Planetizen has a nice post on city-building games other than SimCity. I’m looking for a birthday gift for a kid who loves Minecraft and is interested enough in science to maybe add a little more hard sci-fi into the mix. The kid of mention is super smart and just not a reader – believe me, I’ve tried. I feel a little guilty giving kids these days more screen-based stuff, but then again I figure birthdays and Christmas are when you give them the things they want that you feel just a little guilty about.

Anyway, two games that are mentioned are Surviving Mars and Aven Colony, both space colony building games, the first looking like pretty hard science and the second more fantasy. These are both on Steam which we already have. From a little more research, Satisfactory is a less serious game but people seem to love it. So I have a bit more thinking to do and a choice to make.