Zach, talks about their single-player simulation game "Dwarf Fortress" during an interview at their home office in Poulsbo, Washington, west of Seattle, on December 9, 2022. - A cult favorite among indie game fans, "Dwarf Fortress" has been available for purchase on the Steam online store since December 6, a first for this title that has been distributed for free since its debut in 2006. The real-time management game, set in a medieval-fantasy world and involving overseeing a group of dwarves seeking to build a mighty fortress, has climbed to the fourth best-selling weekly title on Steam. (Photo by Jason Redmond / AFP) (Photo by JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images)
Dwarf Fortress' creator is so tired of hearing about AI: 'Press a button and it writes a really sh*tty, wrong essay about something—and they still take your job'
Decorations in TCG Card Shop Simulator
TCG Card Shop Simulator finally adds the ability to decorate our stores, and suddenly all my profits are being spent on adorable Pigni posters
A person on a snowmobile riding a track in the forest in game Sledders.
Powder enthusiasts seem pretty pleased with new physics-based realistic snowmobile sim Sledders
Dean Hall at GDC 2025.
Outer space inspired DayZ's Dean Hall to become a modder and game developer, and now he's making a Kerbal successor called Kitten Space Agency
Latest in Features
Dancing Green in Final Fantasy 14.
Final Fantasy 14's latest raids have me fully convinced that Square Enix can still cook, even as job design lags behind
Razer Blade 16 (2025) gaming laptop
Nvidia RTX 5090 mobile tested: The needle hasn't moved on performance but this is the first time I'd consider ditching my desktop for a gaming laptop
Phantom Blade Zero
Chinese action game Phantom Blade Zero didn't click for me until I realized its deep commitment to wuxia film authenticity meant I had to relearn how swords work
kingdom come deliverance 2 thunderstone quest
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's masterful quest design can be summed up by one wonderfully weird search for a magic stone
Blue Protocol players dancing minutes before the game closes forever
What will we do at the end of the world? If MMOs are any indication: mostly what we already do, plus a lot of dancing
Sphene applauds in Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.2 story.
I'm not yelling 'we're so back!' yet, but Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.2 story could be the first sign the MMO is returning to what made it so critically-acclaimed