The impending release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has gamers excited about Link's new Fuse ability and how it will compare to other games' building and crafting mechanics. Crafting is an integral part of the modern video gaming landscape, giving players the freedom to get creative. This can range from manipulating a world in the player's own design to making weapons and other items. As long as a game's mechanics allow materials to create a new entity and place it in a world, it is a crafting game.
As crafting is now so popular, plenty of games utilize it as a supporting function to enhance overall gameplay, encouraging exploration to gather the required materials. However, real crafting games have these mechanics front and center, whether crafting to survive or simply to create and thrive.
10 Don't Starve Together
Don't Starve is one of many games to try and stamp their own mark on the survival genre, but it took its later multiplayer expansion, Don't Starve Together, to really get going. In Don't Starve Together, players fight to survive alongside their friends in a randomly-generated world with chaotic roguelike gameplay. Yet, it is the game's crafting and base-building that help it to stand out.
In Don't Starve Together, players can have fun crafting together, from weapons to farming equipment and other items. As with any other survival-crafting game, they will still need the materials and recipes in order to craft more and expand in another example of exciting crafting encouraging graft and exploration.
9 No Man's Sky
No Man's Sky will always be remembered for its disastrous launch in 2016, but it has since earned the right to be given a second chance. Through various fixes, No Man's Sky is now one of the top space-survival games, with players not only exploring a procedurally-generated world but an entire galaxy.
As with any game of this ilk, progression in No Man's Sky isn't possible without gathering resources, crafting, and upgrading equipment. Players can search for and apply blueprints and then craft those upgrades for the ultimate space-exploration experience. No Man's Sky is promoted as a game that transcends the idea of an open-world experience, but this freedom of exploration would not be possible without crafting.
8 Valheim
Survival games have hit another level in the past decade, as the concept is easy enough to push into any number of different scenarios and settings. Rust, Ark, and, most recently, Sons of the Forest have all stood out in their own unique ways, but there is one survival game that trumps them all: Valheim.
Valheim has moved out of early access and onto consoles in 2023, meaning more players now get to experience its vast open world, Viking themes, and sandbox experience. Crafting tools and building shelters is the immediate name of the game, but players have to grow and thrive through creative means if they want to secure their place in Valhalla.
7 Raft
Raft is an open-world survival game that is at its best and most fun when played with friends in multiplayer. Players have to get used to life on the open seas as they look for resources in the hopes of crafting improvements for their raft. Raft does have an ongoing storyline, as the player character searches for their family, but Raft's crafting and base management are what the game is remembered for.
At the start of Raft, players have to be patient in hooking resources, but after time, they can craft, improve, and thrive. The open sea is a refreshing place to build anew, even if sharks are a constant menace in destroying any hard work. Players do still need to tend to their basic needs and are welcome to explore any islands they come across, but crafting and upgrading the raft is the main focus.
6 Rimworld
Rimworld is a sci-fi colony construction and management sim that is rightfully considered to be one of the best indie games of the past decade. Rimworld is all about survival against the odds, starting with the player being stranded on a procedurally-generated planet.
While the immediate object is to keep the survivors alive by any means necessary, crafting is essential to growing and ultimately getting closer to the main goal of leaving the planet. Researching and crafting are not uncommon in simulation games, but they add so much to the Rimworld experience, as survival is simply not possible without the prospect of progress.
5 Factorio
In games like Minecraft, creating farms and other automation devices is beneficial to the player, as they can instead focus their attention elsewhere rather than on manual labor. However, in Factorio, automation is vitally important. At its core, this construction and management sim focuses on locating and harvesting resources in order to invest them in crafting, growing, and expanding.
Even when the player's processes are mostly automated, Factorio is still demanding. Players have to research and craft new ideas, all while having to adapt and consider outside threats that could attack at any moment. They can even craft defensive weapons and traps to help protect the production process.
4 Terraria
Terraria often gets labeled as the 2D Minecraft, which is both a compliment and doing it a disservice at the same time. Terraria was also released in 2011 and has built up a cult following. Terraria takes the concept of a procedurally-generated world and runs with it, as players have to grind their way to better gear and resources, just as with Minecraft.
Terraria is easily one of the best 2D sandbox games out there, as crafting and creativity are encouraged but never take away from the game's combat and real sense of adventure. Crafting weapons and building vertical bases can take some adjusting for those who are used to 3D immersion, like with Minecraft, but it is totally worth it in the end.
3 Starbound
Starbound is an action-adventure game that was released on early access back in 2016, developed by Chucklefish, known for publishing Stardew Valley. Starbound is the classic build-from-the-ground-up game, as the player explores this procedurally-generated sandbox universe.
Unlike Terraria and Minecraft, Starbound does have a compelling story, yet the game's charm still lies in its free-world exploration. Players can get stuck into quests or go and fight monsters, but clearing land and creating a base is also extremely fun. There is a reason why Starbound has been called "Space Terraria," yet it deserves its own credit.
2 Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley is one of the greatest role-playing games of all time. While there are multiple moving parts that have made it such a success, creating and maintaining a farm is the game's central focus. Players can go and explore Pelican Town and beyond, or they can spend their days harvesting, building, and crafting.
As with most other games, crafting allows for growth and expansion, but in Stardew Valley, it unlocks the game's full potential. Stardew Valley was released back in 2016, but due to its global success, there is immense excitement and anticipation for ConcernedApe's next release, Haunted Chocolatier.
1 Minecraft
When Mojang Studios began running testing sessions for Minecraft back in 2009 before a full release in 2011, few could have predicted how huge this game would become. Minecraft has redefined so many genres, from survival and adventure to sandbox, as players are actively encouraged to unleash their creativity in this safe space.
Players are essentially free to do whatever they want in Minecraft, with its Creative Mode and installable mods expanding its horizons and possibilities even further. Simply put, Minecraft is the ultimate crafting game.