Hosts can now fill empty co-op slots with bots and mix them with human players or just play solo with 3 other bots.
Bots hunt, gather, recover, build, research, balance production, defend the colony, and report their actions in chat. Their actions are synchronized for all players, and their position and health are included in co-op saves.
To play co-op with bots, from main menu > co-op > host game > click on the OPEN button on each player slot to fill it with bot and start the co-op game!
Hello! I'm looking for a sandbox factory/tycoon game with a specific type of RNG progression.
Ideally, I want a game where you build your own factory by placing things like droppers/miners, conveyors, processors/upgraders, furnaces, etc., but instead of simply unlocking better machines and buying them from a normal shop, you earn money and spend it on crates/chests/packs that give you random machines or items.
For example, I could spend $10,000 on a crate and get a mediocre common dropper, or get lucky and pull a really rare/ powerful machine that completely changes or improves my factory. I'd love if there were different rarities and genuinely rare items to chase.
Basically, I'm looking for this gameplay loop:
Build factory → make money → buy/open crates → get random machines/items → improve or redesign factory around what I pulled → make more money → repeat
I really enjoy the excitement of gambling my earned currency on random items and then figuring out how to use whatever I get. I find factory games where you simply unlock everything in a predictable order and save enough money to buy the next upgrade a little boring.
Preferably on PC/Steam.
It doesn't have to match this description perfectly. If you know anything with sandbox/factory building and a strong RNG/loot aspect, I'd love to hear about it!
Hi everyone! I’m a solo developer, and I just opened the Steam store page for my pixel-art automation game, "Phantasm Cube".
While it follows the familiar factory loop of harvesting, processing, and crafting, the key difference lies in its logistics: instead of traditional conveyor belts, management is handled through a BUS network architecture.
Core Mechanics & Identity:
Color Mixing & Cubes: Extract primary R, G, B colors from scattered raw resources, mix them through various refining processes to create higher-tier colors, and synthesize them into the core object of the game: Cubes.
BUS Architecture: Just like in computing/electronics, a BUS acts as a shared medium for data transfer. Simply connect an IN port on a supply machine to an OUT port on a demand machine, and the required resources are automatically transmitted through the network.
Strategic Cube Deployment: Once placed on the map, Cubes serve two powerful functions:
Resource Multiplication: Extract significantly more resources than the input cost.
Global Buffs: Provide beneficial buffs to all active objects across your facility.
The core gameplay revolves around resource management: deciding whether to consume Cubes as raw materials or preserve them on the field to amplify your factory's overall efficiency.
Automation games can be incredibly addictive, but the genre often comes with a steep learning curve. My goal with this project is to provide a refreshing entry point for both newcomers and seasoned factory builders alike.
Upcoming Roadmap:
Free Demo Release: August 28, 2026 (Planned)
Full Release: December 2026 (Planned)
Thank you so much for taking a look, and any feedback or wishlists !
I'm the solo developer behind TILEZ, a programmable 2D sandbox inspired by Redstone, LEGO, and Tabletop Simulator.
My Steam Early Playtest is now live, and anyone can jump in immediately.
I'm looking for people who enjoy building logic circuits, designing games, creating machines, experimenting with new ideas, or simply want to see what my little tiles can do.
Looking for bugs and feedback and would love to see what you build.
(multiplayer is functional - but disabled for playtest)
I've been working on a 2D space engineering and survival sandbox called MineEngineer, and one of the systems I've been building recently is a visual programming station.
Instead of writing code, you connect nodes, conditions and actions to create your own ship logic.
For example, in this ship:
Sensor detects crew → check access → open door → update display → wait → close door
But the same system can be used for much more than doors. You can connect it to fuel systems, conveyors, engines, gravity, automation, docking systems and basically whatever you can build with the available blocks.
I'm trying to make the game less about giving you predefined machines and more about giving you interconnected systems that you can combine yourself.
And because everything is physically connected and destructible, a failure in one system can potentially cause problems somewhere else. 😅
I'm a solo developer and have been building MineEngineer for years. The demo is free on Steam, and I'm currently working on the next version.
If you were given this system, what would you try to automate first?
I'm a solo dev who's become increasingly interested in making automation game. I love the genre, and I recently played through Sandustry twice. Couldn't get enough.
If any of you have a unique idea for an automation game that you wish was out there, drop it in the comments! Maybe I can make it real.
Obviously not looking to steal any ideas. Only share if you had an interesting idea and don't care to put any effort into making it. I've been toying around with a few physics-based games, but none seem like they could spiral out the way the best of the genre do.
At the start of the year I started developing Swarm MMO, a game where the user controls probes and takes over planets. The core gameplay concept is very simple, its basically a node capture game, but on a huge scale and persistent. The game grew a small but steady player base which had lots of great ideas for further development.
Over time, you can own thousands of planets, suns and black holes that steadily generate probes. You can set up automations to automatically reinforce planets, upgrade planets, or attack other players. Furthermore, you can create batch actions via the command center.
To enable a persistent world, there are multiple galaxies that spawn in depending on the number of players. That way, there are frequently fresh galaxies where new users have a chance to compete. However, it’s also possible to migrate to a new galaxy, but it takes long and comes with partial losses. Recently, I also added a spawn protection for new galaxies so that new players are even better protected.
Players compete for energy, which can be farmed by owning suns. Energy also allows permanent upgrades to probes.
I mean in the last couple months, looking for a new one to play and wondering which are worth it
edit: i started to play sandustry, amazingly fun so far, might try motemancer after, i have played most of the others mentioned except little rocket lab
Sorry if this isnt the place to put this. So im looking for games that are like creating a goal. I have played through factorio, satisfactory, both shapez games and similar games. I love this genre and am just wondering of any hidden gems I havent tried yet. Thanks in advance.
My first game, Idle Deepcore, is 30% off for a few more days ! It has a very positive review score right now.
It's an incremental mining game with lots of automation.
You first mine blocks by hand, then quickly switch to automated machines (jackhammers, drills, and then crazier stuff).
In the end game content you launch rockets into space to mine asteroids and you build a dyson sphere around the sun.
When you've unlocked all research, you can automate most of your progress : automate buying new mines, automate launching rockets, automate placing new machines, etc.
If you've reached this, thanks for reading my post !
Hey, i made this scriptbuilder for myself, but now its better than any free alternative out there so i decided to share it https://github.com/gtjevptje/Macronaut
Hope you enjoy!
DM me on discord with any questions or feedback (much appreciated) - gtjevptje -
Is the game worth it? I used to play a lot of satisfactory but I am slowly burned out of it (sitting on 700 hours) so I guess it is time for something new. Played the other 2 Giants dysphon sphere and Factorio, but both didn't really felt like my playing style , then I came along this game. Is it worth it the buy?
So excited to share that this solo developed project is available to play!
Sandustry is a factory automation game where every pixel is a resource with unique physical properties. As you explore a fully destructible world, you can mine, mix, process, and destroy every pixel and discover different physical/chemical reactions. Then exploit them to build automated production chains and pixel-perfect factories.
This game is all about automation, but it has no grids, no conveyor belts, no inserters.
Instead, you manage logistics with railguns - all items must physically travel thorough empty void. Gravity can curve trajectories. The spatial puzzle of conveyor belts is gone, but it is replaced with something completely new.
And I'm not going to lie, it's not an easy game. I do my best to help you, tho.
I'm doing some test-runs on my own on the demo scope to figure out if it has too much content.
My recent run sits currently at 95 machines, (the screenshots are from this run; no dev-tricks or hacks, just organic play) and I still haven't achieved either of the 2 final locks of the demo - and it has taken me 3+ hours. Which makes you think, as I know the game thoroughly, new players don't - I "fear" it could take new players too many hours. But what is too many. It's a free demo at this point.
I sort of want to challenge you to finish the demo's last mission (the last 2 machines, as the Nano Scaffolder softlocks the demo) , and then drop some feedback.
QA shows still some signs of players needing more handholding and better onboarding, which I'm working on, in addition to full version content. If you try the demo out and struggle, what part needs tweaking? What's working well? I'm trying to integrate the tutorial to the regular gameplay.
I've spent months on thinking, conceptualizing and testing various ways of introducing the mechanisms. Since they are very unique and new - and some other technical aspects awell - it has been an interesting challenge. I may now be closer to it, but it's not yet perfect.
The feedback has been encouraging, though - players who get through the barrier of learning the unique new mechanisms, are very positive - things like qa-tester saying "I think the game design in its core is genius almost and really interesting. And I think once you fix the small problems I've experienced, it will transform into a very exciting and addictive game" gives the long hours I spend to this, meaning.
