Similar Games?

[Jonna]

I recently purchased StoneHearth and I really enjoy it, but after delving deeper into the community and history, I realized the unfortunate pickle that Stonehearth is in. I intend to get many more hours out of this game and its mods, but for the future, are there any games similar to StoneHearth that you all recommend? (Keeping in mind that I am on a very low-end laptop, but I don't mind turning graphics and other settings down if it means I can play the game). Thanks!

[Tam]

There are some that are to some degree similiar but none is having the same gamestyle as Stonehearth (which makes it state even more sad).

The most played similiar game is probably Dwarf Fortress (have not played it) and Rimworld, but it has significant differences from beeing 2d and only on one layer (no going deeper or higher), to different managment and system of your colonists.

There are others that could have more similiarity but all I know are either in or before early access and as such it is hard to say what the 1.0 product will look like.
Examples: Noble Fate, Lords and Villeins, Going Medival, Odd Realm,....

Keep in mind that none of these is really like Stonehearth, they are just the closest gametype I have seen.

[YetiChow]

If you're on a low-end laptop, then games in this genre (particularly its newer branches, exploring new tech like voxels) will generally struggle a bit with the limitations inherent to laptops. So your best bet is probably to go back to the classics that the genre is built from.

Dwarf Fortress is always worth a look. It's the grand-daddy of the genre, and still holds up as a great way to make interactive stories that play out alongside your actions.

Towns is a game from a few years back that has more than passing similarity to Stonehearth, not least because it fell into a very similar messy end-of-development. It's one of the few games that allows the same kind of freedom and 'music of the gears' gameplay that Stonehearth does, but I will warn you that its menus are unintuitive and its tutorial is nowhere near as good as it needs to be; so there's a lot of having to learn things the hard way through experimentation. And Towns will not sit back and let you experiment in peace (unless of course you play in peaceful mode, and mod out any monsters on the map); it will throw attacks at you with increasing frequency in order to test your defences and town design.

Factorio might be a better choice if you're more interested in automation, engineering (as opposed to "architecture" in Towns or Stonehearth -- while the shape of buildings absolutely can affect how they're used/what they're useful for, Factorio barely even has "buildings" and everything is part of some kind of complicated networked system of machines.) Factorio is a lot less chill than Stonehearth though; and has the same "constant attack waves" mechanic turned up to 11 so that it actually can overrun you. You may also run into processor limitations with Factorio, because it can simulate a lot going on at once.

Majesty is an old game, but still a hidden gem. It contains a lot of humour, heroes who you don't control (you can influence them though), magic spells that allow you to take actions directly IF you can afford them, and some genuinely interesting and challenging puzzle-type missions as well as plenty of strategy missions. It doesn't have freeform building and in fact you don't have a lot of say over how the town around your castle grows; naturally you can place some buildings but others will appear over time (e.g. dead heroes need more graveyards; taverns and gambling halls spring up when you build a rogues' guild; sewers expand and more entrances appear as your population builds new houses.)

[Wantoomany]

Going medieval is an option. But it's still in early EA and fairly barebones. However the building system is pretty good.

Embark is also a voxel based colony builder, but I know little about it. It is also in EA.

[chaleur]

Noble Fates and Founder's Fortune are the closest I've seen.

[Eagle_of_Fire]

Dwarf Fortress, of course. Especially on a low end laptop, seem to be the obvious choice.

But a game exactly like SH? Haven't found one yet, which is why I like this game so much.

[Jonna]

Awesome, thank you guys so much!

[KindredOfDust]

Rimworld!

[hakamadare]

also Banished, esp. with the Colonial Charter mod

[canuck250]

the closest to this imo was a game called timber and stone... Sadly that game was def abandoned. Still was is a great base tho