Cover of Hard Time

Similar games

Games like Hard Time

2013PCSteam Deck playable89 % positive4.99 €

You build your own convict and try to survive a sprawling prison with twelve areas full of interactive props. You must balance mental health against physical survival while wardens enforce dozens of laws, both inside the walls and in the civilian world outside.

Deep systems to master
Dark, serious atmosphere
Challenging difficulty

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More in these topics: Survival games

The closest matches for Hard Time are Dwarf Fortress, Plague Inc: Evolved and Dwarf Fortress. Each of these 10 games shares something of what makes Hard Time special – the reasons are listed right on each game.

In short: games like Hard Time

Best alternative overall: Dwarf Fortress 80% match – Deep systems to master
Newest alternative: Shadows of Forbidden Gods 77% match – released 2023

Best match

Dwarf Fortress

80 %Match

2022PCSteam Deck playable94 % positive30.49 €

You build and manage a dwarven fortress in a deeply simulated world where every dwarf has its own personality and every system interacts. Watch your civilization decline and use the lessons for your next attempt.

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Plague Inc: Evolved

Realistic visuals

You evolve a pathogen with the goal of wiping out humanity while governments worldwide scramble to respond. A clever strategy simulation where every mutation and spread decision determines whether you win or fail.

Dwarf Fortress

Deep systems to master

An immensely deep simulation where you build and manage a dwarven fortress or roam a procedurally generated, persistent world as an adventurer. Its interlocking systems produce chaotic, memorable stories, though the learning curve is notoriously steep.

Drug Dealer Simulator

Realistic visuals

You build a small drug empire as a street dealer: find customers, source product, weigh prices and risks, and dodge police and rivals. A niche business simulator with a gritty urban atmosphere.

Green Hell

Realistic visuals

A punishing jungle survival sim set in the Amazon that tracks nutrition, infections, parasites and wounds alongside your character's fraying sanity. A dark story campaign and a co-op mode round it out.

Shadows of Forbidden Gods

Deep systems to master

A dark fantasy strategy simulation where you aim to end the world, sending covert agents across a living map to scheme, perform rituals, spread plague and summon horrors.

Crusader Kings II

Realistic visuals

A medieval grand strategy game where you guide a dynasty rather than a nation across generations, navigating marriages, succession crises, plots and assassinations. Its systems generate memorable, often darkly absurd emergent stories.

Crusader Kings III

Deep systems to master

A grand strategy role-playing game where you steer a medieval dynasty across generations through marriage, scheming, diplomacy and war. Characters, chance and power struggles constantly produce your own emergent, often chaotic stories.

UnReal World

Realistic visuals

An extremely detailed roguelike survival simulator set in Iron Age Finland, where you freely live as a hunter, fisherman, trader or hermit. Realism and immersion come before comfort, and the learning curve is steep.

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead

Deep systems to master

An enormously deep open-source survival roguelike in a post-apocalyptic New England where you juggle hunger, illness and zombies, build vehicles and shelters, and carve out your own goals with no fixed objective.

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