Games Like Trailmakers: 8 Build-and-Send Physics Games

What makes a game "like Trailmakers"

Trailmakers (Flashbulb, 2019) sits at an intersection that surprisingly few games occupy: a construction set with real physics behind it, wrapped in something playful rather than punishing. You build a car, it is too heavy at the front, it noses into the dirt, you add a wing. That loop.

So the games below all share two things. You assemble the machine from parts rather than picking one from a menu, and a physics simulation decides whether your idea was any good. Everything else — survival, combat, racing, demolition — is a wrapper around that.

Everything here was checked against its Steam page in July 2026. No prices, because those move constantly and vary by region.

1. Brick Rigs — the closest cousin

Brick Rigs (Fluppisoft, out of Early Access since 2023) is the one to try first if what you liked about Trailmakers was the bricks. You build LEGO-style vehicles and then destroy them, with parts snapping off individually on impact rather than a health bar draining.

Its multiplayer runs on player-hosted servers, which means the community has shaped what the game actually is — roleplay servers, demolition derbies, city builds. Steam formally tags it Online PvP rather than co-op, so what you get depends heavily on which server you join. PC only.

Pick it for: the most satisfying destruction model on this list.

2. Scrap Mechanic — just left Early Access

Scrap Mechanic (Axolot Games) hit 1.0 on 24 July 2026, after roughly ten and a half years in Early Access. If you read another list that calls this game Early Access, it was written before last week.

It pairs a deep modular building system — including logic gates and pistons, so people build genuinely absurd automated machines — with a survival mode set on a planet full of hostile robots. There is a creative mode if survival is not your thing. Online co-op, no PvP category. PC only.

Pick it for: the most engineering depth without leaving playful territory.

3. Besiege — the funny one

Besiege (Spiderling Studios, 2020) hands you medieval parts — beams, springs, catapult arms, unreasonable quantities of explosives — and a castle to knock down. It is the oldest idea here and still one of the funniest, because siege engines fail in such undignified ways.

It has a proper campaign rather than an open world, which makes it the easiest one to pick up for an evening. Online PvP and co-op via its Multiverse system. On PC, Xbox, PlayStation and Switch, so it is also the most portable entry.

Pick it for: bite-sized levels and the best failure animations.

4. TerraTech — building meets exploration

TerraTech (Payload Studios, 2018) is the most Trailmakers-shaped game on this list in structure: bolt a vehicle together from modular blocks, drive it across procedurally generated worlds, mine resources, fight things, unlock better blocks, repeat.

Online co-op for campaign and creative, plus PvP arenas. Available on PC and every current console family. There is also a newer, co-op-focused entry called TerraTech Worlds, still in Early Access — worth knowing about, but the original is the safer recommendation.

Pick it for: the closest thing to a Trailmakers campaign.

5. Space Engineers — the serious end

Space Engineers (Keen Software House) trades whimsy for scale. You build ships, stations and rovers block by block in a volumetric, fully destructible world, with survival and creative modes and a physics model that will absolutely let you strand yourself in orbit.

Online PvP, co-op, and crossplay across PC, Xbox and PlayStation. Note that Space Engineers 2 is a separate Early Access product and is currently single-player only, with co-op planned — so if multiplayer matters, the original is the one you want.

Pick it for: ambition. This is the one where people build things that take weeks.

6. Stormworks: Build and Rescue — for the wiring nerds

Stormworks: Build and Rescue (Geometa) is the most technical entry here. You design ships, aircraft and land vehicles from blocks plus a real electrical and logic layer, then fly them on search-and-rescue missions in a dynamic ocean.

That electrical layer is the whole personality of the game. Wiring up your own instrument panel is either the best part or a complete dealbreaker, with very little in between. Online co-op and PvP. PC only.

Pick it for: the moment your hand-wired autopilot works.

7. From the Depths — the deepest rabbit hole

From the Depths (Brilliant Skies) lets you design voxel-built warships, submarines, aircraft and hovercraft out of a library well past a thousand components, then command them against AI factions across a campaign of hundreds of islands.

It is the least approachable game on this list by a distance, and the one with the highest ceiling. The full campaign is playable in online co-op, and there is PvP. PC only.

Pick it for: when the other games stop feeling deep enough.

8. Instruments of Destruction — pure demolition

Instruments of Destruction (Radiangames, 2024) is by a solo developer who previously worked on Red Faction: Guerrilla, and it shows — the structural destruction is the best-realised thing here. Buildings sag, buckle and collapse under their own weight rather than shattering into prefab chunks.

It is single-player only, which makes it the odd one out on this list. Include it anyway if what you want is the destruction rather than the company. PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles.

Pick it for: the best-feeling demolition physics, full stop.

9. Jank Yard — ours, so judge accordingly

Full disclosure: we make this one, so treat this entry as an explanation rather than a recommendation.

Jank Yard takes the build-and-send loop and points it at a party game instead of a sandbox. The difference is that the challenge changes every round — a hill climb, a long jump, a joust, a derby — so the right vehicle changes with it, and you are rebuilding constantly rather than perfecting one machine. Rounds are short, everyone is on the course at once, and parts come off individually so every crash scatters differently.

Where most of this list is about engineering something that works, this one is about engineering something that fails entertainingly in front of your friends. It is a different goal, and it wants a much lower attention span.

It is coming to Steam in Q4 2026, with a free demo during Steam Next Fest in October.

Which one should you actually start with

If you want Trailmakers but with better destruction: Brick Rigs.

If you want Trailmakers but deeper: Scrap Mechanic, then Stormworks if you enjoy the wiring.

If you want short sessions and laughs: Besiege.

If you want a campaign to sink into: TerraTech, or Space Engineers if you have the patience for survival.

If you want to break buildings and nothing else: Instruments of Destruction.

And if you want the party-game version of the whole idea, that is the corner we are building in.