Gnomoria

Gnomoria is a fun and underrated colony builder that scratches the same itch as games like Dwarf Fortress, but in a simpler and more colorful way. You start with a few gnomes and an open world where everything can be dug, built, or crafted. The freedom is the best part. There is no set story or goal, just the challenge of turning a patch of dirt into a thriving little kingdom. The building and crafting systems are deep but make sense once you spend some time learning them. Watching your gnomes dig tunnels, build workshops, and manage farms is oddly satisfying. Every small success feels earned, especially when everything finally runs smoothly after hours of small mistakes and tweaks. The game is not perfect. The interface looks old and takes time to get used to. It does a poor job of teaching new players what to do, and late-game performance can slow down once you have a big population. Still, once you get comfortable with how things work, it becomes a relaxing and creative experience. The community deserves a lot of credit for keeping Gnomoria alive with guides, mods, and tips. It might not have modern polish, but it still offers something most newer games do not: total freedom and the satisfaction of building something from nothing.

although "finished" the game was only ever partially optimised, and it shows. if you can look past odd behavior, bugs, and unexpected slowdowns, you may have fun, but otherwise give it a pass.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/975370/Dwarf_Fortress/

Unfinished abandonware. Play Ignomoria instead. It's literally just this, but free. And also abandoned, unfortunately.

9.5/10 This was a great game when playing DF was a chore because of bad ui. This game might not have anywhere near the depth of DF but it's still a heck of a good time. There's still plenty to do and it's a ton of fun.

guy that made this sold his soul to go work on Apex. very sad!

Not bad game but damn...crashes on win 11 pretty often. doesnt support normal resolutions. only 1 save slot that saves automatically...

It is a great game, but due to poor sales the dev couldn't keep at it, Which is sad. as this was the Dwarf fortress without the ASCII graphics. there is some mods which help. but over all while early to mid game it runs great, as long as you turn beetles off, and don't go heavy in to building traps. but even without that as it continues the game will become unplayable.

Abandon-ware.

Just get the mods for the game and it would be on par with Dwarf Fortress despite this game being one and done.