Unearth Your Next Space Colony: Top Aven Colony Alternatives
Aven Colony captivated players with its unique blend of city-building, resource management, and the challenges of settling an alien world. As humanity's first extrasolar settlement, it offered a deep dive into building sprawling cities on Aven Prime, dealing with its harsh realities and exotic dangers. But perhaps you've explored every inch of Aven Prime, or you're simply looking for a fresh perspective on intergalactic colonization. Whatever your reason, there's a universe of captivating city-building and strategy games waiting to be discovered. If you're searching for your next grand construction project in the stars, or even a different type of historical city-builder, look no further – we've compiled a list of excellent Aven Colony alternatives.
Top Aven Colony Alternatives
Whether you're after intricate logistics, survival challenges, or simply the joy of watching a new civilization flourish, these games offer a compelling experience similar to or expanding upon what Aven Colony provides. Dive in and discover your new favorite!

0 A.D.
0 A.D. is a compelling free, open-source, and cross-platform real-time strategy (RTS) game focusing on ancient warfare. While it shifts from space to historical settings, its emphasis on base-building, resource management, and strategic expansion makes it a fantastic Aven Colony alternative for players who enjoy the RTS and city-building aspects. Available on Mac, Windows, Linux, and BSD, it features robust multiplayer capabilities, allowing you to challenge friends in historically-based war and economy scenarios.

Banished
Banished is a commercial city-building strategy game for Windows and Wine (via Steam) that places you in control of exiled travelers seeking to restart their lives in a new, harsh land. Its strong focus on survival, intricate logistics, and production chains provides a challenging and rewarding experience for those who enjoyed the resource management and citizen well-being aspects of Aven Colony. While medieval in setting, the core loop of managing resources and ensuring your population thrives against adversity offers a similar strategic depth.

Anno
The Anno series, a long-standing commercial real-time strategy city-building and economic simulation video game series available on Windows, Linux, Android, iPhone, Android Tablet, iPad, and Wine, shares many core gameplay elements with Aven Colony. Players engage in deep economic simulations and city-building, meticulously managing resources and expanding their settlements. If you loved the complex economic systems and the satisfaction of watching your city grow in Aven Colony, Anno offers a rich and engaging experience, often with a historical or futuristic twist depending on the installment.

Planetbase
Planetbase is a commercial survival and gaming title available on Windows and Steam, where you guide space settlers in establishing an outpost on a remote planet. This game is a direct spiritual sibling to Aven Colony, requiring you to grow food, collect energy, mine resources, manufacture bots, and build a fully functional base from the ground up. If the core loop of colonizing an alien world and managing its resources was your favorite part of Aven Colony, Planetbase delivers a very similar, compelling experience.

Spacebase DF-9
Spacebase DF-9, a commercial game available on Mac, Windows, Linux, and Steam, tasks you with building a home among the stars for a diverse population of humans and aliens. While it leans more into the simulation of daily life on a space station, its themes of managing a growing community in a confined, dangerous environment resonate with the challenges of Aven Colony. It offers single-player gameplay with squad-based and turn-based elements, providing a different but equally engaging take on space colonization.

Kingdoms and Castles
Kingdoms and Castles, a commercial city-building game for Windows and Linux, transports you to a medieval setting where you construct castles to protect your peasants from a living and dangerous world. While not set in space, its core mechanics of building a thriving settlement, managing resources, and defending against external threats (dragons, Vikings, etc.) provide a satisfying city-building experience that fans of Aven Colony's base-building and defense systems will appreciate.

Startopia
Startopia is a commercial game for Windows that challenges players to micromanage a network of space stations, rebuilding them into thriving communities. This game focuses heavily on the well-being of your citizens and the intricate management of a contained environment, much like the population management in Aven Colony. If you enjoyed the detailed micromanagement of your colony's infrastructure and citizens in Aven Colony, Startopia offers a humorous and engaging take on space station management.

Imagine Earth
Imagine Earth, a commercial real-time planet simulation and build-up strategy game for Windows and Steam, places you as a space colony manager tasked with exploring and populating distant planets. Your objective is to build thriving and profitable colonies, managing resources and expanding your influence across alien worlds. This aligns perfectly with the core gameplay loop of Aven Colony, offering a similar blend of exploration, expansion, and strategic resource management on a planetary scale.

Aquapolis
Aquapolis is a freemium game available on Android, iPhone, Android Tablet, iPad, and Kindle Fire, where you build a thriving underwater city. While the setting moves from an alien planet to the ocean depths, the core concept of establishing and expanding a new civilization, managing its resources, and revealing truths about the world remains. If you enjoy the pure city-building and simulation aspects, Aquapolis provides a unique and accessible take on the genre.

Space Haven
Space Haven is a commercial spaceship colony sim available on Mac, Windows, and Linux that truly captures the spirit of space colonization. In this game, you manage resources and crew members to build and maintain your spaceship, venturing out to explore the galaxy. Its isometric pixel graphics and detailed simulation of crew needs and spaceship systems offer a deeper, more intimate look at space survival, making it an excellent Aven Colony alternative for those who loved the detailed management and exploration aspects.
Each of these games offers a unique take on the city-building and strategy genres, with many sharing core elements that made Aven Colony so engaging. Whether you're seeking to colonize new planets, build historical empires, or manage a bustling space station, there's an Aven Colony alternative here to suit your preferences. Explore these options and find the perfect fit for your next grand strategic adventure!