5 best creative games like Minecraft

Minecraft has been the undisputed king of video games since it was released more than a decade ago, and for good reason. The initial fervor for the game’s explorative and creative gameplay grew into a dedicated community of gamers that molded Minecraft into new and exciting ways of playing the game, whether through servers or through in-game challenges like manhunts or parkour maps.

If you’re a fan of the expansive world of Minecraft, then there are a few more games that you should try. These games are either directly inspired by the quality of Minecraft’s gameplay or have created an experience that’s very close to the simple yet enjoyable Minecraft.

5 best creative games like Minecraft

1) Terasology

Terasology (Image credits: Terasology.org)

Born from a Minecraft-inspired tech demo, Terasology is an expansive voxel-based open-source game, which allows players to play with all sorts of settings to create their own unique gameplay experience.

The basic gameplay resembles Minecraft a lot, with elements such as exploration, crafting, and building. In terms of aesthetics though, Terasology takes things a notch up by using much cleaner and more realistic textures, which can also be attained in Minecraft by using the perfect texture packs and shaders.

2) Space Engineers

Space Engineers (Image credits: RockPaperShotgun)

Space Engineers is about exploring, crafting, and building in space. With a procedurally generated world, the game’s world is also technically infinite, much like Minecraft.

The gameplay of Space Engineers allows you to explore the unlimited space and mine minerals, collect resources, and craft materials in order to build. The game has both creative and survival modes, following the same pattern as Minecraft. Construction in the game can be done by placing blocks in the open space and building new structures.

3) Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley (Image credits: Humble Bundle)

If you’re a Minecraft player who loves the simple life in the game, mostly focusing on exploration, mining, building, and farming, then you’ll love Stardew Valley.

Stardew Valley is a game that gives the player a plot of land that they must restore and begin farming on. As the game progresses, the player can also interact with NPCs and even get married and have another set of hands helping you tend the farm! Not just that, the game also has caves and tunnels which can be explored to mine minerals and metals.

4) Ark: Survival Evolved

Ark Survival Evolved (Image credits: VentureBeat)

Ark Survival Evolved is a great alternative to Minecraft if you love exploring, mining, crafting, and building. Ark does have a more brutal challenge when it comes to survival because the world of Ark is infested with dinosaurs that will try to kill you until you find a way to tame them and make your own dino army.

Ark also has both PvP and PvE servers, in which there are plenty of active players with whom you can either play cooperatively or attack them, take down their base, and their army of dinosaurs.

5) Eco

Eco (Image credits: Games4Sustainability)

Eco is a game about building and sustaining an entire world, without having to worry about any kind of monsters or mobs that will attack you.

However, there is a meteor that is coming to destroy the life on your planet and you must advance your technology enough to deal with the threat. However, while advancing, an important point of focus is to maintain a sustainable lifestyle so as to not damage your planet beyond repair. Eco has beautiful biomes and so much opportunity to build and create, a feature that will remind you of Minecraft.