Best 15 Construction Games Like Factorio

Factorio blends the art of automation with construction simulation mechanics and a survival campaign. It’s a simple premise with deep systems and ample freedom for players. 

The game has multiplayer, it has mods, and you can mod it as well. Its experience is vast, but its mechanics may be too challenging for new players. Another drawback is the lack of full 3D rendering, according to Factorio’s forums.

In any case, the title has over 11K daily concurrent players on Steam every day. If you’re one of these players, or if you were part of the community, you’d probably like the games like Factorio we found. These either offer automation, survival, crafting, construction-sim, or a mix of these elements. 

Satisfactory

Satisfactory is a factory construction sim game currently in early access. The twist is how you play in a first-person 3D open world, rather than a top-down view. It also uses a modern graphical approach, proper for the survival genre.

You play as a pioneer on an alien planet. You start with simple tools and a familiar gameplay loop to explore. That is gathering materials, crafting better tools, and creating increasingly complex automatic factory systems.

The goal is to build a space elevator to supply a space exploration company with the alien planet’s resources. To achieve the goal, you build in first-person by placing blueprints, you explore the planet on foot or vehicles for resources, and you fight wildlife with weapons and traps.

Mindustry

Mindustry is a tower-defense game focusing on resource management. It also plays with a top-down perspective, 16-bit graphics, and a giant 2D pixelated factor shooting at monsters.  Also, it has a campaign: conquer an alien planet across 1250+ procedurally generated sectors. 

The gameplay revolves around creating increasingly complex supply chains. Your conveyor belts and automated systems will feed ammo to your defensive towers, like turrets, mechs, and ships. So, every so often, enemies will attack in waves.

Then, other buildings will produce and refine the materials you need to build your defensive structures. You can use your materials to build, research, and upgrade structures. Lastly, these systems are available in various game modes, co-op, and PvP.

Dyson Sphere Program

Dyson Sphere Program is a factory automation simulation game. It has a sci-fi setting, and the gameplay is about building an industrial complex in space. 

You play as a space engineer, and your goal is to construct Dyson Spheres. These are massive structures that orbit around a star to harvest its energy. So, you build interstellar automated production lines across various planets and satellites in an open-world map.

The game has a top-down/third-person hybrid perspective. As a space engineer, you design the factories and productions. It’s about macro-managing material transport, construction, resource gathering, power networks, research, and upgrades.

Rise of Industry

• Developers: Dapper Penguin Studios
• Publisher: Kasedo games
• Release Date: May 2019
• Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux, SteamOS

Rise of Industry is a business management simulator. You play as a tycoon, and your goal is to grow an industrial empire in the early 20th Century.

There’re several AI towns and villages around you. So, your industry and supply chains must supply the demands of these towns. The gameplay is about gathering resources, building, researching, expanding, upgrading, and selling goods. 

The game offers two game modes: Sandbox and Career. The “Career” allows you to select one of the four specializations, which grant specific research trees, upgrades, and advantages. In the Sandbox mode, all upgrades are available, and there’re no financial limitations. 

Dwarf Fortress (new Steam version)

Dwarf Fortress is a classic colony-building simulator with RPG and roguelike elements. The original title is a text-based experience, but the new title features a 2D top-down pixelated perspective.

The game offers a procedurally generated world. You control a group of dwarves as you try to construct a sturdy and wealthy fortress. The fortress construction would work as a set of chambers within mountains and caves. Doing so includes a vast number of mechanical layers and systems.

The title shines because an AI generates and randomizes all aspects of the fantasy world and the factions living there with you. Other systems control many aspects of your dwarfs, and these engines are so complex as to simulate their organs, tissues, traits, combat skills, and backgrounds. 

Hydroneer

• Developers: Foulball Hangover
• Publisher: Foulball Hangover
• Release Date: May 2020
• Platform: Windows

Hydroneer is a mining simulator and sandbox game. The goal is mining for resources like gold, and then using these resources to create better mining machines on your base.

You play in first-person perspective, and you start using primitive tools. Then, you can create hydro-powered machines and other structures to automate mining and digging. So, the game also includes business management elements, as well as a progression system.

Lastly, the game uses a voxel design. That means everything you see is a block you can extract. So, you can dig everywhere and make underground networks going through caves and mountains. Similarly, the game uses a modular system to build your structures and customize your base. 

Automation Empire

• Developers: DOG HOGGLER
• Publisher: DOG HOGGLER
• Release Date: November 2019
• Platform: Windows

Automation Empire is a growing game. The developers made it for fans of games like Factorio, but despite its name, the automation systems are much simpler. 

This is a simulation and management game focusing on expanding a factory and making it as efficient as possible. Your goal is to build an interconnected network of industrial structures, machines, and robots. 

You play as the automation engineer, and you have multiple tools to make the factory work like clockwork. These include drones, trucks, trains, mine carts, and cargo rockets. Asi from automation, you manage resources, research technologies, and terraform your surroundings across different biomes. 

Subnautica

Subnautica is a first-person survival crafting adventure first and a simulator second. See, your character crashes and lands on an alien ocean planet. The goal is returning home, but this requires diving deeper and deeper for resources.

The map is static, open-world, gorgeous, and full of different biomes. You explore lava fields, underwater drives, reefs, sea trenches, etc. You gather materials for tools, use tools to craft bases, and research tech. However, there’s a day and night cycle, and you wouldn’t want to explore at night.

You have to manage oxygen supply and air pressure. It works by building special suits and special bases. Additionally, you have to drink water, eat, and develop the special equipment and underwater bases you need to survive and explore.

Oxygen Not Included

• Developer: Klei Entertainment
• Publisher: Klei Entertainment
• Release Date: July 2019
• Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux, SteamOS

Oxygen Not Included is a 2D space colony simulator with advanced AI systems. The AI manages thermodynamics, gas, power grids, liquid, and oxygen reservations. 

The gameplay is managing a colony on an underground cave network in a satellite. Because oxygen is scarce, you have to continuously dig deeper to find the resources you need to produce more. 

Another element to manage is the psychological health of the colonist. You need to add leisure activities, comfortable accommodations, food, and other systems to keep them alive and away from trouble. 

OpenTTD

• Developers: Ludvig Strigeus
• Publisher: OpenTTD Team
• Release Date: March 2022 (final release)
• Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux, SteamOS, Android

OpenTTD is a free-to-play business simulator game. The game has been out since 2004, and the developers released the final game recently. Also, it’s an open-source remake of 1995’s Transport Tycoon Deluxe by Chris Sawyer. 

You earn money by transporting passengers on rail, roads, air, or water. So, you connect cities and industries with a network of docks, airports, roads, and railways. You play with a top-down perspective on procedurally-generated maps – the visuals are similar to Factorio.

Lastly, you can work alone or work alongside your friends. Whereas Factorio allows up to 64 people in the factory, OpenTTD allows up to 255 working in tandem. 

RimWorld

RimWorld is a top-down sci-fi colony construction simulator with an AI storyteller. The storyteller controls random events and variables around you. You can choose between various AIs for a different gameplay experience. Similarly, the maps are procedurally generated.

You start the campaign with three random survivors stranded in a distant world, and the goal is to go back home. Its systems are quite complex, though, but the idea is to automate work and systems to make the colony grow and stay healthy. 

The gameplay consists of issuing commands to the colonists, like what to build or gather and where to work. However, the AI will manage many aspects of the colonists, the world, events, the biomes, and other factions. Some of the things you’ll meet are wounds, hunger, fatigue, mental states, etc. 

Astroneer

Astroneer is a sandbox adventure game with an easy construction sim element. You play the Astroneer, and your job is colonizing an alien planet. You can also play in co-op with 3 additional players, and explore procedurally generated planets together. 

You play with a third-person perspective. The gameplay loop involves exploring, gathering resources, crafting tools, and building structures. You also have a “terrain tool” to terraform the environment, plus a rover, teleportation, and a spacecraft to navigate the planet. 

Lastly, you have your tools in the Backpack, which serves as your HUD and your inventory. It packs a 3D printer, storage slots, quick-use slots, and an internal power supply, which are the tools you need for most activities. 

The Planet Crafter

Planet Crafter is a survival open-world where terraforming an alien planet is the core gameplay. You’re to transform a hostile world and make it livable for other humans.

You play in first-person as you explore the world on foot or in vehicles for resources. Then, you use these resources to craft tools, research tech, and build structures. 

There’re also survival elements. You have to manage oxygen, heat, and pressure levels. The idea is to reach ideal numbers to make a healthy and friendly biosphere. Buildings either produce heat, oxygen, or atmospheric pressure. 

Factory Town

Factory Town is an indie title where you manage a 3D factory. You manage its resources, build structures, automate processes, and optimize your systems. The perspective and mechanics are similar to Factorio, so many people brand it as a “Factorio clone.”

The goal is to build a thriving village in the wild. To achieve the goal, you have to produce goods in your industry, which you sell to NPC villages, and then use the currency to keep expanding your factory. Nevertheless, the game has eight different campsites with varying victory conditions.

There’re also workers to manage. They are your automated systems as they build, move goods, work, and do everything you need. Yet, you can combine them with chutes, railroads, conveyor belts, and similar structures. 

Shapez.io

Shapez.io is a 2D game where you build factories to automatically produce geometrical shapes. You create by using these very same shapes. 

The gameplay revolves around painting, stacking, and building a factory by creating blocks. You must build blocks of various shapes and colors combinations to complete level challenges