Max and Anne are two very different young people, but they've both found themselves at the same college in the same student housing. Your choices will determine their lives, grades, and even their love-life in this funny, light-hearted, and addictive visual novel simulation!

Life is slow in Banished, the civilization-building simulation from one-man indie studio Shining Rock Software, but it's anything but easy. It's up to you to take your tiny settlement of cast-out villagers and slowly build up their home in the wilderness into a sprawling civilization. Just watch out for winter. And typhoons. And famine. And cholera. And your own impatience and lack of planning.

Ever wanted your own zoo but were concerned it didn't have enough swanky funk style? NimbleBit, the creators of Pocket Planes, along with Milkbag Games (featuring Matt Rix of Trainyard fame) know that feeling all too well. Disco Zoo is a casual puzzle and simulation game that combines simple logic diversions with too-cute visuals that's perfect for mobile devices. Pick up and play, put it down and party.

Nevosoft comes roaring back with My Kingdom for the Princess IV, a fun and frantic time management game that is faster, more furious, and more rescue-y, with 50% more dragons! My Kingdom for the Princess IV retains all of the fun of the first three games with the exciting new additions that keep the gameplay fresh.

Improving its UI and crafting system while adding new worlds and creatures to contend with, this sequel to 2012's hit Motherload-esque mining simulation takes you to all new alien planets as you control a lost robot scrounging for supplies to repair and upgrade himself in a wide variety of ways.

To stop an evil deity, you'll have to empower your own and hold off swarms of increasingly powerful enemies in this real-time strategy defense from Little Giant World. Scores of upgrades and abilities plus some clever ideas make for fun and help smooth out the rougher of the rough edges.

Louissi's latest real-time strategy sim strikes a balance between casual and complex. As the last of a powerful nation, it's up to you to ensure you bloodline and build an empire to stand against the dark force. Gather resources, hire and train soldiers, and build a sprawling territory of farms, houses, and more.

Raise a great empire in CivClicker! You start with a single farmer living in a tent, but will soon be dealing with hundreds of different workers living in mansions. Though you can leave the clicktoy open in your browser to gain the resources you need to survive and multiply, you'll want to check back often to manage your resources and send your soldiers out to raid.

The sun hangs unmoving in the sky, and the threat of the creatures known as the dredge puts even more strain on an uneasy truce between the humans and the giants known as varl. In this stunning and challenging turn-based strategic RPG/visual novel, the choices you make determines who lives and dies as you take an epic journey that will change the face of the world and the people who live in it.

Little Giant World delivers a simple but dangerously addictive little simulation in the vein of Mega Mall Story as you build a chain of towering shopping centers that span the globe. Hire and train staff, deal with celebrities and burglars alike, and unlike everything from supermarkets to tattoo parlors to keep your customers happy and your pockets full.

Your kingdom needs you! In this unexpected follow-up to Lucidrine's 2010 game, you take control of a new academy created to develop and train students into the heroes the land needs. Though perhaps too simple and repetitive for some, a stunning visual style and casually engaging gameplay make it well worth checking out.

Choice of the Deathless combines the rich, imaginative gameplay of the classic all text adventures of yesteryear and fuses them with the evocative and fully-realized world of Max Gladstone's novels.

When you're related to the King of All Cosmos, you might expect some preferential treatment, but acting out (even accidentally) still lands you in detention in this bizarre visual novel dating simulation chock full of strange characters from Namco Bandai and Homestock! With six free characters to interact with and twelve more available via microtransaction if you wish, it's funny, clever, and unexpectedly touching.

Help a ragtag group survive the holidays in their zombie apocalypse world in Infectonator Survivors: Christmas, a special build of the upcoming real time strategy spin-off of Toge Productions' popular series. A fun, if unpolished stocking stuffer that will get gamers ready for the big-ticket gift on the way.

Inspired by Candy Box!, gamehelp16's oddball clicktoy starts out slow as you toil in a factory producing gold bars, but make enough (and please your boss) and you'll discover there's an entire world of secrets, surprises, challenges and puzzles out there to uncover!

There are 7.1 billion Christmas presents that need wrapping, and the only one who can do it is... you! In this Cookie Clicker-esque Christmas webtoy, make and wrap presents, hire elves, and expand your facility to make sure Christmas comes to everyone!

The wildly popular Papa's series of simulations gets exotic with this addictive new installment! Serve up pasta to order to some very picky townsfolk, carefully cooking and arranging each ingredient, and upgrading your restaurant over time with new recipes, equipment, and much more!

Night Rider Turbo is an action driving game by Sos Soskowski where your car is going to fall apart. It's just a matter of time. So how far can you get in delaying the inevitable? One of those unique, gimmicky games that you'll somehow play through twenty times over the course of a week.

Chucklefish's hotly anticipated indie sci-fi sandbox sim finally reaches playable beta. Fight, mine, craft, and explore your way, along or with friends, through a boundless procedurally generated universe aboard your own spaceship. When each planet has its own randomly created monsters and environments, you never know what you'll find.

Once again that cold, dark room beckons, this time in a handy, portable version that allows the addictive gameplay to follow you everywhere as you explore the unknown. Part sim, part adventure, gameplay choices expand and unfold as you play, and all from such humble beginnings... a fire that needs to be fed.

Designed to be played whenever you have a spare minute, this casual simulation tasks you with building and expanding your own kingdom from the ground up in real time. Though it does have optional microtransactions, piles of bonuses, special events, things to create, and more, it offers a ton of things to do without spending a dime and boasts a gorgeous design to boot.

Life aboard a space station... it's both more exciting and more normal than you might think! In this unique indie simulation, you'll manage your personal and professional life by interacting with friends, co-workers, and maybe even lovers on Spacebook while you increase your skills... but what could that mysterious countdown be about?

Star Wars: Tiny Death Star is what happens when LucasArts and NimbleBit conspire to steal all of your time. A casual simulation game at its core, Tiny Death Star is essentially a Star Wars-themed Tiny Tower with a handful of new features and some tweaks to the basic gameplay. Despite having an overzealous in-app purchasing system (don't panic when you see the prices in there), it still manages to hold onto that "just one more minute" style of gameplay that will occupy your brain even when you're not playing the game.

Nicole's just started college, but the recent kidnappings of young women mean she has more to worry about than her grades. The school seems to present opportunities to make a lot of friends (and maybe more!) but who can she trust, and is anyone really what they seem in this engaging visual novel?

The XBLA indie zombie survival simulation comes to PC. Blending action and adventure with RPG elements, surviving after the end of the world strands you in a remote mountain town with limited resources is harder than you'd think. Gather unique survivors with distinct personalities and build and upgrade your facilities, trading with nearby stragglers and surviving day to night against an increasing variety of the undead.

First we managed a skycraper in Tiny Tower. Then we tried our hands at air traffic control in Pocket Planes. Now NimbleBit is turning us into train magnates with their newest simulation game, Pocket Trains, and it's just as brilliant and well-balanced as any of their other games.

Zombies and Cheepies and Succubbi, oh my! It's so tough being a landlord in the mythical 21st century. You have to contend with groups of creatures who can't stand each other, and everyone has constant demands. On top of that you have groups of adventurers who want only to steal your hard-earned money. This storyline is the genius behind Petit Depotto's simulation/defense hybrid, Unholy Heights. Be you a hard-nosed landlord or a more gentle, giving one doesn't matter as long as they fight your enemies at your every beck and call.

Welcome back to the hapless kingdom with the snooty king in Royal Envoy: Campaign for the Crown, the third in Playrix Entertainment's wildly popular time management simulation games. For fans of the genre, this is unique and challenging entertainment and the answer to the eternal question: what do you do with a drunken sailor? In this game, you pay him. Lots.

Plunked into a 2D, side-scrolling world randomly generated and populated with dangerous dungeons, and you'll need to smash, stab, dig, and otherwise destroy your environment to gather the supplies you'll need to craft and survive day-to-day. Turns out in a great battle, the kingdom was destroyed and all its people carted off to dungeons, and only you can save them.

Who needs a real doctor when you can give Dr. Payne a call? The unconventional surgeon "simulation" series from Adult Swim is back, retooled for mobile devices and featuring some new devices, new patients, and plenty of medical drama. Amateur Surgeon 3: Tag Team Trauma sticks you in the operating room with tools like a stapler, a pizza cutter, a chainsaw, and some crazy-cool healing gel. Using your, uh, medical knowhow, you'll patch up patient after patient with the greatest of ease!

Lucas Pope delivers a bleak dystopian thriller in the form of a simulation in this game where you play a newly assigned border agent to the first immigration checkpoint opened in your rigidly controlled country in years. As restrictions rise and tensions mount, checking documents for accuracy and forgery becomes harder... especially when you find yourself forced to juggle the health and well being of your family against your own humanity.

When we say 'Love Hotel', we don't mean some tawdry motel off the highway. We mean luxurious themed suites, haute cuisine and state of the art hot tubs. Well, eventually, anyway. Love Hotel is a mischievous, fun-loving management simulation in which you strive to get the coveted six stars by constantly improving your services and catering to your passionate customers' needs.

Instead of being forced to run the new business because Papa is a lazy jerk, this time you're working off a debt. As if making cupcakes to order fast food style weren't inherently hilarious and difficult enough, in addition to cranky customers, batters, frosting and more, you've also got the changing seasons to contend with... and the holidays they bring!

Whether you're a die-hard sports fan or not, Kairosoft's latest free mobile simulation deserves its chance to charm you, and will probably do so with ease. Create and micro-manage your own soccer team both on and off the field, and compete against the game, or even other players world-wide... and hire team members from them! Easily accessible and yet packed with a ton of details for unexpectedly deep strategy, it's a fantastic game that's satisfying to play and hard to keep your hands off of.

Well, Mission-Control Guy. You've screwed up a mission before. But now, with an asteroid headed towards Earth, NASA has decided to give you A Second Chance, in a space simulation by Major Bueno. While the "press the buttons in the right order" gameplay probably couldn't be sustained in a longer work, the high amount of easter egg clickables and subtle jokes makes A Second Chance a hilarious minigame.

Want to take Mojang's wildly popular sandbox building simulation with you wherever you go? As long as you have an iOS or Android device you can! Though lacking a lot of the content from its desktop edition and multiplayer capability, Pocket Edition is a great way to get your diggy-diggy-hole on whenever you want, or just get your feet wet if you want to find out what all the fuss is about.

A Dark Room will run quietly by itself in a tab in your browser with only minimal interaction at first. There's just you, the dark, dwindling wood, and a fire to stoke. But what might that light attract? What could you build if you dared venture the cold quiet outdoors? With gameplay that will remind you of Candy Box! but a decidedly creepier, more intriguing bent to go with simulation and adventure, A Dark Room is well worth checking out.

Greedy Grub is a freemium town building game from Pixowl with gorgeous artwork and gameplay that's just left of the norm. It immediately captivates you with its tale of a cute orange grub falling out of a tree, and every character you meet afterwards is just as quirky and lovable. Layer on top of that an honestly entertaining collection-centric gameplay mechanic and you've got the perfect recipe for an addictive mobile game.

Frozen Synapse puts you in control of a squad of armed troops and gives you the ability to precisely map out their actions and movements. Once you have settled on a game plan, you and your enemy's commands are then played out simultaneously in real time (the game's defining feature) and hopefully the resulting encounter leaves you with more men standing than the other guy.

Raise money to save a forest from being cut down. It's a good cause so it should be easy, right? Wrong! Pick up your trusty clipboard and beat the streets talking to people and trying to stir them into donating to meet your goals. But be warned... getting people to open their wallets is harder than you think when your confidence, trust, charisma, and even job is on the line in this unique simulation/arcade game.

Maybe you've always wanted to own a farm. Maybe you don't know you want one. Maybe you're wondering what it's like to manage a farm in a desert. In any case, try TV Farm 2, a time-management simulation which puts your agricultural prowess to the test. You'll take part in a reality show where you grow crops and dabble in the production of everything from ice cream to teddy bears in five quite unconventional locations, all in hopes of winning the grand prize: a farm to call your own.

Welcome about your starship, commander. It may not have much going for it right now, but it's yours. With time, training, and diligence, you could turn it into a credit to Star Command's fleet... provided, of course, you don't get caught up in a deadly web of conspiracy and intrigue that could spell your demise. A challenging and addictive sci-fi simulation strategy game packed with gorgeous pixel art.

Your butler Austin has decided to visit his parents and you are tagging along. His old home is in dire need of renovation, and that's where you come in. In this hybrid between hidden-object and time-management gameplay, you will organise a series of junk sales to raise money and restore the garden to its former glory, as well as help Austin revisit dear memories of his childhood.

A girl, a guy, and an after-school get together that could turn into something more. Sounds familiar, right? Wrong! Made in just two days, this short and silly but also surprisingly earnest little visual novel dating sim is weird in all the best possible ways.

Rejoice, because Little Giant World has brought us a delightful new resort management simulation, and we can finally put away the exquisitely-detailed dollhouses and model train sets of yesteryear. Between upgrading your rooms, adding new facilities and making sure everything's being well-maintained, Resort Empire is hours of absorbing fun for any resource management fan interested in crafting the perfect life for their virtual townsfolk.

Months after the tournament that decided Kurestal Kingdom's next ruler, one of the knights sacrifices his life to save the new king. In The King's League: Odyssey, the sequel to Kurechii's popular game from 2011, you manage a team of fighters who are looking to fill the job opening.

Don Diego is back in the second installment of the Adelantado trilogy. Explore vast maps while you build structures to produce the resources you need to continue your expedition. Manage your resources carefully if you want to finish the level before your rival! Collect treasure and artifacts along the way, as you rescue survivors and interact with the natives.

A prince, a troll, a wizard and a dwarf walk into a bar... No, wait, they walk into a kingdom. Ballad of Solar is a resource management game in which you are Solar, the intrepid prince determined to save his fiancée from the clutches of a sinister sorcerer. With the help of a few of your loyal subjects and friends, you will overcome obstacles, rebuild the land and vanquish evil, all the while having heaps of fun.

A False Saint, An Honest Rogue, and one very cold adventurer. Created by Jeremiah Reid for the Seven Day Roguelike (7DRL) competition, this unusual game mixes survival and roguelike elements in a strange and often confusing way. But that's why we like it! You're out in the cold, you're freezing, you're starving, and you have to survive. Sounds fairly ordinary until you factor in the fact that you're going a bit mad from the chill, and many things you think you see don't make much sense at all. There's just one thing on your mind: go west.

Ninjas have to have a place to live, just like the rest of us. They also have to have jobs and food and money and footpaths and cherry trees to look at. Fortunately, the simple life of a farmer ninja doesn't preclude raids on nearby towns, which is precisely why Kairosoft's mobile simulation game Ninja Village is so fantastic.

It's a monster's life for you in this casual yet engaging indie simulation from Dejobaan Games! Going from a lowly morsel swimming in a vat of goop to (potentially) a respected elder that can influence the course of history, it's a whimsical, weird, and occasionally gross cross between a choose-your-own-adventure story and a visual novel that offers lots of replay value and laughs.

Straight from Nitreal Games comes a spring-rific take on the building time management game in Gardens Inc.: From Rakes to Riches. Play as a young college graduate intent on helping her grandparents keep their villa from the clutches of the local evil entrepreneur. (How they've come to owe him $1000000, you're never quite sure.) Plant plants! Water plants! Fix water features! And other landscape/construction stuff! All under the watchful eye of a timer, which is the only thing standing between you and your coveted gold status. Spruce up the town and win the local gardening contest to pay off your grandparents' debt!

Currently in playable alpha version, Avant-Garde is a narrative simulation/RPG where you play a burgeoning artist in the Paris art scene of the 19th century. Create your own artwork to sell or display in Le Salon, rub elbows with famed artists such as Manet, Monet, Picasso and Dali, and learn more about art history as you participate in impressionism, surrealism or even create your own art movements. While still incomplete, there is already much here to satisfy both the gamer and artist in you.

Everyone likes to think they'd be a leader and a hero if a zombie apocalypse started, but this surprisingly challenging indie strategy sim proves it's not that simple. Take control of a group of five extremely different survivors who may or may not hate each other and make them work together to eventually escape the city... if you can keep them away from each other's throats. With randomisation of characters and locations, as well as a user-friendly content creation system, there's endless replayability to be had.

Destiny works in unexpected ways, and Heileen, a young girl in the 17th century who has always longed for adventure, is about to find her life and her future turned upside down when her uncle takes her on a voyage to the new world. In this big indie visual novel series from veteran developer Winter Wolves, the choices you make will shape not only Heileen's life, with romance and peril on the horizon from all directions, but Heileen herself as well.

Work with other players to cooperatively end the frosty reign of darkness in this gorgeous and deceptively casual looking game of kingdom building and resource management. Blending elements of puzzling with real-time strategy, your task is to lay roads and factories for your little Flans to travel, gather resources, and beat back the winter. But it's not as easy as it sounds, and you'll need real planning, logic, and craftiness to win at this engaging and innovative game.

It's the end of the world, but turn that frown upside down, because the apocalypse has never been so cheerful! In this free iOS simulation, you're in charge of rebuilding a utopian society in space... by yourself. Fortunately for you, you've got an endless supply of incoming clones, and a bunch of genetic material to mix and match to create more jobs and more buildings. A vibrant pixel style and cheeky sense of humour make this one light, addictive casual sim that's hard to put down.

Kairosoft's latest free simulation for your Android device might have a weird idea of just what being a landlord entails, but darned if it isn't addictive. Build your apartment complex from the ground up, enticing new tenants and enriching their lives to help them grow and succeed. See your people become successful from the cradle to old age and compete in a variety of categories to have the best apartment around in this colourful, casual sim.

Quick, the patient needs a heart transplant, and a doctor! Too bad all they have is you in this hysterical, gory, and very challenging simulation where you control each finger of your hand individually as you attempt to perform life-saving surgery... without dropping a bonesaw into his chest cavity!

The Tribloos 2 from Bumpkin Brothers is a sequel to the 2011 simulation/time management game The Tribloos. Set in a 2D world starring energetic and eternally optimistic creatures, you'll guide the fuzzballs on a quest to discover the origins of some troubling storms looming near the island. What they find beyond the clouds, however, isn't quite what they expected!

Tossed into a hostile, dark fantasy world that hates you and wants you to die with only your wits and the clothes on your back, how long can you stay alive? Klei Entertainment brings us a gorgeous indie survival exploration adventure as your scavenge for food and supplies, craft weapons and armor and more, and learn the rules of a strange land filled with stranger creatures.

Choice of Games and Alana Joli Abbott deliver a gorgeously detailed and immersive text adventure for iOS and Android set against the backdrop of mystical ancient China. Outwit or succumb to mischievous fox spirits, challenge or support the emperor, become a student or one day a teacher of an ancient art, and craft a legacy that will stand the test of time.

When an evil businessman wants to take possession of a forest that's beloved by the town, it's up to you to stop him... by training up a horrifying beast of mass destruction in this bizarre but addictive training/combat simulation with a fantastic visual style and a surreal premise.

Man, those ancient pharaohs had it rough. Keeping cobras out of the marketplace. Trying to collect stamps by fulfilling citizen requests. Dealing with the Pyramid Association. And how'd they ever decide where to build their hammer shop?! Kairosoft, makers of Kairobotica, Beastie Bay, and the Story series of games, has recreated a slice of the ancient world with The Pyraplex, a mobile simulation that will steal massive chunks of your time and refuse to let go until you're the pharaoh of all the pharaohs.

Double Fine Productions knows the spreadsheet is mightier than the death ray, but only when it has some serious super power to back it up! Hire, train, and manage a squad of elite superheroes from the ground up as they handle the day-to-day task of fighting crime and more in this fun and funny free simulation for iOS.

Last Day of Work loves virtual sims. I mean seriously loves them, at least according to their lead designer. And, well, their product line, which includes the massively popular Virtual Villagers series. For those of us who love messing with the lives of little virtual people without all that faffing about on an island, Last Day of Work created Virtual Families, a game which featured the animated people without the exploding volcanoes. Now they've come out with the sequel to that fabulous game, Virtual Families 2: Our Dream House, which deepens the gameplay of the original in new and interesting ways, and all for your handy portable iOS device!

The Papa's series of time-management restaurant sims is back for more, and this time you can be the star! When season tickets for your favourite baseball team don't seem like an option, taking a job at the in-park hotdog stand seems like a great way to catch all the games... right up until you realise you're running the show solo! The core gameplay hasn't changed much, but fans of the series will welcome yet another chance to sling the best fast food around.

Cook, Serve, Delicious! is a simulation and time management game from Vertigo Games, creator of the similarly spectacular The Oil Blue. If you see a restaurant game and immediately think "casual diversion", let Cook, Serve, Delicious! change your mind. This isn't a light and simple easy to win time management game. It's a full-on simulation that makes you work for your money, pushes you to play faster than you thought possible, and teaches you to strategically plan menus to maximize income without turning the ever-picky customer base away. It's not an easy game to excel at, but it's an easy game to get hooked on, and the challenge of building and running your own restaurant from front to back is going to captivate you for weeks on end.

Scheherazade "Sadie" Keating has just graduated, but with famous (and missing) adventurous parents as her legacy, she has a bit more to live up to than most young women. When a thief reveals a secret and a mystery she never suspected has been under her nose all along, Sadie sets out on a massive globe-trotting adventure to uncover the truth... or, depending on your choice, forge her own legacy, become closer with families, kindle a romance, or much, much more in this huge, engaging visual novel simulation set in the 1930s.

Join Jack and his friend Scout on the trail of the dastardly wizard who nabbed the princess, learning to forge increasingly more powerful weapons for the soldiers who are willing to pick up arms for you, and gather new, more powerful blueprints and materials along the way. Despite there being nary a fast food item in sight, gameplay is pretty similar to Flipline's Papa's series of games... only with steel and pigmen.

If you want all the drama, passion, suspense and intricacies of the courtroom, the best way to get it is to go to school, study really hard for several years, then bribe—Nah, just kidding! You can easily get your fix by watching TV, reading a bunch of fiction books, and playing games like Devil's Attorney, a new simulation from 1337 Game Design that's one part comedy, one part 1980s culture, and maybe two parts lawyering, all carried out via a snazzy touch interface that's much more entertaining than studying case files and figuring out what habeas corpus means.

Sarah Northway's massively popular zombie survival simulation strategy game gets an update in time for its anniversary on its mobile platforms! With the threat of winter hanging over your head and even more secrets and endings to discover, there's more reason than ever to pick up one of the most addictive turn-based sims around... for the first time, or again and again.

It's Pokemon for mobile devices! Ok, not quite, but the latest release from Game Dev Story and Kairobotica developer Kairosoft has certainly been looking at the monster training RPG for inspiration. Beastie Bay takes the familiar Kairosoft set-up and leans it more towards role playing territory, confining simulation elements to a smaller portion of the game while exploration, turn-based battling, and monster management take center stage.

In this cheery, silly RPG/simulation from maxmobile for iOS or Android, you're a pygmie hedgehog setting out on adventure and searching for friends. The vibrant presentation and simple, accessible gameplay makes this one addictive and fun despite its lack of depth, and something both kids and adults can find hard to put down.

Ah, the romance of the old west. Cowboys, cattle drives, the pony express... Also brush fires, coyotes, droughts, greedy land barons, and bandits who ransack towns and kidnap the population for ransom. It might not be as romantic as John Wayne movies would have us believe, but things were still pretty adventurous, a side of the times that Alawar chooses to represent in the time management adventure game The Golden Years: Way Out West.

This is the story of the greatest band of all time... no, not Tenancious D... you! Heavily inspired mechanically by Game Dev Story, this musical simulation tasks you with handling the (hopefully) meteoric rise of a band of initially talentless musicians through the decades. Write songs, make albums, handle interviews and more as you strive to become legendary in an evolving industry. Also, make songs about farts, because everyone seems to love those. Speaking from experience here.

Chop! Chop! Chop! What's that sound? The sound of timber being harvested in Realore Studios' Adelantado Trilogy: Book One! The creators of games like All My Gods and Roads of Rome have done something special with this casual simulation/resource management game, adding some role playing elements and throwing in a good helping of originality. The Queen of Spain has appointed you, Don Diego De Leon, as adelantado of the new world, and it's up to you to find out what happened to previous expeditions that were sent out and never seen again. While you're there, find treasure to send back to fill the the country's coffers and best your rival Pablo Rodrigez to the gold and riches that surely rest in this unexplored land!

Pity the poor royal court of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt. The exhausted souls just finished uniting Egypt in order to keep the gods happy and now they are faced with a new challenge: travel down the Nile and rebuild temples before the gods start getting all explodey on their butts. And all of this must be accomplished while the royal architect is severely under the weather and the royal cat has gone AWOL. Pharaoh Touti and company are back in BlooBuzz's (formerly Wendigo) latest time management strategy The Timebuilders: Pyramid Rising 2.

ScrumbleShip is an in-progress sandbox-style game of ship construction and combat simulation, all accomplished using a massive list of building materials and a surprisingly smart heat simulation model. Built around simple block placements, you have complete freedom of movement in this game, allowing you to jet yourself in any direction so you can construct the most accurate (or most hilariously inaccurate) piece of space-faring machinery you've ever seen. Want a tiny escape pod all your own? Done. How about a massive star base? Orbital station? Or maybe even a Death Sta— er, moon?!

Described as a "spaceship simulation roguelike-like" by its developers, Subset Games, you won't be doing a whole lot of boldly going where no one has gone before in FTL: Faster Than Light. In fact, most of your time will be spent directing crew members and putting out engine room fires. But scifi strategy fans will love every minute of it, even with the hardcore difficulty.

The world is over. We lost. But you're not down and out just yet. In Con Artist Games' latest real-time simulation, build a compound in the middle of a zombie-infested city and scrape out an existence alongside other survivors. Gather supplies, build and tweak your defenses, and go on dangerous missions into hives of undead activity. Though currently only in Beta and still repetitive, this is one of the best looking and surprisingly addictive social games around.

Do you dream of building a theme park that would put Universal's Islands of Adventure to shame? Can you out plan the creative genius that is Disney? Then put your designing skills to the test in this sandbox-style simulation game from Fugazo. Use strategy to research and build rides, attractions and concessions. Decorate your park to improve its appeal and win the hearts of its visitors. You'll know when you've succeeded as the coins pour in and you're on the cover of every magazine for international amusement park acclaim.

Billiard Blitz Pool Skool keeps it neat, simple, and does exactly what you'd want and expect from a little flash simulator. Just line up your cue stick, watch the white direction indicator, ram up the power bar for more umph, and slide the spin control to your prefered setting for a little extra pizzazz.

So, what's your neighborhood like? Is it filled with happy, friendly people who wear strange hats, ride tricycles, and spend their days wandering between the fruit stand and the sunglasses hut? Did you build most of the things on your street? Is your neighborhood in 2D? Well hey, even if it is, the casual simulation game Happy Street from Godzilab is an all-around wholesome and addictive experience. Set up a shop here, pick up an apple there, get a bird to poop on your friend's head. All in a day's play in your ever-expanding village of pseudo-commerce!

The end of the world is nigh, and it wants your brains! In this quirky, darkly humorous mobile edition of the zombie simulation based on the classic game Oregon Trail, saddle up with fellow survivors and strike out across the country with the promise of safety hanging in the distance. Manage your supplies, trade with people you meet along the way, deal with boss battles, and above all else hope Lady Luck decides to smile on you. That is, if you don't want to come down with dysentery while someone else has a broken leg and the others have all been bitten by zombies.

Being rich is not enough. Being richer is not enough. It's time to Be Richest! In the third installment of the time management building series, it's up to you rebuild the city which has been left penniless by corrupt leaders. Watch out for thiefs, rats, and even yetis as you rebuild homes and help businesses get back on their feet. Build your empire and discover just how rich you can become!

For the loving masses of Kairosoft fans out there, allow us to summarize our thoughts on this game with just a few words: Kairobotica is an insta-buy. There, now you can spend the extra time patrolling planets, defeating evil snack foods, felling fowl robots, and leveling-up your own 'bots in the hyper-addicting RPG simulation hybrid manner that Kairosoft does so well. If you need a little more convincing, or you feel that reading this author's work is a joy unto itself, by all means, sit back and learn all about one of the best Kairosoft releases yet!

Siela's family restaurant is having trouble staying afloat, and her sister is considering selling the whole thing to someone else. With no choice but to seize management herself in a last-ditch effort to turn the business into a success, Siela and her friends must cook and serve food made using ingredients they hunt for in the wild in this simple but addictive blend of RPG and simulation for iOS and Android.

A cinematic simulation of hacking that owes more to Wargames and Sneakers than Kevin Mitnick and Adrian Lamo, Uplink: Hacker Elitecyberpunk intrigue. Originally released by Introversion Software in 2001, and streamlined into the Hacker Elite version for the US market, the latter is now available for purchase from the lovely indie and retro game outlet GOG, and it's a worthy addition to any gamers library.

In this time of over population, it's hard not to daydream about having a nice little town all to yourself. Sadly, unless you're a billionaire, chances are the only way to experience the feel of colonization is through the gracious world of casual gaming. The Promised Land from Boolat Games is a pleasant simulation building and strategy game similar to Virtual Villagers that hands you a piece of uncharted land ready to be plundered. As an adventurer, you're off to find the elusive spring of eternal happiness and build yourself a town that could rival even the most advanced of civilizations!

Astronaut Spacewalk by Jorge Hernandez is the closest most of us will ever get to taking a no-tether trot in outer space. The delightfully complex and detailed simulation game gives you a screen filled with controls and a few simple missions to complete, then sits back and watches while you climb the impossibly high learning curve. It will take hours, not minutes, to learn how to maneuver your lone astronaut, and until you do, you'll probably feel confusion, bewilderment, and possibly a touch of anger. If you stick with it, though, you'll discover a game that shares the joys and wonders of space exploration tempered by the realism of science, and it's a wonderful experience indeed.

A little robot is lost and alone in the galaxy after being crippled by a radiation wave... but hope isn't lost yet. Travel to a series of remote planets and dig for valuable resources in this mining game, searching for everything you need to finally find a way back home. Fans of Motherload will find a lot to appreciate here, with a gorgeous presentation and a few new elements dressing up the familiar gameplay.

As the new girl transferring for her final year of school, you've got a lot on your plate, especially if you want to get into a top-tier university. But in Roxanne Chen's gorgeous, funny, and charming visual novel simulation, you've also got the potential to make friends that will last you forever... and maybe even find love, too. Packed with colour, energy, and tons of replay value, this is well worth checking out. You've only got one year... make it count!

Life Quest was an excellent game when it was released for the downloadable casual games market, and the mobile port effortlessly brings that experience to touch screen iOS devices. Kick back and enjoy an experience not unlike The Sims meets a time management game, which is to say, you'll spend a whole lot of time getting very little done! (Just like real life, no?) Have a little virtual life in your own hands, no matter where your real life takes you!

To quote the intro of Fallen City, Channel 4 and Big Robot's educational puzzle/real-time strategy game: What is a city? It is a machine; a machine for living in. But all machines can break down. The inhabitants of Fallen City (Angries) have become distracted by their individual lives and dreams and have let the once gleaming metropolis fall into disrepair. Frustrated by their inability to live the lives of fame and fortune they were told could satisfy them, many of the Angries fell into boredom or rage... and the city sunk ever deeper into its gloom. But broken machines can be fixed, right?

From NimbleBit, the creators of Tiny Tower, comes the next game that's going to occupy bite-sized pieces of your time for the next several months. Pocket Planes is the team's latest offering in the casual simulation department, putting you in charge of airports and passengers, planes and people, and challenging you to make it all run smoothly and swiftly so you can, well, do it all on a much bigger scale. It's the perfect formula for a "just one more level" kind of game, and if you were one of the many souls who fell victim to Tiny Tower's amazing level of addictiveness, Pocket Planes might just hook you twice as hard.

Just when you might have thought that everyone's favorite digital restaurant mogul was resting on his pixellated laurels, Flipline Studio's Papa has returned with the latest spicy addition to his culinary empire. Papa's Wingeria is hiring, and only your mastery of time management and a dexterous control of your mouse stand between you and stacks of buffalo wing-scented dollars.

With the intricate and challenging gameplay, fantastical backgrounds, and most importantly an actual story Build-a-Lot: Fairy Tales may be the best of the build-a-lot bunch, rather than a stale re-skinning of something we've seen before. For those who love the series and those who've never tried it, here's an imaginative gift from HipSoft wrapped in bright shiny paper and an elaborate bow.

It's dangerous in the primordial soup, a place where infected organisms roam hungrily looking to consume or destroy anything that crosses their path. At least, that's the scenario behind the fantastic Amoebattle by Grab Games, a real-time strategy gem created for iOS devices. Inside, at the microscopic level, it's a constant state of warfare, and war is heck.

Bushes and huts, grass and trees, churches and gravestones, and bears. Dangerous, dangerous bears. Triple Town from Spry Fox is the kind of mobile game you'll love to carry around with you at all times, firing it up for a few quick rounds and putting it away when you're satisfied with your progress. It combines city building with a good ole match-3 puzzle game in a manner you're probably not used to seeing, allowing you to work with individual elements to build a great empire, one match at a time.