Cosy Town Building Games on Mobile and PC
Eleven games about putting little houses in nice places, for anyone who finished Townscaper or Islanders and wanted more.
- 11 games
- One of them mine
- Prices checked 8 Nov 2026
There’s a kind of game I keep going back to where nothing is attacking you and nobody is in a hurry. You put a house down, it looks nice, you put another one next to it. Townscaper and Islanders are the famous ones, and after them it gets surprisingly hard to find more that feel the same.
So here are eleven. Some are pure toys with no goal at all, some give you a score to chase, and a couple are proper little city builders with money to manage. I’ve said which is which, because “cosy” covers a lot of ground. And since most lists like this forget phones exist, I’ve marked which ones you can play on iPhone and Android. Honestly, there aren’t many.
One of them is mine and isn’t out yet. It’s at the top because this is my website and I’m allowed, but it’s labelled, and the rest are on here on merit.
If you only read one bit
- Most like Townscaper Tiny Glade You just want to fiddle with something lovely
- Most like Islanders ISLANDERS: New Shores You want Islanders on your phone
- Best on a phone Townscaper You want a toy, not a game
- Most to manage Pocket City 2 You want a proper little city with money to manage
I made this one, so I’m biased
1. Tidewell
Pomo Games (me)
- PC
- Mac
- iOS
- Android
Price Not out yet, no price yet. You can wishlist it on Steam
Pick it if you care more about the people than the buildings.
This one’s mine, it isn’t out, and I’m obviously biased, so read accordingly. Tidewell is a seaside town game where you’re the new mayor of a run-down cove. You build houses, shops and jetties along the shore, and people move in. The part I care most about is them: they keep their own routines, write you letters with things they’d like, and remember whether you did anything about it.
It’s more of a life game than Townscaper. Between building there’s gardening, cooking, mending furniture and sewing, and the tide goes in and out twice a day. There’s money and there are taxes, but I’m trying hard to keep it feeling like looking after a place rather than doing spreadsheets. It’s coming to PC, Mac and phones, and there’s no date yet.
Best on a phone
2. Townscaper
Oskar Stålberg (published by Raw Fury)
- iOS
- Android
- PC
- Mac
- Switch
Price £4.99 on iOS and Steam, £4.49 on Google Play (also in Play Pass)
Pick it if you want a toy, not a game.
The one everyone means. You click coloured blocks onto a wobbly grid over the sea, and the game works out what they should be: stack a few and you get a tower, leave a gap and you get an arch, surround a space and a little garden appears. There’s no goal, no score and no way to lose. The developer calls it more of a toy than a game, and that’s exactly right. It’s also one of the few on this list that’s properly at home on a phone.
3. ISLANDERS
GrizzlyGames, Coatsink and Stage Clear Studios
- PC
- Mac
- Switch
Price £4.79 on Steam
Pick it if you like chasing a high score.
The other one everyone means, and it’s actually a puzzle wearing a town builder’s clothes. You get a handful of buildings, and each one scores points depending on what’s around it. Score enough and you get more buildings, and eventually a fresh island. Run out of buildings and the run is over. It’s small and it’s clean and it’s very easy to play “one more island” at midnight.
Most like Islanders
4. ISLANDERS: New Shores
The Station (published by Coatsink and Thunderful)
- iOS
- Android
- PC
- Mac
- Switch
Price £7.99 on Steam, £4.99 on iOS and Android (no ads, nothing to buy inside)
Pick it if you want Islanders on your phone.
The 2025 follow-up keeps the same idea and adds 50 levels, 44 kinds of building and a few new scoring rules (some buildings care what they can see, some care how far away things are). The big change for me is the sandbox mode, so you can just build without the score. On phones it’s called ISLANDERS: Mobile, and it plays offline with no ads.
Most to manage
5. Pocket City 2
Codebrew Games
- iOS
- Android
- PC
- Mac
Price £4.99 on iOS, £4.89 on Google Play (also in Play Pass), £5.89 on Steam
Pick it if you want a proper little city with money to manage.
The most “city builder” game here. You zone homes, shops and industry, run roads and power, set taxes, and deal with the odd tornado. What makes it friendly is that you can drop a little person into your city and walk, drive or fly around it. There’s a sandbox mode if you’d rather not worry about money, and no in-app purchases. If you want something cosy with a bit more to manage, this is it.
6. Teeny Tiny Town
Short Circuit Studio
- iOS
- Android
- PC
- Mac
- Switch
Price Free on phones (Google Play lists ads and in-app purchases), £5.89 on Steam
Pick it if you like merge puzzles.
Less a town builder, more a merge puzzle that grows a town. Put three trees together and they become a house, put three houses together and you get a bigger one, and so on. The board slowly fills, and when there’s no room left the game ends. There are no timers. If what you liked about Islanders was the puzzle, this is a good one to try next.
7. Dorfromantik
Toukana Interactive
- PC
- Mac
- Switch
Price £10.99 on Steam
Pick it if you like board games and laying tiles.
You draw hexagon tiles one at a time (forest, fields, villages, rivers, railways) and fit them together so the edges match. Little quests ask for things like a forest of a certain size, and finishing them gives you more tiles. When the stack runs out, that’s the end of the game. It’s gentle, it looks lovely, and it has that Islanders feeling of chasing a slightly better score next time. Not on phones, sadly.
Most like Townscaper
8. Tiny Glade
Pounce Light
- PC
- Mac
- Linux
Price £12.79 on Steam
Pick it if you just want to fiddle with something lovely.
If Townscaper is the toy, Tiny Glade is the deluxe version of the toy. You draw walls and paths in a little meadow and the game fills in the bricks, windows, doors and ivy. Draw a path into a house and a door appears where it meets the wall. There are no goals and no way to fail. It’s small in scope, more a castle or a cottage than a whole town, but it’s the nicest thing to fiddle with on this list.
9. SUMMERHOUSE
Friedemann (published by Future Friends Games)
- PC
- Mac
- Switch
Price £3.99 on Steam
Pick it if you want Townscaper with more say over the details.
One person made this, and it shows in a good way. You build a single street of houses piece by piece (walls, roofs, balconies, washing lines) by the sea, in a city or up a mountain. You can’t win or lose. It’s short and cheap, and it scratches the Townscaper itch with more control over the details.
10. Before We Leave
Balancing Monkey Games (published by Team17)
- PC
- Mac
- Switch
Price £15.99 on Steam (often on sale)
Pick it if you want something bigger to sink into.
The biggest game here. It’s a real resource-chain city builder on hex islands, where you keep your little people fed and happy, ship goods between islands and eventually between planets. What keeps it cosy is that there’s no combat and no rival towns, just the odd giant space whale to plan around. Go for this one if the others are too slight for you.
11. Cloud Gardens
Noio
- PC
- Mac
- Switch
Price £14.49 on Steam
Pick it if you like plants more than houses.
This is cheating slightly, because you don’t build a town, you let plants take one over. Each level is a little diorama of abandoned city stuff (bus stops, cars, fences), and you plant seeds and place more junk until everything is covered in green. There’s a sandbox mode too. It belongs here because it has the same small-diorama, nobody-rushing-you feeling as Townscaper.
Games like Townscaper
If you want the no-goal, just-build feeling, go for Tiny Glade, SUMMERHOUSE and Cloud Gardens’ sandbox mode. Tiny Glade is the closest, and SUMMERHOUSE is the cheapest. On a phone there isn’t really anything else like it, so ISLANDERS: New Shores in sandbox mode is the nearest you’ll get.
Games like Islanders
If what you liked was placing things for points, go for ISLANDERS: New Shores first, then Dorfromantik, then Teeny Tiny Town. All three give you a limited supply of pieces and end when it runs out.
How I picked these
Everything here is low-pressure: no combat, no armies, nothing burning your town down while you’re making a cup of tea. That ruled out a lot of good city builders (Kingdoms and Castles has dragons and plague, for a start). I also left out Terra Nil, which used to be on phones through Netflix and isn’t any more.
I checked every platform, price and link against the official store pages on 8 November 2026. Prices change and games get pulled, so if something here is wrong, tell me on the contact page.
Questions
What are some games like Townscaper?
Tiny Glade is the closest: you draw walls and paths and it adds the detail, with no goals. SUMMERHOUSE is a cheaper, smaller one about building a single street. ISLANDERS: New Shores has a sandbox mode and is on phones as well as PC.
Which cosy town building games are on mobile?
Townscaper, ISLANDERS: New Shores (called ISLANDERS: Mobile on phones), Pocket City 2 and Teeny Tiny Town are all on iPhone and Android. Tidewell is coming to both too.
Is Islanders on mobile?
The original ISLANDERS isn’t, but its follow-up, ISLANDERS: New Shores, came to iPhone and Android in November 2025 as ISLANDERS: Mobile.
Are there town building games with no fail state?
Yes. Townscaper, Tiny Glade and SUMMERHOUSE have no way to lose at all, and Pocket City 2 and ISLANDERS: New Shores both have sandbox modes.
Tidewell
A seaside town where you’re the mayor and the people write to you. It’s coming to PC, Mac, iPhone and Android. Wishlisting on Steam is the best way to hear when it’s out, and it genuinely helps.
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