list of production line/automation games

[Falk]

hello i think this might be an ot but i dunno for sure btw i am a very normal poster nothing suspicious here

lmk if i've missed anything cool or updates happen or whatever

Shapez 2

shapez 2 on Steam

Dive into a factory-building game where the focus is on just that — building huge factories! Construct sprawling multi-level factories and min-max your layouts without limits. Shapez 2 is tailor-made for enthusiasts who crave the thrill of optimizing production lines and perfecting automation.

store.steampowered.com

sequel to a very popular "casual" automation game which improves on its predecessor in virtually every way. even music. omg!

had a demo that ran Jan-Feb 2024, Early Access possibly this year based on feedback/testing. also check out the original Shapez


Dyson Sphere Program

Dyson Sphere Program on Steam

Build the most efficient intergalactic factory in space simulation strategy game Dyson Sphere Program! Harness the power of stars, collect resources, plan and design production lines and develop your interstellar factory from a small space workshop to a galaxy-wide industrial empire.

store.steampowered.com

notes: very strong EA launch in 2021, devs been adding a lot of good QoL and the first half of a Combat Update and currently working on the second half (space combat) while prototyping stations and spaceships.. very technically impressive as every single planet you visit and exploit is physically 'there' alongside the dyson structures powering it all in a galaxy-spanning map with an insane sense of scale.

Satisfactory

Satisfactory on Steam

Satisfactory is a first-person open-world factory building game with a dash of exploration and combat. Play alone or with friends, explore an alien planet, create multi-story factories, and enter conveyor belt heaven!

store.steampowered.com

notes: been in early access for a fair bit, major updates maybe twice a year, possibly the most time-consuming out of this entire list because of the cosmetic possibilities as of update 5 and blueprints as of update 7

Update 8 live now on EA, 1.0 planned 2024, private beta underway.

Foundry

View: https://store.steampowered.com/app/983870/FOUNDRY/

notes: best description i can come up with is a game from an alternate timeline if factorio never happened off the back of minecraft mods and spawned its own entire genre. voxel based, differs in that there's a lot of digging and setting up underground mining operations and working towards building really large modular structures. also lots of cosmetic options

game launched on Steam in Early Access on May 2nd

Factory Town

Save 60% on Factory Town on Steam

Build, automate, and optimize a giant factory on 3D terrain using conveyor belts, trains, chutes, pipes, and airships. Sell your goods to nearby villages to expand their borders, increase happiness, and unlock even better technology!

store.steampowered.com

notes: one-man project, made it all the way to 1.0 and beyond. rather than a city builder with automation elements i think its best described as an automation game using settlement-builder precedents for its framework and tech tree/setting

has a spinoff idle game that borrows a lot of assets/concepts

Factory Town 2 is in planning stage

Dream Engine: Nomad Cities

Dream Engines: Nomad Cities on Steam

A survival city-building game with flying cities. Build, automate, and defend a flying city that travels between procedurally generated maps to survive in a wacky, nightmare-infested, post-apocalyptic world full of strange science and dreams.

store.steampowered.com

notes: best way to describe it is automation/ARPG (something riftbreaker advertised itself as and was disappointing at) where you land somewhere, build up your base and get as much resources as possible while teching up and defending from increasingly strong hordes before you have to take off with part of your base and move on. (this predates Astro Colony regardless what Astro Colony's kickstarter says)

1.0 launched on May 9th

Autonauts

Autonauts on Steam

In Autonauts you must build, create, and automate. Start by establishing a colony, crafting bots and teaching them via Scratch-style programming to build an ever evolving autonomous paradise of agriculture, industry and enlightenment.

store.steampowered.com

notes: possibly the only non-conveyor entry i'll list, because building bots that make more bots that make even more bots before something or another goes wrong is a hilarious take on automation. also programming. has a different spinoff game with enemies called Autonauts vs Piratebots also worth checking out. great QoL updates recently as of end of 2022

Techtonica

Techtonica on Steam

Techtonica is a first-person factory automation game set beneath the surface of an alien planet. Work alone or in co-op to build factories, gather resources, research new technologies, mold the destructible terrain, establish a base of operations, and uncover long-forgotten secrets.

store.steampowered.com

notes: devs describe it as satisfactory + subnautica, handcrafted world. really great worldbuilding and narrative/exploration
out on Early Access on steam. Cosmetic update is out, QoL for belts 'soon'

having played a fair bit of it, my own personal honest opinion is the game stumbles a little on the factory automation side due to a combination of incredibly obtuse byproduct loops thrown into the game too early on, a lot of mundane make-work, and incredibly frustrating non-integer 'just stuff belts full of shit' trial and error recipe/maths that's anathema to the way i generally approach automation games

but oh boy it makes up for it with its vibe and exploration/story and cosmetic/base building mechanics to end up a net positive game i'm eagerly anticipating updates for

Update 3 is out, Update 4 testing is underway, new game modes

Voxel Tycoon

Voxel Tycoon on Steam

Voxel Tycoon — a management sim set in the infinite voxel world. Mine resources and process them into goods on your custom factories. Set up supply chains and passenger routes with a huge fleet of trains, trucks, and buses, and turn small towns into prosperous megacities with a thriving economy!

store.steampowered.com

notes: i generally hate automation games that have $$ as a central resource because i feel it limits the goals of having production lines for different reasons and everything funnels back into how to make the most money, but i make an exception for this because i love me some TTDX. early access progress has been incredibly slow; it really, really scratched that itch for a good few runs, but i have no reason right now to start another new run because the game is rather light on replayability as is. the dudes working on it are really nice.

Captain of Industry

Save 20% on Captain of Industry on Steam

Land your crew of survivors on an abandoned island and survive! Mine raw materials, grow food, build factories, manufacture products, research new tech, and trade with others. Become an industrial superpower! But this is no easy task, you will be put to the test to keep your settlement alive.

store.steampowered.com

notes: out in Early Access now, with Update 2. I think a good description is "tropico with the humor replaced with automation shenanigans" because you're basically juggling a population and their needs and doing so via production chains. Pretty good so far, but progress can be painfully slow if not completely deadlocked, if you fall into any of the half-dozen gotyas

Update 2 out, new map, vertical belts, decals/cosmetics for surfaces, more game options to make the game less or more (lol) hardcore

Astro Colony
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1614550/Astro_Colony/

notes: is out on Steam Early Access as of Nov 2022! seems a little unrefined in terms of user experience but has a solid concept. One to watch as EA progresses

Factorio

Factorio on Steam

Factorio is a game about building and creating automated factories to produce items of increasing complexity, within an infinite 2D world. Use your imagination to design your factory, combine simple elements into ingenious structures, and finally protect it from the creatures who don't really...

store.steampowered.com

notes: factorio

also has an expansion based on mining asteroids or something in the works i dont know

 

[PachaelD]

Thanks for the list, but yeah I'm going to lose so many hours to these things (sigh).

Maybe it's the gacha 'mission/countdown timing' itch where I played Satisfactory past few weeks for 200+ hours with a lot of idling and stopped once I finished the last Space Elevator project and will now wait for Update 6/1.0(?)

And yes, I do like the cosmetics but not that much. Need a bit of a break haha...

 

[davidnolan13]

ooh nice list. i play factory town on and off, really like it but when it gets a bit further on i really struggle same with factorio.

might have to look into captain of industry more.

 

[Gray]

Would this count?


If so, many of the Zachtronics games would qualify, I think.

 

[Falk]

oh right, there are an ABSOLUTE ton of smaller scenario-based games like mindustry and the like- i think i was focusing on the type of games you're meant to have a single run lasting hundreds of hours, but i'll curate a second list including those.

cant believe i also forgot to mention shapez.io

 

[mclem]

Would this count?


If so, many of the Zachtronics games would qualify, I think.

Click to shrink...

I *assume* this thread is angled more towards the mass building sort over the puzzly sort, but it's a good question (particularly because I favour the puzzly side of things!)

The puzzly side of things does also start to evolve into more programming-based works - still the same broad concept, but the structure and demands change a bit.

 

[Falk]

ooh nice list. i play factory town on and off, really like it but when it gets a bit further on i really struggle same with factorio.

might have to look into captain of industry more.

Click to shrink...

part of the reason i love these games is the same reason i love the atelier series- is it really, really helps with organization because at many points there legitimately is so much to do that it gets overwhelming if you don't break it down into literal jira tickets to handle one by one, which has helped combat me getting older and more forgetful and helped a ton with daily life

The puzzly side of things does also start to evolve into more programming-based works - still the same broad concept, but the structure and demands change a bit.

Click to shrink...

well, autonauts is also on the list :P getting what i have together for the short-session style of games

 

[Lkr]

I thought this was gonna be asking for recs, instead OP delivered on their own! thanks for the list, gonna book mark this and add some stuff to the ol' steam wish list. these types of games always scratch an itch for me

 

[Aaron D.]

Automation games are among my favorite genres of the past number of years.

Factorio is still the king imo, but it's remains a nut I've yet to crack. I've tried several times and have enjoyed my time with it, but for some reason I've never gotten over the hump to mastery. Still one of my absolute favorite Steam titles in spite of my ineptitude, lol.

Conversely, Dyson Sphere Program is the one that really clicked with me. Maybe because it's Factorio-lite but still deep as heck. Presentation is sexy as hell too. I found it to strike that "just right" balance between complexity & accessibility.

Nice to see shoutouts to Autonauts and Factory Town, two lesser-known production sims. Hella charming in both cases.

Automachef is a great automated food production title with tons of charm. You're guided by a robot who totally isn't trying to take over the world. Well-designed & wacky.

Shapez.io is an incredible minimalistic automation title. Resources & tools are free and unlimited so there's lots of room for experimentation. Striking, stripped down look.

Hydroneer just got a HUGE 2.0 update that really brought the game into its own and made it a title worthy of note. Awesome presentation.

 

[Zaubrer]

I second shapez.io. Really nice chill minimalist automation game.

 

[Falk]

Conversely, Dyson Sphere Program is the one that really clicked with me. Maybe because it's Factorio-lite but still deep as heck. Presentation is sexy as hell too. I found it to strike that "just right" balance between complexity & accessibility.

Click to shrink...

there's a few big reasons I think Dyson Sphere is a lot more accessible while adding complexity in other ways
- getting enough of a manufacturing ability to eventually create massive amounts of renewable energy is something of a more concrete long-term self-sufficiency goal than Factorio
- single sided belts, inserters and natural belt elevation make planning a LOT less of a chore on its own
- while Factorio's production chain network is incredibly tangled and essentially requires a bus to keep things neat since everything seems to inadvertently want to use green circuits, DSP's production chains can be broken down into a very distinct, manageable network and its ratios (prior to the spray update, which i haven't dived into and can't speak of) were incredibly neat actual ratios/factorials rather than an endless series of decimal points, and allowed you to build functional black boxes with a set of inputs and outputs, which scratched a bit of the zachtronics itch
- blasting into space for the first time and getting lost almost instantly was an absolutely 'holy shit' moment, as was finally seeing a first swarm or sphere take shape. I don't think that kind of shock and awe moment exists in many other automation games

(it's honestly contender for my fav game of all time and it's barely complete, lol)

edit: I'm probably not adding shapez and the other stuff mentioned in the first few posts to the OP since it'd be redundant and i think the folks who read this thread aren't likely to skim anyway. thanks for the contributions!

i mentioned Mindustry earlier, which i just checked and holy shit it's STILL updating!

Mindustry on Steam

An open-ended factory management game with RTS and tower defense elements.

store.steampowered.com

hybrid automation and tower defense, stage-based

on the topic of Zachtronic-likes, other than listing the Zachtronics publisher page there are a few great games which follow the same puzzle-solving concepts:

ComPressure on Steam

Design increasingly complex computation units powered by high pressure steam. From switches to steam based computers, all in a world of analogue pressure devices. Use previous designs to solve further challenges, unravel the mystery of the missing steam and discover a new field of science.

store.steampowered.com

pipes and more pipes and more pipes
got nostalgic for pipe dream

Save 50% on The Signal State on Steam

Set in a post-apocalyptic future, The Signal State puts your logic skills to the test with complex puzzles inspired by modular synthesizers. Repair machines, rebuild an abandoned farm, and be part of a revolution that will change the fate of agriculture once and for all.

store.steampowered.com

this one is amusing from a professional perspective- save the planet with... audio processing hardware!

 

[Ultron]

This is an awesome list, and appeals to me greatly. I've played what feels like a ton of Factorio, Satisfactory, and Dyson Sphere but not actually done a "complete" game of any of them lol. I usually run out of steam near the end game, and by the time I want to play again the game has changed enough or I've forgotten enough that I feel like I need to start over. I've also dabbled in a lot of the others.

Factorio is, of course, the best for me from a gameplay perspective once you figure out some of the idiosyncrasies and patterns that make it much smoother. The way the blueprints, robots, circuits, trains, etc etc can all work together to make scaling up pretty painless is so awesome. The progression from individually constructing items, to a small base, to a huge bus, to being able to spread across the map slapping down outposts in a moments is so amazing and is the most satisfying power curve in a game I've ever played.

Satisfactory is probably the one that appeals to me the most aesthetically, because seeing your factories in 3d, and getting to stack everything is so dang cool. Especially once you have trains and other automated vehicles rolling in and out of your base. Unfortunately, in the base game at least, I think that game has a major problem with scaling up being intensely laborious. Getting the Mark 3 miners and realizing how many smelters and assemblers you'll need, and that each of those also needs multiple belt connections, splitters, power connections, etc etc, really takes the wind out of my sails. Talking to a friend recently let me know that there's a lot of mods that apparently make that process easier, so I might get back into there and try that out again soon with some of those when the next update releases.

I do need to shout out to YouTubers who have kept my love for these kind of games always burning away:

KatherineOfSky Does tons of long form playthroughs of Factorio, and other similar games. Basically taught me most of the techniques to make me feel at least somewhat decent at Factorio. Also has great playthroughs of Dyson Sphere Program, Timberborn (which isn't quite the same as the games in this topics), and plenty of other games in this ballpark. She also just has a nice voice and is great to have playing while falling asleep.

ImKibitz - Does edited playthroughs of a lot of these games, building a bunch of ridiculous scale stuff, and has a fun goofy time. His Satisfactory playthroughs are very fun and constantly make me go "oh god that must have taken you so much time".

If there are other creators out there that play this kind of stuff I'd be happy to hear about them!

 

[Falk]

if we're on the topic of content creators, i have to give a shoutout to Glidercat, from whom I've found an ABSOLUTE SHIT TON of hidden gems

edit: FWIW I stream most of the automation stuff I play, but these are largely uncommentated longplays except for the occasional person popping in to say hi. more for me than for anything; my career already is making stuff for other people to enjoy- i'd probably noose myself if my gaming also ended up a commodity for other people to enjoy lol

also useful in many cases as footage to assist in bug/issue/discussion since they're all largely early access games.

edit: we might as well close this topic and use glidercat's channel as a comprehensive list of automation games lmao

Satisfactory is probably the one that appeals to me the most aesthetically, because seeing your factories in 3d, and getting to stack everything is so dang cool. Especially once you have trains and other automated vehicles rolling in and out of your base. Unfortunately, in the base game at least, I think that game has a major problem with scaling up being intensely laborious. Getting the Mark 3 miners and realizing how many smelters and assemblers you'll need, and that each of those also needs multiple belt connections, splitters, power connections, etc etc, really takes the wind out of my sails. Talking to a friend recently let me know that there's a lot of mods that apparently make that process easier, so I might get back into there and try that out again soon with some of those when the next update releases.

Click to shrink...

I think Satisfactory is an interesting case study because its very nature of things taking time to build means it marches to the beat of its own drum. previously, the core UX the team wanted to convey was the satisfaction (ha) of building something incredible piece by piece, similar to Minecraft or Valheim. (both community managers and Mark, the producer, has said as such) but obviously this is completely contrary to the main draw of automation games, that is scaling up to absurd degrees, even if the most dedicated folks still do so, with or without mods.

In most other automation games, scaling up is a necessity to keep up with the increasing demands of tech or progression. in Satisfactory up to this point, things just take SO MUCH TIME, whether it be going out to find new resources, or working on some medium scale project, that you could set up a single machine being underfed with what it needs from another single machine, that by the time you finish and get back you likely have enough anyway for whatever milestone or tech. Hence scaling up isn't a necessity so much as it is a journey-over-destination kind of thing.

from what I understand, that core UX design of keeping it smaller had a lot to do with technical limitations- letting people scale up fast means people would just stamp out the same giant designs over and over in a tiny fraction of the time and build themselves up to UE4's object limit, crashing the game. however, I think a maturing of what people are looking for in automation games, an increasing amount of competition in other games, and some absolute technical wizardry by some of the coffee stainers (hi Ben) meant that object limit becomes less and less of an absolute bottleneck, and Update 5 (the last one so far, before Update 6 hits next month) introduced a LOT of QoL into building, including getting walls/foundations built literally 10 times faster. Mark has also stated that they're now investigating in what kind of 'blueprinting' system makes sense for the slight shift in vision.

and yes, i 100% agree stacking things up vertically is immensely gratifying, lol

 

[Aaron D.]

I do need to shout out to YouTubers who have kept my love for these kind of games always burning away:

KatherineOfSky Does tons of long form playthroughs of Factorio, and other similar games. Basically taught me most of the techniques to make me feel at least somewhat decent at Factorio. Also has great playthroughs of Dyson Sphere Program, Timberborn (which isn't quite the same as the games in this topics), and plenty of other games in this ballpark. She also just has a nice voice and is great to have playing while falling asleep.

Click to shrink...

KoS is so damn cool.

I love her calm demeanor & friendly delivery. Reminds me a lot of Nookrium.

Combined they're like the Bob Ross of streamers.

if we're on the topic of content creators, i have to give a shoutout to Glidercat, from whom I've found an ABSOLUTE SHIT TON of hidden gems

Click to shrink...

Thanks for the lead. Subbed.

 

[Falk]

oh special mention for Sandship which is essentially factorio but
- mobile free-to-play game
- you make stuff generally in zachtronics-sized rooms
- progression comes to a hilariously slow slog because the game needs to monetize

it's exactly as advertised, no more, no less, but could be fun to take on-the-go

 

[Ultron]

oh special mention for Sandship which is essentially factorio but
- mobile free-to-play game
- you make stuff generally in zachtronics-sized rooms
- progression comes to a hilariously slow slog because the game needs to monetize

it's exactly as advertised, no more, no less, but could be fun to take on-the-go

Click to shrink...

I started playing this! It seems nice and I like how the buildings are little optimization/space challenges. It is pretty funny how quickly you plow into need to wait two hour barriers.

It is an extremely funny thing to me to be playing a mobile game where instead of saving up for cool/hot anime characters with amazing attack animations I'm instead saving up my premium currency to maybe get an important logistics component faster down the road.

 

[Falk]

i just reinstalled Sandship (nuked my data for a restart because i had no idea what was going on at engineer 9; too long ago) and managed to screw up by accepting the onboarding missions while already at full credits which nuked the credits so i'm waiting way longer than necessary to manually farm them back up via the contracts.

the game starts taking off after you get enough to snowball some recyclers and substance generation, which i'm far behind on now- pretty sure if i re-restarted i'd end up faster but what the hell, live with the mistake

could start a guild if there are enough degenerates here willing to slog a mobile f2p automation game lmao

 

[Falk]

Autonauts

notes: possibly the only non-conveyor entry i'll list, because building bots that make more bots that make even more bots before something or another goes wrong is a hilarious take on automation. also programming. previously had a survival update planned but that's been split off into its own game so this version is... technically complete?

Click to shrink...

The standalone survival game officially has its steam page and teaser now \o/

 

[Ultron]

Captain of Industry is in EA now. Watched a few videos last night and it does seem pretty solid. I'll probably give it a shot.

Save 20% on Captain of Industry on Steam

Land your crew of survivors on an abandoned island and survive! Mine raw materials, grow food, build factories, manufacture products, research new tech, and trade with others. Become an industrial superpower! But this is no easy task, you will be put to the test to keep your settlement alive.

store.steampowered.com

 

[ascagnel]

I'd add Builderment, which seems to only be out on the App Store right now (free, w/ IAP).

‎Builderment

‎Builderment is a factory building game at heart. It’s all about crafting and automation. You start by harvesting resources and crafting items in factories. Use those crafted items to research new technology and recipes to craft ever more complex items. Earth has run out of resources... You...

apps.apple.com

 

[Falk]

Huh, definitely going to need to update the OP at some point with status changes I guess. Also probably throw up a secondary list for short-session/puzzle games and the mobile entries and threadmark it

meanwhile started a run of Autonauts since the survival thingoo is really gonna be its own game- this run really finally clicked despite having to refactor my layout a second time so far because of power poles needing clearance i.e. shifting everything in my compact builds 1-4 tiles over >:(, this run actually is getting somewhere while finding better and better ways to handle bot logic so things don't clog up at the smallest unexpected variation

also a hilarious series of 'man i really wish this game allowed you to XYZ' and discovering there actually was such a functionality 10 hours later

currently pushing into lv5 colonists

 

[Richiek]

The Mario Bros. muli screen Game&Watch:

 

[DiipuSurotu]

The Incredible Machine - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Spoit]

notes: possibly the only non-conveyor entry i'll list, because building bots that make more bots that make even more bots before something or another goes wrong is a hilarious take on automation. also programming. previously had a survival update planned but that's been split off into its own game so this version is... technically complete?

Click to shrink...

Can someone elaborate about how in depth the programming gets? Because that sounds intruiging, but doing it all in scratch sounds infuriating

 

[Falk]

Can someone elaborate about how in depth the programming gets? Because that sounds intruiging, but doing it all in scratch sounds infuriating

Click to shrink...

it's INCREDIBLY basic, with if/else and repeat until XYZ. it's actually very accessible as far as programming goes (i'd say it's more logic than programming) and you probably could get assistance on the things you want to do if the game doesn't give enough through its tutorials. the bots start off with enough memory for basic tasks, and only get enough to perform more complicated things later on anyway with upgrades

for example the most complicated problem i've actually (hopefully) solved is
- after trees get chopped, logs get carried by another group of bots to first a primary log stack, AND if that stack is full, to a secondary log stack, AND if that is also full, to disposal.
- I wanted my tree choppers to stop ONLY if both stacks were full. (The first stack goes to crucial stuff, second goes to things that temporary burn lots of logs like making buildings, etc so it's sort of an overflow).
- On top of that, the tree choppers also periodically have to go get a new axe when the one they're using runs out
- Initially I had them check the second stack, and chop if not full. This lead to some cases where the second stack did get full, they stopped, but obviously since the first stack was still drawing logs, it eventually ran out while they stood there doing nothing. (Whoops)
- I had it then check both in succession in a repeat-till-hands-empty (at which point they'd go get their axe), which worked fine until their axe broke while checking the first stack, meaning they checked the second (not full), decided to go chop a tree, but had no axe, so they stalled again. Disaster again. (Whoops)
- Actual working solution below

edit: and i just realized that's also going to break, im so bad at this game lol

edit2: ok this one REALLY should work

thank god i made this reply and realized before 3rd disaster lol

tl;dr checking for axe resupply FIRST, then making the bot get stuck in an infinite loop until either of the stacks are not full, then go chop a tree. the previous solution basically made the bot go to get another axe a lot more than necessary, then get stuck because it's already holding an axe. The way it was set up meant that the moment either stack dropped from being full it'd go back to chopping trees anyway, but that's a lot of needless traveling. here's an alternative fix

 

[Falk]

I feel like that's not very likely considering how much effort it currently takes just to maintain EGS/Steam. Console announcements would come at the very earliest when they announce 1.0.

Click to shrink...

^re Satisfactory

on the other hand

lmao timing is everything

 

[Samaritan]

Making a combined thread for games like Satisfactory and Factorio was really smart, nice thinking OP!

 

[Falk]

sweet transit has a demo out tomorrow (9/june)- not sure yet if to add to the list because if we include tycoon games it's going to be A Very Long List(tm) in general lol, but if it's got some kind of automation-esque balance like Voxel Tycoon, don't see why not

p.s. i'll clean up the OP and make the secondary list when news on when Satis U6 is dropping since we all know that's getting news... sooner or later. i think. maybe.




hopefully

 

[Shiz Padoo]

Cool thread! I've got Satisfactory and I got Factorio this weekend. Time is the limiting factor, so I'm not very far into either. I can see that Factorio being extreme fun when it really clicks. Still not finished the tutorial missions.

Time to increase my Steam wishlist!

 

[Stef]

You know, I'd add Rise of Industry to the list, it really fits it.

 

[Falk]

ok i can't deny the close association between automation games and tycoon/simulation games lol (at least, the ones that involve production chains, not theme hospital/theme parks, etc)

time for... OP and two secondary lists, i guess?

just worried we're going to end up listing everything to Anno if we go down that rabbit hole

then again none of these games really have threads that last long individually anyway, so maybe for the best

 

[PKrockin]

I'm not big into these but I appreciate the thread for them since Era is barely aware that they exist, if that. Thanks OP.

 

[PinkSpider]

Following. I think Dyson Sphere will be my next game pickup. (I love Factorio, sadly I only heard about the creator post a few hundred hours in but it's a fantastic game outside of that, does sully the experience mind).

 

[Spoit]

Following. I think Dyson Sphere will be my next game pickup. (I love Factorio, sadly I only heard about the creator post a few hundred hours in but it's a fantastic game outside of that, does sully the experience mind).

Click to shrink...

I do like dysonthe most out of them. It has some really nice QOL factors, especially the transport hub, which allows you you distribute reources accross worlds without running as many coneyor belts

 

[Raboon]

Will be buying Dyson Sphere the next time it goes on sale, been having my eye on that game for a while now. From what I've heard it sounds like it works pretty ok on the Steam Deck as well, which is a plus for me :)

 

[Falk]

Did about 5 hours of Captain of Industry, and like a dumb goon decided to go with the middle difficulty setting right off the bat instead of training wheels, and just bottlenecked myself into oblivion, lol

on top of that, the game seems incredibly tedious since constructing and deconstructing needs vehicles to roll up for every segment (which makes complicated/compact belt+pipe setups take forever). i think that part of the game would flow a LOT better if it let you designate a construction site headquarters which you dump materials in and it autoconstructs within a radius.

other than that, it's an interesting twist on the general formula in that you start with drones FIRST, but they suck and belts are the mid-game upgrade that makes things stop bottlenecking

it feels a lot more like tropico than automation game despite ticking every checkbox, and ultimately i'm not sure if i'm enjoying it enough for it to be one of those automation or base building games i fire up for another run when i have free time. (or maybe i should just not self-sabotage and restart with the training wheels on, lol)

edit: also, belt/pipe building is incredibly, incredibly finicky trying to get the game to do what you want to do with stacked designs, not to mention needing to jump through hoops just to have a belt that accepts output from two buildings facing each other with the belt in between.

edit edit: to clarify, it's got UX/UI shenanigans where the game will insist some things you want to do are illegal/not enough clearance/clips with other things, etc. or helpfully routes stuff an incredibly obtuse/convoluted way, unless you build things in a very specific order one segment at a time, and then suddenly it's allowed

 

[Fat4all]

does Human Resource Machine and 7 Billion Humans count?

 

[Falk]

they'd be in the second/zachtronics list, yes

human resource machine was incredibly tedious though

9 times out of 10 you already know the solution but need to sit through multiple retries/retakes because you gotta debug the solution for some obvious PEBCAK error and dear lord i hate debugging to begin with

 

[ascagnel]

does Human Resource Machine and 7 Billion Humans count?

Click to shrink...

I haven't played 7BH yet, but HRM is more of a programming game (based on the Little Man Computer) than a conveyor-and-pipe automation game.

 

[Falk]

won't be listing Sweet Transit, but FWIW the demo makes it a LOT more of... a really oddball lenient city builder than anything.

map starts without any cities at all and YOU build them, lol

meanwhile Captain of Industry actually did click and i think ruminating a little more and realizing the Tropico comparison being apt was probably a big reason why.

my main bottleneck also probably is partially because i was trying to be extra smart and build things with lots of space in between for expansion... which just made it take longer to move product around, and considering transportation (incl. belts, no small part because of how tedious it is to build stuff) is a very finite resource in this, made things harder than they would have been. probably would do much better putting stuff in a much smaller footprint.

especially with how tightly i build things, i probably require less space than the average person:

edit: in other update news,
- Coffee Stain still being coy about Update 6 Experimental date lol
- Astro Colony might be playable during Steam Next Fest
- Foundry has been having a rapid fire series of quick fixes but a big one was replacing the prior music that had YouTube Content ID fingerprinting. Hopefully that means the game picks up on the big streamers rodeo and gets more eyes on it
- Dyson Sphere Program has a small patch incoming that adds sandbox mode and a super hard mode where the starting planet has 10% the usual resources and everything else sits at 7% (lmao)

 

[Falk]

holy shit that's almost a stealth drop lol

probably continue my longplay then, since it stalled while waiting to ramp up oil production, and uh... the best place for that was/is Spire Coast

meanwhile i got through (the first part of) oil cracking in Captain of Industry and dear god it's always a headache in every game lmao

 

[Falk]

Bamp:

- Satisfactory Update 6 is out

- Autonauts console releases tomorrow - actually has a different gameplay mode than the PC version; more streamlined (makes sense lol- doing the same amount of tinkering would be painful on controller. I honestly would have waited till tomorrow to post so i'm not posting future stuff, EXCEPT:

- Astro Colony has a timed demo out in conjunction with Steam Next Fest

 

[DrKelpo]

For me Factorio is the absolute perfect game in this genre... Especially the art style sets it apart for me.

 

[MrKlaw]

I'd add Builderment, which seems to only be out on the App Store right now (free, w/ IAP).

‎Builderment

‎Builderment is a factory building game at heart. It’s all about crafting and automation. You start by harvesting resources and crafting items in factories. Use those crafted items to research new technology and recipes to craft ever more complex items. Earth has run out of resources... You...

apps.apple.com

Click to shrink...

playing this over the weekend. Its fun but almost feels like a cookie clicker/idle game as you're mainly just working through the research tree with no other obvious goal, and no real downside to just expanding massively and ignoring your older builds or using them to trickle money in. Kinda relaxing though

How playable do you think autonauts would be on console?

 

[Falk]

from what i've been seeing, autonauts on console has a very specific ruleset that's much more streamline/directed than the overall sandbox feeling of the PC version. for example, you don't need to recharge bots at all.

 

[Chopchop]

I really liked Dyson Sphere Program. Getting your production going and seeing your first sphere/ring take shape is incredibly satisfying, especially since you can see the thing from the surface of any planet in the system as well. Once you have a sphere you're happy with, the game prints wallpapers because of how pretty it all looks.

The game has gotten a ton of updates since I stopped playing, so maybe I'll try again sometime soon.

 

[Falk]

The game has gotten a ton of updates since I stopped playing, so maybe I'll try again sometime soon.

Click to shrink...

at this juncture we're possibly less than half a year (although i wouldn't hedge bets, lol) away from combat which would probably be a major shakeup of production lines again, even if you uncheck combat, so depending on how you play it might be worth waiting

there's at the very least an info-drop soon on combat according to their socials, so that may include an updated roadmap timeline

 

[MrKlaw]

Builderment is consuming me but I don't know that it's 'fun' - I'm just building stuff in random locations and not compartmentalised because you don't see a natural progression of items and maybe the touch interface makes it difficult to make bulk edits. I'm also leaving the iPad on half the day just to grind out slow production for unlocks rather than trying to speed up production as the next milestone will likely be different so no incentive to focus on one transient goal.

Need to pick something a bit more structured next. Could get back into factorial Mo but fancy something new.

Have satisfactory but not played so that's an obvious candidate. But autonauts looks fun and I've been curious about dyson sphere for a while..

 

[MrKlaw]

Anyone play these on steam deck? Curious partly on screen size and practicality, and partly on how the controls translate from kb/m

some of the games like autonauts and automachef being on console is interesting to me especially on switch as it can be portable or TV, and I don't want to spend hours at the same desk that my work is done at (wfh)

 

[Chopchop]

at this juncture we're possibly less than half a year (although i wouldn't hedge bets, lol) away from combat which would probably be a major shakeup of production lines again, even if you uncheck combat, so depending on how you play it might be worth waiting

there's at the very least an info-drop soon on combat according to their socials, so that may include an updated roadmap timeline

Click to shrink...

Part of me wants to just use sandbox mode to build a few spheres, and the other part wants to check out the updated production lines.

Anyone play these on steam deck? Curious partly on screen size and practicality, and partly on how the controls translate from kb/m

some of the games like autonauts and automachef being on console is interesting to me especially on switch as it can be portable or TV, and I don't want to spend hours at the same desk that my work is done at (wfh)

Click to shrink...

I started a new game on steam deck and so far it runs fine at 40 fps/40hz, but it seems to be very much a mouse-driven game. I'll need to go look for a good control scheme for it. No idea if the steam deck will die in endgame, though.