Architecture Games That Let You Build Houses

One of the best things about video games is they let players experience high-risk, high-reward things that most of them wouldn’t do in real life, such as single-handedly taking down a crew of villains, competing in a street race, or going on a perilous adventure. Another, slightly more monotonous thing that many people like to do in games is build their own house.

For players looking to show off their architectural prowess, doing it in a video game is intuitive and user-friendly. Whether someone’s building follows the science behind making a structurally sound home, or it’s a whimsical artistic masterpiece, a video game can bring out the player’s imagination to the building phase, then fruition. It won’t make a person an expert in architecture, but it will help them unleash their creative mind. The following house-building games place people in real-life situations where they have to build under budget constraints or with limited resources.

Updated November 9, 2024, by Hamza Haq: Building houses in games takes up many forms, ranging from simple one-bedroom apartments to sprawling mansions with deeply customizable floor designs, furniture, and decor. Games that allow for the former are a dime a dozen, especially with the huge boom in the Survival genre. Games dedicated only to building structures are rarer but are seeing a surge in popularity, with new Sims-inspired titles like Inzoi getting a warm reception. Survival games have also gotten quite adept at nailing the house-building part of the experience down to a tee, allowing players complete freedom in how they design the houses themselves and in how to shape the surrounding landscape.

23 The Forest

Wilderness Survival Meets Creative Shelter-Building

The Forest is a survival game that was developed by Endnight Games for the PC and PlayStation 4. The game doesn’t take long to get started as it immediately kicks off with players crash landing in a mysterious forest. Although The Forest is branded as survival horror, the game became a huge hit in early access because of how much fun it was to play with friends and how popular it was among YouTubers and streamers.

Building is a key gameplay mechanic in The Forest, though the house-building part of the game isn’t just for fun, as players need to build a shelter to protect themselves from the dangers of the forest. However, the game gives players plenty of freedom to make their own creations, and there are many incredible structures that players have made and posted online, which are a great source of inspiration.

22 Project Highrise

Build And Manage Skyscraper

• Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, macOS, Android, iOS
• Initial release date: September 8, 2016
• Developer: SomaSim

For architects who want more of a challenge when it comes to organizing the more practical aspects of building and maintaining a whole block of homes, Project Highrise is an ideal choice for a house-building game. It’s not the most stunning visually, but the monochrome color palette and floor plan are part of the overall point.

Despite the complexity of the subject and the simple graphics, this game gets a lot of positive reviews thanks to its streamlined system of teaching players how to manage and design several homes that work on one efficient system. There is even some DLC available that includes commercial buildings and major cities when players feel ready to expand.

21 Skyrim

Forge Your Own Hearth

One of the many reasons why Skyrim is still such a popular game, over ten years after it first hit stores, is due to how much there is to do in the game and how much choice players have in the paths they take. Whether players want a purely passive or ultra-aggressive playthrough, Skyrim provides hundreds of hours of content, including house-building.

One of the best things to do in a passive playthrough is building a house. Although numerous ready-made houses can be purchased in the land of Skyrim, nothing beats making a house from scratch. Building a house isn’t easy, as players need to gather all the necessary resources first, though this is an excellent time-sink and an ultimately satisfying experience.

20 Conan Exiles

Brave The Brutal World

As an open-world game set in the brutal and unforgiving universe of Conan: The Barbarian, Conan Exiles will force players to deal with a few unique challenges when building their base. Not only will savage beasts and other wandering threats assault the player, but other human gamers can do so as well since there is a robust online multiplayer function.

However, if one can survive long enough to get a foothold on some desired terrain, players can put together impressive structures from the individual wall and floor tiles that grant a great degree of flexibility. Thankfully, some anti-griefing procedures prevent players from destroying or building over another’s hard work.

19 Don’t Starve

Craft Shelter To Shield Against Sanity-Stealing Nightmares

While the house-building game aspects in Don’t Starve don’t include being able to build a literal house from individual components, there are still plenty of structures that can be built in-game to create something akin to a home. For example, players can surround certain areas with walls to keep out unwanted visitors and put down various kinds of flooring for benefits like increased movement speed and more.

There are even structures that can be built that will allow players to sleep indoors temporarily, such as the various huts that can grant shelter from the rain as well as provide recovery of one’s health and sanity. If players have access to mods, such as when playing on a PC and using Steam‘s workshop, these housing options increase exponentially.

18 Home Design Story

Turn Your Dream Home Ideas into Digital Reality

• Platform: Android, iOS
• Initial release date: 2019
• Developers: Storm8 Studios

Home Design Story is a program for Apple iOS. It looks more like a design program on the surface, but this is an interactive game that allows players to design every detail of their house, both exterior and interior, and invite friends and neighbors to visit. It’s also possible to role-play as an architect and become famous with a stellar design career.

Most of the energy and time that developers have put into this house-building game has gone into the graphics, and the details are impressive. Players who pay attention to detail will appreciate how much this game lets them tweak, change, or add when it comes to decor.

17 Lego Worlds

Limitless Building Possibilities With Classic Lego Charm

Much like utilizing Lego bricks in real life, this video game is all about creative freedom, and, in regard to that concept, appropriately lets players build awesome homes as well as a tremendous variety of other structures. Lego Worlds offers infinite building options thanks to the sheer quantity of different bricks in the game, which is something architectural enthusiasts should check out!

So far, players have been able to not only build their dream houses, but also recreate famous locations from their favorite movies, books, and even other video games. This is always a great sign when it comes to house-building games, as such pursuits act as the greatest kind of test for a title’s potential.

16 Valheim

Sculpt Your Viking Legacy, One Structure at a Time

Valheim’s base building is one of its biggest strengths, allowing players to reshape entire landscapes to accommodate their vision. Creating a home base is one of the core parts of Valheim’s gameplay loop, and the developers have put a lot of effort into making it shine.

The building blocks are simple wood or stone structures, but there is enough variety and customization to let imagination run wild and create anything from small, cozy attics to gigantic, sprawling castles. Choosing where to build also plays a huge role in the final look of the finished structure. A house built in the plains will differ drastically from one built in the swamps or at the mountain peak.

15 Once Human

Design A Home Base in a Realistic Open-World Survival

Once Human is a curious mish-mash of genres combined into a single free-to-play package that just works. It’s an open-world survival shooter game with a heavy focus on base-building mechanics that are surprisingly fleshed out.

Players can lay claim to a piece of land in the game’s world and build a home base from the ground up. The system is extremely in-depth, with tons of unlockable customization options and an integrity system to ensure a semblance of realism. What makes Once Human stand out from the sea of survival games that also have base building is the polish and the shared world system. Houses built in this game exist on online servers on a map that’s shared by all the players on that server. Once built, these structures become as much a part of the map as any other in-game structure, allowing for the creation of player-built community settlements.

14 Hometopia

From Fixer-Uppers to Dream Homes

• Platform: Microsoft Windows
• Initial release date: June 2022
• Developers: Hometopia Inc., The Isn’t Company

Hometopia is a house-building game that mimics Sims 4 in terms of general outlay, art style, and player perspective but adds enough customization options to the mix to keep things fresh.

The default gameplay loop is a House Flipper game where the task is to patch up dilapidated homes by fixing up anything that’s broken and redecorating the interior to increase the house’s value. In addition, Hometopia also offers a free build mode, a workshop where they can browse and download creations made by other players, and an online mode to play with others.

13 ARK: Survival Evolved

Survive And Build Among Prehistoric Giants

Despite attracting its share of criticism and controversy over the years, Ark: Survival Evolved has remained relevant and popular for pretty much its entire existence, and it is not difficult to understand why. After all, on paper, an open-world survival game revolving around dinosaurs sounds incredible, and Ark does a good enough job of delivering on that concept’s promise to overcome most of its rough edges or frustrating concepts.

A crucial part of the Ark experience involves setting up a base, an option that becomes available fairly quickly into a playthrough. The game’s base building mechanic is straightforward and functional, and the primary decision-making comes down to size and utility. Initially, players will have little more than a shed to call their own, but they should eventually be able to craft some rather huge structures.

12 Prison Architect

Build Facilities For The World’s Most Challenging Inmates

Played from the top-down perspective, Prison Architect gives users the tools to build a personalized penitentiary. Players will make areas like the infirmary, a cafeteria, and a workshop, as well as much more.

This game accomplishes its goal of doing what it sets out to do: create a simulation game with a prison theme. There is a level of excitement contained in this game, as well as horror elements; Prison Architect is unlike any house-building game out there.

11 Fallout 4

Construct Unique Homes In The Heart Of The Wasteland

Although Fallout 4 can be criticized for its bugs and predictable plot points, it has a fun house-building component. The story revolves around the only survivor of Vault 111, and it’s a tale of danger and betrayal.

One can build thousands of items in the most complex crafting system thus far; build a single house or an entire settlement. Fallout 4 provides players with the tools to build standout homes in the wasteland. From the rubble, survivors can build and develop until they are satisfied with the result.

10 Subnautica

Build Submersible Bases In Alien Waters

Unknown Worlds Entertainment’s Subnautica takes the best elements of survival games and pushes them into the depths of an alien ocean world. Visit marine life as players partake in a perilous adventure.

In addition to creating underwater houses called seabases, one can craft things like submarines and equipment. People can explore Subnautica’s open world as they descend into an ocean filled with coral reefs, volcanoes, and networks of caves.

9 No Man’s Sky

Infinite Possibilities For Builders Across the Galaxy

When the open-world game No Man’s Sky was released, unfulfilled promises held it back from reaching its potential. Developer Hello Games has since done a turnaround with the game, integrating features that bring the game to life.

No Man’s Sky is a game that encourages exploration, but there is also a substantial house-building component. The game’s procedurally generated universe is the ideal setting for its building system. If someone has some architecture chops, they can build a polished home. The Beyond Update 2019 brought depth to No Man’s Sky’s base designs.

8 Stardew Valley

Craft A Cozy Homestead

It’s not just about a farm and a house, it’s about building a whole life in the idyllic countryside. Stardew Valley is a popular farming and building simulator in which the player has inherited a plot of land, and they move from the city to learn the fine art of country life.

The game was inspired by similar titles like Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons, but what makes Stardew Valley even better is the house designs. Players can do a lot more in this game with personal home designs and house-building than in others. In addition to building a farm, home, and maybe even a family, there are mysterious areas to explore and many adventures to be had.

7 Terraria

Build To Survive And Thrive

This indie game has role-playing elements, but many will love it for its substantial building component. Not only can players build a house, but they can also build entire cities to house allies they meet along the way.

Terraria is a sandbox game in the sense that players get a great degree of creative potential. This is a title someone can invest over a thousand hours playing. It contains exploration and boss fights, so the game offers a lot more content than just building.

6 Tiny Glade

A Serene Building Experience For Imaginative Minds

Tiny Glade is a cozy indie building game with a superbly dynamic building system and a gorgeous cottage core-inspired art style that works excellently with the type of game it’s trying to be. There is no overarching objective in this game other than to simply build, experiment, and let creativity flow.

Building structures utilizing a procedural system in which placing one object dynamically shifts the other objects to flow naturally around it in a way that feels organic and deliberate even when it isn’t.

5 Minecraft

Endless Creativity, One Block At A Time

Players who own the PC version of Minecraft can use mods to enhance the house-building experience. They can build their dream houses and live in them if they choose to. Minecraft is a sandbox game that gives players various tools to build.

Find a location to build the house, level the terrain, create a Crafting Table, and build away. Players may want to make a bed before starting, as it acts as a respawn point in case baddies attack them. A house made out of blocks can look brilliant.

4 House Flipper

Revamp, Remodel, And Resell

One can renovate the heck out of a home in House Flipper. The idea is to take dilapidated homes and remodel them into something that can be sold. Players get a variety of tools to turn around homes in this indie simulation game.

It’s also just plain fun wrecking stuff. This hidden gem is available on the Steam Store for a bargain. With DLC, people can find new locations to build houses and plant gardens.