Nowadays, more and more games are being developed by Indie developers. And a lot of these games eventually come to the Switch as well. Some though don’t seek out collaboration with the big gaming companies for their release. They release the game on servers of their own and make it available through the web browser. And in some cases, they eventually reach Steam and are available for a bigger audience.
In this series of articles I take a look at simulation games that are on Steam, but haven’t made the jump to the Switch. Of course, as a fan of Nintendo’s hybrid console I think many of these games would fit perfectly on the Switch. “From Steam to Switch?” lists the games I have on my radar, hoping they will make the switch (pun intended!).
Last week I looked at The Good Life This week we take a look at Factorio!
Not cute and cuddly this time
The past weeks have seen some cute and cuddly games. This weeks choice isn’t cute at all. In representation Factorio reminds me a lot of Stardew Valley. The reason I’ve listed it here is that it’s a management sim with gameplay that I find intriguing.
Build factories that are run by machines, you have to think about what goes where they make it streamlined. And keep it all running in sync. As a sort of bonus you also have to defend your business to the original inhabitants of the planet who don’t take kindly to your ruining the place.
In the beginning you will find yourself chopping trees, mining ores and crafting mechanical arms and transport belts by hand. Research technologies, build infrastructures and automate production.
In a short time you can become an industrial powerhouse, with huge solar fields, oil refining and cracking, manufacture and deployment of construction and logistic robots, all for your resource needs. However this heavy exploitation of the planet’s resources does not sit nicely with the locals, so you will have to be prepared to defend yourself and your machine empire.
Can it even make the jump?
The game has been around since 2012, started out smaller and added to over and over again. It’s stable now, and more then two years ago it also became available on Steam. However, it’s been in early access since then. From what I’ve read on Steam the developers themselves need some more organizing to stick to their planning and finish things. I guess that might not be easy when you are building things for the fun of building.
so, will the game ever make the jump to the Switch? I’ve seen all kind of technical reasons why this might be a bridge too far. As the tech part is way out of my league I’ll not mention them here, but all of this make ps a future on Switch very uncertain.
If you can’t wait and don’t mind playing on a computer, you can find more info for purchasing it directly on Factorio homepage.
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