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Timberborn
Humans are long gone. In a world struck by droughts and toxic waste, will your lumberpunk beavers do any better? A sandbox city-building game featuring ingenious animals, vertical architecture, water physics, and terraforming. Contains high amounts of wood.
In short, Steam reviewers most often praise “engaging water and building systems” (97 of 104 reviews) and “flexible rewarding survival challenge” (25); the most common complaint is “shallow repetitive sandbox systems” (10). What reviewers agree on ↓
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-28 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-12.
What reviewers agree on
97 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“I think it is cool that Timberborn allows vertical building and has a complex water system, but I do not think this is worth the money when it comes to content and long-term gameplay. I have found that other city…”
“I have played this game from early access all the way up to 1.0 and have really enjoyed my time with this game. It is such a chill colony builder that you can just throw on and watch your beavers and your dams work…”
“I have been fighting the flood for 57 hours, my beavers have starved, thirsted and died for countless generations to create the perfect colonies across the ruined world. This is a nice game, plenty of ways to play and…”
25 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“I have played this game from early access all the way up to 1.0 and have really enjoyed my time with this game. It is such a chill colony builder that you can just throw on and watch your beavers and your dams work…”
“This is a fun game. You can play hard mode for a real challenge or if you want to play a chill game you can play easy or normal mode.”
“I've really enjoyed playing and also figuring the game out by trial and error. I actually like that there isn't a full tutorial or in game suggestions. You are left to figure out how and what to build and how the…”
14 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“I have been fighting the flood for 57 hours, my beavers have starved, thirsted and died for countless generations to create the perfect colonies across the ruined world. This is a nice game, plenty of ways to play and…”
“I really love this game, it brings a lot of fun. - The water mechanics makes a lot of fun to play with and modify the map. - The draught/bad tide time makes managing your city at different pace. - The build stacking…”
“Its a really good chill colony sim. Maps are what provide interest as your challenge is finding the best way to deal with map features and topography. Once you learn the mechanics, failure comes from your own mistakes.…”
13 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“it's a very slow-paced game that has you balance expanding your city to the entire map. each cycle can have either drought (no water) or bad water (contaminated) and keeping your beavers alive between these can be a…”
“Great game! Simple, yet detailed graphics and animations of cute little beavers and their fancy new world. The game mechanics work very well and make the game great fun for many hours. Are you into hydrology? In my…”
“Wonderfully creative little game that can devour hours and deliver engaging highs (and lows) as you lead your beavers towards taming each puzzle like map.”
12 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“I have played this game from early access all the way up to 1.0 and have really enjoyed my time with this game. It is such a chill colony builder that you can just throw on and watch your beavers and your dams work…”
“I like the cute lil beavers. Great chill game after being at work all bloody day long.”
“Fantastic game. Just finished the game with the folktales and it really was heartwarming in a silly beaverih way. Absolutely love the style and mechanics. Game has a bit of a learning cliff to start but it's nowhere as…”
10 of the 104 reviews raise this · 7 of them still recommend the game.
“I think it is cool that Timberborn allows vertical building and has a complex water system, but I do not think this is worth the money when it comes to content and long-term gameplay. I have found that other city…”
“Timberborn certainly isn't a bad game, but I should have dug deeper in the game loop before buying. As a colony builder, it's basic, but quite solid; satisfy needs, build infrastructure, manage water, etc. The two…”
“the game is mostly a way to burn time. the gameplay is extremely slow (even on the fastest speed) and very repetitive. After you get to 60+ population, you've beat the game and everything afterwards is just optional or…”
10 of the 104 reviews raise this · 7 of them still recommend the game.
“Timberborn certainly isn't a bad game, but I should have dug deeper in the game loop before buying. As a colony builder, it's basic, but quite solid; satisfy needs, build infrastructure, manage water, etc. The two…”
“the game is mostly a way to burn time. the gameplay is extremely slow (even on the fastest speed) and very repetitive. After you get to 60+ population, you've beat the game and everything afterwards is just optional or…”
“It's fun! The only thing missing for me is some sort of "scenarios" or challenges to try and beat. If you just want a sandbox with disasters and pushing the limits until you reach your own personal goal, that's all…”
5 of the 104 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“Timberborn certainly isn't a bad game, but I should have dug deeper in the game loop before buying. As a colony builder, it's basic, but quite solid; satisfy needs, build infrastructure, manage water, etc. The two…”
“the game is mostly a way to burn time. the gameplay is extremely slow (even on the fastest speed) and very repetitive. After you get to 60+ population, you've beat the game and everything afterwards is just optional or…”
“Great game, the only thing i find lacking is external threats. Apart from the environment you have no pressure from events. But overall the game offers a lot. Lots of mods, the game itself is complete, progression is…”
4 of the 104 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“This game needs some ingame encyclopedia about every thing and mechanic and detailed stats about current production/consumption”
“A lot lower stakes and less complex than Dwarf Fortress! Pretty fun overall. The 3d building mechanics and water simulation are great, do miss some of the depth of a proper 'story generator.' Give the beavers memories…”
“I've played one single map, one single save file, for 11 hours. This game is RAD. The tutorial as of this review is almost good- it set up a lot of basic concepts for me that I needed in order to get going. The problem…”
4 of the 104 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“I think it is cool that Timberborn allows vertical building and has a complex water system, but I do not think this is worth the money when it comes to content and long-term gameplay. I have found that other city…”
“Timberborn certainly isn't a bad game, but I should have dug deeper in the game loop before buying. As a colony builder, it's basic, but quite solid; satisfy needs, build infrastructure, manage water, etc. The two…”
“The game is really fun because the main mechanic (liquid simulation) is enjoyable and fits in very well. The only big problem with it is that I would have liked more "types" of bevers and more advanced logic. Whilst…”
Counted across 104 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 96.0% positive rating · as of 2026-05-12
“This city-building sandbox is an enjoyable game. In my opinion, the only but serious problem is that it doesn't give you a goal. I will probably play this game, which is actually quite pleasant, for a while longer and then quit. Even though the gameplay is fun, doing things for…”
— a player, Steam review · 8 hrs played“I have played 45 hours of Timberborn so far and I have to say it is a VERY WELL made game, normally this type of game is something you like in “idea” let’s say, in this case the idea of an intelligent post-apocalyptic beaver civilization, but then in practice it ends up being…”
— a player, Steam review · 51 hrs played“Do NOT play this game!!! This game is worse than crack. Worse than opium. I've lost my job, my house, my car, my wife, and my dog because I can't stop playing. 20 hours a day, 7 days a week. I only stop when I pass out from exhaustion and need to poop. This game will ruin your…”
— a player, Steam review · 1,516 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2026-06 via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-10-25.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-10-23). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
Patch notes 2026-10-20 (main branch)
Hello, everyone! Last week's fixes are now live on the main branch. Also, remember to keep your Build-a-Map contest submissions coming. We need more, always MOAR! Bug fixes The Compact Water Pump is n
Patch notes 2026-10-13 (experimental)
Hello, everyone! We hope your submissions for the Build-a-Map contest are coming along well! There's plenty of time left, so in the meantime, please enjoy this small patch, now live on the experimenta
Timberborn 1.1 Build-a-Map Contest is live
Hello, everyone! You've asked us time and time again: "When is the next map contest coming"? How about... now ? To participate in our Build-a-Map contest, you need to create a new, original, pretty, p
Patch notes 2026-10-06 & Community Recognition Award
Hi, everyone! The recent tweaks have made it to the water main branch. Big thanks to everyone who shared their experimental feedback. You're the best! Patch notes follow below, but first, speaking of
Patch notes 2026-10-01 (experimental)
Hi, everyone! A few fresh changes are now live on the experimental branch. Bug fixes It is now possible to close the scary “outdated BIOS” warning in the main menu - once you do this, the game will st
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-12.
| Genres | Indie, Simulation, Strategy |
| Player tags | City Builder · Voxel · Colony Sim · Nature · Sandbox · Building · Automation · Management · Survival · Base-Building · Science · Physics (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Steam Achievements · Steam Workshop · Adjustable Text Size · Camera Comfort · Custom Volume Controls · Adjustable Difficulty · Mouse Only Option |
| Languages | English, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Polish, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Ukrainian, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish |
| Achievements | 59 |
| Official site | https://mechanistry.com/ |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 10 or newer Processor: 4-core 1.7 GHz or better Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: GeForce GTX 950, Radeon R9 380 or similar DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 3 GB available space