All of human history is just moving stuff from one place to another. We scoop stuff up out of the ground and stack it into great big pyramids to dispose of unwanted mummies and ankhs. We blast stuff out of rocks and turn it into gardening shears and fidget spinners and lamp shades and clothes hangers, before dumping it all back into the sea nature s bin where we can only assume it safely disintegrates back into benign molecules that fish love.
So this latest spate of factory games should come as no surprise to anyone, scratching, as they do, our very human urge to convert raw wood into planks and then into wagons. First came the more puzzle-focused Infinifactory, and the addictive, top-down, conveyor belt sandbox game Factorio. More lately there is the three-dee Satisfactory, whose developers were so pleased with their own bad pun that they wilfully called their game something that literally means good enough I guess .
Oh hello! John is away in San Francisco gobbling up gum left on the underside of chairs at the Game Developers Conference, so I’m filling in for our regular rundown of last week’s top-selling games on Steam. As is customary for weeks where I need to take over, the charts are full of the surprises he grumbles they never have. What can I say, John – video games must make more of an effort for me. And for goodness’ sake, leave that gum. I don’t care if Sid Meier himself stuck it there.
“The twenty-tensies truly were a golden age for games about optimising production lines,” future generations will say under their infrared-heated geodesic domes.
“The way was paved by games like Infinifactory and Factorio, smoothing the way for a flood of followers,” one elder recalls. “Why, one month saw the launch of not only Satisfactory and Production Line but Factory Town too.”
“What’s Factory Town?” asks one of the huddled younglings, their eyes quivering with reverence.
“Ah, yes, I’m afraid the tomes about that one were amongst those devoured for sustenance during The Hard Times,” sighs the elder. They look upwards in reminiscence then quickly back down, trying to unsee the cracks in the dome growing as waves pound overhead.
Factory Town, out in Early Access today, tasks you with constructing a huge mega-factory disguised as a quaint rustic town. It's Factorio by way of Banished, says developer, Erik Asmussen, and after taking it for a spin today I've definitely noticed it hitting a lot of the same notes. And like those games, you'll probably find yourself losing hours as you tinker and tweak to maximise your burgeoning industrial powerhouse.
Starting out, you'll have nothing but a town hall and some bored villagers, but before long you can transform that into a monster of warehouses, mills, chutes and conveyor belts, shuttling resources and goods all across the map.
Workers can be assigned harvesting and transport jobs, but their hands are small (actually they don't seem to even have hands) and their backs are weak, so they can only carry one item. Build a workshop and then feed it some planks created at your lumber mill, however, and you'll be able to construct wheels for a wagon, allowing you to transport four items. Each advance makes things just a bit more efficient, allowing you to eventually automate huge, elaborate supply chains powered by both machines and magic.
But like a town management game, Factory Town's denizens have needs. They'll work diligently, but they also need to be kept happy, expecting food, clothing and medicine. You've got to take care of them if you expect them to work 24-hour shifts. At least give them some trousers.
It's still pretty early days for my little village, which only just discovered the incredible power of chutes. Oh yes, no more lugging wood from the forest to the lumber mill for my workers. This is the future! My buildings projects have mostly gone without a hitch, aside from a few places that could do with a bit more clarity. There are some welcome user-friendly touches, like being able to see all the workers assigned to the buildings and their locations when you hover over it. There's a handy hotbar where you can place your buildings, blocks or paths that you plonk down often, too, which has already saved me loads of time.
Things promise to get trickier as I start to expand and encounter rougher terrain and water. Scaffolding can be used to send conveyor belts and railways up hills, however, so it's possible to get your supply chain all the way up a mountain. There's terrain sculpting tools, as well, when you just want to cleave a mountain.
It's expected to be in Early Access for at least six months while new features, endgame goals and Steam Workshop support are added. More customisation and cosmetic options are also in the works, along with some visual polish.