Factorio

Factorio is a construction and management simulation game developed and published by Czech studio Wube Software. The game was announced via an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign in 2013 and released for Windows, macOS, and Linux on 14 August 2020 following a four-year long early access phase to positive reviews. The game was released on Nintendo Switch on 28 October 2022.

Factorio
Developer(s)Wube Software
Publisher(s)Wube Software
Director(s)
  • Michal Kovařík
  • Tomáš Kozelek
  • Albert Bertolín
Designer(s)Michal Kovařík
Artist(s)
  • Albert Bertolin
  • Václav Benč
Composer(s)Daniel James Taylor
Platform(s)
Release
  • Linux, macOS, Windows
  • 14 August 2020
  • Switch
  • 28 October 2022
Genre(s)Construction and management simulation, real-time strategy
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

The game follows an engineer who crash-lands on an alien planet and must harvest resources and create industry to build a rocket; however, as it is a sandbox game, players can continue the game past the end of the storyline. There are both single-player and multiplayer modes.

Gameplay

Factorio is a construction and management simulation game focused on resource-gathering with real-time strategy and survival elements and influences from the BuildCraft and IndustrialCraft mods for the video game Minecraft.[1] The player survives by locating and harvesting resources to craft various tools and machines, which in turn create more advanced materials that allow for the progression to more sophisticated technologies and machines. The game progresses as the player continues to build and manage their automated factory-style system, which automates the mining, transportation, processing, and assembly of resources and products. Players research advanced technologies that allow them to create new structures, items, and upgrades, starting with basic automation and eventually leading to oil refining, robots, and powered exoskeletons.[2][3]

The game features a blueprint system, which allows for players to create reusable blueprints for factory parts. The blueprints consist of a baseline for construction, allowing for the copying of factory systems or entire factories, and subsequent construction.

The game is formally "won" by launching a rocket, although choosing to ignore this goal and instead continue building a factory is possible, as Factorio is an open world game. Constructing a rocket requires a massive amount of resources, motivating the player to set up a sizeable, effective factory in order to achieve this goal.

Combat

The player is tasked with defending themselves and their factory from the planet's indigenous fauna, known as 'Biters', 'Spitters', and 'Worms', who become increasingly hostile as pollutant emissions created by the player's factory increase, necessitating consideration of the balance between the player's production and the enemy's aggressiveness. The player can utilize defensive turrets, tanks, and other weapons to eliminate enemies.[4][5] As the game progresses, enemies evolve and become harder to defeat.

Players may also elect to set the planet's fauna to "peaceful," during the start of the game. The fauna will still spawn, but will only attack the player and factory in retaliation from direct physical damage on themselves or a neighboring unit.[6]

Multiplayer

Multiplayer mode allows people to play together cooperatively or versus one another both locally and via the Internet.[7][8][9] Factorio supports both dedicated servers as well as player-hosted listen servers. In the past, the game used peer-to-peer connectivity, however this was removed as more robust options were developed.[10][11] Saved world files can be seamlessly loaded in either single- or multiplayer. By default, all players on a server share technologies, unless a system of multiple teams has been instituted by the server host. Friendly fire is present. Players can share construction blueprints with other players on their server, via a public blueprint library.[9][12]

Modding

Factorio is designed to be customisable via mods to create additional content, such as modifications to gameplay or re-texturing of visual elements. The developers offer an online portal on the Factorio website for mod developers to host their content. To help support the modding community, there is an in-game mod manager that allows players to quickly download them. Mods are written in the Lua programming language.

Development

The game has been developed by a team of developers from Prague, Czech Republic, since mid-2012. The development team originally consisted of a single person, but has grown larger. Wube Software was created in September 2014 by Michal Kovařík and Tomáš Kozelek in Prague. To fund the game the development team began an Indiegogo campaign, which started on 31 January 2013 and concluded on 3 March 2013. The campaign raised €21,626, exceeding its €17,000 goal.[13][14][15] Following the crowdfunding success, Wube sold early access editions of the game to raise further funds. The developer credits the April 2014 release of the game's trailer as a significant driver of those sales.[16] As of March 2021, the team consists of 18 members.[17]

Michal Kovařík, the game's lead designer, cited the IndustrialCraft and BuildCraft Minecraft mods for inspiration during the game's development.[1]

The game was released on Steam as early access on 25 February 2016, but had been available to download from its official website since early on in development.[18] It was officially released out of early access on 14 August 2020.[19][20] It was originally planned to be released on 25 September 2020, but was moved up a month as to not compete with the release of Cyberpunk 2077, which, at the time, was scheduled to be released on 17 September 2020.[21][22] In February 2021, the developers announced that 1.1 would be the final major update of the base game, and that a new expansion pack was being developed.[23] The expansion's theme and name, Space Age, were revealed in August 2023.[24] The expansion is planned to be an addition as big as the base game.[25]

A port of the game to Nintendo Switch was released on 28 October 2022. The port does not contain modding features.[26][27]

G2A Audit

Video game key reseller G2A was accused of selling stolen keys on its site, affecting developers of games, specifically in the indie scene. On 5 July 2019, G2A offered to pay the developers of a game ten times the worth of the stolen game keys if the problem could be proven via audit.[28] Wube was the only developer to call on this, stating "G2A - worse than piracy" and emailed a list of 321 canceled Steam keys due to chargebacks.[29][30] After over ten months, G2A confirmed 198 of those keys were sold on the platform and paid Wube Software $39,600 as part of the promise. Due to the sensitive nature of the investigation, the audit was instead done internally.[31][32][29][33]

Reception

Factorio received positive reception from critics while still in early access.[38][39] In the 2018 Steam Awards, Factorio was voted by Steam users as a runner-up in the "Most Fun with a Machine" category.[40] By the beginning of 2020, the game had sold two million copies,[41] by the beginning of 2021, the developers reported over two and a half million sold copies,[23] and by its sixth anniversary in February 2022, the game had just passed 3.1 million copies sold.[42]

Upon its release in 2020, Factorio received positive reviews. Rick Lane of PC Gamer praised Factorio, calling it "a manufacturing masterpiece".[37] Nicolas Perez of Paste praised the game's use of early access, stating that "Factorio has set an example of what the Early Access system is truly capable of."[43] It was named IndieGameReviewer.com's Indie Game of the Year, after also naming it one its most anticipated in 2013.[44] In 2021 Rock Paper Shotgun ranked Factorio the 7th best management game for the PC.[45]

Legacy

Neobuthus factorio is a species of scorpion from the family Buthidae found in Somaliland. It was named after the game by one of the researchers who first described the species, who is the father of the game's lead designer.[46][47]

Satisfactory, a 2019 factory-building game by Coffee Stain Studios, has been compared to Factorio and described as a first-person, 3D interpretation of the game.[48]

References
  1. Kovařík, Michal (1 August 2014). "kovarex comments on Nerd³ FW – Factorio". Reddit. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
  2. Jauch, Daniel (15 May 2014). "Our Nation's Factorio Review". APGNation. Archived from the original on 17 May 2014. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
  3. Priestman, Chris (15 April 2013). "Factorio Is A Machine-Fetishist's Best Friend". Indie Statik. Archived from the original on 25 April 2013. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
  4. Livingston, Christopher (28 July 2014). "The Lighthouse Customer: Factorio". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  5. "Factorio – Content". factorio.com. Wube Software. Retrieved 10 January 2015.
  6. Toms, Ollie (14 August 2020). "Factorio guide [1.0]: 15 top tips to help grow your factory". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  7. "Factorio - Content". factorio.com. Wube Software. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  8. Rogers, Tristan (1 November 2014). "Factorio Gets Multiplayer". SandboxDB. Archived from the original on 21 November 2014. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
  9. Luces, Mike (24 April 2017). "'Factorio' Version 0.15.0 Released: Comes With Military, Production, High-Tech And Space Packs". www.ibtimes.com. Retrieved 10 September 2020. Wube Software included new scenarios for PvP…
  10. "Factorio Headless download". factorio.com. Wube Software. Retrieved 25 April 2017.
  11. Kovařík, Michal (15 July 2016). "Friday Facts #147 - Multiplayer rewrite". factorio.com. Wube Software. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
  12. Majerech, Ondřej (23 December 2016). "Friday Facts #170 - Blueprint library GUI design and redesign". factorio.com. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
  13. Smith, Graham (14 May 2014). "Factorio Trailer Looks Like A Fun Factory, Has Demo". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
  14. "Factorio". Indiegogo. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
  15. Kozelek, Tomáš (24 October 2012). "Here we are". factorio.com. Wube Software. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  16. Rose, Mike (27 May 2014). "How a single game trailer turned the tide for Factorio". Gamasutra. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
  17. "Factorio - Team". factorio.com. Wube Software. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  18. "Friday Facts #127 - Steam Status III: Thank You". factorio.com. Wube Software. 26 February 2016. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  19. "Friday Facts #360 - 1.0 is here!". factorio.com. Wube Software. 14 August 2020. Retrieved 27 August 2020.
  20. Brown, Fraser (14 August 2020). "Factorio finally leaves Early Access after 4 years". PC Gamer. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  21. Bolding, Jonathan (30 May 2020). "Factorio 1.0 will come a month early to avoid Cyberpunk 2077". PC Gamer. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
  22. Reisinger, Don (18 June 2020). "Cyberpunk 2077 release date pushed back again". Digital Trends. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  23. Boudreau, Ian (5 February 2021). "Factorio is getting an expansion". PCGamesN. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  24. Mills, Steven (25 August 2023). "First Factorio expansion takes us to the stars in Factorio: Space Age". Destructoid. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  25. Bolding, Jonathan (6 February 2022). "The Factorio expansion will be as large as the main game". PC Gamer. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  26. Reynolds, Ollie (14 September 2022). "Highly Acclaimed Management Sim 'Factorio' Is Heading To Switch". Nintendo Life. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
  27. Harris, Iain (13 September 2022). "Factorio is coming to Nintendo Switch next month". GamesRadar+. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
  28. Brown, Fraser (5 July 2019). "G2A says it will pay devs 10 times what they lose in chargebacks due to fraud". PC Gamer. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
  29. Hall, Charlie (20 May 2020). "G2A pays Factorio developer $39,600 over illegally obtained game keys". Polygon. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
  30. "Factorio devs say G2A hasn't been "exactly prompt" to compensate over fraudulent key sales". PCGamesN. 16 July 2019. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
  31. Batchelor, James (20 May 2020). "G2A and Wube Software settle $40,000 chargeback dispute". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
  32. Prescott, Shaun (21 May 2020). "G2A has paid Factorio studio nearly $40,000 over sale of illegitimate keys". PC Gamer. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
  33. Clayton, Natalie (21 May 2020). "G2A pay Factorio devs over £32,000 after uncovering stolen key sales". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
  34. "Factorio for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 25 December 2021.
  35. Hafer, Leana (19 September 2021). "Factorio Review". IGN. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
  36. "Review: Factorio - A Most Engrossing Management Sim, Despite Some Issues". 28 October 2022.
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  38. Meer, Alec (7 March 2016). "Factorio: The End Of Management Games". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  39. Yin-Poole, Wesley (26 February 2016). "Meet Factorio, the wonderfully complex game about designing factories". Eurogamer. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  40. Watts, Steve (15 February 2019). "Steam Awards 2018 Winners Announced, And Most Aren't From 2018". GameSpot. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  41. "Friday Facts #327 - 2020 Vision". factorio.com. Wube Software. 27 December 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  42. Capel, Chris (26 February 2022). "Factorio has passed 3.1 million sales in 6 years". PCGamesN. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  43. Perez, Nicolas (21 August 2020). "Factorio Is an Ambitious Game That Lives up to Its Intentions". pastemagazine.com. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
  44. "Top 10 Best Indie Games of 2020". indiegamereviewer.com. Indie-Game-Freak. 5 January 2021. Retrieved 13 May 2021.
  45. Smith, Graham (22 April 2021). "The best management games on PC". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved 14 May 2021.
  46. Kovařík, František; Lowe, Graeme; Ibrahim Awale, Ahmed; Sh Abdirahman Elmi, Hassan; Hurre, Ali Abdi (12 December 2018). Fet, Victor (ed.). "Scorpions of the Horn of Africa (Arachnida, Scorpiones). Part XVII. Revision of Neobuthus, with Description of Seven New Species from Ethiopia, Kenya and Somaliland (Buthidae)" (PDF). Euscorpius - Occasional Publications in Scorpiology (271).
  47. Prince, Chloe (13 November 2020). "There's A Scorpion Named After Factorio". TheGamer. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  48. O'Connor, Alice (12 June 2018). "Satisfactory looks a lot like first-person Factorio". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved 12 May 2021. Satisfactory sure does resemble Factorio but first-person. Which, really, I am up for.
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