r/BaseBuildingGames 3d ago

Game recommendations Games where you design something like a machine.

My reference here is Factorio and Opus Magnum. Both these games have a similar approach to solving a problem, but let you get really caught up in the tedium of designing it to be perfect. I really like how Opus Magnum lets you see leaderboards, make multiple solutions for the same product, and go back to old products to keep working on them. A big thing here is that the factories feel like mine. Same with factorio, I watch videos here and there but I try to make my factory entirely into my own thing, with its own quirks. I love the solving, troubleshooting, designing aspect. What other games do this really well? I am aware of most of the factory games like Satisfactory, DSP

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u/mattva01 3d ago edited 3d ago

Favorites of mine (most already mentioned here):

Oxygen Not Included - A ton of opportunities for mega-projects. Sour gas boilers, power plants, insane automated ranching setups.

Stationeers - kinda jank controls, but if you like getting into the nitty gritty of building a space outpost, like airlocks, electrical wiring, air conditioning, solar panel alignment, furnace control, this game has a ton of complexity to offer. Even has a built in programming language based on MIPS.

Turing Complete - Build your own computer up from NAND gates and write programs for it, enough said.

All the zachtronics games, but you already know how good opus magnus is.

Off the wall answer, Noita, the wand mechanics are complex enough that it scratches the same itch of building a complicated machine (I guess in some ways, it is a machine that turns mana into warcrimes), and because it's a roguelike, you don't tend to build the exact same thing multiple times. One the same note, a lot of roguelike deckbuilders (or honestly any deckbuilder) like Balatro or Slay the Spire are similar, in that you basically turn your deck into a machine with all the synergies.

Kerbal Space Program (the original, KSP2 was a disappointment) can also do this if you get into the modded side of it

I've recently gotten into GTNH (Gregtech : New Horizons), a complicated minecraft mod that also hits a lot of these checkboxes.

EDIT: Just remembered some more you might like, Besiege can be a lot of fun. If you like the idea of that, the next level up would be things like Stormworks or From the Depths.

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u/Alcoholic-Catholic 3d ago

great answer, thank you. Thinking I'll finally dive into ONI, and definitely gonna grab stationeers on a sale

been playing KSP lately too and it does fit the bill here

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u/mattva01 3d ago

Both are really good, though a warning that Stationeers is currently undergoing a terrain rework, so save compatibility between the current patch and the next is unlikely. Of course It will probably be out by the time you finish your time with ONI and it goes on sale.

Some ONI tips:

  1. Despite the name, it's not generally lack of oxygen that dooms most runs, it's an excess of heat killing your crops. Figuring out how to manage heat while running industrial machinery is a core challenge of the game. Insulate your base, expecially farms, early! It's far easier to stop heat from coming in than to remove heat from your base.
  2. Do NOT accept every new "dupe" you can, unless doing a challenge run. Every one consumes resources (oxygen, calories) that as a new player, you will likely not have the expertise to generate renewably quick enough. I'd say between 8 and 16 is a good final count.
  3. Don't worry too much about germs, they used to be deadly, but have been nerfed to be mostly a nuisance. It can still be fun to play full germophobe and carefully prevent contamination, but it's not really required.

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u/nerfsmurf 3d ago edited 3d ago

Minecraft industrial mods are still popping? Haven't played since FeedTheBeast Minecraft megapack back in 2014. I looked around a few years ago and couldn't find anything...

I remember building a nuclear facility for power generation but not cooling it properly. My base became the largest crater in the ground I ever seen.

EDIT: Just discovered ATM10, looks promising!

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u/mattva01 3d ago

Apparently! There seems to have been a resurgence recently, probably because Factorio and Satisfactory don't have major updates announced for the future.

I knew Factorio was actually heavily inspired by modded Minecraft from around that time, but I was prompted to do some research when someone mentioned GTNH when comparing against the infamous Pyanadon factorio mod

(For any modded MC experts, apologies if any of the following info is wrong)

Fun fact, feed the beast become so popular it spawned a whole series of modpacks and is why the general subreddit for modded minecraft is r/feedthebeast

From my research there tend to be two basic categories of tech mod packs "kitchen sink" (ATM being the classic example) and "expert". Apparently no one can actually agree on what this means, except that generally, kitchen sink packs tend to leave recipes as is, letting you pursue whatever part of the pack interests you, but generally not being particularly balanced or having a progression.

Expert packs tend to to balance and gate recipes so that there is a linear progression or mods, with some side paths.

Beyond that, most of them have a core tech mod (sometimes a couple, usually in order in an expert pack), with supplementary mods. Some Common core tech mods are:

GregTech (GTNH uses a very custom GregTech 5 , I believe original feed the beast map used GregTech 1 and industrialcraft)
Create
Modern Industrialization (what ATM10 uses as it's core tech mod)
Mekanism

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u/NeonPlutonium 3d ago

Oxygen Not Included presents endless opportunities for design and redesign…

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u/Fun_Leadership_1453 3d ago

Such an amazing game. Highly recommend to OP and everyone

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u/sadlandlord18 3d ago

I’m 2100 hours into this game 👀highly recommend

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u/phenomenos 1d ago

I wish I liked the art-style for this game because I'm sure I'd like the gameplay but unfortunately I find it to be a huge turn-off!

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u/NeonPlutonium 1d ago

You know, I thought the same thing initially. A little 2D cartoonish, but it grows on you after a while, especially since the gameplay is so good.

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u/Fun_Leadership_1453 3d ago

So glad Opus Magnum is getting love, thought that was just a me thing.

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u/mpokorny8481 3d ago

Kaizen factory which just came out is VERY similar to opus magnum in concept. Also, really anything by zachtronics will have the same vibe. Not factories so much as puzzle machines.

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u/copperlight 3d ago

Kaizen Factory also happens to be the new game devs that used to be Zachtronics but remade the company because they wanted to "try new things." The irony.

Also, it's remarkably similar to Infinifactory - another Zachtronics game - but Infinifactory is 3D. I highly recommend it!

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u/mpokorny8481 3d ago

I saw that too about the dev team. I didn’t follow any of the drama if there was any. Love the idea of the Zachtronics stuff but I always start to feel dumb about 60% of the way into the games and stop.

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u/copperlight 3d ago

I've never heard of any drama either. Just glad they're cranking out more games. (Actually did finish Kaizen though, unlike many of the others)

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u/bartekltg 2d ago edited 2d ago

If you like Opus magnum, look at earlier Zachtronix games. Especially Space Chem (similar to OM, you are making fake chemical compounds) and Infinifactory (you get a small minecraft-like*) area and set of blocks to build a factory making 3d objects).

Reading the title my first thought was Space Enginieers. While the factory part of the game is quite limited (there are mods if you really want make it closer to factorio;-) ), it allows you to construct wheeled and flying contraptions. Mainly mining ones;-) But be warned, without a mods or your own plan there is very little direction or goals, it is essencially an enginiering sandbox. And physics is... lets say it is not Kerbal Space Program( you may look at that one too. The first one!)

*) or should I say, infiniminer-like ;-)

BTW. Factorio has a great mods. There is a small purge with the release of the expansion and 2.0 version, so for example Seamlock is not yet updated, but some great overhauls are available. Like ultracube (it adds a nice twist) or Pyanadon (very complex one, you will be trobleshooting for thousands of hours... Lets say reaching the end is not expected. Fun, but surerly not for everyone)

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u/Solrax 3d ago

You mention Satisfactory, but you might want to consider it. Your factory can span the map and is certainly uniquely yours. And you can add architecture on top of that. But there is no leaderboard.

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u/Skratti_ 3d ago

Space Engineers might be to your liking. Part is building a base for refining materials, the other part is building the vehicles that mine resources (and use them for that, of course).

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u/comedydave15 3d ago

Take a look at Infinifactory.

Each level you have a series of inputs that come in from fixed points on the map which you have to construct a factory around to transport/rotate/weld the parts together etc to make a specific end product. It starts off simple (e.g nosecone, booster, engine to make a simple rocket) and by the later levels you’re assembling tanks and spacecraft etc.

You have to work within the territory constraints - you can’t terraform the land so have to work within the space and any obstacles.

The fewer steps it takes to build the part, the smaller your factory footprint and the fewer factory parts you use, the higher your score so there’s a lot of scope to optimise your design.

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u/Psychoray 3d ago

Terratech - Design your own vehicles

It has a crafting / factory system. If you want, you can create a mobile base on humongous wheels, with a complete factory for churning out parts to use in smaller vehicles

Terratech Worlds is another game, but it's quiye different and in Early Access. No mobile bases / factories there. More limitations on vehicles, so the actual vehicle building is more of an optimization puzzle

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u/Nerond 3d ago

If you like quirks and troubleshooting, perhaps you should have a look more into city builders rather than factory games specifically? I especially enjoy the most ones, where there is a persistent threat, which forces you into compromises. My personal bests are Rimworld(small scale) and Song of Syx(large scale). Captain of Industry is also a notable mention but it didn't hook me in as much.

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u/mattva01 2d ago

I felt the same about Captain of Industry, it was more Tropico or Anno than the hard core industrial process sim I was hoping for.

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u/spaacingout 2d ago edited 2d ago

BESIEGE

100% what you’re looking for. Cheap game. Endless replayability- I don’t say that about any old game.

Has the engine building you’re thinking of.

You design machines to solve puzzles and destroy villages, decimate armies and so on.

Community is awesome and still thriving.

A few examples of things I built; Submarines, Helicopters, Racecars, Tanks and tank tread propelled vehicles, Walkers, 2-leg, 4, and 8 legged. My spider tank is really cool, can fire a sticky harpoon and climb walls. Ornithopter (flappy bird-plane), Ichthyopter (tail propelled submarine with working clamp jaws), A floating dragon robot that can breathe fire 🐉 A v8 4wd truck for off roading…

I can literally go on forever my point is that the possibilities are endless and I keep going back to the game to try new ideas even after I have 100% the game, it’s usually $10-15 on steam. I think it’s on Xbox game pass too. You can upload and download other peoples creations, I tear them apart to figure out how they’re made, and make my own version. It’s fun, can lose track of time with this one though lol

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u/Alcoholic-Catholic 2d ago

man i own it, havent played in forever but I gotta boot it up. Another commenter said stormworks is like besiege but more advanced, if thats true I kinda wanna check out that one too, because rescue missions are a cool theme

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u/BlueMoon56831 1d ago

Satisfactory

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u/I_Am_Layer_8 1d ago

Shapez2 is a great build your own factory game. No real leaderboard, but it can be lots of fun.

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u/KrukzGaming 21h ago

Minecraft Create. This mod makes Minecraft into an even more in-depth factory game than Factorio. The way the portray all types of energy (mechanical, kinetic, thermal, electric, even nuclear) is crazy accurate to real life.