Minimal automation
shapez: understanding a factory through its output
Automating shapes strips a production game down to transformations, connections and the flow between them.
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THE READING LIST
Game reviews
Factories, transport and settlements: an independent reading list for people who enjoy connected systems. Each review explains its research basis and links to the official publisher material.
Interstellar production
Dyson Sphere Program: extending a production chain into space
A factory’s ambitions reach beyond one workshop, connecting resources, production planning and an interstellar setting.
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First-person factories
Satisfactory: standing inside the production line
A first-person perspective puts the player among multi-storey factories rather than viewing the entire production system from above.
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Settlement and water
Timberborn: a settlement shaped by the flow of water
Beaver construction, vertical architecture and water systems give city building a distinctive set of practical concerns.
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Fantasy city building
Against the Storm: deciding what a settlement needs next
A fantasy city builder sets reconstruction against hostile rain, putting the needs of different inhabitants within a shared project.
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Transport networks
Mini Metro: a map that has to keep working
Drawing a subway diagram becomes a task of revising connections as new stations change the city’s demands.
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Road design
Mini Motorways: when a new road changes the whole network
A city’s growing road map turns local connections into decisions with consequences elsewhere.
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Machine puzzles
Opus Magnum: an answer expressed as a working machine
An open-ended alchemical puzzle asks the player to build a mechanism that makes the intended result.
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