I wake to the distressing sight of my blazing ship. The escape pod saved my life, but now I am stranded on this odd planet.
The atmosphere is breathable, and life seems to be plentiful. Yet, thinking of the loneliness, I would suffer in the long run living here itching me to plan my escape.
The planet mourns a complete lack of technology. But I won’t fail. I can spot minerals coming out of the ground, and I have my tools. So let’s get to work.
In Factorio, you land on an alien planet with your crew. To survive, you create the base you need to protect yourself from alien attacks. Gathering resources is a vital task that allows you to gather the things you need to survive. Crafting tools are also performed so that you can create things for your spaceship and cross the planet of aliens.
Factorio’s success is notable. It shows how a niche concept, if executed right, can also attain mainstream success.
No matter how hard I think about it, I can’t find a downside to the game. Trust me, I’ve tried.
Factorio offers a very extensive alternative, with a tutorial, a free game with automatically generated maps, scenarios, mods, and multiplayer mode. But most importantly: ever-stretching flexibility for the user’s needs within the game.
How could I pull up a list of alternatives for such a game?
Factorio’s success has spawned many games with the same automation elements. There are other games like Factorio that let you relish the same system of exploring things, building your base, and protecting it forever.
In this list, I’ll cover the games you should play if you enjoy Factorio and are looking for something similar.
Selection Criteria
Like me, I’m sure you are looking for games that throw some similar gameplay and mechanics into the mix.
The games on this list:
- Are construction simulators sandboxes with RTS and survival elements.
- Task you to manage and build something on some sort of planet
- Have RTS elements, such as local fauna, standing up against your enemy hordes heading toward your base.
- Have survival elements that require resource management
- Mostly have a bird’s eye view perspective and visuals that evoke 16-bit era graphics
The List
Dig-N-Rig
- Platform: PC
- Developer: DigiPen
- Metascore: n/a
This basic game offers a 2D approach but is still enjoyable. I put it here among the Factorio alternatives because it shares the same concept.
The game features a building mechanic where you mine resources found in the year 2032. You are on a mission to dig up Mother Nature and find what is helpful in the core.
As you start digging, you find minerals that you send to scientists. Also, some upgrades help you move around, so digging is interesting in Dig-N-Rig to find rare fossils.
Big Pharma
- Platform: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, macOS, Mac OS
- Developer: Twice Circled, Klabater
- Metascore: 72
How does building a pharmaceutical company sound? If the thought thrills you, then Big Pharma is worth a try.
You are a prominent pharmaceutical company owner who needs to manage using your business management and tycoon skills. Here the game gives you approximately thirty challenges with light-looking graphics.
You must expand your company and become rich or achieve your tycoon personality. The levels progressively increase in difficulty, starting with the easiest one so you can understand the concept and gameplay.
Choose your company and CEO role and start the journey of being a tycoon in the pharmaceutical world.
Simutrans
- Platform: Android, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, BeOS, Mac OS Classic
- Developer: The Simutrans Team
- Metascore: n/a
Again, a transport game that shares the management genre with Factorio. Becoming a transport tycoon takes you through some really challenging situations.
The more stable the transport systems are, the more profit you will make. But it requires you complete projects on time and deliver goods with minimum stops.
The fantastic thing is that it’s not just about the land; transportation management also takes place in the air and at sea. For visuals, it’s pretty appealing, and the concept keeps the game interesting by providing objectives regularly.
Train Fever
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, macOS
- Developer: Urban Games
- Metascore: 67
Train Fever has earned a spot in the world management sim genre. Like Factorio Multiplayer, you build your base, the train network, collect resources, manage your staff and upgrade it.
This way, it also shapes the management simulation adventure in which your empire is gradually established as you increase your train network. The more efficient you are in the game, the more financial benefits you will get.
There are several maps where you can spend a good number of hours completing a level. So design service lies in expanding your empire and making profits using the transportation network.
Mini Metro
- Platform: Nintendo Switch, Android, PlayStation 4, iOS, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, macOS, Mac OS, Mac OS Classic
- Developer: Dinosaur Polo Club, Radial Games, Sidhe
- Metascore: 89
One of the Factorio-type games with the same genre but in the transportation mode.
Players must design the subway tracks using colored lines. It sounds simple, but it is more challenging once you put your hands on it.
It’s a steep learning curve for you until you get an ultra-advanced design of the tracks. These tracks are essential as they connect to the different subway stations.
Also, designing these tracks takes a lot of work, especially with a large flow of passengers. And those darn rivers make it even more complex. Are you guys sure we need water?
Blueprint Tycoon
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, macOS
- Developer: Endless Loop Studios
- Metascore: n/a
The Blueprint Tycoon’s main mantra is Plan, Produce, and Profit. If you follow this blueprint, you will surely succeed.
In the game, you need to collect raw materials, use them to make something useful, and sell them to the contractor to make a profit. Therefore, your cash flow depends on the efficiency you deliver to the contractor.
In addition, the supply chain must be fast and efficient to make a consistent cash flow. Since you can’t handle all this work yourself, you hire workers, instruct the team, and pay them. In the same way, you colonize more and more islands by establishing trade routes.
Prison Architect
- Platform: Android, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, macOS, Microsoft Windows, iOS, GNU/Linux, Xbox 360, Mac OS
- Developer: Introversion Software, Double Eleven, Tag Games
- Metascore: 83
Your objective is to build an impenetrable, maximum-security prison that inmates never get out of.
Also, you need to manage things here, like recruiting guards to give it even more security and other staff to do the rest. So you need to build a 2D prison, expand it and manage it. That includes building and placing your cells and paying the staff regularly.
Autonauts
- Platform: Curve Games
- Developer: PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X|S
- Metascore: n/a
A charming entry is Autonauts, which is not precisely about machines and conveyor belts. Instead, it’s about automation through the use of robots.
It has the same basic premise of slowly making your way up to more advanced technologies, but where you’re teaching and shaping artificial intelligence by training robots to do the task. The automation is based on the visual programming language named Scratch, so it is educational as well.
I do love the delightful animations and overall look of this title.
Hydroneer
- Platform: PC
- Developer: Foulball Hangover
- Metascore: n/a
Hydroneer is a first-person title with a focus on mining. You for gold and other minerals to turn a profit. This title clearly has a more simulation-influenced approach, especially with the first-person view.
What’s interesting is that you do need a lot of water for these mining operations, so constructing pipelines is essential. The developer describes it as “a more digestible version of Factorio.”
Mindustry
- Platform: Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, Mac OS
- Developer: Anuken
- Metascore: n/a
One of the best factory-building titles people absolutely adore is Mindustry, which adds an active tower defense element where you must manage gathering resources, building defenses, and destroying enemies.
It is a natural fit since the tower defense genre fits in with the perspective of one of these games, where, interestingly, you need to construct conveyor belts to feed and more to your towers. Otherwise, they would not work.
There are over 250 procedurally generated sectors or levels across 16 planets, so there is a whole bunch of content.
Dyson Sphere Program
- Platform: PC
- Developer: Youthcat Studio
- Metascore: n/a
Despite launching on January 2021, Dyson Sphere Program has attained tremendous success and popularity due to his sense of skill and scope in this game.
You are attempting to build a Dyson Sphere.
Oh, that’s a sci-fi megastructure attempting to encompass a star to harness its energy for those who haven’t played it.
You can fly to different planets, build them out and link them together.
There are many things to build, research and upgrade where the interplanetary skill is super impressive.
Infinifactory
- Platform: PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, macOS, Mac OS Classic
- Developer: Zachtronics, Zachary Barth
- Metascore: 70
The game takes you to a place totally in control of the aliens. Now you have to show your skills here as you are kidnapped by the aliens. Now, these creatures want you to work for them, and soon you realize that you are not the only one, but there is a large crowd of humans abducted by the aliens.
In this way, you solve the six worlds full of puzzles or tasks. Each world takes you to a different and advanced story. Upon completion, you escape from the aliens and start living in a hidden location. Now with other escaped humans, you begin to prepare a plan to escape the planet and return home.
Human Resource Machine
- Platform: Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, macOS, Wii U, Mac OS Classic
- Developer: Tomorrow Corporation
- Metascore: 86
The game is based on the programming puzzles of a corporate office where you have to understand these puzzles to take the game forward and complete the level.
The programming has commands like add, sub, copy from, and copy to. You need to perform all these functions to solve the programming puzzles. So the whole function includes moving objects in the in-tray, out-tray, and storage areas, and for this purpose, you get the command in easy visuals.
In this way, the game contains around 30-40 puzzles that contain specific tasks like adding numbers, subtracting, sorting, and putting them all in the output tray.
OpenTTD (Transport Tycoon Deluxe)
- Platform: OpenTTD
- Developer: Android, Microsoft Windows, macOS, GNU/Linux, iOS
- Metascore: n/a
One of the tycoon games in which you aim to be the king in the transport world by establishing your empire.
The game has recreational rope elements that make it worth paying for, and the Factorio. In addition, it offers multiplayer gameplay, an improved user interface, quality visuals, etc. with many improvements, the game is set to be an advanced version of what it was in 1994.
So, like any tycoon game, it needs effective transportation system management. You can use any form, like trains, planes, ships, and buses, and provide the best services to get revenue.
Satisfactory
- Platform: Microsoft Windows
- Developer: Coffee Stain Studios
- Metascore: n/a
Satisfactory is a stand-up title in this subgenre.
At the time, the first-person factory sim was still a relative niche concept. Add to that fantastic visuals, and there certainly was something to behold in Satisfactory.
There have been multiple significant updates that are so insanely packed with content. Satisfactory is an excellent title taking the number one spot.
FAQs
Question: How many hours does it take to beat Factorio?
Answer: It will take around 48 hours to beat the game if you aim to complete only the main objectives.
But, as is often the case with these games, your 100% completion route will take you over 224 hours.
Question: Is Factorio based on an infinite world?
Answer: The map is infinite, sure. Still, the game will likely eat up your RAM before you get to explore it all.
Question: Does Factorio have an actual ending?
Answer: Factorio ends when you get to launch that sweet, sweet rocket into space. But, even then, you can still continue playing.
Parting Words
This list offers games that share standard features or mechanics with Factorio. They all have personalities and don’t intend to replace the original game. How could they, really?
Let’s be clear: Factorio is majestic. It does a lot of things, and it does them all well. And yet, if any of them don’t convince you, it offers the possibility of altering it. Obviously, just as there is no perfect optimization, there is no perfect game. Still, if there is one that can be labeled as complete or outstanding, that is Factorio.
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