Games like Folk Tale

The Squirrel's verdictBoth are single-player PC management builds where you construct infrastructure piece by piece and juggle a growing economy. My Gaming Club drops the RTS/kingdom-building layer for a straight business sim: you assemble PCs from parts, price services, and manage a gaming club's day-to-day economy. Good for players who liked Folk Tale's building and numbers but want tycoon-style focus over strategy and combat.

Not for you if you want combat or strategy layered on top of the building, or you're bothered by odd key-mapping and a grindy early economy.

The Squirrel's verdictJumplight Odyssey keeps Folk Tale's mix of colony management and turn-based strategy, but moves it into space: you assign crew to jobs and steer a ship through a branching star route instead of building a fantasy kingdom. PC-only, single-player, $29.99, Mixed rating (59.2% positive), median playtime 12.8 hours.

Not for you if you want co-op, a high Steam approval rating, or more than roughly 13 hours of median playtime before the campaign wraps.

The Squirrel's verdictFolk Tale paired city-building with strategic management; Starship Theory pairs spaceship construction with colony-sim management, tasking you with keeping a crew alive while expanding the hull. It's free, single-player only, with a newest review posted one day ago. Reviews describe RimWorld-style systems layered onto ship-building, for players who want that combination without Folk Tale's fantasy setting.

Not for you if you need co-op, want a finished feature set, or are wary of games with a mixed reception and reviewers calling content thin.

The Squirrel's verdictTech Corp targets players who want deep sandbox simulation over polish: you run a tech company through product development, marketing campaigns, and dense micromanagement. Reviewers call the gameplay tedious and grindy, and development stalled after a publisher dispute. Median playtime is 4.0 hours, Steam rating 33.1% positive, PC only at $9.99.

Not for you if you find heavy micromanagement more frustrating than engaging, or you want a simulation with content comparable to established genre entries.

The Squirrel's verdictPlayers who want colony-building layered with RPG systems and can tolerate an unfinished state are the audience Towns was built for. Reviewers describe the same concept Folk Tale aimed at — simplified Dwarf Fortress with RPG elements — and the same outcome: development stopped before completion. At $4.99, median playtime reaches 39.3 hours, meaning players do engage despite the abandoned state.

Not for you if you want a colony sim that received a finished, supported release rather than an abandoned prototype.

The Squirrel's verdictFolk Tale paired building with strategy; Industrial Annihilation pairs factory-building with RTS, adding co-op. Both sit in early access with incomplete systems: reviewers cite missing tutorials, unclear resource chains, and no campaign or AI yet. Median playtime sits at 1.8 hours. Steam rating is Mostly Negative at 28.1% positive.

Not for you if you want a finished campaign, clear tutorials, or an RTS with functioning AI rather than build-and-connect systems still being tested.

The Squirrel's verdictSpacebase DF-9 is a space-station colony sim where you manage crew needs, resources, and base systems — the same core management loop as Folk Tale, moved off the fantasy map and onto a space station. Double Fine self-funded development until it ran over budget, then released the current build as final. Steam rating is Overwhelmingly Negative at 17.9% positive, with 8.6 median hours logged.

Not for you if you need co-op, or the Overwhelmingly Negative Steam rating is a hard stop for you.

The Squirrel's verdictPlayers drawn to management-heavy strategy with heavy micromanagement may find Pro Gamer Manager 2 familiar territory — though the setting shifts from fantasy kingdoms to running an esports team. Reviewers describe progression as feeling random rather than skill-driven, and the developer abandoned the project within days of early access launch. Steam rating sits at 14% positive, median playtime 0.8 hours.

Not for you if you want functional management systems with meaningful progression rather than a game reviewers describe as luck-driven and immediately abandoned.