RimWorld
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 5 of 14 simulation games by recommenders
Recommended for emergent storytelling, dense generated worlds and deep mod support. Critics note weak procedural generation and some regressions after the 1.7 move.
Recommended for emergent storytelling, dense generated worlds and deep mod support. Critics note weak procedural generation and some regressions after the 1.7 move.
20 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 19
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 95%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 19 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 19 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Emergent stories and colony drama
“You'll keep discovering creative new ways for your colony to die for years.”
Comment from 10 Oct 2026 in “Triple-A Minesweeper” “I turn more to story generators like Rimworld and DF”
Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “Outside, Dungeon, Town: Integrating the Three Places in Videogames (2024)” “These days I do my war crimes in Rimworld”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “Malware developers added nuclear and biological weapons text to to their spyware” - Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “Game design is simple”
- Comment from 29 Aug 2026 in “What we want is a hunter gatherer lifestyle with space age tools (2022)”
Dense generated worlds and characters
“they generate pretty dense worlds with plenty of lore and things to see”
Comment from 17 Aug 2026 in “My Ten Years in No Man's Sky” “solves that by generating personalities”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “No Man's Sky Cosmos” Long-running development and mod support
“very mod-friendly and b) in continued development for more than 10 years already”
Comment from 31 Mar 2026 on Hacker News “continuing to make popular DLCs for a 12-year-old game”
Comment from 19 Nov 2025 in “The Cities Skylines Paradox: how the sequel stumbled” Faster loading after engine move
“nothing was broken any more than it was in 1.6, at least.) -- and it loaded much faster.”
Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “RimWorld 1.7 moves from Unity to Ludeon's in-house Waylith engine” “essentially double performance and cut load times to a quarter of what they were”
Comment from 12 Oct 2026 in “RimWorld 1.7 moves from Unity to Ludeon's in-house Waylith engine”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Procedural generation shows its weaknesses
“While fun this has made the procedural generation show its weaknesses.”
Comment from 10 Mar 2026 in “Building a Procedural Hex Map with Wave Function Collapse” Migration introduced some regressions
“Migration took one night and introduced only a dozen regressions”
Comment from 15 Oct 2026 in “RimWorld 1.7 moves from Unity to Ludeon's in-house Waylith engine”
Other simulation games people recommend
The four most recommended other simulation games, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dwarf Fortress | 74 | 29 | 72% | 12 | 11 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| Airport Simulator | 41 | 8 | 84% | 1 | — | — |
| Firewood Splitting Simulator | 32 | 11 | 74% | 1 | — | — |
| RollerCoaster Tycoon | 21 | 0 | 100% | 8 | — | Approved |
| RimWorldThis page | 19 | 1 | 95% | 9 | — | Approved |
What people said
20 of the 22 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Migration took one night and introduced only a dozen regressions”
“nothing was broken any more than it was in 1.6, at least.) -- and it loaded much faster.”
“set themselves up for making it portable from the start via some good old fashion thinking”
“essentially double performance and cut load times to a quarter of what they were”
“You'll keep discovering creative new ways for your colony to die for years.”
“with much lower details in graphics / looking less realistic, feels much more like it has a soul”
“solves that by generating personalities”
“I found exactly the discovery fulfilling in Dwarf Fortress, Rimworld and Minecraft.”
“i like breaking bad in RimWorld”
“Many of the best games - Rimworld, Dwarf Fortress, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Starcraft, Simcity - all automate their background tedium”
“You can sort of play either syndicate or syndicate wars in rimworld with right set of mods.”
“they generate pretty dense worlds with plenty of lore and things to see”
“Impressive games in their own right”
“These days I do my war crimes in Rimworld”
“And so many more games are just like this!”
“very mod-friendly and b) in continued development for more than 10 years already”
“While fun this has made the procedural generation show its weaknesses.”
“I turn more to story generators like Rimworld and DF”
“continuing to make popular DLCs for a 12-year-old game”
“Both are procedural story writers.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.