I want to buy one new game but I'm having trouble deciding. I finished the mine mogul demo and enjoyed it, alchemy factory doesn't have a demo for me to try to see which I like more but stylistically it looks more my preference. Has anyone tried both and can help me decide?
Hi r/incremental_games!
Some of you may know my previous title Minutescape. After a year of work, I'm very happy to announce that Chipmatic has now released on Steam!
Chipmatic is a mining/automation incremental where you control a robot on its quest to reach Earth's core.
For anyone wondering: No, it's not a nodebuster-like, nor does it have runs or limited time. You build your factory and improve yourself to go deeper and deeper. It's designed to be very chill, no timers or enemies anywhere.
The game has a bit of idle income but it's fundamentally an active incremental. You can expect about 10h of playtime for a 100% completion run. (Although that's just my own estimate, players will have wildly different playtimes depending on how well they optimize production)
Thank you everyone who helped playtesting and reporting bugs in the demo! We've been hard at work and we're very happy with what we've been able to create. We sincerely hope you enjoy it!
Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3780950/Chipmatic/
I've been trying to sort out factory mechanics inside my head and kind of look at them in a systemic sense, and got curious.
Basically, ~100% of the mechanics boil down to :
there is building which is placed just by clicking on the ground (in some cases, you need to craft the building's item first)
you may or may not need to select a recipe
there is a way to put material(s) into the building (belt, loader, pipe, by hand)
there may or may not be a need for a fuel or a power source (electricity, mana, etc)
it takes some time to convert material(s) into product(s)
there is a way to take product(s) out of the building (loader, pipe, etc)
the resulting products are either used or moved to the next step of the production.
And this is basically it.
There are things like sprays in DSP that can be applied to materials to get more efficiency.
But other than that, are there other mechanics that break the mould?
(I'm not saying that every game is the same, or that it's boring)
We're making (well, mostly myself..) a factory automation game where you only have small robots that move constantly forward, like Lemmings or lemmings. (For you kids who don't know Lemmings, go look it up!) Your whole factory is made of them: they become the buildings, they do all the production tasks and research, and they replace conveyor belts as transporters of goods.
In addition to these non-standard construction mechanics, there is also a narrative twist. The more you research and the more the Botlings become independent and start behaving in erratic ways. Maybe at some point even rebelling...
Backstory
"A space ship carrying only an AI has crashed while searching for habitable planets. The AI spawns you - an advanced Botling with the acronym STEVE - to handle 100 botlings to create a new space ship to continue the search. Might be though, that plans change once the Botlings start learning to gain a bit more independence."
Links
Trailer on YT
Future plans
We'll be putting out a demo in a few weeks (hopefully by the end of the month!) and after that will also start playtesting. Hop on to our discord to get updates and join the playtest when it's time. I'll post each milestone to this thread and edit the main post here, but of course you can also see it on the Steam page (and gonna make announcements there too).
Our current timetable is to release on Early Access this summer, but let's see where we're at when we get there...base game is darn fun already, but we're still a few months away from getting the Botling awakening logic fine tuned to a level where players will enjoy it enough (and not just get frustrated).
Wishlists are much appreciated and so are comments to this thread, because this subreddit is awesome. We are still looking for ideas to complement the gameplay and have not locked the design completely (especially mid-late game) - if you want to make an impact on the game, I'm really eager to hear ideas from especially those who participate in the upcoming playtest and playing the demo.
Hi! I'd like to share with you the project I'm currently working on. It's a 2D pixel art game with themes of resource extraction, incremental development, and automation, combined with a story.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4601880/Cobalt_Miner
What do you think about this project? :D
Hi all,
I'm making a game world where there's a lot of systems and I want to offer some method of automating most of them, but I need decent examples of the features in terms of automation. My thinking is that you'll typically start them off by hand and then develop automation over time as you gather resources in the world.
So can anyone suggest good examples of automation for the following:
Ideally, I'm looking for examples where there are multiple stages of automation so there's more progression options. Most of these aspects will be interwoven (cooking can lead to new trade routes and new ingredients etc)
Thanks for any suggestions
I’ve just launched a public playtest for Stellar Shipyard, a multiplayer top-down 2D space sim where you design and build up a fleet of ships that interconnect.
You either control ships manually, or let your workers fly them automatically. As you build up more ships, you send them to automatically trade resources between your various stations and asteroids.
Instead of placing buildings on fixed terrain, you construct ships tile-by-tile and dock them together into a single expanding structure. As your operation grows, you end up managing a cluster of connected vessels, governed by automated schedules, and run by your human workers and drones.
The playtest contains all the content that I deem close enough to what the final product would contain. There are still tons of features that I want to work on and add. However, I’ve been getting a lot of questions when I’d release a demo, and I thought instead of waiting for the game to be fully polished up for a demo (like implementing a whole in-game tutorial), I’d let people try the game out right now.
There are many hours of playtime that can be enjoyed here. The playtest is fully open, and supports multiplayer.
I'm new with automation games and I tried the demo for shapez 1 (watched vidoes for shapez 2 and I'm really interested) and modulus and I enjoyed both games. I really liked the cozy vibes and puzzle both games have but I'm struggling to choose between them.
I know some of you will suggest to just buy them both, but I really wanna stick to one game first before buying the second one.
For those who played both games, will you give me some opinions regarding both games?
Hi everyone! 👋
I'm the developer of HZ Industry. I've always loved automation games, but I felt they needed more "action". So I built this: a hybrid where you manage production lines to power up your heroes and defend against hordes! ⚙️⚔️
Key features:
If you like what you see, adding it to your Wishlist helps me more than you can imagine! It’s the best way to support an indie dev. 💙
Steam Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4618850/HZ_Industry/
It’s called Swarmdustry, a game where you control the Swarm to build organic mega factories. If you like what you're seeing, consider trying it out on Steam!
If you're curious about what makes this game different from Factorio, you can read more about it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/4000770/discussions/0/595161023680382579/
I’d also love to hear any feedback and thoughts!
Play the Free Demo here:
https://tangy-orange-games.itch.io/swarmex
Hey all! I spent many late nights making this demo in GameMaker for you guys! Hope you enjoy it! All feedback is welcome 😁
Description: SWARMEX is a base builder and tower defence game where you mine gems and defend your base against waves enemy spaceships. Upgrade your weapons to increase firepower upgrade your shields to protect your base and refinery to make more credits from gems.
We just added a Free Build Map to Modulus
A lot of people asked for more space and fewer terrain constraints, so now when you start a new save you can choose between:
Curious to see what people do when they’re given more freedom vs constraints.
Also added Steam Trading Cards and a couple of fixes which you can read about in the update post on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2779120/view/524247085597331861
Would love to hear which map people prefer.
I just published the Steam page for my factory game, Fractal Foundry:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4287960/Fractal_Foundry/
Automate fractal megastructures from simple cubes. Design nested factories that scale into recursive systems. No pressure, no costs, just pure creativity and automation.
If you enjoy modular / scalable factory design, this might be your thing.
I’ve been working on this for a long time, and I’d really love to hear what automation players think.
Wave 2 focuses on introduction to the game. Since ASEMA is a complex 2D automation and factory builder in space with gravity, ballistic railgun logistics and other unique, the player needs to learn some new things.
Wave I testers were dropped into the cold, deep end. Many of them have played beyond 10 hours and are focusing their commenting and feedback on automation, research, logistics, etc. Together, we fixed a long list of issues and bugs.
I let the next wave in when the current update that has an introduction campaing and more tweaking, goes live, which is not far from now. Willing play testers can remain on the test branch after demo release, all the way until early access.
To join the test, please join the Discord and ask to be added on the line.
https://euclideanfactory.com/game/
Hey friends, Argentine web dev here who always wanted to make games.
This last decade I got really hooked on factory games like Factorio, Satisfactory, Shapez 2, etc. Though the love actually started two decades ago with Minecraft and tech modpacks, and you could even say the very first spark was 30 years ago playing The Incredible Machine as a sweet little 7-year-old.
A few months ago I started developing this game. It's clearly heavily inspired by Shapez 2, but I have several features planned that I think will set it apart.
The plan is to keep prototyping in JS, because it lets me iterate super fast and test mechanics/progression. But down the line I'll hire a 3D designer to give it more flair, and I'll migrate all the code to Unity.
My idea is to make a factory game, with some incremental features, a lot of trains, quarries, electronics, warehouse logistics and more
Hello,
Transit Empire is a solo incremental development game that I made, it is out now.
It is available on android/google play here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.transit.empire
The game offers about 10-14 hours of gameplay, and is primarily an exploration/automation game.
The core standout feature of my game is the map - you explore to trade, manufacture, sell or deliver resources to settlements, which nets you other resources, gold or unique upgrades.
There are modifiers, caravan improvements and unique upgrades available to purchase with the resources you gather/trade for/ generator; no pay to win purchases at all in my game. It is free to download and play the first hour, after that there is a small cost to unlock the full game.
Core gameplay changes as you progress and unlock new functionality, with a goal system to drive you in the right direction, unlocking new features/mechanics as you go.
Let me know what you think, I will try respond to any and all comments, please be kind :)