The best part about discovering a new planet in any video game is exploring the place and getting familiar with all the living things that inhabit it. Since farming games have been so popular in recent years, some people crave the same kind of experience but with a game that’s set in space.
Obviously coming up with creative alien wildlife is a task easier said than done, but some games actually let you plant, grow, and harvest the greenery around you. These things come in handy when you need resources to craft materials out in space or on another planet with finite resources and hostile predators.
9 Kenshi
Kenshi’s a video game that features a world rich with all kinds of wildlife and lets you do absolutely anything your heart desires, as long as you’re committed to sticking to your play style and dedicating time to learning the game’s mechanics.
Hence, becoming a farmer is a practical way to spend your time playing this game and you can progress effectively by selling what you harvest. Crops can be grown in three different kinds of environments and also contribute to crafting items or clothes.
8 Subnautica
Even though you’re stranded on an alien ocean planet, that doesn’t mean you’re stuck with absolutely nothing to do - as hard as it is to survive in Subnautica, you can still spare some time to grow a few crops here and there for your base.
Plants within the game help with all sorts of objectives and give you materials to help craft items that you might need to make your stay on this inhospitable planet a bit more bearable. They grow in all kinds of places and they don’t look too shabby as cozy ship decorations.
7 The Pikmin Series
A game series where you control an alien looking for resources on an abandoned Earth full of all sorts of bugs and foreign plants that follow your command and rely on you for their survival. These little Pikmin come in handy in all sorts of situations - all you need to do is pluck them out of the ground.
There are several kinds of Pikmin you get to encounter during your journeys, and they each have their own strengths and weaknesses that you need to utilize in order to solve puzzles. Although the reason why they exist is still somewhat a mystery, Pikmin are still some of the nicest plants you’ll meet on the planet.
6 One Lonely Outpost
Similar to other games like Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley, this farming game lets you grow all sorts of crops including some alien plants that can come in handy for crafting stuff. One Lonely Outpost has you terraforming a planet in order to make it more habitable.
Your main objective is to grow your farm and explore the landscape as you colonize the planet. The game features some good graphics and several biomes to explore, as well as weather events to endure whilst growing your crops. Eventually, you won’t even need your spacesuit to tend to your farm or explore the planet.
5 Stranded: Alien Dawn
If you’re on an expedition to colonize an entire planet, food is an important resource that keeps you and your team alive. Just surviving on your depleting resources isn’t good enough. Stranded: Alien Dawn lets you farm your own food but only after you unlock the skill.
Since it's necessary for progression, you learn to farm after you spend some time exploring your surroundings and observing the plant life around you. It’s a tough game with strong enemies, but you can always turn that off in the options menu by toggling the peace setting.
4 Deep Space Gardening
It’s a cute four-player co-op gardening game meant for casual players with a desire to restore planetary ecosystems with their harvesting efforts. The objective is simple: coordinate with your team and terraform your planet enough that you’re able to export your produce over to the neighboring planets.
It may not feature a detailed list of alien plants, but it’s still pretty fun to grow crops and help your team succeed in their efforts. The game also features a single-player and online multiplayer campaign.
3 Grow Home
A cute 3D Minecraft-esque blocky world and an equally adorable robot ready to explore the landscape, this plant-harvesting and exploration game by a small studio within Ubisoft delivers an unforgettable experience.
Your objective throughout the game is to explore and grow the star plant while collecting seeds to return to Earth. You connect the roots of the star plant to floating islands in the sky in order to power its growth. The controls are easy to get used to and the game’s pretty relaxing, rather than frustrating.
2 The Planet Crafter
With enough Food Growers, you can actually farm and cook your own plants that you grow inside your spaceship. The Planet Crafter is an easy game to master but conquering your environment takes some time.
Since the planet’s ecosystem is hostile to you, you need to plant and grow things in order to raise the oxygen levels and thrive in that atmosphere. Terraforming and crafting are your main objectives. The game’s pretty colorful and vibrant, and the map’s a decent size too. You get to use all kinds of complex machinery to help you craft your dream base.
1 No Man’s Sky
Even though No Man’s Sky had an infamously rough start back when it came out, it became one of the best games out there since it offers you such a diverse selection of planets, wildlife, and ecosystems to interact with. You travel to several solar systems on your spaceship and trade your loot with an intergalactic economy.
Visiting different planets and using your wits to farm plants is a great way to generate funds. The video game features all sorts of alien-looking crops to interact with and grow during your time exploring the regions. You can even use what you grow to craft items that you can either use or sell.