Building Games
An empty plot, some materials and nobody telling you how it should turn out.
30 games · hand-picked, then filled from the catalogue
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Building is one of the few things a video game does better than reality: the materials are free, gravity is optional and nothing falls on anybody.
How this list is put together
Underneath the genre there are two different games sharing a name. One is management: you have limited resources, an objective and an order in which things have to happen, and building is the way you solve a problem. The other has no problem at all — it gives you a space and infinite materials, and nobody judges what you do there. They are almost opposite experiences and both are on this list.
The second kind is the one that hooks children, and for a specific reason: it is one of the few places where they can make a hundred decisions in a row without any of them being wrong. There is no score telling them the tower is crooked.
What is worth knowing is where all of that is kept. These games save in the browser, not in an account, so this afternoon's city will not be on the school computer tomorrow. If you are going to build something serious, do it in one sitting.
The card game that takes no prisonersFree, in the browser, no download.Play free ›Our gameQuestions people ask
Are they like Minecraft?
Some share the idea of placing blocks, but none is Minecraft and none has anything to do with Mojang. They are browser games with the same basic mechanic, which is an old idea and belongs to nobody: putting one thing on top of another.
Is what I build saved?
Sometimes, in the browser and on that device. There is no account behind it, so do not count on finding it again in a month or on another computer.
Is there something to win, or can I just build?
Both formats are on the list. Some give you objectives and limited resources; others give you an empty space and no rules. The second kind usually appeals more to children and the first to anybody who wants a challenge.