# RimWorld

19 Hacker News commenters recommended RimWorld and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended for emergent storytelling, dense generated worlds and deep mod support. Critics note weak procedural generation and some regressions after the 1.7 move.

## Why people recommend it

- Emergent stories and colony drama (5 comments): "You'll keep discovering creative new ways for your colony to die for years." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50035179)) "I turn more to story generators like Rimworld and DF" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46441775)) "These days I do my war crimes in Rimworld" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48507723))
- Dense generated worlds and characters (2 comments): "they generate pretty dense worlds with plenty of lore and things to see" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49335311)) "solves that by generating personalities" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49639525))
- Long-running development and mod support (2 comments): "very mod-friendly and b) in continued development for more than 10 years already" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47590900)) "continuing to make popular DLCs for a 12-year-old game" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45979798))
- Faster loading after engine move (2 comments): "nothing was broken any more than it was in 1.6, at least.) -- and it loaded much faster." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50072603)) "essentially double performance and cut load times to a quarter of what they were" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50064077))

## What people warn about

- Procedural generation shows its weaknesses (1 comments): "While fun this has made the procedural generation show its weaknesses." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47322514))
- Migration introduced some regressions (1 comments): "Migration took one night and introduced only a dozen regressions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50098805))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Dwarf Fortress](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dwarf-fortress.md): 74 recommend
- [Airport Simulator](https://hackerapproved.com/p/airport-simulator.md): 41 recommend
- [Firewood Splitting Simulator](https://hackerapproved.com/p/firewood-splitting-simulator.md): 32 recommend
- [RollerCoaster Tycoon](https://hackerapproved.com/p/rollercoaster-tycoon.md): 21 recommend
- [Train SIM](https://hackerapproved.com/p/train-sim.md): 19 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://rimworldgame.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "RimWorld", https://hackerapproved.com/p/rimworld/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).