Simulatorsallow players to experience a different slice of life in the comfort of their own home. This category has a variety of sub-genres such as factory simulation, where players get to manage and create plants where they must successfully create products.
Commonly, these games are popular with fans of the feature known as automation. These factories are solely run by other machinery that players need to plan the placement of to have a functioning factory system. As a niche genre, there are only a few factory titles, but these are by far the best.
Updated May 12, 2024 by Rie Takumi: The best factory simulation games reward players for effective automation. Players maximize their efficiency for the greatest gains and to strike a sustainable economic loop. Sometimes, the loop itself is the reward for players.
These loops are some of the biggest reasons why people love factory simulation games. Solving problem after problem and creating a cool logistics network engage players for hours on end. Some liken it to real-life warehouse logistics and programming for how satisfying it is to see things work as they should.
Naturally, gamers who don't play factory simulation games may be confused about why this kind of gameplay is appealing. But a great factory simulation game can open them up to the joys of solving one problem after another.
Programmers or gamers who love logic puzzles may find Automachef challenging. Half the fun is figuring out the game's logic. Finding out the relationship between income, efficiency, and power, as well as the use of newly unlocked machines, takes up a lot of game time.
While not a factory in the traditional sense, Alan's Automation Workshop is a brilliant simulation combined with the puzzle genre. Players who enjoy the logical side of factory simulators must find new ways to solve the client's issues through automation.
Players will be encouraged to test out their new creations before attempting to sell them to the client. Naturally, new problems cause new solutions to be created, and as a novice engineer, the player should be sure to explore their creativity to make a profit while finding the answers.
Another great factory game straight off the assembly line is Learning Factory, a game that tasks the player with deploying conveyor belts in intricate ways to craft and sell an assortment of goods to adorable cats. As the title of the game suggests, players will need to keep learning new things if they hope to achieve catopia in one of the best factory games ever.
Learning Factory takes making a factory on Mars a step further as players can analyze their selling data to see what they could improve upon and make the factory more efficient. Above all else, this is a relaxing game as it takes the stress out of management.
Like an idle game title, Factory Town Idle allows players to play a game and make a profit while barely needing to click a single button. Unlike other idle titles, Factory Town combines multiple genres into one making it part clicker, part idle game, part builder, and part management title; giving players significantly more to get stuck into.
As a factory town, it is up to the player to build different production buildings as well as houses for their workers to expand their town into a brilliant industrial hub that will gradually bring in the big bucks for the player.
First-person base building may seem strange, but Techtonica makes it work. Base building in Techtonica involves using the environment to automate resource gathering. Waterfalls can be used to power water wheels, wide floor spaces next to mineable areas are best suited for mining drills, and sorting plants can be automated via threshers.
Optimizing builds can help players create sustainable factories. Conveyor belts, inserters, and other schematics can help factories achieve full automation. Before that, however, players need to unlock schematics by fixing terminals around the map.
Simulation titles tend to allow players to experience an alternate life for themselves and Beer Factory intends to allow players to do exactly that by learning how to manage their own beer business. As the name suggests in this business and management simulator players will be running a beer factory, from purchasing the necessary ingredients to finding a place to sell them.
Unfortunately, this is just the prologue to the full game that hasn't yet been released though even just the prologue of Beer Factory has impressed many players who look forward to running their factory that sells an assortment of beers.
In this fantastical management game, players become the boss of a factory that they build from humble beginnings. Players must manage their workers and the stations they build all while attempting to create the best products available.
Players don't need to stress though, as even when the factory starts to expand with more stations to create products that will need far more workers, Little Big Workshop is still entertaining to play. Part of the fun is the freedom factory owners are given to take their company in a direction they will enjoy though it is important to make a living.
Owning a company; especially a car company, can be very competitive. Production Line: Car Factory Simulatorpushes the entrepreneurship skills of the player to their limits in the hope of creating a successful car factory that beats the rest of the competition.
Automation is key in this title as players will want to strive to make an easy-flowing system that needs little intervention while also creating cars fast. Players will be constantly improving their factory designs from the beginning stages of their company which may move slowly to eventually a well-oiled system through hours of practice.
On the more unrealistic side, Factory Town relies on the player attempting to create a factory within a settlement that lives in the wilderness. With a combination of conveyor belts and steam-powered trains, players will eventually have enough stations set up to create a variety of resources to help their town thrive.
Similarly to Infinifactory, players can work through eight different maps in the campaign where they must complete a task. If they prefer the freedom to create their very own town, there is also a sandbox mode to enjoy.
Captain of Industry is a factory simulator with survival elements. Landing on an abandoned island with a small crew, the player must build to survive. Planting fields of crops, establishing housing, and then finally creating efficient factories to refine these materials will not only help the players grow their settlement but also grow as an economic powerhouse.
Managing it all may seem difficult, but luckily players can start small before gradually expanding what products they produce. As Captain of Industry is currently in early access there is plenty more in store for players with each update of the game.
Gamers looking for factory simulation games with a side of wave clearing can pick up The Riftbreaker. Players have direct control of a mech pilot they use to clear creatures that would try to destroy them or their factory. Building a well-built factory is essential to surviving even a night in-game, and so is finding resources for the factory.
Much like StarCraft, players must look for resources to power their factories. Protecting these stations is a must, especially when looking for resources deeper into the map. This may not be the game for players looking for a relaxing factory game, though players who want action with their automation fantasy have a lot to play with here.
Space Engineers unleashes gamers on Earth-like planets to pioneer civilian and military tech. The vehicles, spaceships, space stations, and even war machines players build will seem familiar to NASA enthusiasts as in-game tech are extrapolations of current space technology. Furthering its realism is its volumetric-based physics engine wherein everything is fully destructible and persistent, with unique atmosphere, gravity, and climate zones.
For added challenges, players may opt for survival mode, where they need to manage resources and inventory. Creative mode gives full freedom and resources, in addition to instant building and no deaths. Players can even go through Scenarios and play unique campaigns building space stations with their friends.
Factory simulator meets puzzle game with Infinifactory as players build factories that assemble products needed by their alien masters. With its very own campaign, players can explore the wonders of automation while also living through an interesting story.
Players are building in the hope of solving their tasks to make products, and this leads to some rather wacky designs being created in the hope of making the systems work. Players can take this one step further with Infinifactory's sandbox mode which allows them to create freely and push the limits of the block system.
Shapez is a casual factory simulator with a simplistic art style that challenges the player to produce shapes through automation. It combines the simulation genre perfectly with puzzle elements as players must use their heads to work out how to make complex shapes efficiently.
This also means that the game has set levels for the player to complete and as they progress, these levels will become more difficult with the simulator demanding more complex shapes to be completed. The map is described to be infinitely expanding, and therefore, these factories will gradually grow to make room for more complex shapes.
As mentioned, the enjoyment of factory games for many players is the possibility of making elaborate conveyor belt systems that test the player's capability of making creative routes for their factories to follow. In Mindustry, the player must use their mind to not only grow their factory in this open-ended management game but also defend it.
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