Indie Games That Let You Think Like an Architect: the Best Building Mechanics in Gaming

Ever since we built our first dirt block house in Minecraft or spammed the money cheat in Sims 3 to design our dream home, creating spaces in gaming that we can use as a home base, or decorative showcase, has become a central part of our gaming experience. Sometimes games integrate mechanics with the building process to make something truly unique and incredibly fun to deep dive into. Let’s take a look at some indie games that allow us to overengineer a shelter that we can be proud of.

Ark: Survival Evolved

Ark is much more than a dino taming, base raiding, survival-craft game. Over the years across their development, Studio Wildcard has included numerous updates that allow the player to use a wide range of materials and shapes to build stunning bases which can take on a host of unique aesthetics; like a high-tech, pyramid-shaped temple, or a medieval village complete with stables outfitted with raptors.

One of the things that make building in Ark player-focused is that with each feature or mechanic of the game, there is a reason to build a unique structure that fits that purpose. Like greenhouse pieces that, when designed correctly, boosts the growth rate of plants or a massive gate trap you can use to help you capture and tame dinos.

One creator has taken Ark’s tools to the extreme and designed an entire castle atop a mountain complete with a massive bridge and decorated interior.

Valheim

Valheim, like Ark, takes the mechanics of the game and forces the player to think aesthetically. In order for you to sleep in the game the bed needs to be close to a heat source, like a fire. However, building a fire indoors causes smoke to build up in the space and suffocates your character. So using the many different design elements available from the start, you must find a way to build around these constraints to build a home that is both functional and realistic.

Another of the restraints that force the player to think aesthetically is the color-coded stability mechanic that stops the player from building roofs, scaffolding or stairways without first reinforcing their bases with columns or supports. As the game progresses, the player unlocks upgrades and additional options for decorating or reinforcing their base, and Iron Gate AB is still putting out updates that include dozens of new decorations and building pieces to choose from.

Though despite these constraints, or perhaps because of them, players have created some truly outstanding pieces of art and architectural feats.

Raft

Raft is unique in its building process because the player is forced to think around such a small space using only the materials that come to them. Mostly, this means a vertical mindset and clever organizing, and by the end of the adventure, your raft could hardly be recognized as such. One of the aspects of Raft that is directly tied to the raft’s design is progression. Before you will be able to discover coordinates for certain locations, you must place beacons about your raft. However, they require a minimum distance from each other, forcing the player to expand their vessel and either make room or reorganize their space.

There are also aggressive sharks that will bite at the edges of the raft and tear away tile pieces, causing whatever was on top to be destroyed. With all of these obstacles to the player, they are required to design their raft in an aesthetically pleasing way that is unique to each builder. Though Raft is still in early access, that can only mean more improvements and a larger building catalog in the future.

One player created what can only be described as a cruise liner, with multiple decks, an engine room and even farms. All from what was originally a two by two raft.

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