Build your own factory

What is Factorio ?

Factorio (http://www.factorio.com) is a 2d creative game about building and maintaining a factory.

What do I do in the game ?

You will be in charge of a character that is building a factory from scratch. You will be mining resources, automating production, managing energy sources, designing the flow of items in your factory, researching technologies and defending from hostile creatures.

What is the game inspired by ?

We drew a lot of inspiration from Transport Tycoon-like games, Civilization and Minecraft.

Why should I care ?

This game is made by geeks for geeks. The core of the game is building things. You can create huge almost self sufficient factories. There are machines crafting other machines. All the stuff is travelling on transport belts. There are simple means of "programming" the robotic arms that move things around. You also have little logistic robots that transport things among designated containers. The ultimate goal of course is to have self replicating factories:)

When & where can I get it ?

Public demo is available at http://www.factorio.com (win, osx, ubuntu linux). Go and try it now.
The game is at the moment raising funds for further development. If it succeeds the alpha will be released in March 2013.

I want to know more

You can get more information on the webpage linked above. There is a trailer, screenshots, plot, etc.

This is how the game looks like at the moment:







We will be very grateful for any comment, ideas and suggestions.

Sounds interesting, almost like Space Chem expanded from a puzzle game to a full sim.

EDIT: I'm sort of interested in backing you, but I have a question. On the IndieGoGo page you mention "no DRM", but 'digital game keys' are mentioned elsewhere on the page so I was just wondering exactly how this game key was implemented and in what way it is required. Thanks!

Hi SirPrimalform,

nice to hear you like the game. Digital game key was not a good phrasing on my side. Basically it will work similar way as Minecraft does. Buying a game gets you a login which allows you to download the game as future updates. We also plan to have an automatic updater on the startup.

But there is no protection built in the game. Internet connection is not needed to play. If someone copies the game from their friend or downloads it from the torrent then they can play it the same way as if they bought it and downloaded from us. However, they won't be able to use automatic updates and any login related features that we might have in the future (like online leaderboards, etc.).

[Zorder]

Make this happen...

[mgnade]

Here's a link to the indiegogo campaign: http://www.indiegogo.com/factorio

slpwnd wrote:

Hi SirPrimalform,

nice to hear you like the game. Digital game key was not a good phrasing on my side. Basically it will work similar way as Minecraft does. Buying a game gets you a login which allows you to download the game as future updates. We also plan to have an automatic updater on the startup.

But there is no protection built in the game. Internet connection is not needed to play. If someone copies the game from their friend or downloads it from the torrent then they can play it the same way as if they bought it and downloaded from us. However, they won't be able to use automatic updates and any login related features that we might have in the future (like online leaderboards, etc.).

Oh I'm not sure then... I've recently become annoyed with the way Minecraft is set up because they sold it as DRM-free but because you have to log in to install it there's no way you install it on a computer with no internet connection.

It's possible to get it on there by going into application data and copying files across but it's inconvenient.

Does your system have any easier way around that? To download an installer of the latest version, put it on a pendrive and install on an offline computer?

Well I see your point. We really want to make the download and game update as easy as possible. At the moment there is no login at all. You just download the installer / zip and use it - your computer, different computer, whatever. In the future this will be the same (you need a login for the download), the only difference will be that when you run the game and will want automatic updates you just put in your login and can get them.

[PlayerReview]

As long as it isn't intrusive, it sounds fair to me. But, I respect that other users have different circumstances on which to base their decision. I have a great deal of respect for SirPrimalform. He is very active on Desura and seems to have a deep knowledge of the Indie arena. I sometimes must defer and gain from judgement of such individuals.

slpwnd wrote:

Well I see your point. We really want to make the download and game update as easy as possible. At the moment there is no login at all. You just download the installer / zip and use it - your computer, different computer, whatever. In the future this will be the same (you need a login for the download), the only difference will be that when you run the game and will want automatic updates you just put in your login and can get them.

That sounds fine, as long as there's an offline way of installing (so that I can download it on one computer and install it on the other without internet access). Will you be making every new version available from the site, or only through the autoupdate? That's my only remaining question.

PlayerReview wrote:

I have a great deal of respect for SirPrimalform.

I wouldn't say I'm very deserving of that!

Every new version will be directly manually downloadable from the site.

slpwnd wrote:

Every new version will be directly manually downloadable from the site.

Backed!

We made a simple tutorial video about building a very very basic factory. If you are interested have a look at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9kQM9lvEjY

This game looks excellent! What are your plans if the IndieGoGo fails, will you be able to continue development?

[PlayerReview]

Would be nice if there were more than 50 slots (sold out) for the entry-level backup tier. I will keep my eye on things though and am curious to the answer SirPrimalform might get.

http://www.indiegogo.com/factorio

In case the Factorio funding on indiegogo fails we probably will have to take programming jobs. However we really enjoy working on the project and we got a lot of positive feedback from people playing the demo and the alpha. So continuing the project in our free time is a real option. It depends a lot on the result of the campaign (failing with 7000e is much better signal than failing with 1500e).

However the campaign is not over yet. Yes, we are behind in the funding schedule, but recently we started slowly accelerating. We are spending a lot of time talking to people on forums, writing mails to blogs and youtube previewers and generally building the community and raising awareness about the project. And it starts paying off. So let's see how it goes:)

Regardless of the eventual outcome of the indiegogo campaign, may I suggest Alpha funding on Desura? Also Groupees do a bit of promotion for games in development in their bundles (one of which is running soon) so it might be worth talking to them.

[Zorder]

So it looks like Factorio got funded. It has now 9 hours left and it's 863€ away from the multiplayer milestone. I hope this means that it will eventually be featured here on IGS. Congratulations slpwnd on achieving the 17000€ goal.

[PlayerReview]

congrats slpwnd, you deserve it!

It hasn't been submitted to Steam Greenlight yet, however, the Steam Greenlight (concept) page for Factorio can be found here. Rate it and favorite it if you want to let the developer know that you like it (you can also leave comments there).