Three games are free on Steam until July 13 — including one of the best city builders around

Steam has three games free to play this weekend, running until July 13. The headliner is Against the Storm, but Ark: Survival Ascended and the virtual co-working space Gogh: Focus with Your Avatar are also in the mix.

Against the Storm is the standout here — a roguelite city builder with a 94.6% positive rating from over 34,000 Steam reviews. Instead of grinding a single city for hundreds of hours, each run lasts one to two hours before you start fresh, and the roguelite progression loop makes that feel rewarding rather than punishing. Ark: Survival Ascended, the remaster of the dino-survival classic, has a more divisive reputation — players have flagged technical issues and aggressive monetization, though the core concept still pulls people in. If the free weekend convinces you, both Ark: Survival Ascended and the original Ark: Survival Evolved are currently discounted as part of an ongoing franchise sale, along with a stack of DLC. Gogh: Focus with Your Avatar is the odd one out — less a game, more a cozy multiplayer co-working sandbox with room building, character customization, a pomodoro timer, to-do lists, and focus tracking tools.

Against the Storm launched in 2023 from developer Eremite Games and quickly built a reputation as one of the freshest takes on city building in years. The roguelite structure — short runs, persistent meta-progression, constantly shifting conditions — strips away the genre's usual slow-burn tedium and replaces it with tighter, higher-stakes decision-making. It's the kind of game that's easy to recommend to people who bounced off traditional city builders.

All three games are free to play on Steam until July 13. Against the Storm is the one worth clearing your weekend for.