Summary
Simulatorsallow players to experience a different slice of life in the comfort of their own home. This category hasa variety of sub-genressuch asfactory simulation, where players get to manage and create plants where they must successfully create products.
Commonly, these games are popular with fans of the feature known as automation. These factories are solely run by other machinery that players need to plan the placement of to have a functioning factory system. As a niche genre, there are only afew factory titles, but these are by far the best.
Updated July 19, 2025, by Rie Takumi: Factory simulation video games scratch a specific itch. Most games value mastery over how parts can optimize production lines to make the most of available resources. Others progress through clever solutions to logic puzzles built into factory sims and reward hardcore grinders with means to automate more mundane processes.And to some gamers, the process of creating map-spanning production systems is rewarding enough on its own. Games like Factorio allow players to focus on building factories, researching tech and infrastructures, and graduating to produce increasingly complex products. Players typically share their layouts and manufacturing solutions with fellow players online to help or find new ways of building their factories.
$14.99
Metascore
Mostly Positive (446 reviews)
Gamers who are also foodies would loveAutomachef, a resource management puzzle game where they’re tasked toautomate a kitchen. Players design, build, and program restaurants restricted by resources and tricky scenarios. At their disposal are machines categorized as dispensers, transporters, transformers, and assemblers, among others, set on grids at optimized positions.
Programmers or gamers who love logic puzzles may find Automachef challenging. Half the fun is figuring out the game’s logic. Finding out the relationship between income, efficiency, and power, as well as the use of newly unlocked machines, takes up a lot of game time.
Very Positive (161 Steam Reviews)
While not a factory in the traditional sense,Alan’s Automation Workshopis a brilliant simulationcombined with the puzzle genre. Players who enjoy the logical side of factory simulators must find new ways to solve the client’s issues through automation.
Players will be encouraged to test out their new creations before attempting to sell them to the client. Naturally, new problems cause new solutions to be created, and as a novice engineer, the player should be sure to explore their creativity to make a profit while finding the answers.
$9.74
Very Positive (251 Steam Reviews)
Another great factory game straight off the assembly line isLearning Factory, a game that tasks the player withdeploying conveyor beltsin intricate ways to craft and sell an assortment of goods to adorable cats. As the title of the game suggests, players will need to keep learning new things if they hope to achieve catopia in one of the best factory games ever.
Learning Factorytakes making a factory on Mars a step further as players can analyze their selling data to see what they could improve upon and make the factory more efficient. Above all else, this is a relaxing game as it takes the stress out of management.
$4.99
Very Positive (407 Steam Reviews)
Like an idle game title,Factory Town Idleallows players to play a game and make a profit while barely needing to click a single button. Unlike other idle titles,Factory Towncombines multiple genres into one making it part clicker, part idle game, part builder, and part management title; giving players significantly more to get stuck into.
As a factory town, it is up to theplayer to builddifferent production buildings as well as houses for their workers to expand their town into a brilliant industrial hub that will gradually bring in the big bucks for the player.
$6.99
Overwhelmingly Positive (1,295 Steam Reviews)
The Farmer Was Replacedisa programming gamethat lets automation fans build their dream factory using drones. Gamers don’t need to go in with prerequisite coding knowledge thanks to a simple tutorial that teaches basic programming concepts and the game’s Python-like code.
It’s a forgiving game that allows the greenest programmer to get used to its simplest automation loops. Clearing challenges rewards players with better means of automation, as well as decent knowledge of basic algorithms and visual programming.
Logic puzzle
Bleentorois a logic puzzle game that allows players to automate minimalist factories. Players start with blocks that produce materials, like cherries and lemons, and draw assembly lines with their fingers to combinators, converters, and other machines to create new materials.
Players are free to design their factory layout in sandbox and campaign mode, albeit with objective endpoints for the latter.Bleentoroeven hasa level editorfor puzzle and factory automation fans who want to test their knowledge and make something fun.
$16.79
Overwhelmingly Positive (46,463 Steam Reviews)
Another entry in the terraforming genre isThe Planet Crafter. Up to 10 players can collaborate on a world-spanning project to terraform an inhospitable planet via effective production lines. Since it’s a survival game, teams will need to do a fair bit of gathering, but the resulting factories make the grind worth it.
Like other base builders, the game starts with basic tools for gathering and crafting. Progressing through the tech tree helps players redirect waterto their settlements, regrow plants for oxygen, and build increasingly complex machinery for more materials.
$23.99
Very Positive (1,144 Steam Reviews)
First-person base building may seem strange, butTechtonicamakes it work. Base building inTechtonicainvolves using the environment to automate resource gathering. Waterfalls can be used to power water wheels, wide floor spaces next to mineable areas are best suited for mining drills, and sorting plants can be automated via threshers.
Optimizing builds can help players create sustainable factories. Conveyor belts, inserters, and other schematics can help factories achieve full automation. Before that, however, players need to unlock schematics by fixing terminals around the map.
$29.99
Very Positive (1,609 Steam Reviews)
Another Early Access game,Foundryputs players into themecha shoes of robotstasked with building and programming automated mega-factories on alien worlds. Players start, after an intuitive tutorial, by gathering resources to create their first resource-gathering and processing bots.
Eventually, players can plan out elaborate production lines and systems. Ambitious players can create factories in different biomes and go deep underground for ores and other resources. If players want extra hands to build these factories, they can invite their friends over to their world.
$9.99
Very Positive (1,793 Steam Reviews)
Conveyor belts and pipes will help gamers create their dream space factories inAstro Colony. Players start like they would in a first-person survival game, where they mine asteroids for materials they’ll use to build their first factories. Actions like mining will also yield resources like science points.
Material and skill resources are needed to unlock and build bots and facilities. Clever pathing helps players get to the automation part of the game faster. The game also supports online co-op, which means parties can speed through universes andmake mega factoriesfaster.
