20. Raft
This absolutely gorgeous survival sim takes crafting to the high seas. The home you expand upon here is, you guessed it, a raft. Not much more than a few planks of driftwood hastily cobbled together in the beginning, the raft can grow rapidly over time. Of course, it’s not just smooth sailing, as sharks are quickly lured to your floating home, eager to get a piece of real estate. Once you learn to manage the immediate dangers of starvation, dehydration and unwanted visitors, you can fish for debris in the ocean and start seeking out islands to explore. Raft is still in early access, it’ll be interesting to see what else developer Redbeet Interactive will come up with.
Available on PC
19. Valheim
Taking you into a procedurally generated purgatory that's greatly inspired by all things Vikings, Valheim lets you craft all manner of items as you explore the lands as a soul who was killed in battle. In this open-world survival game, you can also play with your pals, so this is a great option for anyone looking to scratch their crafting itch as they work together with friends. From constructing a raft to building up your very own longship, you can take to the seas, or forge weapons and items on land, and build up strongholds. With a vast landscape to venture through, you can also go in search of valuable resources to create even more effective gear.
Available on PC
18. Factorio
Crafting in Factorio is the end product, rather than a feature, and may thus seem like a bit of an outlier on this list. This is a factory builder, where you can produce items using fantastically intricate systems. If offshore pumps, engines and motors are your passion, this is the game for you. It’s just as much fun to work out what you want to make, as how to make the biggest, most productive factory ever. In multiplayer you can build factories so big you need to delegate in order to keep everything running. While there’s manual crafting, and the most interesting thing about Factorio is the journey and not the end product, you’re still crafting many, many things.
Available on PC
17. The Escapists 2
To successfully escape prison, you need to of course transform unsuspicious items into the perfect escape tool. A broom handle, a tin of paint and some duct tape make a sledgehammer, the classic pillow stuffed into a bed sheet makes a bed dummy. It’s great fun to see The Escapists 2 get creative with crafting, and of course the use of those items during your actual escape. Team17, who are also responsible for co-op cooking mayhem in Overcooked, just know how to make games that come from simple initial ideas. This game, too, is best when enjoyed together, even though you can play it solo just fine. The large number of craftable items, be it security passes, outfits or weapons, in turn imbues the gameplay with a lot of variety, and by now there’s a whole host of additional content waiting for escapees.
Available on PC, Ps4, Xbox One, Switch, iOS, Android
16. Forager
Crafting is often all about the soothing repetitive motions of foraging. Mine this, chop that, until the loop of gathering, building and more gathering becomes all but hypnotic. In order not to run out of uses for the literally hundreds of things to gather, Forager goes increasingly off the rails – both in what you can craft to use against enemies (laser beams!) and also what to do with all your leftover items (engage in unfettered capitalism).
It’s nothing you don’t know when it comes to features like building, crafting and exploring, but as a clicker game, it’s simplicity and thus the speed at which you can succeed at whatever you set out to do is the very thing that won’t let you go.
Available on PC, PS4, Switch
15. Rust
Make no mistake, Rust is mainly about killing other players. The crafting portion of this game, which you start absolutely naked, is based around a few really simple ingredients, but the deadly arsenal you can craft is quite impressive. Just be careful – no game manages to make you wary of other people quite like Rust does.
The fact that most players you come across are out for your hide means that base building is rather simple, but it’s interesting to start the whole process from zero, smashing trees with rocks, painstakingly putting a roof over your head and clothes on your back, making each item pretty hard-won.
Available on PC (due on PS4 and Xbox One in 2020)
14. Portal Knights
If players are hankering for some RPG flavourings to sandbox crafting games, they usually have to put the work in themselves. Portal Knights on the other hand is a co-op crafting adventure with all the RPG trimmings – levelling, different classes and fun combat. Crafting exceeds weapons, as you build sprawling castles and other buildings Minecraft-style.
Just roaming around looking for resources isn’t for everyone, and Portal Knights stands out for enhancing sandbox gameplay with the quest system and regular seasonal events typical for MMORPGs. It’s the clear dedication that went into making the two genres work together that makes this one a lot of fun.
Available on PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, iOS, Android
13. My Time At Portia
On first sight you wouldn’t peg My Time At Portia as a post-apocalyptic game. However, a catastrophic event is the very reason you’re tasked with breathing new life into the town of Portia. In order to restore the different buildings needed, you need to gather resources or gain them through simple but fun hack and slash combat with a large number of different cute enemies.
Everything about My Time At Portia is downright adorable, from your new home to its big-headed inhabitants. The more you build, the more you grow in prestige, but there’s also a large cast of town folk to befriend. Besides the flow that usually sets in when you play relaxing crafting games like this, it’s especially the variety in quests here that makes time pass in a flash.
Available on PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch
12. 7 Days To Die
Among the survival games that offer crafting, 7 Days To Die is one of the darkest and most surprising. It doesn’t feature the kind of zombies that come at you no matter what, but when they do come, it’s very easy to be left unprepared. By far not a pretty game and likely doomed to forever remain in Early Access (the console versions are abit not good), 7 Days to Die nevertheless shambled its way to the top of the Steam charts following release thanks to the strength of its atmosphere and sheer challenge.
Here, successful teamwork means building a zombie trap that does the job, instead of sprawling castles, so if you’re looking to build for your life, give this a go.
Available on PC, PS4, Xbox One
11. The Long Dark
The Long Dark brands itself as a “thoughtful” survival and crafting game, meaning it’s less about animals mauling you at every corner, and more about the even distribution of dangers. The ever-icy landscape, scarce opportunities to feed yourself and of course the occasional bear of wolf you can’t just take down as you please make the game a tense experience.
Even if you like your games a little more mellow you don’t have to give this one a miss – the different modes offer anything from a quiet and contemplative time with fewer dangerous animals to a story mode or regular survival challenges.
Available on PC, PS4, Xbox One
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