18 Architecture Games to Unleash Your Creative Mind

Have you ever considered binging on Architecture Games? You might think you have outgrown video games, but you will find yourself easily hooked, given the chance and the suitable game. For architects, playing video games can be an educational experience as much as entertaining.

They can find inspiration in the architectural setting and playful circulation or learn and gain experience through simulation. Learning by simulation in architecture games can be really useful, as one gets to experiment with different design strategies for cities and buildings.

That is something you can do, of course, using the usual 3D modeling software, but then, where is the fun in that? You can upgrade this experience through Lego Architecture. Yet, architecture games make the task more of a challenge than a mere experiment, and the good part is that there are no severe consequences. A structure may fall, or a city can get abandoned, but there were no actual humans, and no money was lost.

Here, we will list some of the most exciting architecture games that deal with various scales ranging from the home’s interior design to the colonization of a planet.

Architecture Games that inspire and stimulate your creative mind:

1.SimCity – EA Maxis

The same designer developed SimCity as The Sims, which inspired the Sims. In this game, the players plan and manage a city they build on a patch of land. The city is divided into different zones like residential zones for the Sims to live in, commercial zones to shop at, industrial zones to work at, and so. Just like with the Sims and the real world, the main goal is to satisfy the inhabitants.

2. Minecraft – Mojang

Here is another top-rated Sandbox game. The players gather different natural resources to create a built environment in this game. They get wood from trees and develop tools for mining. Then the dug-out materials form the building blocks for the structures that the players get to create in the Minecraft world. Meanwhile, they must find food, tame animals, and face the bad guys.

3. Cities in Motion – Colossal Order

Cities in Motion tackles a different issue from the previous design and build architecture games. The players are supposed to develop and enhance the public transport system for four European Cities: Vienna, Helsinki, Berlin, and Amsterdam. Later, new versions were released for cities like Tokyo, New York, and San Francisco, and German cities: Cologne, Munich, and Leipzig. So, if you are majoring in urban planning, you might find this valuable and enjoyable.

4. Cities: Skylines – Colossal Order

Here is another one of the city-building architecture games but with more challenging issues and exciting features. In this game, players would typically build and plan the city. They monitor the routing of the million different citizens, and additionally, they manage other sorts of problems like traffic congestion and how it affects the different zones.

5. Prison Architect – Introversion Software

This is a 2D Top-Down construction and management game in which the player builds and runs a prison. Players start by creating the cells and other prison facilities and connecting them. They hire staff, run the finance, and satisfy the needs of the inmates. They are also responsible for infrastructure and design decisions like plumbing connections and lighting positions.

6. Home Design Story – Storm 8

This is a relatively simple yet enjoyable design game where the players earn virtual money by accomplishing different tasks. Then, they can use this money to purchase land or some of the new interior and exterior design items on board. These items can be used to design things other than houses. It all depends on the creativity of the player.

7. INFRA – Loiste Interactive

In this game, the protagonist is a structural engineer who roams the corrupted fictional city of Stalburg, trying to save its damaged infrastructure. He does so by solving electrical and mechanical puzzles while trying to survive the surrounding dangers.

8. Project Highrise – SomaSim

In this 2D-building simulation game, the players manage a continuously developing skyscraper. They start with one story, a generator, and a crew of builders, and then, step by step, they raise the building by balancing the unit blocks of different functions and developing the infrastructure. The game is awe-inspiring in its graphics and up-to-date modern style.

9. The Sims – EA Maxis

The Sims is a viral Sandbox game in which the player creates the main characters, known as the Sims, and places them in pre-constructed homes or homes of their design. Then, they try to satisfy the virtual characters’ needs and control their mood. Needless to say, the game’s most attractive feature is getting to design their homes inside and out.

10. Block’hood – Plethora Project

This is a neighborhood-building simulation game in which the players try to construct a well-functioning neighborhood from 1x1x1 blocks operating different programs. The blocks are not placed unsystematically but in a balanced manner that will keep the structure standing. Also, the players must be careful that the structure stays safe under all environmental conditions. The game also introduces the player to various zoning, access, and circulation problems inside the block.

11. Banished – Shining Rock Software

In this game, players build a village for exiled travelers with nothing but clothes and a few supplies they brought from their homeland. The inhabitants of the town need to be provided with food and shelter. The players should keep them safe, warm, and alive. Keeping the population growing and the economy prospering is the key to acing this game.

12.Anno 2205 – Blue Byte Mainz

Among the building simulation architecture games, in this one, players do not only build a city or some cities but the whole planet Earth. They get to create an ultra-modern futuristic world with shiny, soaring skyscrapers and incredible landscapes, and that is not all there is to it. They can also inhabit the moon and use its resources.

13. Imagine Earth – Serious Brothers

After conquering Earth and the moon, it is time to conquer other planets. In this game, the player gets to do so by exploring and colonizing distant planets. They trade their goods, fend off their enemies, and keep their colonies safe from natural disasters, like falling meteorites and wildfires. Also, they deal with political and economic issues like riots and growth rates for a more realistic touch.

14. Project Aura – Pixel Quality Games

In this game, players face a different kind of challenge that we might actually meet someday; building on water. The game follows a scenario in the future where a climatic disaster hits Earth and gets totally submerged in water. Players must build colonies on the water’s surface to stay alive. Giant domes protect these colonies from the dangers of the outside atmosphere.

15) Townscaper

Townscaper is a good option if you don’t have a high-end gaming rig and would prefer to engage in a peaceful experience focused on urban planning than a supernatural first- or third-person shooter. The game is available on Microsoft Windows and OS X.

In this game, set on an infinite ocean, players use their hands to lift oddly shaped bundles out of the water, where they can then construct cities and towns on multiple levels. It’s feasible to build extravagant megastructures even if you’re not an architect or don’t want to spend too much time on a video game.

16) Tiny Towns

Taking on the role of a mayor attempting to establish a new town in the middle of nowhere, Tiny Towns is one of the few physical games that is both simple to pick up and to challenge to master. Each mayor begins with their own goals for the town’s growth and must discover how to best construct a compact, interconnected community on a four-by-four grid.

Each new structure you lay and link together is worth more points, but it also takes resources to build, representing the expense of materials and the food needed to keep the laborers. The average game length is between 30 minutes to an hour, making it an excellent option for individuals who want to create a city but don’t have six hours to devote to the activity.

17) Microsoft Flight Simulator

This game is a great way to travel the globe without leaving your desk, especially since defense companies are already using cloud computing technology to create photorealistic skylines. After that, you’ll find an urban exploration tool and a cutting-edge technology demonstration.

Simulation architecture games like Flight Simulator aren’t concerned with realism so much as they inspire amazement at the player’s ability to cover vast distances in a short amount of time and with very few complaints, all thanks to the supposedly perfect logic of artificial intelligence. The game may be played on nearly every system, including PCs, Xbox Ones, and Xbox 360s, as well as the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles.

18) Control

Developer Remedy spared no expense in creating the imposing Manhattan office tower that serves as the game’s setting for the fictional government institution tasked with managing threatening supernatural objects of power. The game’s design features long-line buildings and rooms designed in the Brutalist style, which adds to the atmosphere of cold war-era paranoia and repressive bureaucracy.

Also, if you have a home rendering setup, now is the time to show off your graphics card’s capabilities. For those with processing capability, Control is one of the few games that take full advantage of real-time ray tracing, resulting in stunningly realistic lighting, shadows, and reflections. Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, and Series X/S are compatible with the game.