Unleash Your Engineering Skills with These 10 Epic Games Similar to Factorio

Highlights

Factorio's addictive and evolving nature has made it a popular indie game on Steam, as players gradually automate tedious processes and build efficient factories.

Games such as Automachef, Word Factori, Kubifaktorium, Shapez, Autonauts, Hydroneer, Infinifactory, Satisfactory, Dyson Sphere Program, and Mindustry offer players distinctive experiences and visual styles in the realm of factory management and automation. These games allow players to unleash their creativity by designing, constructing, and automating diverse systems, ranging from automated kitchens and word chains, to colony management, complex shape creation, resource mining, product assembly, and even the creation of colossal intergalactic factories.

Factorio has gained immense popularity on Steam since its initial release in 2016, despite its outdated graphics and lackluster color palette. The game's addictive and dynamic nature has played a significant role in its success, as players find themselves engrossed in automating mundane tasks and gradually constructing a highly efficient factory that operates effortlessly.

The widespread popularity of Factorio has sparked the emergence of numerous "factory management" and automation games, each offering a distinctive experience with their own artistic styles.

10 Automachef

Players are challenged with the task of creating efficient kitchens in this resource management puzzle game. By constructing and programming various machines, they must design the ideal production line for their restaurant.

Automachef offers a campaign with puzzling scenarios, a "contracts" mode, and a sandbox mode for experimentation. Although it may not have the same level of complexity and lasting appeal as Factorio, it is still a valuable choice for gamers seeking different forms of automation gameplay.

9 Word Factori

The game Word Factori is a one-of-a-kind "word-building" game that boasts a simplistic art style and user-friendly gameplay. Players are tasked with constructing chains of vibrant factories that manipulate the letter "i" to create increasingly intricate letters.

While Word Factori leans more towards being a puzzle game rather than a factory management game, it motivates players to fine-tune their factory chains in order to achieve higher scores. Despite its relatively short duration, the game offers additional objectives like challenging levels and concealed word art, ensuring players remain captivated.

8 Kubifaktorium

This colony-sim management game, based on voxels, challenges players to construct and oversee a colony by efficiently managing resources and implementing intricate machinery within production lines. Kubifaktorium offers a refreshing twist on the traditional colony-sim genre.

In addition to the construction mechanics, players can utilize a diverse range of transport systems, such as trains, conveyor belts, and zeppelins, to efficiently transport resources throughout their colony. Moreover, the game provides the option to automate production processes by incorporating automated farms, smelters, and crushers that rely on conveyor belts.

7 Shapez

This abstract automation game showcases a minimalistic design and gameplay, with an infinitely expanding map. In the game, players are challenged to automate the production of increasingly intricate shapes using a range of machines.

Shapez stands out for its serene atmosphere and simplistic visual style, which is visually appealing and easy to comprehend. This makes the puzzle-like gameplay effortless to explore and play around with. While not as extensive as Factorio in terms of sandbox elements, combat, or technology trees, Shapez is a delightful and intelligent automation game that can easily captivate players for numerous hours.

6 Autonauts

With its colony-building gameplay, this automation game is incredibly unique. Players are challenged to automate various productions by crafting robots and using an educational visual programming language, akin to Scratch, to teach them their tasks.

In Autonauts, players have a multitude of activities to engage in and skills to teach their robotic workers. The goal is to create a fully automated and harmonious colony by carefully tinkering and expanding the robotic workforce. Witnessing an entire colony run smoothly with automated workers, all programmed by the player themselves, provides an immensely satisfying experience.

5 Hydroneer

In this mining-focused sandbox game, players are challenged to dig for different resources and earn profits by selling them. The game features a modular building system and hydro-powered machines for developing a mining base. Players must strategically design networks of pipes and control water pressure to power their machines efficiently. They will spend considerable time digging through the voxel-based terrain, searching for valuable ore veins, and transporting their goods across the map.

4 Infinifactory

Players are challenged to construct factories in different 3D environments from a first-person perspective in this engaging sci-fi sandbox puzzle game. They must assemble products for their alien overlords while navigating through a story-driven campaign with over fifty puzzles. At the end of each level, players can view histograms that assess the efficiency of their factories and compare them with others. Additionally, Infinifactory offers a sandbox mode for players to freely experiment with the game's "block engine," and it also provides extensive Steam Workshop support for building and sharing personalized puzzles.

3 Satisfactory

Satisfactory

Platform(s) PCReleased March 19, 2019Developer(s) Coffee Stain StudiosGenre(s) Simulation, Sandbox

This sci-fi open-world game transports players to a captivating alien planet where they must construct and oversee multi-level factories that heavily rely on strategically positioned conveyor belts.

While the primary focus of Satisfactory lies in managing factories, the game also offers elements of exploration and combat, enabling players to venture into the unknown terrain and defend themselves against indigenous creatures. Additionally, players have the option to automate their production process by utilizing transport vehicles such as trucks and trains to distribute their products across the planet. Furthermore, Satisfactory includes an online co-op feature that enables players to collaborate in constructing factories and exploring the planet together.

2 Dyson Sphere Program

Dyson Sphere Program

Platform(s) PCReleased January 21, 2021Developer(s) Youthcat StudioGenre(s) Simulation

In this intergalactic space simulation game, players are challenged to construct highly efficient factories on a grand scale, extracting resources from multiple planets using massive automated facilities, and establishing a prosperous industrial Empire.

Dyson Sphere Program is set in a procedurally generated universe teeming with diverse planets, stars, and resources. Players must strategize and construct optimal production lines, while also overseeing their transportation teams to effectively collect and transfer resources between different planets. The vast scope of Dyson Sphere Program offers a deep and immersive gaming experience, although it may require more time to fully engage compared to other games.

1 Mindustry

In this exceptional tower defense factory management game, players construct automated supply chains to provide ammunition for their turrets and protect their base from continuous waves of enemies.

Mindustry also incorporates RTS elements, enabling players to build mechanized units for defending their base and seizing territory for expansion. To ensure effective production lines and maintain active defenses, players will employ "production blocks" and conveyor belts. Moreover, Mindustry offers a single-player campaign, as well as online co-op and team-based PvP modes.