Factorio

Luanti (formerly minetest) surprised i didn't see it brought up (also, it's FOSS!)

Dwarf Fortress is linux compatible, although I haven't played it in years its a colony builder that can get super in-depth. Its interface is a learning hurdle though.

You might like Conan Exiles, its a sandboxy survival game that just got updated recently with better graphics. I kind of feel its more a exploration game than a builder though. Hrm...

Factorio is pretty chill if you turn enemies off. If you want to go for max efficiency it can get really stressful though.

Project Zomboid - harsh learning curve but fun survival
Avorion - Space combat and trading sim with block-building for custom ships.
Dwarf Fortress - very hard learning curve but you can sink thousands of hours into it and it will still surprise you.
Valheim - easy to start but difficulty scales fast as you explore

Or if you don't mind proton some great survival/builders are:
Raft
Abiotic Factor
Satisfactory

I love rimworld. Over 4k hours in it.

For some similar games, vee Multiplayer :

• No man's sky
• Don't starve _and Don't starve together)
• The Long Dark
• Stellaris
• Valheim
• Sins of a Solar empire
• Dreadnought
• The escapists
• Firewatch
• Microlandia
• This war of mine

I highly recommend factory games! Factorio, Satisfactory, Dyson Sphere Program, Shapez 2, Captain of Industry, to name my favorites. I also hear Mindustry is great and is free. All of these games run perfectly on linux (some via proton) and work offline just fine.

Oxygen not included is nice but mentally taxing sometimes.

Factory games can be mentally taxing in a similar way that programming can be, but less abstract and more hands-on. If you disable enemies (it's always an option in these games), there's no pressure or stress of messing up like there is in Oxygen Not Included.

You can easily put hundreds or thousands of hours, and years of your life, into a single save. There's always goals to shoot for, production to expand, new paradigms for structuring parts of your factory, and ways to rework or improve what you've already built.

I look at it as if my world and factory is a zen garden that I visit and spend some time tending to it, since there's always something to work on. it helps me avoid getting overwhelmed. there's no rush, there's no standards to live up to, it's purely your own little world that you can design however you like and work on at your pace. There's always a million little dynamic puzzles to solve, and a million different ways to solve them. Or if you're not feeling up to solving puzzles, you can fix up an older factory design, or add to the aesthetics of an area of your base.

OpenTTD, it's the main thing I play these days.

cities: skylines (1,2)

space haven

dystopika

tiny glade

solar 2

necesse

No one suggested Minecraft? ??

I've just heard about this, gonna give it a go soon. Free for all three platforms.

https://endless-sky.github.io/

Veloren is pretty good. https://veloren.net/

It's fun in multiplayer, but afaik you can play it completely offline as well.

Shattered Pixel Dungeon, OpenTTD, or Tux Kart.

Rimworld!

You could try Manor Lords (medieval village builder), or Songs of Syx (low-fantasy city builder that kind of converts into Total War (you can train your citizens in combat and then field massive armies to fight other cities)).

I recently had a great time with StarRupture (kind of like Space Engineers but with a very interesting world mechanic).

Also, less of a "watch the world evolve" and more like "I used to enjoy MMOs but hated the grind" - Crimson Desert offers a massive world where you can just relax and ride your horse, or farm, or fish. Or mow down dozens of enemies. You kind of have a growing camp, but it's not "I'm building my camp", it's "I'm doing quests and eventually my camp grows a level". It's basically "what if Skyrim but larger and with phenomenal graphics".

Big fan of Vintage Story. It's a voxel survival game like Minecraft but with a much heavier focus on realism and depth. There's a much more satisfying sense of progression compared to Minecraft and the slower paced gameplay makes it feel extremely cozy despite the higher difficulty and complexity. Plus it's got a very active modding community too!

I know it's not quite a community builder, but it's definitely a game for watching your world grow and evolve over significant periods of time!

Ori and the Blind Forest/Will of the Wisps - My absolute favorite platformer ever. Like playing a beautiful painting, with excellent music, and satisfyingly tight controls.

The Subnautica series - Great story with deep lore, but also has fun base building. Latest game has multiplayer up to 4 person co-op, but can also be enjoyed alone.

Stardew Valley - You mentioned this.....just get it. Seriously, I never met someone who didn't like it. Sorry for the 200+ hours of your life that are about to disappear. The very definition of "cozy game".

Dave the Diver - Fun and quirky game. "Base building" via a sushi restaurant, but also exploration and combat elements. There is a weeb character that makes your guns and your sushi chef is an eccentric man who is a bit too crazy about his sushi knives. New expansion DLC coming this summer.

Cult of the Lamb - Has co-op multiplayer local and remote. Base building meets rogue-like with cute animals that join a cult.

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime - Best played with up to 4 person local or online co-op. Weird name, great game.

Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart - Rivet and Ratchet OTP

It Takes Two - Requires co-op, either local or online. Excellent game to play with a significant other or close friend.

1. Europa Universalis IV (not V)
2. Hearts of Iron IV
3. Crusader Kings III
4. Crusader Kings II
5. Victoria II
6. Victoria III

Kerbal space program

(The first one)

Massive modding community with literal years of content.

Open Transport Tycoon

Longterm, you say?

Then it's GregTech: New Horizons