Shapez

Shapez is the single most distilled form of a factory building and simulation game I have ever played. Most other games of the genre have something extra adding friction to the game, such as resource or money costs, enemies trying to break your stuff, having to manage a power grid, or even having to play as a specific character with a specific movement speed or reach radius. Not here though. It is just you, your machines, and the map. Any machines can be placed anywhere, and massive factories are only limited by your imagination and your computers processing power.

Originally named Shapez.io, the developer of this game expanded it enough that they deemed the “dot io” designation was no longer suitable for the quality of game they were going for. The game involves an endless mode, a puzzle mode, some mechanical unlocks that are frankly designed to ease you into the game rather than overwhelm you off the bat, and at the end game level, enough resources and mechanics that the hub at the center is able to emit the shape it desires out to a wire, and you can produce a “Make Anything Machine” that can interpret that wire signal and produce the shape automatically.

Fun fact, there is even an achievement for doing so!

For a game with graphics that could easily have been made in MS Paint, and with such simple mechanics, its a surprisingly addictive little endeavour. If you enjoyed the factory automation in Factorio, Dyson Sphere Program, or even some Minecraft mods, this will most likely be right up your alley.

Also, this game has modding support, including some overhaul mods that make the game play wildly different. My personal recs here are Shapez Industries, which adds a huge amount of new content, new machines, shapes that are made by combining other shapes, new research, etc, and Hexagonal, which is an overhaul that makes all the shapes and machines 6 sliced instead of 4. Be aware, these mods are not compatible with eachother, Hexagonal is not compatible with most mods, and a save file created with a mod installed should only be played with the mod installed, or it could end up corrupted.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1318690 £7.99 (Demo Available)
Website: https://shapez.io In-browser Demo