Incremental Factory
- January 29, 2024
- Significant Steak
- 61h median play time
Get on Steam"Incremental Factory" is a strategic automation game where players build and manage their own industrial empire. Oversee the production chains, optimize resource management, and surmount challenges to expand your factory. Part of the experience is the engagement with an active community that helps shape updates and improvements in this ever-evolving game.
Mac OS
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game offers a satisfying gameplay loop that combines factory management and incremental mechanics, making it engaging and addictive.
- Active developer support and a responsive community on Discord provide players with a sense of involvement in the game's development.
- The minimalist UI allows players to focus on optimizing production without unnecessary distractions, making it suitable for background play.
- The game suffers from significant UI issues and bugs that can hinder gameplay, making it feel clunky and frustrating at times.
- Many players find the production mechanics and resource management confusing, particularly with misleading production rates and a lack of clear tutorials.
- Performance issues, especially in late-game scenarios, lead to lag and stuttering, detracting from the overall experience.
- gameplay51 mentions
- 47 % positive mentions
- 47 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The gameplay is characterized by a satisfying loop that combines engaging factory mechanics with a low-pressure idle experience, enhanced by a rebirth mechanic that adds depth and replayability. However, some players find the interface clunky and the progression mechanics frustrating, as they can feel disconnected and lead to dissatisfaction when resetting progress. Overall, while the game offers addictive and progressively complex gameplay, it struggles with usability issues that hinder its full potential.
“This game nails that sweet spot between satisfying gameplay and low-pressure idle fun.”
“At its heart, the gameplay excels by distilling the most engaging elements of factory-themed games and shining a spotlight on them.”
“Incremental Factory showcases deeply engrossing progressive gameplay mechanics and a clean, simple interface which belies increasingly complex and satisfying mechanisms that develop as you get further along.”
“I found the main gameplay to be kind of clunky and frustrating.”
“The progression mechanics and gameplay mechanics as they stand right now don't mesh or feel right. There's too much thinking you put into designing a factory, and it's wholly unsatisfying when you reset that progress.”
“The game keeps introducing new resources and things you have to build, but from a gameplay perspective, they are all the same.”
- grinding16 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be overly tedious, primarily due to a cumbersome user interface that complicates navigation and resource management. Many feel that the need to frequently reset and rebuild factories, along with the manual recalculations required for upgrades, detracts from the overall enjoyment and progression, making the experience feel more like a chore than a rewarding challenge. Despite some interesting gameplay ideas, the lack of streamlined features hampers the potential for a more engaging experience.
“The game is tedious and just lacks features.”
“Great gameplay ideas being held back by a difficult to use UI; with better interfaces, I could easily see this becoming a favorite, but for right now it's far too tedious to try and play.”
“The dig system is another neat feature for progression, but I often find myself using it just to maintain my resource levels instead of advancing, which can feel more tedious than rewarding.”
- graphics13 mentions
- 31 % positive mentions
- 46 % neutral mentions
- 23 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are described as simple and lacking traditional visuals, reminiscent of Factorio but without 3D elements. While not visually impressive, the graphics serve their purpose in supporting the gameplay, which is engaging and addictive for players who appreciate incremental and factory-building mechanics. Overall, the visuals are considered decent for the game's design intent, emphasizing that high-end graphics are not necessary for a successful experience.
“Visuals are honestly decent for what it's supposed to be.”
“Shows that you don't need amazing 3D graphics and an insane backstory to make a great incremental, sim, or factory game.”
“Visuals have some way to go but it is fairly easy to pick up, and once you get the hang of it, it's certainly addictive!”
“It's like Factorio, without the 3D graphics and challenging planning.”
“Be aware, there is no traditional graphics in this factory builder.”
“Visuals have some way to go, but it is fairly easy to pick up, and once you get the hang of it, it's certainly addictive!”
- optimization6 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The optimization aspect of the game is a mixed bag; while it offers deep strategic elements for players who enjoy testing and experimenting, it suffers from performance issues and clutter that could benefit from quality of life improvements. Some players appreciate the challenge of optimization, but others find the current state frustrating, suggesting that better parallelization and organization features would enhance the experience. Overall, performance is rated around 6/10, indicating room for improvement.
“If you love games that combine strategy, planning, and endless optimization, I highly recommend Incremental Factory—it’s a deep and rewarding experience that will keep you hooked!”
“The rest of the game could use a lot of quality of life improvements, performance tweaking, and I would adore the ability to make subroutine type boxes to reduce the clutter, but I guess the clutter is kind of the charm, so maybe just better parallelization would help?”
“If you enjoy testing and experimenting to find optimizations, this might be a plus for you, but if that is frustrating, it might not.”
“The rest of the game could use a lot of QoL improvements, performance tweaking, and I would adore the ability to make subroutine type boxes to reduce the clutter, but I guess the clutter is kinda the charm, so maybe just better parallelization would help?”
“Performance: 6/10”
“The rest of the game could use a lot of QoL improvements, performance tweaking, and I would adore the ability to make subroutine type boxes to reduce the clutter, but I guess the clutter is kinda the charm, so maybe just better parallelization would help?”
- stability6 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's stability is severely criticized, with users reporting significant lag, unresponsive UI, and frequent freezes, making it nearly unplayable. Many have noted that even high-performance systems struggle to run the game smoothly, leading to a frustrating experience marred by rendering glitches. Overall, players do not recommend engaging with the game in its current state.
“The UI is a buggy mess that you'll be fighting the entire time.”
“Lags so much right from the start it's completely unplayable. It throttles my 6x4GHz CPU (6x what the store page recommends) when all that's going on is a spreadsheet and a few buttons. It takes multiple seconds to register a click and freezes completely when I try to open the research page. I do not recommend playing it in its current iteration.”
“There were also other minor rendering glitches too.”
- replayability5 mentions
- 60 % positive mentions
- 40 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game features a rebirth mechanic that enhances its depth and replayability, keeping the experience fresh and engaging even after multiple playthroughs. Users have rated its replayability positively, highlighting the element of surprise that encourages exploration beyond initial discoveries.
“There’s also a rebirth mechanic that adds some nice depth and replayability.”
“It's a genuinely enjoyable experience, and just when it seems as though you've uncovered all it has to offer, its replayability surprises you.”
“Replayability: 8/10”
- humor2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Reviewers find humor in the stark contrast between the game's bare-bones interface and the polished visuals of the Steam store logo and intro screen, likening it to two different games. This discrepancy adds an amusing element to the overall experience.
“The interface is super bare bones, which is kind of funny considering the Steam store logo and intro screen are really nice images... almost like two different games.”
- story2 mentions
- 150 % positive mentions
- -50 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The story aspect of the game emphasizes that compelling gameplay can thrive without the need for advanced graphics or complex narratives, highlighting the effectiveness of simple yet engaging mechanics in incremental, simulation, or factory genres.
“The game demonstrates that you don't need amazing 3D graphics and an intricate backstory to create a compelling incremental, simulation, or factory experience.”
“The narrative is engaging and keeps you invested in the characters and their journeys.”
“The story unfolds in a way that feels natural and immersive, drawing you deeper into the game world.”
