Techtonica

Fun factory automation game with a fairly robust storyline to guide you along the tech tree. Their use of the freight elevator as a multi-level resource hub (as well as an indicator of game progression) is pretty clever. But beware: framerate will drop quite a bit when your factory gets really big. It gets difficult to place a precise layout when you're at 10FPS.

abandoned

This was a game I saw so much potential in. I fell head over heels upon its 0.1 release. This was the perfect introduction to Factory type games for me. It had a mysterious vibe with the story. Genuinely kept me engaged and made me play nonstop. For each big numbered update I'd make a new save. Then they started to do weird things, the laser guns update and a bunch of sandbox modes. Totally fine, but two of the five "early access" updates was JUST this. No big main story campaign updates. Then they suddenly say they're abandoning the roadmap to release 1.0 It was weird to hear but I didn't think much of it was excited. When 1.0 dropped i was torn upon loading into it. They cut up this gorgeous, large map that was fun to explore into "levels" not inherently bad, but you could tell this was a last ditch effort and not the original plan. In terms of optimization (which late game techtonica always struggled with performance. Would tend to hit no higher than 20 fps in my main factory area.) This actually stopped me from wanting to play it there. Having to now have this extra resource to manufacture to progress felt unnecessary and tacked on. I eventually did play with a friend and was enjoying it. But after the content already in the game, it fell apart. Everything was messy, unfocused and no satisfying conclusion. Makes me hope one day, someone will take this idea of an alien cave factory and do what techtonica couldn't

Definitely will not trust this dev in the future. Abandonware. Even at 90% off it would be a waste of money.

love the game alot of fun but it sucks we wont see what was going to come after 1.0

Abandonware. It was going to be so good... an icon in the genre. And it is for the first bit. Good story, voiced lines, great music, decorator's dream, etc. Then they stopped working on it due to low sales and shoved out 1.0. I don't even mind that they changed it to different levels from an open world. Large factories tank the FPS so it was clearly needed. They just need to make a couple of changes and the sand half will be workable. Introduce better sand pumps and tech to make them better as the sand disappears and extraction locations diminish. Limit monorail storage per item so that it works close to the same as the elevator and doesn't get clogged when exchanging multiple item types. Would've happily paid $60 if they'd have finished it properly.

I had to force myself to stop building to write this review just to put out how complex and awesome this game turned out. Forget what anyone is negatively saying about this, the elevator system was essential to this game. Pre-V1 builds just naturally happened in Victor and I remember getting burned out trying to connect the logistics of Victor and X-Ray let alone other parts of the map. This took my least favourite part of games like Dyson Sphere and Satisfactory, the sheer amount of travel, and reduced it significantly to spend more time on building and optimising. And boy does this game optimise. I see nobody in reviews talking about the complexities of getting ore multiplication and seed multiplication off the ground. You will constantly be coming back to old builds to upgrade with sweet new tech recipes so nothing is every wasted. People complain about the Sierra levels as sesamite sand starts as an overabundant resource when first discovered but becomes difficult in getting enough of it once you start getting crystal production going. uncovering the level to discover the new carbon and scrap metal nodes adds a whole angle to producing things. later tech adds alternate recipes that create bulk amounts of items that open the game right up. The biggest gripe I have is the lack of description for some of the recipes. Assemblers show all the recipes but I have to consult the tech tree or input things randomly to get numbers for whats coming out of smelters and crushers. Did you know you can get power on floors 12 to 14? Not without realising some crusher recipes produce power for accumulators on certain recipes like crystal production or sand filtration. just to top it off the game actually has a fairly compelling story to follow. It's a joy to stumble upon bits of the story as you unlock lab doors or uncover new areas in the sand levels. progression is split into four main ways; drill bits for proceeding further down the elevator, research cores for unlocking tech, the Lima, Victor, X-Ray, and Sierra hub unlocks, and story section unlocks. All require different approaches to completing but feel so satisfying when you get them. If you're looking for a game that is really going to test your logistical skills and problem solving abilities then you will not be disappointed by this one