Factorio | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Wube Software |
Publisher(s) | Wube Software |
Director(s) |
|
Designer(s) | Michal Kovařík |
Artist(s) |
|
Composer(s) | Daniel James Taylor Petr Wajsar (Space Age expansion) |
Platform(s) | |
Release |
|
Genre(s) | Construction and management simulation, real-time strategy |
Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Factorio is a construction and management simulation game developed and published by Czech studio Wube Software. The game was announced via an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign in 2013 and released for Windows, macOS, and Linux on 14 August 2020 following a four-year long early access phase to positive reviews. The game was released on Nintendo Switch on 28 October 2022. [1]
The game follows an engineer who crash-lands on an alien planet and must harvest resources and create automated industry to build a rocket; however, as it is a sandbox game, players can continue the game past the end of the storyline. There are both single-player and multiplayer modes as well as eight additional game scenarios.
On 21 October 2024, a major paid expansion called Space Age was released, adding 4 new planets explorable after the base game's end goal of launching a rocket. [2]
Factorio is a construction and management simulation game focused on resource-gathering with real-time strategy and survival elements. The player survives by locating and harvesting resources to craft various tools and machines, which in turn create more advanced materials that allow for the progression to more sophisticated technologies and machines. The game progresses as the player continues to build and manage their automated factory-style system, which automates the mining, transportation, processing, and assembly of resources and products. Factorio's form of progression incentivise players to design and create their factories in ways that allow for larger scales of production and automation. Players research advanced technologies that allow them to create new structures, items, and upgrades, starting with basic automation and eventually leading to oil refining, robots, and powered exoskeletons. [3] [4]
The game features a blueprint system, which allows for players to create reusable blueprints for factory parts. The blueprints consist of a baseline for construction, allowing for the copying of factory systems or entire factories, and subsequent construction in the current or any other game world.
The game is formally "won" by launching a rocket. Constructing a rocket requires a massive amount of resources, motivating the player to set up a sizeable, effective factory in order to achieve this goal. After launching the rocket, the player can continue to build their factory.
The player is tasked with defending themselves and their factory from the planet's indigenous fauna, known as 'Biters', 'Spitters', and 'Worms', who live in colonies which can be destroyed by the player to prevent further enemy spawning. Additionally, they become increasingly hostile as pollutant emissions created by the player's factory increase, necessitating consideration of the balance between the player's production and the enemy's aggressiveness. The player can utilize defensive turrets, tanks, and other weapons to eliminate enemies. [5] [6] As the game progresses, enemies evolve and become harder to defeat.
Players may also elect to set the planet's fauna to "peaceful," during the start of the game. The fauna will still spawn, but will only attack the player and factory in retaliation from direct physical damage on themselves or a neighboring unit. [7]
Multiplayer mode allows people to play together cooperatively or versus one another both locally and via the Internet. [8] [9] [10] Factorio supports both dedicated servers as well as player-hosted listen servers. Originally, the game used peer-to-peer connectivity; this was later removed as more robust options were developed. [11] Saved world files can be seamlessly loaded in either single- or multiplayer. By default, all players on a server share technologies, unless a system of multiple teams has been instituted by the server host. Friendly fire is present. Players can share construction blueprints with other players on their server via a public blueprint library. [10] [12]
Factorio is designed to be customisable via mods to create additional content, such as modifications to gameplay or re-texturing of visual elements. The developers offer an online portal on the Factorio website for mod developers to host their content. To help support the modding community, there is an in-game mod manager that allows players to quickly download them. Mods are written in the Lua programming language. [13]
The game has been developed by a team of developers from Prague, Czech Republic, since mid-2012. The development team originally consisted of a single person, but has grown larger. Wube Software was created in September 2014 by Michal Kovařík and Tomáš Kozelek in Prague. To fund the game the development team began an Indiegogo campaign, which started on 31 January 2013 and concluded on 3 March 2013. The campaign raised €21,626, exceeding its €17,000 goal. [14] [15] [16] Following the crowdfunding success, Wube sold early access editions of the game to raise further funds. The developer credits the April 2014 release of the game's trailer as a significant driver of those sales. [17] As of February 2024, the team consists of 31 members. [18]
Michal Kovařík, the game's lead designer, cited the IndustrialCraft and BuildCraft Minecraft mods for inspiration during the game's development. [19]
The game was released on Steam as early access on 25 February 2016, but had been available to download from its official website since early on in development. [20] It was officially released out of early access on 14 August 2020. [21] [22] It was originally planned to be released on 25 September 2020, but was moved up a month as to not compete with the release of Cyberpunk 2077 , which, at the time, was scheduled to be released on 17 September 2020. [23] [24] In February 2021, the developers announced that a new expansion pack was being developed. [25] A major update to the game to coincide with the expansion pack's release was later announced. [26] The expansion's theme and name, Space Age, were revealed in August 2023. [27] It was made to be an addition as big as the base game. [28] The expansion was released on 21 October 2024. [2]
A port of the game to Nintendo Switch was released on 28 October 2022. The port does not contain modding features. [29] [30]
Video game key reseller G2A was accused of selling stolen keys on its site, affecting developers of games, specifically in the indie scene. On 5 July 2019, G2A offered to pay the developers of a game ten times the worth of the stolen game keys if the problem could be proven via audit. [31] Wube was the only developer to call on this, stating "G2A - worse than piracy" and emailed a list of 321 canceled Steam keys due to chargebacks. [32] [33] After over ten months, G2A confirmed 198 of those keys were sold on the platform and paid Wube Software $39,600 as part of the promise. Due to the sensitive nature of the investigation, the audit was conducted internally. [34] [35] [32] [36]
Aggregator | Score |
---|---|
Metacritic | 90/100 [37] |
Publication | Score |
---|---|
IGN | 8/10 [38] |
Nintendo Life | [39] |
PC Gamer (US) | 91/100 [40] |
Factorio received positive reception from critics while still in early access. [41] [42] In the 2018 Steam Awards, Factorio was voted by Steam users as a runner-up in the "Most Fun with a Machine" category. [43] By the beginning of 2020, the game had sold two million copies, [44] by the beginning of 2021, the developers reported over two and a half million sold copies, [25] and by its sixth anniversary in February 2022, the game had just passed 3.1 million copies sold. [45]
Upon its release in 2020, Factorio received positive reviews. Rick Lane of PC Gamer praised Factorio, calling it "a manufacturing masterpiece". [40] Nicolas Perez of Paste praised the game's use of early access, stating that "Factorio has set an example of what the Early Access system is truly capable of." [46] It was named IndieGameReviewer.com's Indie Game of the Year, after also naming it one its most anticipated in 2013. [47] In 2021 Rock Paper Shotgun ranked Factorio the 7th best management game for the PC. [48]
Neobuthus factorio is a species of scorpion from the family Buthidae found in Somaliland. It was named after the game by one of the researchers who first described the species, František Kovařík, who is the father of the game's lead designer, Michal Kovařík. [49] [50]
Satisfactory , a 2019 factory-building game by Coffee Stain Studios, has been compared to Factorio and described as a first-person, 3D interpretation of the game. [51]
Doom is a 2016 first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks. The game is the first major installment in the Doom series since 2004's Doom 3 and was a reboot of the franchise. It was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in May 2016. A port for Nintendo Switch was co-developed with Panic Button and released in November 2017, and a version for Google Stadia was released in August 2020. Players take the role of an unnamed space marine, known as the "Doom Slayer", as he battles demonic forces within an energy-mining facility on Mars and in Hell.
Minecraft is a 2011 sandbox game developed and published by Swedish video game developer Mojang Studios. Originally created by Markus "Notch" Persson using the Java programming language, the first public build was released on 17 May 2009. The game would continue to be developed over the span of two years, until its full release on 18 November 2011. Afterwards, Persson left Mojang and gave Jens "Jeb" Bergensten control over the game's development. In the years since its release, it has been ported to several platforms, including smartphones, tablets, and various video game consoles, primarily by 4J Studios. In 2014, Mojang and the Minecraft intellectual property were purchased by Microsoft for US$2.5 billion. Minecraft has since become the best-selling video game of all-time, with over 300 million copies sold and nearly 140 million monthly active players as of 2023.
In the video game industry, digital distribution is the process of delivering video game content as digital information, without the exchange or purchase of new physical media such as ROM cartridges, magnetic storage, optical discs and flash memory cards. This process has existed since the early 1980s, but it was only with network advancements in bandwidth capabilities in the early 2000s that digital distribution became more prominent as a method of selling games. Currently, the process is dominated by online distribution over broadband Internet.
Terraria is a 2011 action-adventure sandbox game developed by Re-Logic. The game was first released for Windows and has since been ported to other PC and console platforms. The game features exploration, crafting, building, painting, and combat with a variety of creatures in a procedurally generated 2D world. Terraria is one of the best-selling video games of all time, selling 58.7 million copies as of 2024.
Crusader Kings II is a grand strategy game developed by Paradox Development Studio and published by Paradox Interactive. Set in the Middle Ages, the game was released on February 14, 2012, as a sequel to 2004's Crusader Kings. On October 18, 2019, the video game became free to play. A sequel, Crusader Kings III, was released on September 1, 2020. Crusader Kings II stood out from earlier Paradox games in that it attracted a more widespread audience, contributing to the growth of the company.
Kerbal Space Program (KSP) is a space flight simulation video game developed by Mexican studio Squad for Linux, macOS, Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One. In the game, players direct the space program of a species of green humanoid aliens known as "Kerbals". The game features a pseudorealistic orbital physics engine, allowing for various real-life orbital maneuvers such as Hohmann transfer orbits and orbital rendezvous.
Europa Universalis IV is a 2013 grand strategy video game in the Europa Universalis series, developed by Paradox Development Studio and published by Paradox Interactive as a sequel to Europa Universalis III (2007). The game was released on 13 August 2013 for Windows, OS X, and Linux. It is a strategy game where players can control a nation leading up to and during the early modern period - from the Late Middle Ages following the Battle of Varna (1444), the final crusade, to the Napoleonic era with the timeline finishing on 2 January 1821 to coincide with the death of Napoleon on 5 May 1821. Players navigate their nations with conducting trade, administration, diplomacy, colonization, and warfare.
Broforce is a side-scrolling run-and-gun platform video game developed by Free Lives and published by Devolver Digital. The game has the player as one of several "bros", based on popular culture action movie icons, rescuing other "bros" through highly-destructible environments.
Unturned is a partly free to play game by Smartly Dressed Games, a studio consisting solely of Canadian game designer Nelson Sexton. It was released for Windows, macOS, and Linux in early access on July 7, 2014. The full game released three years later, on July 17, 2017. Unturned allows players to create custom maps using an in-game editor. Cosmetics and mods can also be created using the game's Unity engine, which allows them to publish creations on the Steam Workshop. A retail version of the game was released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One by 505 Games in November 2020. It was later ported to Nintendo Switch in March 2024.
Denuvo Anti-Tamper is an anti-tamper and digital rights management (DRM) system developed by the Austrian company Denuvo Software Solutions GmbH. The company was formed from a management buyout of DigitalWorks, the developer of SecuROM, and began developing the software in 2014. It was introduced with FIFA 15 in September. In addition to Denuvo Anti-Tamper, Denuvo Software Solutions has developed the anti-cheat system Denuvo Anti-Cheat and Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection, which attempts to prevent Nintendo Switch games from being emulated. The company was acquired by Irdeto in January 2018.
SpeedRunners is a multiplayer side-scrolling racing game developed by DoubleDutch Games and published by tinyBuild. Originally a free web browser game titled SpeedRunner and later an Xbox 360 game by the name SpeedRunner HD on Xbox Live Arcade, SpeedRunners was released on Steam on 26 August 2013 into Steam Early Access, and as a full game on 19 April 2016. SpeedRunners was released on Xbox One in June 2017 as a Games with Gold title. A Nintendo Switch version was released on 23 January 2020. It was recognized as an esport by the Electronic Sports League in July 2015. However, due to decreasing activity the SpeedRunners section was ended on 28 August 2016 when the final community cup was held.
G2A.COM Limited is a digital marketplace headquartered in the Netherlands, with offices in Poland and Hong Kong. The site operates in the resale of gaming offers and others digital items by the use of redemption keys. G2A.COM’s main offerings are game key codes for platforms such as Steam, EA app, Uplay, PlayStation Network, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch, as well as gift cards, top-ups, and other digital products. As a marketplace, G2A.COM does not sell any digital items itself. Instead, the platform is an intermediary between buyers and sellers. G2A.COM served online over 30 million customers from over 180 countries, 40 thousand sellers globally, and its catalog entails over 75,000 digital items. G2A also offers additional services, such as G2A Direct, a partnership program for video game developers and publishers.
Sid Meier's Civilization VI is a turn-based strategy 4X video game developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K. The mobile and Nintendo Switch port was published by Aspyr Media. The latest entry into the Civilization series, it was released on Windows and macOS in October 2016, with later ports for Linux in February 2017, iOS in December 2017, Nintendo Switch in November 2018, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in November 2019, and Android in 2020.
William Pugh is a British game designer best known for his work on The Stanley Parable, and for founding the game development studio Crows Crows Crows.
Sokobond is a puzzle video game created by Alan Hazelden and Harry Lee. Gameplay involves moving atoms around 2D grids to form chemical compounds. The game was released on Linux, OS X, and Windows in August 2013. It was later released for Nintendo Switch in September 2021, and iOS and Android in May 2022. The game received generally favorable reviews from critics.
Satisfactory is a 2024 factory simulation game created by Swedish video game developer Coffee Stain Studios. It is a 3D first-person open world exploration and factory building game. The player is dropped onto an alien planet with a handful of tools and must exploit the planet's natural resources to construct increasingly complex factories. The initial goal is to construct a space elevator, through which the Pioneer begins supplying the megacorp the player works for with increasingly numerous and complex components for their unknown, but stated to be prudent, purposes. These exports unlock access to new technology that in turn unlocks a new tier of manufacturing and refinement machines to support the production of the next phase of parts to be delivered to FICSIT.
Dyson Sphere Program is a factory simulation game developed by Youthcat Studio released for Microsoft Windows in January 2021 in early access.
Diablo II: Resurrected is an action role-playing video game co-developed by Blizzard Entertainment and Blizzard Albany and published by Blizzard Entertainment. It is a remaster of Diablo II (2000) and its expansion Lord of Destruction (2001). The game was released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and Series S on September 23, 2021.
KeyWe is a 2021 puzzle-platform video game developed by Stonewheat & Sons and published by Sold Out. The game was released for Windows and Nintendo Switch on August 31, later releasing on September 28 for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S ports were released on December 16. KeyWe follows Jeff and Debra, two kiwis working at the Bungalow Basin Telepost Office. KeyWe was prototyped during the 2018 Global Game Jam. Grant Gessel, the technical artist, took inspiration from Going Postal, a story by Terry Pratchett. Rare games such as Banjo-Kazooie and Conker's Bad Fur Day inspired KeyWe's art style. KeyWe received mixed reviews from critics.
DwarfHeim was a cooperative real-time strategy video game created by Trondheim-based developer Pineleaf Studio, and published by Merge Games on September 27, 2021. Set in a fantasy word inhabited by dwarves and trolls, the game split resource gathering, base building, and army management between up to three players. A commercial failure, DwarfHeim left its development studio bankrupt. The game's servers shut down on November 30, 2023, rendering the game inaccessible.
Wube Software included new scenarios for PvP…
Satisfactory sure does resemble Factorio but first-person. Which, really, I am up for.