Spore vs Stonehearth
Spore
Spore is a pretty unique and addictively fun god-mode-like sandbox game where you get to create a whole new world and fill it with your living creations. As a "god", you can play around with the game's five evolutionary stages, from Cell to Space, and grow an entire space-faring civilization from its very simple beginnings as a single-cell organism. Of course, to develop a civlization, you'll need plenty of tools to help them along and Spore gives all of that to you in an easy-to-use format. You can literally customize everything you like in the game ranging from vehicles that your creations will drive or even buildings that your organisms will live in.Although Spore is essentially a single player game - after all, there can only be one almighty god... and that's you! - the world you've created is shared with other players in the game, so your creations can actually explore new planets and maybe even bump into a hostile race which will force them to make the preparations needed to go to war.
Overall, Spore is an amazingly detailed, civilization-building, sandbox game that allows you to micromanange almost everything if you choose to do so, or you could lay down the groundwork and let things unfold by themselves. Best yet, there is no limit as to how many worlds you can create, so unleash your creativity and your godly powers and develop the ultimate civilization today!
Stonehearth
Stonehearth is the game you'll want to play if you enjoy playing Minecraft because you can build your very own city. Although the game is basically a sandbox game like Minecraft, it has a building aspect that's much more similar to Craft the World... except that in Stonehearth, everything's in glorious 3D. In this game, you play as the leader of a small handful of adorable-looking pioneers who are looking for a new place to settle down. There isn't a lot of digging involved in Stonehearth though you still need to get your pioneers to collect resources from the environment or to plant and harvest their own.Like in Craft the World, you'll need to provide shelter for your people and equip them with the necessary equipment so they can fend off attacks during the night. However, when it comes to crafting, Stonehearth has a much more diverse and in-depth crafting system. The building system in this game is also pretty unique though it can be rather restrictive when compared to Minecraft since the most "building" you'll be doing is mainly houses for your villagers. Of course, let's not forget about the game's much better-looking graphics!
In some way, Stonehearth is more of a survival/town-building game than a pure sandbox game like Minecraft. However, it is perfect for players who enjoy having an entire town of minions to order around, and the satisfaction of leading and developing a tribe. For a price tag of $24.99 (on Steam), Stonehearth can be a bit on the costly side, but if this is the sort of game you're into, the game will always be worth the price. You can show your support to the indie developers behind this game as well... so there's that!