I like community builders and games that I can keep a world for years and grow, watch it evolve. I enjoy Rimworld. ARK evolved series is good.
Bonus if it’s multiplayer capable LAN and not online.
Oxygen not included is nice but mentally taxing sometimes. I prefer laid back chill games with economy and farming. 2d or 3d doesn’t matter. I don’t mind trying indie games. Survival based games are nice. I’m not super pick and choose.
Give me your greatest joy in game form. I’ve heard Stardew Valley is good. I tried it, reminds me of a gameboy game. I could not get into the game. My character kept falling asleep like 14 times in a day.
CoreKeeper is a good one for multiplayer. Like Terraria x Stardew. I self hosted a server that we played for months, including at a LAN party, but I do think they use a nat hole-punch server to ease connectivity. Not sure if it was possible to direct connect via IP. It’s a big world with boss/gear progression and some mining automation.
Nothing has quite scratched the Rimworld itch for me, anything in that realm just makes me wanna play RimWorld more. But technically I have to mention Dwarf Fortress.
If you haven’t played a factory sim, Factorio is a classic. If you don’t want to have to fight buggers, you could try Dyson Sphere Program or Satisfactory instead.
Modulus is a recent factory sim with a unique twist: instead of having a fixed tech tree you work through, you’re given arbitrary 3D block configurations, and you lay down the configuration of buildings to make them. I really like the open-endedness. Some designs nicely complement others, so that the pieces you cut out to make part A can be stuck into the line that makes part B.
Btw, for Stardew, you need to eat foods that give your stamina back. Early on it’s harder to get the foods, but later you grow tons.