Ashen City

Cover art © rutpt1, via itch.io

Introduction

Ashen City is a top-down pixel-art simulation from developer rutpt1 about watching a ruined world rebuild itself. Survivors scavenge weapons from the streets, hunt deer, fish in ponds, and raise children while zombies spread by biting the living. Wolves hunt everyone, but some packs can become dogs that stay with people. From day seven, groups form nations, set up tents, declare wars, and send raids toward rival capitals. Each map is generated with ruined city, forest, desert dunes, ponds, and occasional volcanic eruptions. You can simply observe the ecosystem as it unfolds, or use god tools to intervene: place survivors, zombies, deer, wolves, dogs, or fish, or trigger meteors, fire, nukes, volcanoes, forests, and rain. Wildfires, helpful rain, day and night cycles, shifting birth rates, multiple speeds, and an orchestral score accompany the simulation. Three survivor AI levels can change how stories end. The game is playable in English, Korean, and Spanish.

Games like Ashen City

• WorldBox - God Simulator: Shared god-game sandbox where you watch factions and creatures interact.
• RimWorld: Shared focus on survivors, raids, animals, and emergent colony stories.
• Dwarf Fortress: Shared procedural world simulation with emergent factions and wildlife.

Similar picks are based on the public description and tags, not playtesting.

Who it is for

Good fit if you are:

• God-game sandbox fans
• Zombie survival sim fans
• Procedural-world tinkerers

Highlights

• Randomized maps with city, forest, desert, ponds, and volcanoes
• God tools to spawn species and trigger disasters
• Nations form from day 7 and raid rivals
• Three survivor AI levels affect outcomes
• English, Korean, and Spanish language support

Screenshots

Questions about Ashen City