Category: Minecraft

Factorio: Puzzling the Mind

  Factorio may be considered a building game, but it is also a puzzle game. The goal is to learn how to survive and build machines that enable your success. This gets more and more complex as you progress through the game. You build assembly machines that only build one kind of object, but in … Continue reading “Factorio: Puzzling the Mind”

 

Factorio may be considered a building game, but it is also a puzzle game. The goal is to learn how to survive and build machines that enable your success. This gets more and more complex as you progress through the game. You build assembly machines that only build one kind of object, but in order to build the desired machine you need 3 others. Therefor you are at least building 4 assembly machines, assuming the machines don’t require other parts to build the items. Confusing right? In order to automate everything, which you have to do, you must manage space, resources and crafting materials or else you will run into blocks within the system that you cannot easily overcome. It is a puzzle, yet that is why it is fun. Puzzles require thought and harder puzzles cannot be completed using simple crafting formulas. You can only finish them through observation care and patience, the same goes for Factorio.

I found a study written on puzzle games and what they show about our brains and processes of problem solving. The study looked at games such as Portal  and Braid in order to test our skills and development through practice. The study found that when a player is presented with an obstacle they recognize, they can easily overcome it, even if it has added difficulties. Yet when a player is given a task that they do not recognize or have not done before, they often take longer and show less “skill” at the game. In Factorio these results would most likely be the same. I could build machines in more complex ways as long as I knew the formula, but once I was presented a new task that I hadn’t dealt with I slowed down. I often had to rebuild because of a missed step.

The progress and failures are all part of the fun. I loved Factorio because it was a puzzle. It made me think about my factory and my usage of resources and space. I did not feel as though I was playing a children’s game. Road blocks were part of its complexity, and the complexity was all part of the fun. Puzzles are meant to enable thought and problem solving, and that is exactly what Factorio does just with different pieces.

So Close Yet So Far

I put 25 hours in Factorio and I bought it expecting to hate it. It read like a slow rip off of Minecraft with far too many pieces and complexities that I would never understand. Yet that’s what I loved about the game. There were all of these things I hadn’t built yet and I … Continue reading “So Close Yet So Far”

I put 25 hours in Factorio and I bought it expecting to hate it. It read like a slow rip off of Minecraft with far too many pieces and complexities that I would never understand. Yet that’s what I loved about the game. There were all of these things I hadn’t built yet and I would have to come back and plan ways to make them work. Failing and trying again was all part of it. The game’s complexity simply made it more rewarding.

I was very protective over my factory, always walling off sections and ensuring that my hard work wouldn’t got to waste due to an attack by the native monsters. The fact that I had created my world brought me closer to the game. It was my creation, and yet it was trying to beat me. The game’s NPC’s are all enemies and they will all try to destroy your buildings. This brought out real emotions because I had put so much my time into my machines. When they were broken it meant that I would have to rebuild them all over again. This repeat and try again style is rewarding to the patient player. To someone like me it is frustrating, yet sometimes fun.

My surprise and love for the game resulted from me being too obsessed with progress. The game shows you what you need to upgrade and how to build those items. Yet you have to build them and make machines that build them faster. My persistence may have been a good thing, but it only helped add to my addiction. I knew what I had to do to win, and that’s what makes it so tempting to play on. I had to devise plans and strategize, the gameplay itself is very minimalistic, yet it was so captivating. This to me is a result of the “So close, yet so far,” tactic that games use to draw you in. Things look very simple yet once you break them down they are complex and take time. Factorio was built off of this, and I loved it.

Factorio: Almost Indie

I have never played a game that made me think harder than Factorio. I spent hours creating my massive machine that would help me upgrade and research new technologies. It was very rewarding to complete a circuit and have my factory run perfectly. I did not think about my impact on the planet until the … Continue reading “Factorio: Almost Indie”

I have never played a game that made me think harder than Factorio. I spent hours creating my massive machine that would help me upgrade and research new technologies. It was very rewarding to complete a circuit and have my factory run perfectly. I did not think about my impact on the planet until the game started to create consequences for my misuse. I would burn forests for more space which increased my pollution significantly, I also used fuels like oil and coal, which made it rise even more. The consequence for this is that the native enemy monsters build hives closer and closer to your factory. Eventually, once you have produced a certain amount of population they start attacking your factory. It was an interesting mix of Minecraft, and puzzle games. In the end I played many hours trying to better my factory piece by piece, but no matter how far I advanced I liked that the game made me reflect on my impact on world as a whole.

The ability to free build has always been an interest of mine, but I often use the “endless” resources to build a massive unnecessary structure. I do not consider the impact of my wasteful building. This game pushes you to consider your impact more. If you want to win you have to create some sort of destruction to the planets natural resources. You collect its resources faster and faster with more wasteful machines, all to benefit your massive factory. I liked that this is not rewarded. The punishment is very frustrating as your pollution causes mutations that only make the monsters stronger. It reminded me of some of the games we played in class that focused on deeper meanings and implications. These indie games do not have the budget that Factorio had, and therefor are not as flushed out, so it is nice to see a big game try to make a statement through their gameplay.

Despite the fact that Factorio does not put as much emphasis on global impact as some of the smaller indie games that we played in class, it does make an effort to discourage wasteful use of resources. This alone was enough to have me become more aware of my own waste. I tried to be more conscious of my actions and not cause any more negative reactions from the game. I believe this is a big step for a game, because it caused personal reflection, which is what games like this should be about.