u/Matos1978

Trailer: https://youtu.be/lciqPdMyLuk?si=HY2GQtAXTZLINuV9

Demo: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4411610/COALCOM_Power_Station/

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You're the new operator at Riverside Coal Power Station. Your predecessor Earl was three weeks from retirement when he tested whether the plant could run itself while he napped. It could not. Two city blocks were evacuated. You got hired because your resume said you "worked with computers."

Manage boiler pressure, drum water levels, coal feed, and cooling while the system operator issues demands that don't care about your problems. Change one thing, watch three others respond. Make the wrong call and the cascade starts. Wet turbines are expensive.

The feel is closer to Papers Please than to a technical simulator — stressed operator, institutional pressure, graded performance, dark humour. Not a building game. Not an engineering simulation. A job simulator where the job is keeping the lights on.

I'm an electrical engineer with 20+ years in the power sector. I built this because I wanted a game that captured what operational pressure in this industry actually feels like, and nothing existed that did it. The concept sat unfinished for over a decade. AI coding assistance finally got it across the line.

Demo: Shifts 1-4 free on Steam, approximately 30-40 minutes of play. Continuous Mode included, capped at 20-minute sessions.

Full game: Launches within the month time at $12.99 with a 10% launch discount. Windows only.

COALCOM: Power Station puts you in the control room of a 1980s coal power station. Green phosphor CRT terminal, keyboard controls. You manage boiler pressure, drum water levels, coal feed, and cooling while the system operator issues demands on schedule and equipment fails without asking permission.

Change one thing, watch three others respond.

You operate fixed systems, not build them — so if you're after Factorio-style construction, this isn't that. The systems interact realistically enough to produce genuine cascading consequences, but the depth is operator-level, not plant-engineer. The closest comparison in terms of feel is Papers Please — a stressed operator under institutional pressure, graded on performance, with dark humour holding it together. The aesthetic is authentic 1980s green phosphor CRT — character-based interface, keyboard controls only.

I'm an electrical engineer with 20+ years in the power sector — market operations, generation scheduling, demand forecasting. I built this because I wanted a game that captured what that world actually feels like under pressure, and nothing existed that did it. The concept sat unfinished for over a decade. AI coding assistance finally got it across the line.

What's in the demo:

Campaign Shifts 1-4 (~30-40 min, free)
20-minute Continuous Mode sessions
Progressive control unlock so the systems don't hit you all at once

Full game:

10-shift campaign with increasing difficulty
21 equipment fault types
Persistent equipment health between shifts
Maintenance system from Shift 5 onward (spend earned points to restore equipment health between shifts)
Graded A-F on TSO compliance, equipment management, and fuel efficiency

Demo is live now on Steam, free. Full game launches within the month at $12.99.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4411610/COALCOM_Power_Station/

Happy to answer questions about how the systems work, or the decade it took to finish it.

Six alarms. Pressure dropping. TSO wants 170 MW. You're making 93. Keep the lights on, keep your job.

COALCOM: Power Station - Pedro Matos - Retro coal plant operator game. Demo free on Steam.

I'm a power industry professional. I made a coal plant operator game — cascading systems, graded performance, dark humour. Demo is live.