What seems like a rather interesting and unique take on the colony building sim is Stellar Settlers: Space Base Builder, which gets you to build vertically and it seems pretty fun. Early Steam user reviews are painting a good picture too with a Very Positive rating.
"Stellar Settlers is a chill space base/city builder and colony simulation game set in the depths of uncharted space. As you embark on a cosmic adventure, take control of a space settlement and build your thriving colony on alien planets with different challenging and hostile environments that want to destroy your colony."
Looks like a fun blend of a few different ideas. The vertical building looks good, and the exploration side of it seems great too. As not only will you be building up a thriving colony, but you'll also be working towards creating a physics-based spaceship to escape the planet when it gets too harsh, to move onto another planet.
Direct Link
Their plan for Early Access is about another year of development to include 5 more planets, new structures to build and more with an end result being "basically double the content for the player". Additionally, they also said they want to work on full controller and Steam Deck support too.
Check it out on the Steam page. It has Native Linux support.
See more from me