Thinky Games

The latest factory games

Factory games are a subgenre of engineering games in which players build a wide network of assembly lines. These games offer various tools to gradually improve extraction and transformation of resources, leading to the tentacular growth of production infrastructures across extensive worlds. Factory games usually define a number of goals to reach, but their core reward mostly resides in the slow and continuous process of furthering a grand automation project.

While these games often have modest beginnings focused on elementary resources and survival, immediate risks rapidly dissipate, and the gameplay shifts closer to an open-ended sandbox experience. Scaling up the automation process relies on successive technological upgrades, but wielding these powerful tools requires solving new logistics problems. Players may have to coordinate the extraction of distinct resources to combine them at an efficient pace, or rearrange an array of conveyor belts to reclaim additional production tiles.

High-profile factory games such as Satisfactory and Factorio include antagonistic fauna by default, while other games such as shapez 2 and Factory Town are completely combat-free. There are also very distinct tones to be found in the genre: some games use purely abstract visuals, like Beltmatic, while others fully embrace the turn-a-remote-place-into-a-serviceable-colony ethos. We published a longform feature about factory games if you want to read more about it!

The games listed below are the most recently released factory games in the Thinky Games database.

  • Whiskerwood
    Windows
    Establish and automate a mice colony to meet the demands of their cat overlords.
  • Node Math
    Windows
    Connect modules and let them combine small numbers into very, very large numbers.
  • Little Rocket Lab
    Windows
    Nintendo Switch
    Xbox Series X|S
    Xbox One
    Mine resources and set up production lines to achieve an industrial dream in a cozy village.
  • ShapeHero Factory
    Windows
    MacOS
    Nintendo Switch
    PlayStation 5
    Build increasingly efficient factories to send tiny heroes against enemy waves.
  • Plan B: Terraform
    Windows
    Build minimal supply lines on a hex-based planet to turn it into a living world.
  • Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure
    Windows
    Design automated workshops and lead odd creatures in a fantasy world.
  • Microtopia
    Windows
    Use pheromones trails to create complex logistics networks for a robot ant colony.
  • Learning Factory
    Windows
    Linux
    MacOS
    Restore the supply chains of an abandoned factory to produce the finest goods for cats.
  • Factorio: Space Age
    Windows
    Linux
    MacOS
    Expand your factory network to the harsh environments of several planets.
  • Satisfactory
    Windows
    Build massive factories on an alien planet. Optimize your logistics, or make a mess of conveyor belts!
  • shapez 2
    Windows
    Linux
    MacOS
    Build sprawling factories to extract and process geometric shapes.
  • Beltmatic
    Windows
    A casual factory game where you extract and combine numbers.
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