Swarmdustry

Its early access so it defs has some growing pains to work through. But it is a nice Factorio clone that takes its own spin on the style that presents its own unique challangers to overcome since your factory is basically run by the Zerg.

Tiny bugs: doing honest work Me: redesigning their entire industrial complex for the 6th time Honestly a very productive afternoon.

Actually a quite intresting sidekick of Factorio ideas and mechanics, with it's own face and new challenges. Looking forward for more updates and DLC, and, especially, multiplayer.

I have somehow reached the point where I’m emotionally invested in the employment situation of imaginary insects. 😂 The workers actually make the factory feel alive, and I like that different jobs require different types of bugs rather than everything being handled by one generic unit. The genetic progression is also much deeper than I expected, so there seems to be a lot of room to keep expanding the hive. Then you add the creep spreading and robots eventually coming to ruin everyone’s day, and suddenly my peaceful little factory has become a military operation. It’s a strange combination, but honestly that’s what makes it memorable. Still Early Access and there are some systems that could be clearer, but the underlying concept is excellent.

The idea is weird in exactly the right way. Instead of watching belts move everything around, you’ve got an entire population of bugs doing the work. Once the different workers start operating together, the base stops looking like a normal factory and starts feeling like an actual hive. I also like having to think about how energy gets distributed instead of just throwing power poles everywhere. There is definitely some stuff that still needs explaining better, especially for a new player. But underneath the Early Access rough edges, there’s a really interesting automation game here.

The energy system adds a nice layer to the building. You can’t just slap machines wherever you want and forget about them—you actually have to think about how the network is going to reach everything.