Factorio, a game where you build and maintain an intricate web of factories and conveyor belts in a wild land, while keeping your constructions safe from the local inhabitants, has entered Steam Early Access.
There is a lot of planning involved in creating your own factory. It’s the same sort of foresight you might need when playing the games in our list of PC’s best strategy games.
Factorio has been in development for four years and the developers say the Early Access version has “a very strong content base, rich with interesting mechanics and features”. The decision to go down the Early Access route is just so they can polish, with the aim of putting out a full release in the next 8-12 months.
“In the full version we hope to have a polished GUI, a multiplayer matching server, integration of mods for players and servers, and a number of other finishing touches and additions to the core gameplay,” say the developers on Steam.
In Factorio you will mine resources, research tech, build infastructue and try and create a well oiled, complex, automated production line. “You start by chopping trees, mining ores and crafting mechanical arms and transport belts by hand, but in short time you can become an industrial powerhouse, with huge solar fields, oil refining and cracking, manufacture and deployment of construction and logistic robots, all for your resource needs.”
These elaborate contraptions look hectic in the trailer, but I’m sure it will make a lot more sense when you’ve personally laid down and connected all these interacting moving parts.
You can grab Factorio on Steam for £15 now. The price is due to increase for the full release and the developers state that they have no plans to take part in any sales for “the foreseeable future”.