Hacker ApprovedDepartments

Songs of Syx

Shares rank 18 of 21 city builder games by recommenders

Recommended as an accessible, cheap, Dwarf Fortress-style city sim with a passionate developer behind it.

Recommended as an accessible, cheap, Dwarf Fortress-style city sim with a passionate developer behind it.

5 people gave an opinion

recommend it
5
criticize it
0
approval share
100%
Each figure is one person. RecommendsCriticizes

Recommended in 4 of 13 months

  1. November 2025: not recommended
  2. December 2025: not recommended
  3. January 2026: not recommended
  4. February 2026: recommended
  5. March 2026: not recommended
  6. April 2026: recommended
  7. May 2026: not recommended
  8. June 2026: not recommended
  9. July 2026: not recommended
  10. August 2026: recommended
  11. September 2026: not recommended
  12. October 2026: recommended
  13. November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)

Why it doesn’t carry the badge

  • 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
  • Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
  • Recommended in 4 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

Other city builder games people recommend

The four most recommended other city builder 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.

Songs of Syx compared with 4 alternatives
ProductRecommendCriticizeApprovalMonthsOwnedBadge
SimCity 300023292%5—Approved
SimCity 200020774%11—Approved
SimCity201263%9——
Cities: Skylines201853%9——
Songs of SyxThis page50100%4——
See all 21 city builder games, ranked

What people said

All 5 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.

“the games are also cheap . I got Songs of Syx for $25.”

RecommendsComment from 26 Oct 2026 in “America has lost 200k of jobs in media, film and the arts. How much is AI?”

“closer but still too micro”

MixedComment from 20 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: SimCity, but with Permits”

“it really scratches that itch for me and is infinitely more accessible”

RecommendsComment from 30 Aug 2026 on Hacker News

“My favorite games (Factorio, Noita, Song of Syx to name a few) all share in common devs' passion and expertise.”

RecommendsComment from 19 Apr 2026 in “I learned Unity the wrong way”

“It's like DF but multiplied by 100.”

RecommendsComment from 7 Feb 2026 in “OpenCiv3: Open-source, cross-platform reimagining of Civilization III”

Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.