Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure

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In "Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure," players design automated workshops, craft items, and explore a fantasy world with adorable Sparks companions. This game combines automation and real-time strategy elements, appealing to both genre enthusiasts and newcomers. Customize your experience by decorating and building unique systems to optimize production.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Reviews

88%

Audience ScoreBased on 1,002 reviews

story22 positive mentions

grinding56 negative mentions

Charming blend of Pikmin and Factorio, offering a unique and engaging gameplay experience.
Cute graphics and sound design, making the game visually appealing and enjoyable.
Fun and relaxing automation mechanics that are accessible to newcomers while still providing depth for experienced players.

The game requires a significant amount of manual resource gathering, which can feel tedious and detracts from the automation experience.
Progression can be frustrating due to quests that require items not yet unlocked, leading to a lack of clarity in objectives.
Some controls and UI elements are unintuitive, making inventory management and building placement cumbersome.

story
174 mentions
13 % positive mentions
82 % neutral mentions
6 % negative mentions
The game's story is described as having potential but currently feels underdeveloped, primarily serving as a framework for a quest-based system that can become tedious and grindy. Players appreciate the charming graphics and the engaging quest structure, but many express frustration with unclear progression paths and excessive manual resource management. While the quests provide motivation and a sense of discovery, the overall narrative depth is lacking, leaving players hoping for future updates to enhance the storytelling experience.
- “The game does ease you into its complex aspects with various quests that keep you engaged.”
- “There's a fun story with discovery and combat, and I see this being enjoyed by a wide range of people, but at least one of those people needs to like automation.”
- “The art style is great, the sounds are so satisfying, and the storyline interests me.”
- “The art is phenomenal, the concept is great, but the core gameplay loop of exploration and doing quests just sucks.”
- “Progression only comes from story quests and quests pretty much all boil down to a lot of inventory management and running back and forth.”
- “If you are looking for story... not sure if it will have one, but it's not in there now.”
gameplay
137 mentions
38 % positive mentions
56 % neutral mentions
6 % negative mentions
The gameplay of the game features a mix of engaging automation mechanics and exploration, drawing comparisons to titles like Factorio and Pikmin. While many players appreciate the charming visuals and solid core gameplay loop, some criticize the rigid building mechanics and lack of depth, leading to a repetitive experience. Overall, the game offers around 15-20 hours of enjoyable content, though it shows signs of being unpolished and in early access.
- “I've never wanted to play a game this badly, where I could easily sink hours of gameplay every day.”
- “The mechanics never punish you for starting an area over from scratch, so not only do you have fun the first time, but you'll have fun redoing your factories over and over as you unlock more features and learn from your mistakes.”
- “I love the gameplay loop; you get a tool, you play around trying to figure out how to use it, you build a little machine, then you realize you know exactly how to make the machine more efficient, so you dismantle your paths and connections and redo it all.”
- “The game's mechanics also stifle creativity and freedom when it comes to building bases, which was a big letdown for me.”
- “The monotony of its tasks and the rigid gameplay mechanics made it feel more like a repetitive job than an enjoyable gaming experience.”
- “While initially it's somewhat interesting to explore the game's systems and areas, in the end as an automation game it's just not fun, and with the game's current mechanics, I sadly don't see it becoming fun anytime soon.”
graphics
126 mentions
46 % positive mentions
52 % neutral mentions
2 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their charming and cute art style, which effectively immerses players in a delightful and colorful world. Many reviewers appreciate the animations and overall visual presentation, noting that the aesthetics contribute to a relaxing gameplay experience. However, some players express a desire for more customization options and find certain elements, like building designs, less appealing after extended playtime.
- “The graphics, colors, music, everything about the game just pulls you into its world.”
- “The graphics are wonderful, the pace is amazing, the quest structure works well, the spark minions are fun, the spark logic is challenging but doable.”
- “Its charming visuals and cute characters give an initial impression of a delightful and relaxing experience.”
- “In fact, after playing it for 40 hours, I can honestly say I find all the buildings to be ugly. Going back to Factorio made me realize how much cooler everything looks compared to this game. The character customizer is truly awful. I feel like we also need tons of flourishes to add and different aesthetics to make each automation your own, like fences, different path types, building colors, and other decorations or pieces that make your automation more detailed.”
- “Also, my playtime is at 40 hours. I'm pretty sick of it, which is very odd for an automation game that should provide endless joy and eye candy. The fruity cartoon aesthetic wore me out, I think. In fact, after spending yet another 40 hours with Factorio, I'm certain this game's ugly buildings and aesthetics are rubbing me the wrong way.”
- “Though the graphics are cute, nevertheless this is one of the most frustrating automation games I've ever played.”
grinding
56 mentions
0 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
The grinding aspect of the game has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it excessively tedious and repetitive. Users express frustration over the manual farming required to progress, often feeling that the gameplay loop revolves around fetch quests and resource gathering rather than automation or exploration. While some acknowledge that the grind can be manageable, the overall sentiment leans towards the experience being overly grindy, particularly in the early stages of the game.
- “You spend way too much time manually farming resources and running back to the town to drop off items to unlock the next tier only to have to go manually collect even more resources.”
- “After putting in some time, I came to realize that the primary gameplay loop is fetch questing and resource grinding, not automation and not exploration.”
- “This repetitive cycle of sending and retrieving your units becomes tiresome, turning what should be exciting combat encounters into tedious chores.”
optimization
28 mentions
43 % positive mentions
46 % neutral mentions
11 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization is generally well-received, with smooth performance and excellent controller support, earning ratings around 8 to 9 out of 10. However, some players have reported occasional performance issues, particularly during busy gameplay and autosave moments, indicating room for improvement. Notably, the game maintains good performance even in multiplayer settings, and there is optimism for future optimizations and content updates.
- “Even more impressive is that there is no performance loss in multiplayer.”
- “The automation side of the game can be understood by casual players as well as be optimized by people that are used to factory games.”
- “The game is gorgeous looking, performance is surprisingly good even on highly saturated late game bases, the systems are sufficiently complex and the geography generated poses a continuous challenge that is enjoyable to surmount while using the tools the game provides.”
- “In 40 minutes of playtime, I've noticed performance issues several times already.”
- “Gameplay has optimization issues; there are chuggies.”
- “The performance issues I've seen are the same as from Satisfactory.”
music
27 mentions
48 % positive mentions
37 % neutral mentions
15 % negative mentions
The music in the game is described as light, relaxing, and fitting well within its cozy atmosphere, reminiscent of Nintendo titles. However, opinions are mixed, with some players finding the music repetitive and generic, leading to it becoming annoying over time. Overall, while the sound design enhances the game's charm, it lacks variety and distinctiveness.
- “The musical atmosphere is light and relaxing, and the interface is well-designed and user-friendly.”
- “The music is beautiful and really relaxing, accentuating the chill mood and cozy setting.”
- “A lot of the music has a very cozy Wind Waker vibe to it, as well as a lot of the menu sounds being really cute.”
- “Music is terrible.. I think there is 1 song.. I can't really tell, it just feels like 1 very repetitive song.”
- “The music becomes annoying really fast.”
- “Solid sound design, but the music is generic and loops too hard.”
stability
21 mentions
57 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
43 % negative mentions
Overall, the game is praised for its impressive stability, being described as one of the least buggy and most polished indie early access titles in recent years. While there are minor issues like momentary freezes during autosaves, it generally runs smoothly, even on the Steam Deck, maintaining a consistent 30fps. Players have reported minimal glitches, indicating a strong foundation for an early access game.
- “For an EA game, it runs almost bug-free, which is impressive!”
- “Game runs great and the controls feel natural and not like some last-minute add-on for the deck verified status.”
- “Also runs great on Steam Deck; 30fps no matter how much craziness is on screen with everything set to high.”
- “Reached the 'might be buggy from here on' notification after 3.2 hours.”
- “A bit buggy at the moment, but if you're looking for an automation game which you can chill out with your girlfriend (who doesn't usually play games), this is the game.”
- “The autosave is nice but freezes the game momentarily, which could be an aging hardware issue on my end, but otherwise runs smoothly.”
humor
8 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is characterized by its adorable characters and amusing sound effects, which consistently elicit smiles from players. Additionally, the clever naming of creatures and a funny storyline contribute to an overall lighthearted and entertaining experience.
- “The little sparks are adorable, and the funny sounds they make always bring a smile to my face.”
- “Funny story with great graphics.”
- “They're adorable and hilarious at the same time.”
atmosphere
8 mentions
50 % positive mentions
50 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is characterized by a light and relaxing musical score, complemented by a user-friendly interface and charming animations. It effectively captures the unique blend of automation within a fantasy setting, creating a bubbly and enjoyable vibe that enhances the overall experience.
- “The musical atmosphere is light and relaxing, and the interface is well-designed and user-friendly.”
- “It's very lovingly made, has great animations and a great atmosphere.”
- “This game really nails the atmosphere of automation in a fantasy setting, which is unique in this type of genre.”
replayability
6 mentions
0 % positive mentions
50 % neutral mentions
50 % negative mentions
The game's replayability is a mixed bag; while the procedural world generation offers some variety, many players feel that once the main objectives are completed, there is little incentive to continue playing. Some suggest that the game may only support a limited number of runs, particularly distinguishing between single-player and multiplayer experiences. Overall, the lack of ongoing goals or creative building options diminishes long-term engagement.
- “There is also no replayability; once you have done your chores, you are done. There is no reason to keep playing, not like in other games where you can create your own buildings, factories, or such.”
- “At the moment, I am not sure how long a single run from beginning to end will be until reaching maximum village and research level. Even with the random world generation, I am not sure about replayability.”
- “The worlds are procedurally generated, which really adds to the replay value.”
emotional
2 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
Players find the game to evoke a cozy and wholesome emotional experience, filling a gap in the genre that has been lacking such warmth and comfort.
- “I played a lot of Satisfactory, and I feel this is the kind of cozy, wholesome game that the genre has been missing.”
character development
2 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
Character development in this game is highlighted by its unique blend of automation and factory mechanics with elements of exploration and combat, reminiscent of Pikmin. The charming character design further enhances the overall experience, making the characters memorable and engaging.
- “I love automation and factory games, and this is a unique version of those blended with some fighting, exploring (sort of Pikmin-like), and lovely character design.”