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Squirrel's Pick Squirrel's PickThe best game on this page. If you only try one, try this. Closest Match Closest MatchThe most similar game to the anchor, by what players say.
Immersive SimCapitalismOpen World
$29.99 ~38.7 hr median co-op complexity: moderate 80% of 2k
The Squirrel's verdictSaleblazers fits players who want a shop-building game with co-op and a longer runtime: median playtime is 38.7 hours and it supports multiplayer, unlike Anvil Saga. A major version update overhauled the art style, UI, and physics; reviewers are divided, with some welcoming the changes and others reporting that pathing, item visibility, and camera behavior worsened as a result.
Not for you if you want a settled, consistent build — the major update introduced UI, physics, and art-style changes that a significant portion of reviewers describe as regressions.
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CrimeCapitalismEconomy
$24.99 ~26.2 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 73.4% of 3k
The Squirrel's verdictDefinitely Not Fried Chicken suits players who want a fully released factory-building loop with a darkly comic premise — running a fast food front for a drug operation. It holds a Mostly Positive rating at 73.4% and median playtime is 26.2 hours. Devs have confirmed via Discord that no further patches or content updates are planned, so save corruption and construction bugs are unlikely to be addressed.
Not for you if you expect ongoing developer support — the studio has publicly confirmed the game will receive no further bug fixes or content.
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TradingFPSJob Simulator
$9.99 ~5.7 hr median no co-op complexity: light 72.4% of 294
The Squirrel's verdictPawn Planet is for players who want a shopkeeping loop — haggling over deals and FPS heist segments — rather than village construction or quest management. Released in 2025 with a Mostly Positive rating at 72.4%, it runs about 5.7 hours at median. Reviewers cite item duplication bugs, shelf glitches, and a sparse shop with no decoration options beyond shelves, a vending machine, and a cleaning bot.
Not for you if you want building or decoration systems — the shop customization is limited to shelves, a vending machine, and a cleaning bot.
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Villain ProtagonistBase-BuildingReal-Time with Pause
$19.99 ~19.5 hr median no co-op complexity: light 65.7% of 807
The Squirrel's verdictBoth put you managing a small crew building out rooms and surviving on tight resource loops, colony-sim structure over Dungeon-Keeper style villainy instead of Anvil Saga's settlement-building. MachiaVillain shipped fully in 2018 rather than sitting in early access, and players report median runs near 19.5 hours, more room to actually finish something.
Not for you if you want deep systems rather than a thin, grindy loop reviewers describe as barebones with persistent bugs and poor balancing.
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City BuilderImmersive SimLife Sim
$14.99 ~32.2 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 54.9% of 4k
The Squirrel's verdictTavern managers who want dozens of hours of room-building, staff assignment, and NPC routing will find Crossroads Inn's scope larger than Anvil Saga's: median playtime is 32.2 hours and the game released in 2019, giving it years of patch history. Reviewers still flag stuck NPCs, broken quests, and pathing failures, but some report completing the full campaign without game-breaking issues.
Not for you if you need a reliably stable save — game-breaking bugs and unresponsive NPC pathing are still reported by a meaningful share of players.
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CraftingBase-BuildingColony Sim
$24.99 ~25.6 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 51% of 339
The Squirrel's verdictCommon'hood suits players drawn to a community-economy builder who can tolerate a rough release: it shipped in full in 2022 and median playtime reaches 25.6 hours, well past Anvil Saga's two-hour content ceiling. Reviewers flag bad pathfinding, inventory friction, pricing glitches, and settings that don't persist between sessions as recurring friction points.
Not for you if you want a builder where placing and revisiting construction works cleanly — unfinished block-placing logic and pathfinding issues remain reported problems.
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RPGAdventureCity Builder
$9.99 ~5.2 hr median no co-op complexity: light 50.3% of 485
The Squirrel's verdictPlayers who want a kingdom-building loop mixing tycoon management with RPG hero direction will find RPG Tycoon covers that ground. Released in 2016, it carries a Mixed rating at 50.3% positive, and reviewers cite a broken delete tool, crashes, building opacity glitches, and UI problems that persist long after launch. Median playtime is 5.2 hours.
Not for you if you want a stable, polished build — the bug load here is comparable to what Anvil Saga drew complaints for.
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Resource ManagementClickerEconomy
~5.8 hr median no co-op complexity: light 47.7% of 151
The Squirrel's verdictBoth are village-building sims with worker tasks, tech-tree progression, and split good/evil quest lines. Blacksmith Legends trades Anvil Saga's room-construction and sandbox mode for a leaner click-and-wait loop: assign a worker, watch a timer, collect the result. Median playtime sits under 6 hours, and the mixed rating reflects how thin that loop feels once the prologue ends.
Not for you if you want active decision-making instead of assigning workers and waiting out timers, or need more than a few hours of engaging content.