Craft The World
Craft The World is a unique sandbox strategy game, the mix of Dungeon Keeper, Terraria and Dwarf Fortress. Explore a random generated world populated by dangerous creatures, build a dwarf fortress, gather resources, and craft all the items, weapons, and armor you need. GOD-SIMULATION You control a tribe of dwarves by giving them commands to dig in certain places, attack enemy creatures, and build houses and other structures. You'll need to provide your dwarves food and clothing, as well as help them with magic when fighting against other inhabitants of the world. You start the game with one dwarf and gain additional dwarves as your experience level increases. SANDBOX GAME Each game level has many layers of earth to explore, from the sky down to boiling subterranean lava. The level is randomly generated as an island, restricted by natural boundaries: oceans on the edges, lava beneath it, and the sky above. Other features include day and night and changing weather conditions. The worlds differ in size, humidity, temperature, terrain, and flora and fauna. Abandoned halls and rooms with treasure are hidden somewhere deep within the islands. CRAFTING One feature of the game is a user-friendly system of recipes for crafting. The recipes are organized and easily accessible. You can craft dozens of different items: building blocks for houses, furniture, decorations, weapons, armor, ammunition, and food for your dwarves.
Steam User 30
I’ve spent over 600 hours in this game. Not because it’s groundbreaking or filled with story twists or gorgeous graphics. But because it showed up for me when life didn’t.
I played Craft The World mostly during the worst parts of my life—when I was unemployed, when COVID hit, when everything felt fragile. This game never asked much from me. Just... build a base, dig deep, collect some resources, and prepare for the next monster wave. That’s it. Simple loops. Comforting loops.
There’s no real story. The goal is to eventually craft a portal to the next world. I think I’ve done that ten times now. Sometimes I’d mod the hell out of it—so much that I’d break the game completely and have to start over. But that was part of the ritual too. Break. Rebuild. Continue.
It was the game I played so I could keep going in real life. When things were too heavy out here, I’d go in there, move little dwarves around, and let that be enough.
And then... I stopped. I came back years later, loaded it up, and something had changed. The game was the same. I wasn’t.
Now I have money. I have a warm bed. I have people. And somehow, I find myself drawn to heavier stories—games that deal with grief, identity, morality. The weight I no longer carry in real life, I now explore in fiction.
Craft The World isn’t less fun. I’ve just moved beyond needing its kind of peace.
But I’ll always be grateful for it. It was my quiet companion through the chaos.
Thank you, little dwarves. You helped me hold on.
Steam User 10
Even after so many years, still getting updates and still a superb game
Steam User 7
Interesting game, but too many additions, and it's a shame when pumped-up gnomes die.
Steam User 6
Hidden Gem not many people know about.
In this game you manage a colony of dwarves, ordering them to collect resources, build a base and fight waves of monsters that come periodically.
These types of games can be super satisfying and suprisingly engaging, but they often struggle with being too complex or technical. This game fixes that issue, with pretty approachable and simple controls and mechanics.
If you want to chill for an hour or two building a sick castle, commanding an army to fight monsters and sending them to the caves to mine, this is your game!
Though it is complete B.S that you gotta buy A D.L.C for Multiplayer (wtf?).
Steam User 3
I bought this for my oldest son and I years and years ago because it was one of the only games at the time to offer multiplayer and be acceptable for him and I at his age.
I didn't expect to fall in love with it the way I have. And with mods, it's an even better experience. My hours on record should show that what I say is true. It does get a little old for me these days, especially since my son has moved on to other things and there's not really anyone to build *for*, but I still find myself enjoying it alone occasionally and I'm currently reinstalling it to spend a few more hours there this month while I write this.
It's worth the money at full price if you're into it (especially so if you have friends who are also) and it's even more worth it on sale. And you can return it if you don't play it for 2 hours, so give the devs some money so I can get the sequel before I die, please.
Steam User 3
It is fun, I put time into it cause it barely ran on a shit laptop I got when my main desktop bricked a few times waiting on fixes and replacements. So it allowed me to keep my sanity when I had nothing else to do in the asscrack of nowhere in a rural state.
Is it the best game you will ever play? No, but why should it be? It is a game to chill out, waste time, and slowly crawl up to a point where nothing stops your dwarves from completing the map and moving on to the next one.
The environments are nice, the creatures differ slightly from map to map, challenges on each one, it does a fine job of just taking up your time in a non-committal way. Cause you can never fully "lose", your dwarves will repopulate (but the new ones are level 1 so they obviously aren't as good), your base stays mostly intact, and you can rebuild until you get to the part of the tech tree where things get stomped.
Obviously newer games do this better, Against the Storm is easily my favorite in this kind of chill build style game. This just focuses more on the individuals more than the community, so its different enough to allow me to have fun and keep putting time into it.
Steam User 4
ive been playing the game for 6 years and the game its still very fun!
The Dev's Did very well at making something that could handle my attension spann!