VEOM Studio’s lunar base-builder is free to grab on Steam right now, and the loop of mining, automating and trading resources back to Earth is proving sticky enough that people are asking what to play once the story wraps. The Crust sits at a busy intersection: colony survival, factory automation, and a slice of political sim about how Earth reacts to your growing power. Different players want different things next, so we picked seven The Crust alternatives on desktop that lean into each of those threads.
Quick comparison
| Game | Best for | Platforms | Price | Standout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oxygen Not Included | Deep colony survival | Windows / macOS / Linux | Paid | The gold standard for pressurised base survival |
| Surviving Mars | Terraforming and colony politics | Windows / macOS / Linux | Paid | Sponsor-driven objectives, mystery events |
| Ixion | Narrative sci-fi survival | Windows | Paid | Time-limited generation ship survival |
| Planetbase | Approachable base builder | Windows / macOS / Linux | Paid | Cleanest first-hour base sim on PC |
| Aven Colony | City-builder on an alien planet | Windows | Paid | Bigger, prettier, less punishing |
| Stationeers | Hardcore engineering sim | Windows / Linux | Paid | Real pipes, wires, and gas laws |
| Space Haven | Crew-driven space colony | Windows / macOS / Linux | Paid | RimWorld meets FTL in space |
What The Crust does well, and what it doesn’t
The Crust wins on tone: it commits to a specific setting, a specific era of humanity (the near future, right after Earth stops being enough) and a specific loop. What players complain about after a while is the same thing you get with most early-access sims: mid-game pacing dips when you have automated everything you needed to automate but the story missions have not caught up. The alternatives below either fix that pacing problem with better story hooks or expand the box to give you more systems to master.
Oxygen Not Included — Best for deep colony survival
Klei’s colony sim is the definitive version of pressurised base-building. Every liquid, gas and calorie is tracked, and the challenge is not really the aliens; it is stopping your own colonists from suffocating on their own carbon dioxide. If you liked The Crust’s oxygen and power puzzles, this is the boss version of that idea.
Where it falls short: ONI has a steep learning cliff. The wiki is not optional, and the tutorial only covers the first fifty cycles.
Pricing: paid, and the two expansions add hundreds of hours between them.
vs The Crust: ONI has none of The Crust’s narrative or Earth politics. It is pure systems mastery.
Download: Steam · Epic Games · GOG
Bottom line: the pick if what you loved about The Crust was the resource loops, not the story.
Surviving Mars — Best for terraforming and colony politics
Haemimont Games’ Mars colony sim is the closest structural match to The Crust: you land on a hostile rock, build a base with domed habitats, run mining rovers and answer to a sponsor back home. The paid mysteries drop late-game story events that reshape entire runs.
Where it falls short: the early game is slow. You spend the first hour setting up your first dome before anything interesting happens.
Pricing: paid, with several expansions.
vs The Crust: Surviving Mars has more mature systems and more content, but less of the moment-to-moment automation joy.
Bottom line: the direct evolution of The Crust’s core pitch, with several years of updates behind it.
Ixion — Best for narrative sci-fi survival
Bulwark Studios’ generation-ship sim gives you a station called the Tiqqun and a set of chapters, each with a hard deadline. You are not just building a base; you are keeping a city of thousands alive between fold-jumps, and every choice costs something you cannot get back.
Where it falls short: save-scumming is heavily discouraged, which some players find punishing. The story is fixed on repeat playthroughs.
Pricing: paid.
vs The Crust: Ixion is more story-driven and less freeform. If you wanted The Crust to force harder choices, this is it.
Download: Steam · Epic Games · GOG
Bottom line: pick this when you want survival with real deadlines and a plot.
Planetbase — Best for approachable base-builder
Madruga Works kept things simple: pick a planet, land a rocket, build hexagonal domes, expand. It is the friendliest way into the sub-genre if you bounced off Oxygen Not Included’s complexity, and it runs on almost anything.
Where it falls short: the systems are shallow compared to the rest of the list, and you will hit the ceiling within twenty hours.
Pricing: paid, and one of the cheapest.
vs The Crust: Planetbase is smaller in every direction, but the first hour teaches you the sub-genre faster than any other pick here.
Bottom line: the gateway drug for the base-builder shelf.
Aven Colony — Best for city-builder on an alien planet
Team17’s Aven Colony is a proper city builder wearing sci-fi clothes. Bigger sprawl than Planetbase, prettier than Surviving Mars, and less punishing than either. The alien-plague and lightning-storm events keep things interesting without turning your run into a wipe.
Where it falls short: the campaign is short and the sandbox is where the game really lives.
Pricing: paid.
vs The Crust: Aven Colony is more about building a large, functional city than about the automation puzzles that define The Crust.
Download: Steam
Bottom line: the relaxed choice for people who want scenery and scale, not min-max.
Stationeers — Best for hardcore engineering
RocketWerkz’s Stationeers models atmospheres, pipes, wires, gas mixtures and even individual bolts. The Crust hints at this level of depth in its automation systems; Stationeers commits to it entirely. Solo or in co-op with a small crew, it is closer to running an ISS mod than playing a game.
Where it falls short: the interface is dense and the learning curve is real. Expect to watch tutorial videos.
Pricing: paid, still in Early Access but very stable.
vs The Crust: Stationeers is a simulation first and a game second. The Crust is a game with a simulation inside it.
Download: Steam
Bottom line: the pick for engineers who want the pipes to actually work like pipes.
Space Haven — Best for crew-driven survival
Bugbyte’s ship-based colony sim is what happens when RimWorld meets FTL. You design your vessel deck by deck, keep your crew alive during long jumps between star systems, and negotiate or fight with the factions you meet along the way. Crew personality is the star of the show.
Where it falls short: it is still technically in Early Access and the mid-game content thins out compared to genre veterans.
Pricing: paid.
vs The Crust: Space Haven is character-forward where The Crust is systems-forward.
Bottom line: the pick when you want to care about the specific colonist named Rin, not just the resource graphs.
How to choose
Pick Oxygen Not Included for the deepest simulation you can play on desktop. Pick Surviving Mars if you liked the sponsor-and-politics thread and want more of it. Pick Ixion when you want time pressure and a plot that forces real choices. Pick Planetbase to relax with a cleaner, simpler base loop. Pick Aven Colony for scale and scenery without the punishment. Pick Stationeers if reading a wiring diagram sounds like fun rather than a chore, and Space Haven if you want colonists you actually remember. Stay on The Crust if you love the specific “moonshot political sim” tone that none of these quite reproduce.
FAQ
What is the best free The Crust alternative? The Crust itself is currently free on Steam. Among the paid alternatives, all go on deep discount several times a year; Planetbase is the cheapest at full price.
Which of these run on Steam Deck? Oxygen Not Included, Surviving Mars, Space Haven and Planetbase all run well. Ixion and Stationeers are heavier and need graphics settings tuned down.
Are any of these single-player only? The Crust, Ixion, Surviving Mars, Planetbase and Aven Colony are single-player. Stationeers and Space Haven both support small-group co-op.
What is the closest game to The Crust in tone? Surviving Mars is the closest tonal match: same “colonise a rock and answer to Earth” framing.
Is The Crust actually finished? The Crust is in Early Access. It gets regular content updates and is playable end-to-end, but the roadmap still lists several major features to come.
