I think playing a game is the most exciting way to unleash our imagination. In particular, the virtual world is a very good tool to create advanced imaginary situations, expand our imagination, and excite players through human curiosity and puzzles. Then, are you ready to show off your architectural skills? Here is a list of architectural games that will allow creativity to flow!

1- The Sims– EA Maxis

The Sims is a prominent sandbox game that determines the flow in line with the player’s choices instead of setting up a linear scenario and directing the player. In this game, you are starting a family and placing them in a pre-designed house or a house you designed. The aim is to meet the needs of the family, but I think the most fun part is designing the inside and outside of the houses.

2- Simcity– EA Maxis

Simcity is an open-ended city-building game. The game is allowing to build an entire city, from shops to parks. But every decision made is important in this process. You can speed up the economy and make Sims happy by being the Mayor and establishing a police station, fire department, and school or you can allow crime and corruption to spread and create another world.

3- Minecraft– EA Mojang

And yet another very popular sandbox game. In this game, unlike Simcity, all the fiction starts from nature. That is, to create a built environment you have to dig the soil, get wood from the trees, and even make yourself cutting tools. Afterward, you can switch to a settled life with farming and animal husbandry. giving the game its visual impact, it is huge cubes that all the building blocks. Even if the game seems simple, remember that over time you will have to build very complex buildings, and you will try to protect these buildings from attackers.

4- Cities: Skylines– Colossal Order

This game is a game of urban planning in which you can design every aspect of a city. I think we can call it a real urban design program beyond being a game. Because you rarely encounter unusual disasters in your city, the game allows you to focus more on design and planning. So much so that the game has been even used in the development planning of the city of Stockholm once upon a time. Also, You should check out Cities: Motion as a game that allows improving the public transport system of the same production.

5- Prison Architect– Introversion Software

This game with a 2D top-down interface is quite unusual and fun. It’s your job to both design and manage the prison. It’s obvious how difficult it will be. And when unplanned problems (fugitives!) are added, the question arises of how you will solve the design problems of the prison you have designed. You get ready to think multidirectional!

6- Project Highrise– SomaSim

It is a 2D-building simulation game with an unorthodox, impressive graphic language. The game expects you to build a skyscraper but warns us that a skyscraper is more than just steel and glass. A skyscraper is a machine that needs to work perfectly together with the people living in it. It’s up to you to manage this machine.

7- Block’hood– Plethora Project

This game seems to me like a combination of Minecraft’s blocky game language and Simcity’s ability to build and manage the city. It aims to establish a sustainable city without destroying the world it is in, so you have to keep the city and nature in balance, also, you should be careful to keep the structure you build in balance with each block placed.

8- Calvino Noir– Dan Walters

It is a film noir game set in the dark world of criminals in 1930s Europe. Throughout the game, I felt as if I was in a comic book written by me. Quite impressive and inspiring!

Although inspired by the futuristic dystopian visions of Deus Ex and Blade Runner, Calvino Noir is a throwback to an era that could easily be from Earth’s past. The game is heavily noir influenced, but at the same time progressive, reflecting a somewhat modernist take on the classic genre. Calvino Noir

the game aims to control the main characters with many different features, to prevent corruption, and to make a revolution by making secret plans.

9- Project Aura– Pixel Quality Games

Project Aura has a dystopian future fiction. The world is completely submerged due to a climate epidemic and you are expected to establish your colony on the water. It’s up to you to keep your colony alive. The game also has an inspiring architectural language built on water.

10- House Flipper 2– Frozen District, Empyrean

Unlike other games, this game is an interior design game. The game works on the principle of Clean, Renovate, and Sell your dream house. All the fun starts when you are renovating because you can make any design you want. Its library is quite large, from wallpapers to furniture, but of course, spending money is in your control. The last time, you sold the houses you produced like a real estate agent.

BONUS- Empty– Frozen Dusty Room

Finally, I have a bonus game suggestion for you. You can play for free without having to install it. “Empty is a minimalist zen puzzle game. The goal is to remove all objects by rotating a room.”

I hope you enjoyed the list. Have fun!