Highlights

  • City-building games on the Nintendo Switch offer long gaming sessions and deep mechanics, with politics and residents' happiness playing a role.
  • Games like Dorfromantik and Project Highrise provide a relaxing and soothing experience, allowing you to build and strategize at their own pace.
  • Cities: Skylines offer expansive and intricate city-building experiences, while Civilization 6 adds strategic elements and dynamic interactions with AI and other territories.

Playing city-building games almost never ends quickly. Getting immersed in building entire structures and catering to the residents makes for long sessions. Many city-building games have mechanics that go even deeper, with different situations sparking based on things like politics and the residents' happiness.

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The Nintendo Switch is great for long gaming sessions, since you can take it anywhere with you to play. Not only do long rides not feel as long, but being outside while playing can give you a lot of inspiration for your own cities while you build them.

Updated on January 15, 2024, by Jouanna Bondakji: Wherever you play city-building games on the Nintendo Switch, they're some of the best games to relax to. We've added more entries for you to check out and put your architect hat on.

11 Dorfromantik

different hexagonal tiles represent trees, water, houses, and grass among various terrain types
  • Release Date: March 25, 2021
  • Developer: Toukana Interactive

If you're looking for something a little bit different while still getting some building done, Dorfromantik mixes village building with some strategy. The land and structures come in the form of tiles, and how you decide to put them together raises or lowers your overall score. You also get quests from certain objects within the tiles that, when completed, give you more tiles to use.

As long as you have tiles, you can keep playing and raising your score. The further you get, the more tile types and colors you unlock. Dorfromantik offers some challenge in its puzzle-like gameplay, but it's not an intense game by any means. Its art style and atmosphere make for a soothing experience, so you can kick back, relax, and combine some tiles.

10 Project Highrise

Two buildings in the foreground with tenants going about their day in every floor
  • Release Date: September 8, 2016
  • Developer: SomaSim

In Project Highrise, you're an architect who's in charge of pretty much every nook and cranny of buildings, along with the happiness of the people living in them. You get to decide the kinds of buildings you build, from offices to restaurants. The people who come with them act differently from each other, giving more weight to your building decisions.

And if you'd rather leave the creativity to the game, there's a campaign mode that provides you with different instructions to follow for building your skyscrapers. Balance constructing, keeping tenants satisfied, and procuring funds to make your buildings as good as they can be.

9 Prison Architect

Prison Architect Cell With Shower

Release Date: October 6, 2015

Developer: Introversion Software

Just because Prison Architect's art style is simple doesn't mean its gameplay is. Being in charge of a prison filled with some of the hardest criminals means you'll have to stay vigilant if you want to keep them all contained while taking care of their needs. The prison has to be reinforced, but doing so incorrectly can result in a variety of hazards or even a prison riot.

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There are also a few other fun modes, including an Escape Mode where you can be in the prisoners' shoes and attempt your own escape from a maximum security prison. The game has so much to do that you can spend hours in just one round.

8 Minecraft

An image from Minecraft of a Village Watch Tower, that can be placed around a custom village to look out for dangerous mobs
TheMythicalSausage
  • Release Date: November 18, 2011
  • Developer: Mojang Studios

Technically, you can build more than just cities in Minecraft. It's the sort of game where the sky really is the limit. Its open-world nature means you get a lot more variety than most other city-building games in terms of locations, building materials, and designs.

Different resources you mine and gather allow you to do more things, and you can even have pets to take care of, like cats, chickens, and pigs. Some creatures will try to harm you at night, though, so being well-equipped to defend against them is imperative. One of the major pulls of Minecraft is that it can be as chill or chaotic as you want it to be, especially when you get friends involved.

7 Cities: Skylines

Different buildings and streets in Cities Skylines
  • Release Date: March 10, 2015
  • Developer: Colossal Order

The more expansive city-building games are, the better. Cities: Skylines is huge, but also incredibly intricate, just like real modern cities. It's not just about making the infrastructure look good; you also have to think about the basic needs of your citizens. Balancing aspects like water, electricity, and healthcare is your job as your city's mayor.

You also have to manage the traffic, which the game's day and night cycles realistically affect. Needless to say, Cities: Skylines goes quite in-depth with the city-building and is a must-try if you like detail and a challenge.

6 Civilization 6

Mountains, trees, and buildings next to each other in Civilization 6
  • Release Date: October 21, 2016
  • Developer: Firaxis Games

City-building games can be relaxing for a lot of people, but if you're looking for something with a little more kick, Civilization 6 has that. You aren't just playing by yourself; you're up against the AI in a turn-based game of strategy. You start with a small group, but the goal is to eventually expand that group to the entire world.

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You make both enemies and allies in this game, and the more progress you make, the smarter the world around you becomes. As you build around you, it becomes rich with different groups with their own ways of doing things. How you adjust your territory's policies affects how your people and other territories react to you.

5 Townscraper

Different colored buildings piled on top of each other in Townscraper
  • Release Date: June 30, 2020
  • Developer: Oskar Stalberg

Townscraper is probably the ultimate low-stakes city-building game. If the pressure of managing everything in your city tends to overwhelm you, you don't have to worry about that with this game. There's zero urgency here, only blocks. You place those blocks into the water and watch them become buildings. How you place them determines what buildings they become.

Of course, this isn't a game you play if you want tension and challenge. It's a tranquil experience that you can keep going for as long as you want, coupled with eye-catching, colorful art. Townscraper is particularly good if you need something to keep your hands busy while idle.

4 Islanders

Building structures on an island in Islanders
  • Release Date: April 4, 2019
  • Developer: Coatsink, GrizzlyGames, Stage Clear Studios

Islanders is a simple, relaxing game that works a little differently from other city builders. Instead of using resources to build things on islands, you get a set number of those structures already in your inventory. How you place them determines how many points you get. For example, placing a fountain in a park or near a house nets you some points. When you get enough points, your inventory refreshes with more structures.

It starts off easy and becomes more challenging as you unlock more objects to place. There are different kinds of islands, like desert-like or snow-filled ones, that have different items and point distributions. The game is over once you have no more objects in your inventory, so thinking about where to place things is essential to keeping the game going.

3 Tropico 6

Building structures mixed with greenery and the sea in Tropico 6

Release Date: March 6, 2019

Developer: Limbic Entertainment, Realmforge Studios

There's a lot of fun to be had in Tropico 6 because it lets you be as kind or nefarious as you want to be when creating your own paradise. You get your own archipelago to either make the hottest tourist attraction or tear down and build a whole new city from the ground up.

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Political management is also important in this game, and you have to keep your residents happy—or silence the ones who aren't, whichever you prefer. You can literally steal the seven wonders of the world for your own city and make grand speeches on your balcony, so you can live out your cartoon villain fantasy while building the best place to rule over.

2 Airborne Kingdom

The kingdom surrounded by rocky terrain in Airborne Kingdom
  • Release Date: December 17, 2020
  • Developer: The Wandering Band LLC

Forget city builders on land or water. Airborne Kingdom lets you build your city in the sky. However, you'll have to make sure your city stays balanced up there. When not building different infrastructures, you can go on quests to gather resources and even aid other kingdoms that are on the ground.

Making sure your people's needs are met by providing them with food, shelter, and medicine is also crucial. The world is randomized, so you'll never know what you're about to run into. And if you'd rather build a city without any of the obligations, there's a Creative Mode where you can go wild and not have to worry about the extra stuff.

1 Spacebase Startopia

Neon futuristic structures in Spacebase Startopia
  • Release Date: March 26, 2021
  • Developer: Realmforge Studios

Being able to build cities in different locations is neat, but what about different times? Spacebase Startopia takes place in a futuristic sci-fi setting where smart machines and aliens are everywhere. You get the honor of leading the building and cultivation of a space station because you're the only normal person the AI can detect.

You have to expand this station throughout different sectors, as well as accommodate your alien clientele. But it's not so easy because there are also enemy invaders you need to defend the place against. Though the game's visual design is futuristic, it also has a cartoony art style that represents its sense of humor. Spacebase Startopia can be challenging, but it doesn't take itself too seriously, making it less intimidating and extra fun.

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